Okay… I’m pretty embarrassed that it has been so long since I posted an update here. My cancer free life has been really fulfilling and rich, other than maybe maxing out my out-of-pocket medical deductible every single friggen year for my check ups.
I took a long break from building boards and used that time to do help some friends with battery builds. It was nice to switch things up a bit. The 18s Flux ended up getting sold to a super cool cat cough @JustNeL cough. It was just too much board for me. I was pretty set on the idea of “no more DIY builds”, except there was this scratch that I couldn’t itch called… Dualities.
Self talk is a pretty powerful tool. I kept telling myself that I didn’t need the new shiny thing. The constant glowing reviews didn’t help, so I ended up giving in to my wants and jumping fully on board the hype train. Not the best picture… but these eventually showed up.
I literally justified an entire build just so I could try out these trucks. There wasn’t any kind of objective with this build, so I just slapped together all my favorite parts. I bought a Haero Bro and drilled another set of truck mounting holes to get this thing as low as possible.
I loved 7" tires until I tried 8". And I loved 8" tires until I tried 9". So yeah… this board was going to have big ol meats. Looking proper!
P.S. If anyone out there has tried some 10" tires that they like, shoot me a link. I kinda want to try those too.
Next up is the enclosure and battery. I really liked the idea of using a Pelican case on this next build. Every single other board that I’ve built has been such a mega pain to remove the enclosure… not this time. I decided to try out the iM2050 with a 12s7p P45B battery.
I like my builds to be clean and practical, so I thought I’d try putting the D100s on the bottom of the case. I bolted the VESC directly to the case, bolted the case to the deck, then drilled some holes for the phase & sensor wires.
This will be a bunch of fun.
My homeboy @AlexB has inspired me over the years to design and 3D print stuff. He has a natural talent that makes everything he does look super easy. This was my first time busting out some calipers, designing parts in TinkerCAD and watching them come to life. It’s pretty addicting.
Anyway… I decided to try making some 3D printed spacers to go all around the VESC and give the battery a solid platform to sit on. Here is my first attempt, which included notches for the enclosure bolts, the ridges built into the enclosure geometry and cutouts for the phase wires.
Fit like a glove!
Made some more pieces:
And then made some more:
Once that part was done, I then cut out a template to sit on top of the whole enchilada. This was made out of a sheet of 1/16" ABS and has a couple notches for the power leads to come through:
I then built the battery and ran the charge port and antispark switch on the lid:
Shout out to @AlexB for the super dope CF engraved plate to cover up the Pelican label:
I then soldered up the phase wire leads & sensor wire extensions, and taped it up.
I forgot to take some nice pictures of the skid plate, but found this in-process photo on my phone:
I wanted to use a grip tape design that would allow me to toss on bindings at a later time, so I came up with this:
Then the board was done and I had to wait patiently for a break in the rain!
Okay… so here are my thoughts on the dualities. I left them loose, the way they are setup from Tito. I actually brought a wrench with me on the ride, thinking that I’d want to tighten them up once I started riding at a higher speed.
Slow speed carving felt great. The lean to turn ratio will take some getting used to. I was expecting more turn for the amount of lean that the trucks are capable of.
It wasn’t long into the ride before I was topping out the board. These trucks really shine at 30+ mph. I was shocked by how stable the board felt, considering how loose they are. I’ve never ridden a board that felt so stable. No slop or wandering. The board felt planted. It just went wherever I pointed the board.
No need to swap out the bushings. They are the absolute best of both worlds. Completely capable of both slow speed carving and high speed stability.
I even tried some full speed carving. I’ve never tried carving this hard at 30+ mph before. I usually only carve around 10-20mph, then when I get to 30-40+ I’m just focused 100% on keep the board straight. The stock angles on these trucks are great for faster speeds. I think this is where they shine.
Later on I tossed on a +5’ angled riser onto the front baseplate. Made a world of a difference. The turn to lean ratio is much more in line with what I’m used to.
Such an easy board to ride around. I’m a big fan of these trucks! Well worth the reason to build another board…
