Well folks, it’s about time I get back into the world of esk8.
Nagini was a fun project, but she taught me a lot about what not to do. Unfortunately she turns like an American muscle car and between that, the bodgy motor mounts, and a deep desire for some trail action I figured it’s time to start building an all terrain board.
This is by no means going to be as polished or sexy as Nagini. If it’s going off-road it doesn’t need to make me horny it just needs to work.
I came across a listing on Facebook marketplace for a carbon fibre trampa deck, with some MBS matrix I trucks, plastic hubs, bindings, 8in primo stryker tyres, and a banged up alien power systems motor and motor mount all for the good price of £90. What a steal.
I figured this deck, trucks and wheels combo gives me a good base to start the build.
I then miraculously found some Radium motor mounts for the Matrix III’s on Ebay for just £60. Now, between you and me, owning a piece of Radium equipment feels like the equivalent of having a piece of a Lamborghini. I just couldn’t pass it up.
The obvious problem here is I don’t have a set of Matrix III’s and until Apex boards get back to my email about whether the listing on their website is for one truck or both sets, and my bank account is in the positive figures, I won’t be getting some any time soon. So instead - in typical Jamie fashion - I’ve bodged something together with the help of a hacksaw and needle files:
It feels slightly blasphemous, like fitting a V8 into a Corsa, but sometimes you’ve just got to grab life by the scrotum and make poor life decisions you’ll probably later regret.
Moving on, let’s talk a bit more about the drivetrain. I want to give chain drive a shot. Gear drive would be my endgame, but fuck off am I going to take out a small mortgage for one. I’m thinking of getting one of those cheap as chips kits on AliExpress for the thrill of riding on the fruits of child labour and chinesium steel. How bad of a decision would this be?
Otherwise, can anyone tell me what type of roller chain/sprocket is the standard for esk8? I imagine a bike chain has too much space between the links for our use case?
Now, onto the electronics. I had the bright idea of buying an old 30cal ammo tin that will be used as a top-mount battery case:
I intend on repackaging Nagini’s 12S4P samsung 40T battery to fit in here because fuck building another battery from scratch. I will need to find some fire retardant ESD foam that will cushion against the harsh metal of the ammo tin.
I’ll use the same MakerX DV6PRO ESC from Nagini too. Whether this will get it’s own dedicated box at the rear of the board or whether I’ll shove it into the battery enclosure I’m not sure yet.
This montrosity doesn’t have a name yet. Reply with your suggestions and I’ll put a poll up for the community to decide. Unless of course all of your answers are shit, in which case I’ll ignore them all and figure something out myself.
