5 ms·

Very cool but the original board was never designed to go at such speeds. I suspect you'll ruin the wheels fairly quickly, not to mention you might lose control

by keyle 9y ago

Very cool but the original board was never designed to go at such speeds. I suspect you'll ruin the wheels fairly quickly, not to mention you might lose control at high speed fairly fast. I'm not a skateboarder myself, but I've moded some bikes and adding speed is the easiest part, making it useful speed is way harder. Also, I hope the engine can go in reverse or this guy has no breaking power; and as he gets comfortable riding it, sooner or later, a surprise will happen and he will have no choice but jump ship.

hnaccy 9y ago
A longboard downhill can easily go over that speed.
- soVeryTired 9y ago
  But then you get speed wobbles... https://imgur.com/auUscXX https://imgur.com/auUscXX
  - radium3d 9y ago
    When longboarding downhill at high speed you need to put most of your weight on the nose of your board. This will prevent speed wobble completely (may depend on your board.) Source: bombing hills myself
    - mcshicks 9y ago
      Yeah I think if you are a downhill skater (I'm not) then maybe you it's not a problem, but seriously if you are not a good skater I really would not recommend going any faster than you can run on one of those things (or even a regular skateboard for that matter), pads or no pads. Source: skating parks for over 30 years (and still suck).
  - hug 9y ago
    What you're talking about is yaw inertia, and as another comment points out it's solved by moving the weight to the front wheels. See an explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_handling#Yaw_and_pitch_angular_inertia_(polar_moment) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_handling#Yaw_and_pi... And a 30 second visualistion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM
    - rhizome 9y ago
      Would that I had that knowledge 30 years ago!
  - rollcat 9y ago
    Easy, lots of things you can do to prevent that. On the hardware side, tighten your trucks a bit (not too much as it will damage the bushings over time), use harder bushings (cheap), use a lower-angle baseplate for the rear truck (a bit more investment). As hug mentioned, shifting weight helps. Also as you begin to catch wobbles, you can relax your stance a little bit to counteract them - but that takes practice. Finally, you simply control your speed - usually by sliding, but I can imagine on an e-board slides will be very cumbersome. Of course if you know all of this, you probably already have realized that e-boards are barely good for anything but cruising from point A to B, and there's infinitely more breadth and depth to this sport than just that. Source: I'm a roll cat ;)
- nathancahill 9y ago
  I hit that speed regularly on mild downhills. Bombing a hill you can hit 80km/h pretty easily. I think the record is around 140km. Certainly not bragging, as it's not that impressive among downhill longboarders. Just trying to give some perspective.
  - paulcole 9y ago
    What are you using to measure your speed? Do longboarders have an equivalent of Strava?
    - loeg 9y ago
      Sure, you can easily wear a GPS watch while longboarding.
      - paulcole 9y ago
        Yeah I wasn’t asking hypothetically. I wanted to know what they actually used to record their speed.
        vuln 9y ago
        GPS Phone apps and device like this. http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2015/10/27/the-lancaster-gps-speedometer-lets-downhill-longboard-skateboarders-track-their-fastest-runs http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2015/10/27/the-lancaster-gps-spe...
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
        nathancahill 9y ago
        I use this Speedometer app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedometer-speed-box-app/id307529605 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedometer-speed-box-app/id...
        CyberDildonics 9y ago
truculation 9y ago
Yep, high speed can definitely ruin a wheel(!): https://twitter.com/machinepix/status/969654857895301120 https://twitter.com/machinepix/status/969654857895301120
- loeg 9y ago
  That's a bit more than 50 km/h.
- z3t4 9y ago
  not fair as those water jets can cut through just about everything.
  - grepthisab 9y ago
    In this case the water jet isn't cutting anything, just spinning the wheel very, very fast.
serf 9y ago
>Also, I hope the engine can go in reverse or .. Small nit, there are motors out there that offer resistance/braking without reversibility.
edaemon 9y ago
Regular longboards go much faster than an electric one like those described here. I recently built an electric skateboard using one of the ESCs in this post and on flat ground it can't go much over 20mph. It goes far faster than that on even a slight slope. Maintaining control at that speed is dependent on the trucks. The ESCs do have brakes. They make downhills easy to manage. The only problem is that, without some special components, the brakes don't function on a 100% full charge. (The brakes are regenerative, so the ESC watches the voltage and doesn't allow the motors to overcharge the batteries.) That's not a problem in 99% of cases -- it only matters if you start your trip on a large downhill. That said, anyone learning to ride an electric skateboard should learn how to bail. You'll have to do it eventually.

