4 ms·

Your latter point is why I'm not really sold on electric longboards. Your control authority on a longboard is pretty low, and you need a lot of control authorit

Your latter point is why I'm not really sold on electric longboards. Your control authority on a longboard is pretty low, and you need a lot of control authority to react to surprise obstacles/maintain stability after encountering one. Sure, DH longboarders exceed 25mph regularly, but they ride in semi-controlled environments (scout the descent for gravel etc before hitting it) and are exceptionally skilled. Putting random noobs on electric longboards is a recipe for road rash and broken bones. A few years ago, three people in my office got Boosted boards, and I believe we saw two instances of pretty bad road rash and a broken bone among them.

Cerium 4y ago
The danger is in the perception. It took me about 10 hours of dedicated practice (over a few weeks) before I felt comfortable using a longboard as a transportation device off of public roads - eg: on a closed campus. When I have seen people pickup an electric longboard they feel safe in a half hour, but obviously don't have any reflexes to back that up.
- deeblering4 4y ago
  Whenever I ride downhill I’ll carve and powerslide to keep my speed within the range of how fast I can bail into a run essentially. The few times I’ve spilled going faster than I could run have been ugly! Feet just couldn’t keep up and gone into a barely controlled roll. I don’t know if I could ever feel comfortable consistently riding that fast One time was caused by my dog chasing another dog while I was holding the leash standing on my board, that was hilariously painful
thot_experiment 4y ago
Practically speaking yes, but this isn't an unsolvable problem. I ride Originals spring trucks, which use a cam and a spring instead of the urethane bushing in most skate trucks. It takes effort to keep them steady at speed for sure, but paired with soft wheels they feel like pure telepathy in terms of control authority.
butterguns 4y ago
I rode a Boosted Board for the best part of 1 year on the streets of Brooklyn. I ended up selling it; although I absolutely loved the experience, I knew one day I would rip my face off if I encountered even a small pothole.
- Grazester 4y ago
  And there are many on the streets of NYC
watwut 4y ago
Electronic skateboards have bigger wheels then skateboard-cruiser which has bugger wheels then skateboard. Meaning the danger of pebbles is also much different.
- serf 4y ago
  > Electronic skateboards have bigger wheels then skateboard-cruiser which has bugger wheels then skateboard. i've powered a regular street deck with hard poly wheels, what you said is by no means any kind of guarantee. Lots of hacked together monstrosities out there.
  - mnsc 4y ago
    As an old skater this monstrosity I would like to see! Why!? :D
antihero 4y ago
Could they make the wheels larger to fix this?
- asdff 4y ago
  Larger and softer wheels work great for mitigating pebbles, sticks, bumps or cracks. I roll over some pretty gnarly terrain with 60mm 78a wheels. You could even to an extent at certain speeds roll of the sidewalk entirely and roll back on quickly and not eat it with these wheels.

Cerium 4y ago

The danger is in the perception. It took me about 10 hours of dedicated practice (over a few weeks) before I felt comfortable using a longboard as a transportation device off of public roads - eg: on a closed campus. When I have seen people pickup an electric longboard they feel safe in a half hour, but obviously don't have any reflexes to back that up.

deeblering4 4y ago
Whenever I ride downhill I’ll carve and powerslide to keep my speed within the range of how fast I can bail into a run essentially. The few times I’ve spilled going faster than I could run have been ugly! Feet just couldn’t keep up and gone into a barely controlled roll. I don’t know if I could ever feel comfortable consistently riding that fast One time was caused by my dog chasing another dog while I was holding the leash standing on my board, that was hilariously painful

thot_experiment 4y ago

Practically speaking yes, but this isn't an unsolvable problem. I ride Originals spring trucks, which use a cam and a spring instead of the urethane bushing in most skate trucks. It takes effort to keep them steady at speed for sure, but paired with soft wheels they feel like pure telepathy in terms of control authority.

butterguns 4y ago

I rode a Boosted Board for the best part of 1 year on the streets of Brooklyn. I ended up selling it; although I absolutely loved the experience, I knew one day I would rip my face off if I encountered even a small pothole.

Grazester 4y ago
And there are many on the streets of NYC

watwut 4y ago

Electronic skateboards have bigger wheels then skateboard-cruiser which has bugger wheels then skateboard. Meaning the danger of pebbles is also much different.

serf 4y ago
> Electronic skateboards have bigger wheels then skateboard-cruiser which has bugger wheels then skateboard. i've powered a regular street deck with hard poly wheels, what you said is by no means any kind of guarantee. Lots of hacked together monstrosities out there.
- mnsc 4y ago
  As an old skater this monstrosity I would like to see! Why!? :D

antihero 4y ago

Could they make the wheels larger to fix this?

asdff 4y ago
Larger and softer wheels work great for mitigating pebbles, sticks, bumps or cracks. I roll over some pretty gnarly terrain with 60mm 78a wheels. You could even to an extent at certain speeds roll of the sidewalk entirely and roll back on quickly and not eat it with these wheels.