
Feet-On With Boosted Boards’ New Faster And Cheaper Electric Skateboards - skdoo
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/06/electric-skateboards/
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skdoo
Founder here. Happy to answer questions.

One of the most interesting things we've learned about recently is the
temptation to cut corners using cheaper parts or processes or relaxed quality
control procedures. It's easy to get quoted prices much lower than what we
currently pay, but the long-term cost of choosing those parts (greater failure
rates, manufacturing problems, and warranty costs, not to mention unhappy
customers) is hard to quantify at decision time.

This is where experienced supply chain and hardware engineers are especially
valuable. They understand the implications of these decisions and know the
right way to account for them. For example, major manufacturers set aside
"warranty accruals" as liabilities in their financials to cover the average
future cost of servicing a unit that ships today.

I suspect this is a problem facing many hardware startups, Kickstarted or not.
It feels non-intuitive to build hardware carefully and at such high initial
costs, especially in the "move fast" culture of software development. And it's
especially dangerous if a company goes "in the red" without realizing it by
shipping many units that may fail or incur high warranty costs that exceed the
margin on the product, but at a later date.

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reledi
With a normal skateboard you often have to clean the wheel bearings. The
maintenance is what I like least about skateboarding. Is a Boosted board any
different in that regard?

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mmagin
Or you can just get a new set of bearings for $10 or so. If you're in the
market for their product, you can probably afford it.

~~~
reledi
> Or you can just get a new set of bearings for $10 or so

Swapping out the bearings is still a lot of maintenance for a piece of
equipment that otherwise requires very little.

> If you're in the market for their product, you can probably afford it.

You make it sound like they're ridiculously priced and only those with lavish
lifestyles are their target market.

For the convenience that you get out of the product, it's well worth the
price. It costs no more than a mid-range bicycle. With the recent price drop,
they're even more affordable.

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mmagin
As someone who commutes 3 miles each way 4 days a week on a Yuneec E-GO, I'm
laughing at the article's "Unfortunately its 1000 watts will only get you up
to 18mph". Either the writer hasn't actually ridden it, or they're an
experienced downhill longboarder :)

Even on the E-GO's (larger) 90mm wheels, 12 MPH is quite enough on a lot of
the uneven pavement I encounter.

FWIW, the E-GO is a great deal for $700, and the range is considerably more.
Maybe if I had to replace it I'd consider Boosted's product.

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tlrobinson
I've gotten very comfortable riding the Boosted Board at it's top speed (in
SF), and sometimes wish for more speed. I had never ridden a skate/longboard
until I got the Boosted Board.

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etrautmann
As a (very happy) boosted rider as of July, I'm a little concerned about the
"single" model. I've blown through three belts already, and find that it's
usually while breaking that a belt will fail. Having two is safe and
redundant, but having only one is a double whammy since you double the
breaking force on that single belt while also relying on it entirely.

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infecto
Love the idea but not sure about the use in denser cities. I saw my first
boosted in action on the streets of SF during my morning commute. Seems cool
but the gentleman was riding in the bicycle lane at around 10mph which is much
slower than all other traffic on the road, including bicycles.

I really want to love these types of transportation but I have a hard time
seeing how they can scale without cities adopting to them. We already have
enough trouble getting proper bicycling safety and then we introduce electric
longboards on top of the existing skate/longboards and push scooters that
already roll around on the streets and worse, sidewalks.

Maybe I am just biased because I dislike push scooters on sidewalks but then
where is the push scooter legally able to go?

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skdoo
We usually ride at the same speed as others in the bike lane. It works well
around bikes and doesn't need any additional infrastructure. It was originally
designed for a campus but we learned early on that users in dense cities love
it in part because it's faster than any other mode of transport they've tried.

~~~
infecto
Does not really answer the issue though. Most cities do not treat boards as
legal to use on roads. Yes they make great campus or paved pathway tools but
they still have no place on the streets with bicycles and motorized vehicles.
When there is already poor bicycling infrastructure in most cities these seem
to be more headache than helpful. All of the ones I see rolling around San
Francisco move at about 10-15mph with bicycles passing them all the time. I
have no numbers to back this claim but I am going to guess that a bicycle
still has a shorter stopping distance than these.