by keyle 9y ago

hnaccy 9y ago

A longboard downhill can easily go over that speed.

soVeryTired 9y ago
But then you get speed wobbles... https://imgur.com/auUscXX https://imgur.com/auUscXX
- radium3d 9y ago
  When longboarding downhill at high speed you need to put most of your weight on the nose of your board. This will prevent speed wobble completely (may depend on your board.) Source: bombing hills myself
  - mcshicks 9y ago
    Yeah I think if you are a downhill skater (I'm not) then maybe you it's not a problem, but seriously if you are not a good skater I really would not recommend going any faster than you can run on one of those things (or even a regular skateboard for that matter), pads or no pads. Source: skating parks for over 30 years (and still suck).
- hug 9y ago
  What you're talking about is yaw inertia, and as another comment points out it's solved by moving the weight to the front wheels. See an explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_handling#Yaw_and_pitch_angular_inertia_(polar_moment) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_handling#Yaw_and_pi... And a 30 second visualistion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM
  - rhizome 9y ago
    Would that I had that knowledge 30 years ago!
- rollcat 9y ago
  Easy, lots of things you can do to prevent that. On the hardware side, tighten your trucks a bit (not too much as it will damage the bushings over time), use harder bushings (cheap), use a lower-angle baseplate for the rear truck (a bit more investment). As hug mentioned, shifting weight helps. Also as you begin to catch wobbles, you can relax your stance a little bit to counteract them - but that takes practice. Finally, you simply control your speed - usually by sliding, but I can imagine on an e-board slides will be very cumbersome. Of course if you know all of this, you probably already have realized that e-boards are barely good for anything but cruising from point A to B, and there's infinitely more breadth and depth to this sport than just that. Source: I'm a roll cat ;)
nathancahill 9y ago
I hit that speed regularly on mild downhills. Bombing a hill you can hit 80km/h pretty easily. I think the record is around 140km. Certainly not bragging, as it's not that impressive among downhill longboarders. Just trying to give some perspective.
- paulcole 9y ago
  What are you using to measure your speed? Do longboarders have an equivalent of Strava?
  - loeg 9y ago
    Sure, you can easily wear a GPS watch while longboarding.
    - paulcole 9y ago
      Yeah I wasn’t asking hypothetically. I wanted to know what they actually used to record their speed.
      - vuln 9y ago
        GPS Phone apps and device like this. http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2015/10/27/the-lancaster-gps-speedometer-lets-downhill-longboard-skateboarders-track-their-fastest-runs http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2015/10/27/the-lancaster-gps-spe...
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - nathancahill 9y ago
        I use this Speedometer app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedometer-speed-box-app/id307529605 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speedometer-speed-box-app/id...
      - CyberDildonics 9y ago

truculation 9y ago

Yep, high speed can definitely ruin a wheel(!): https://twitter.com/machinepix/status/969654857895301120 https://twitter.com/machinepix/status/969654857895301120

loeg 9y ago
That's a bit more than 50 km/h.
z3t4 9y ago
not fair as those water jets can cut through just about everything.
- grepthisab 9y ago
  In this case the water jet isn't cutting anything, just spinning the wheel very, very fast.

serf 9y ago

>Also, I hope the engine can go in reverse or .. Small nit, there are motors out there that offer resistance/braking without reversibility.

edaemon 9y ago

Regular longboards go much faster than an electric one like those described here. I recently built an electric skateboard using one of the ESCs in this post and on flat ground it can't go much over 20mph. It goes far faster than that on even a slight slope. Maintaining control at that speed is dependent on the trucks. The ESCs do have brakes. They make downhills easy to manage. The only problem is that, without some special components, the brakes don't function on a 100% full charge. (The brakes are regenerative, so the ESC watches the voltage and doesn't allow the motors to overcharge the batteries.) That's not a problem in 99% of cases -- it only matters if you start your trip on a large downhill. That said, anyone learning to ride an electric skateboard should learn how to bail. You'll have to do it eventually.