This is the way!
Black and silver/chrome for me is the best
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I went all black with oil slick accents last and am wondering what the next build would look sexiest as oil slick is deffo over the hill.
I think a lovely wood graim and black build, a marble and gold build, or a rose gold and black build would be super clean.
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I think gold or rose gold would be fantastic. I’m commited to black and chrome/polished silver for my next build. SRB 3 links make it a natural colorway
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Black/Gold and Black/Raw Metal color combinations are awesome.
Are you doing an SRB 3-link build? I’m contemplating one myself…
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Yep, I was suckered in by the reports of magical sparkle pony stability combined with no compromise turning. We’ll see if that turns out to be true.
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I wasn’t a believer until I hopped on @PedroMcJimenez setup on the way home from Carve and was hitting good speed with good turning right off the bat. Either he tunes his setup almost EXACTLY like my matrix 2s or they’re just a good setup. We shall see!
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I keep fighting it dude… I think it might be too good to be true… Or that I will break them.
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Update time! Got my Zmote in the mail. Only took about 3 weeks to get here from Bulgaria. I was impressed with the build quality and components used. The lighting function is pretty cool too. Should help boost my visibility when riding on the road.
Took it apart, installed the battery and reconfigured the throttle values in the VESC Tool. Will follow up with another update once I’ve had a chance to ride with it.
The next up was to clean and inspect my Moon drives. I’ve put ~1k miles on the drives since they were first installed on the Flux. The drives have never been open or accessed since the install, so I was super curious to see what the insides looked like.
Removed the CF cover:
Then removed the wheel pinion. It was degreased and carefully inspected for wear or damage. Can’t believe how good the condition is! They still look brand new.
Then I inspected the motor pinion. Pretty interesting to look at the grease build up around the case. There doesn’t look like much wear on the motor pinion, but I could see some spots where the black anodization was starting to wear off.
It took about an entire roll of paper towels to remove all the old grease. Then I button the drives back together and added fresh grease. Not sure if it was my imagination or not, but the drives seemed more quiet and smooth with fresh grease.
Then I removed the enclosure for the first time in 2 years. Wanted to give the battery a visual inspection for broken series connections or loose balance connections. Everything still looked solid. Was really impressed by how clean it is. Looks like my gasket is doing a good job keeping moisture and dust from getting inside.
The last step was to add some slime to the wheel tubes and secure the hubs with some titanium bling. Sexy!
Hoping to catch a break in the weather this weekend. If the weather stays dry, I’ll plan to take it out for a spin. Really excited to see how it rides after making all these upgrades. Stay tuned for a post-ride review.
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Whats your take on the slime? Ive never really had it save me and have stopped using it, i find that i lose the tyre pressure too quickly for it to be very effective. I just carry a spare wheel with a pulley attached now.
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Hard to say. I haven’t had a flat in two years of riding this board. Carrying a full size spare is a good idea.
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I’ve been away from the forum for a while and coming back to the notifications for this thread is already such a highlight. It feels silly - you and I have never met. We don’t know each other, yet my wife knows your story because it felt relatable and also made me thankful for what I have. Your story always feels me with hope and happiness. Super stoked to see these updates. Wild that it has been over two years since you made this thread.
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Hey @ChrisLips! Welcome back. Thank you for the kind words. I never know how much to share about my personal life, considering this is an electric skateboard forum and all. Hearing stuff like this definitely makes me feel thankful for taking the leap and putting my stuff out there for all to display.
In a weird way cancer has become a gift. I hate that it sounds so cliché, but it’s the absolute truth. I don’t take anything for granted like I used to. I know what it feels like to not know how much more time I have left with the people I love, and I definitely know what it feels like when your body is broken and wants to give up. Staring death in the face puts a lot of things into perspective. I have had the wonderful opportunity to reevaluate the things that I thought were important, and reprioritize that the things that are actually important. Unfortunately neither of those things were aligned very well prior to being diagnosed.
On another note, I’ve got more good news to share! Three weeks ago I had another routine 3 month check up. I’m supposed to have cancer evaluations every 3 months for two years, which should have extended into the end of 2023. Then it switches to evaluations every 6 months for another 3 years, then annual evaluations for the rest of my life. My scans came back so good that they said we could switch to 6 month check ups now!
It doesn’t sound like much, but right now I’m using 100% of my vacation budget and time off requests from work to travel to Seattle 4x per year. Now I have a little breathing room to schedule something fun to do with my family.
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So dude.
Have you ridden it since the updates?
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Yeah dude! Finally got to take it out for a test ride last weekend. Will put together a ride report and post it here.
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It’s so hard to believe that it’s been 2 years since my last chemotherapy/radiation treatment. My medical team fully expected the cancer to return, so they put me on a 3 month surveillance interval. Each checkup requires travel to Seattle 4x per year, which is about a 5 hour drive each way. My appointments at UW Medicine/SCCA typically take about 2-3 days to complete. The travel time has taken a heavy toll on our vacation budget over the last 2 years, but I really can’t complain about it… I’d rather be faced with these kinds of challenges than the alternative. It’s still so hard to believe that I’m around today.
Pic from my last day of treatment, feeling sick AF:
And something I was sooooo excited about was getting my chemotherapy port removed. This thing was surgically installed in my chest for the last 2 years. And yes, I asked if I could keep it. It’s now hanging on my wall LOL.
If you zoom into the center of the port you can see all the puncture holes from my chemotherapy treatments. Kinda crazy.