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dinor
I have had an evolve board for 12 months, it was the first generation and I
have had loads of fun. The newer models have a bigger motor and are better at
climbing and stopping by all accounts. I haven't had any reliability issues
and have been able to ride it every time I wanted to. Recently though the
range has reduced and I am hoping its just a single battery cell that needs
replacing or rebalancing. I haven't opened it up to look and will most likely
send it to evolve to diagnose. It still gets more range than the boosted board
so its very usable.

I think battery problems will be discussed more frequently as electric boards
age. They make up a significant portion of the board cost and I hope suppliers
have a good strategy to help customers when problems arise.

Boosted boards look awesome and I can't wait to try one someday. I only ride
for fun and its typically 45-60 minutes at an average speed around 14-16mph,
so a boosted board falls a little short in their range. I was wondering if
Boosted had considered having an 'eco' mode that only runs one of the motors
enabling extended range?

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deutronium
I'm curious about this statement. Is there any electronic workaround for that?

"BRAKING DOWNHILL ON A FULL BATTERY WILL CAUSE BOARD SHUTDOWN since the regen
will overcharge the battery. To prevent this from happening, the remote will
warn you by beeping, and you’ll lose your braking power. Safely come to a stop
before this happens, and ride on flats or uphill to drain the battery."

~~~
skdoo
It's basically impossible with our current electronics to only charge the
battery to 95% and leave headroom for regen braking. We could let the battery
charge to 100% and then bleed off energy slowly, but most users keep it
charging and then start riding immediately after unplugging it.

The other option is to divert braking energy to heat instead of recharging the
battery. But on steep hills, braking energy can reach hundreds of watts, which
would quickly overheat the electronics or motors without regen.

This is an issue that affects a very small subset of users, almost all of whom
live at the top of a hill - definitely a unique corner case to design for. We
tell them to discharge the battery by running it uphill or on flats briefly to
discharge the battery enough to allow some regen headroom.

~~~
mik3y
Naively I would have guessed you include something like a 1kW resistor + heat
sink package, and divert to that.

Assuming such parts exist, are they just cost prohibitive, or is there more to
it?

(Thanks for taking questions!)

~~~
skdoo
Yes, but the added weight of something as large as a 1kW resistor compromises
the portability of the board. We're looking into how to do this without adding
weight.

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mikeyouse
A bit of a higher price point, but some Formula 1 teams went through similar
issues with their KERS system in regards to performance and weight. I think
everyone converged on extremely high speed flywheels, but there was a fair
amount of work into ultracapacitors. I'd imagine a 1,000F ultracap could
handle the ~20-30 seconds of 100W braking power at well under a pound? I know
nothing of their reliability or availability and I'm sure you guys have done
your own research but just thinking out loud.

~~~
skdoo
There are some excellent cells out there developed for KERS. One example:

[http://www.ebaracus.com/product/a123-ahr18700-f1-kers-
cells](http://www.ebaracus.com/product/a123-ahr18700-f1-kers-cells)

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btbuildem
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1scP9uZP9Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1scP9uZP9Y)

Seems more informative and less salesy-pitchey

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abat
This video may be a better introduction to Boosted boards, but it's an old vid
that lacks all the news I got from the posted one: new
models/software/pricing/potential future products.

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rastapasta42
How do Boosted Boards compare to Evolve Boards?

[http://evolveskateboardsusa.com/collections/carbon-series-
el...](http://evolveskateboardsusa.com/collections/carbon-series-electric-
skateboards)

Boosted seems to be slightly cheaper, but Evolve boards have longer range and
replaceable wheels for different terrains.

~~~
skdoo
Some things about them are great. I linked to some reliability reviews, which
are not so great, above.

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nicolethenerd
Funny brand name, considering that the word can be slang for "stolen." I can
see this causing some confusion.

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JTon
It didn't irk me. I guess it's my video game background where boost is a
ubiquitous term for increasing your velocity

~~~
Fuzzwah
Boosted rolls off the tongue far better than sv_maxspeed 1000 too.