My most recent checkup was a week ago and there is still NO evidence of reoccurring disease. Consequently my oncologist has released me to 6 month intervals and a checkup routine that I can do locally.
Things are really good on my end, and I have so much to be thankful for. I received a nice promotion at work, moved into a larger house (with a dedicated 330 square foot esk8 shop), have a wife that didn’t leave me high and dry during the most difficult season of my life and two thriving kiddos that want to go on esk8 rides nearly every day. Because of that, I decided to repurpose this thread into something more @rafaelinmissouri inspired… a build journal of sorts. Hopefully you guys don’t mind coming alongside for the journey ahead.
Okay, so onto the exciting stuff:
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The DIY Flux: This board has become pretty dull with it’s almost 4 year old 30q pack. The battery remains perfectly balanced, but has really lost any amount of punch that it used to have. It’s time to give this thing a refresh. I’m planning to build an 18s6p P42A pack and will also sprinkle on some fresh components (MakerX D100s, SKP/Reacher 6485 151kv motors, NewBee 4GS GDs, etc.).
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Titus’s MTB: I finally convinced my 15 year old son to give up his electric street luge, which wasn’t easy. He was pretty nervous to transition to something that requires standing, so we decided to build him something that was budget friendly and super capable.
Here is some sweet footy of his electric street luge in case you haven’t seen this thing before:
And some video of him finally riding standing up on his new MTB build. So proud of this dude.
Me trying his MTB board for the first time… during allergy season in the Willamette Valley (which suuuuucked):
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Haero Bro build: My son’s MTB board blew me away with how much fun it is to ride, and that really expanded my horizon to a lot of new possiblities. Raf had a spare Bro deck that was patiently wating for some action, so I decided to do a budget build around this fantastic piece of hardware. The build consists of:
-Matrix II trucks w/ split angle risers (+5 in the front & -5 in the rear)
-Radium adapters with some super loose RT bushings (60a in the front & 70a in the rear)
-BN motor mounts & TB 6380 motors
-72t wheel pulley & 14t motor pulley
-12s7p P42A w/ LLT SmartBMS
-MakerX DV4s
-Clear Zmote Torch w/ board battery telemetryBuild photos:
This has made for some super fun dad/son rides.
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Eden’s Razor Pocket Mod: My 12 year old daughter wanted to get into the hobby, so I let her pick out the form factor that suited her best. She was immediately drawn to mopeds/motorcycles, so we found a used Razor Pocket Mod on craigslist for $50. The battery was dead and most of the components were rusted. We swapped out the 24v battery and coverted it to a large capacity 8s lipo.
Pics of when we brought it home:
The pink had to go, so she painted it blue. What an absolute heartbreaker:
She’s been tearing it up for the last few years on this thing:
Naturally, she’s been begging me to modify it to go faster. It currently tops out at about 15-17mph, but she wants MOAR speed. I stumbled upon @jack.luis build from a few years back. Pic from his thread which totally inspired me:
So later this winter we will be tearing down her scooter and coverting it to a 12s lipo VESC based platform using a SKP modor and Solo VESC. Stay tuned for more info on that!
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And last but not least, I’d like to present my new venture:
This recent near-death experience pushed me to reconsider all the things that I’ve always wanted to do, but could never work up the courage. Well screw that, life is too short. I’m done letting fear and intimidation hold me back from things I want try.
I’ve always wanted to try starting up a small business of some kind. And I love building esk8 stuff, so I figured why not. At the moment I’m building 6 boards with the intent to sell them in the Spring of 2024. It’s baby steps, so who knows what will come of it. Just secured an LLC, grabbed an IG, web domain and had a logo designed.
This first batch is intended to be a boutique quality urethane build for those that are too intimidated to embark on all that is DIY. Here are the specifications:
Hummie Carbon Fiber Deck
BigBen Single Stack Fiberglass Enclosure
12s4p Molicel P26A assembled w/ the Duck Battery Systems PCB (140A discharge potential,
10,500mAh capacity, 7,000 watts)
LLT SmartBMS w/ Bluetooth module (charge only)
BKB Xenith/Focbox Unity
Boardnamics Split Angle CNC’d Precision RKP Trucks
BN 33’/48’ Split Angle Baseplates (designed to sit at identical heights)
BN 220mm Hangers
BN Press Fit 44t Wheel Pulley (w/ integrated support bearings)
BN 16t Motor Pulley
Riptide KranK Barrel Longboard Bushings (87A Front/93A Rear)
Riptide Antisink Plate
Custom Designed IDEA Precision Motor Mounts (anodized black)
ATC Dual Crossbars
Black Hoyt St Zoobomb 111mm wheels
Classic Zealous Bearings (w/ integrated spacers and speedrings)
Dual Flipsky Battle Hardened 6354 190kv Motors (sensored/FOC)
I built the first prototype a year ago and have been riding it regularly. This has even included some torture testing. It has been holding up great, so I’m feeling really confident about it.
So there you have it, that’s almost everything I’ve been up to. Thanks for all the support and encouragement that you so many of you have offered me.
Every day is a gift.
Joshua
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You’re such a badass dude.
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Everything you work on looks so good dude.
The Flux is still my favorite as the World’s cleanest Flux
But everything is awesome!!!
Also bro. Do you even float?
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Where is the Onewheel?
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Hummie + that enclosure has gotta be the best looking street combo going around
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