Author: Paxson Lim

Posted on by Paxson Lim

Wowgo 3 Review – It’s Butter

Foreword and Introductions

It seems like every budget brand is beginning to move up the price ladder by offering something around the mid-tier $599 marks.

Wowgo 3 is not a reiteration of the Wowgo 2s but a separate lineup on its own. Just by going through the marketing material, one would notice that every part of the board have been upgraded from the Wowgo 2s; be it the battery, the deck, the wheels, or the ESC. Of course, the most notable upgrade must have been the trucks, they are Paris trucks now!

Wowgo 3 Review

This the specs of the Wowgo 3:

  • Top Speed: 24mph (39kmh)
  • Range: 14mil (22.5km)
  • Weight: 17.2lbs (7.8kg)
  • Charge Time: 3hrs
  • Features: 2 hub motors, regenerative braking, handles up to 30% slope, remote with telemetry, swappable PU.
  • Price: 599USD with shipping included.

Build Quality

Packaging

Nothing much to comment on; everything was unsophisticatedly but neatly packed.

The board came with a wall hanger, 2 spare PU sleeves, a T-tool, a generic tail-lights, and the obligatory extra foam pads for deck swaps.

Deck

One might remember that I was a huge critic of Wowgo 2s’s flat deck.

Not to worry, Wowgo 3 deck is a huge improvement. The bamboo + fiber glass deck provide very good flex. The deck is no longer flat, with some subtle concave to help your feet feel comfortable on it.

I especially love the minimalistic design on the grip tape. Overall, I really like this deck.

Component Enclosures and ESC

Flipping the deck onto it’s back, we see the typical 2 enclosure set up. No more generic parts, looks like everyone is moving into developing their own proprietary parts now! Good.

The enclosure is made out of plastics, not aluminium. Wowgo said it is a strong plastic and it certainly felt like it. Will it break with abuse? That I can’t tell.

Wheels

The wheels on Wowgo 3 are significantly better than the one they used for the previous generation. They are 90mm and rated at 78A, I feel they are grippy and comfortable.

The PU sleeve on the hub motor is swappable.

There will be more on how the wheels impact the riding experience later.

Trucks

“Put a Paris truck on it and you will thank me later.” is a very popular advise in the eskate community during the rise of Chinese budget board. I guess the team behind Wowgo heard that too and decide to act on it.

Wowgo 3 uses genuine Paris truck for the front truck, and it indeed helps to transcend the riding experience to another level. This is to me, one of the most important upgrades from the Wowgo 2s, as you might recall, I hate the generic truck from the Wowgo 2s – I find the 2s difficult to turn with that pair of generic trucks.

Capability

Range

Wowgo 3 uses one of the best cells in Samsung 30Q to build its 10s2P battery pack(216wh). Referring to the math of 10wh=1km range, the marketed range of 14mil (22.5km) is pretty reasonable.

Putting that into the test, a fully charged Wowgo 3 takes me 15.5miles (25km) before finally stops.

The board still retained a top speed of 18.5mph(30kmh) up to the very last miles of the ride, that’s pretty good!

*I weigh around 154lbs (70kg) and was riding in a mostly flat area in a warm climate. 

Speed and Torque

Unlike the other boards of this price segment, Wowgo 3 has no intention to duke it out in the top speed department. It keeps the very modest top speed of 24mph(39kmh) of the Wowgo 2s.

Of course, it hit that top speed effortlessly.

Riding Experience:

Acceleration and Deceleration

Wowgo 3 uses a customized version of the Hobbywing ESC. As expected, Hobbywing ESC delivers a butter smooth acceleration and deceleration.

What’s worth mentioning here is the addition of the fourth mode, Turbo mode. Unlike the Turbo mode found in Backfire G2T, this Turbo mode does not have a time limit and doesn’t require cooldown. This basically means a fourth speed mode that provides a more aggressive acceleration, and indeed it does! The board picks up speed pretty effortlessly, bringing you to top speed fairly quickly. Not as fast as a belt driven board, or a VESC but pretty fast.

Braking on the Wowgo 3 is smooth and comfortable. It is stronger than the Wowgo 2s and any board on the last gen Hobbywing ESC, I would prefer it to be a tad bit stronger.

Stability & Maneuverability

It seems to me that all $599 board has their own focus and specialty. Wowgo 3 focus is on relaxing ride and maximum fun in carving. Flexible deck and Paris trucks both are ingredient that Wowgo choose to create this favor. Paris truck is known to give fluid and have a comfortable carve, while not sacrificing the stability. Flexible deck makes riding around comfortable, and carving fun.

For a not so aggressive top speed of 24mph(39kmh), stability is no concern at all. At no point do I feel wobbly or at risk of being bounced off of the flexible deck.

The use of soft 78A 90mm wheels further improves the smooth buttery feeling of the ride. I myself find 90mm the best in general use for hub boards. While, 80-83mm are too small for bumps and cracks and vibrations, 96-107mm rides too tall and scarifies too much torque.

Vibration

So with the 90mm soft wheels (78A) and the flexible deck, Wowgo 3 does pretty well in absorbing vibrations from poorly paved road. Of course, it is still no match against belt-driven boards that has 4 true wheels or big wheels of 96mm+ size but amongst all hub-drives that are with 90mm wheels, this is among the best in reducing vibration.

For me, Wowgo 3 scores an A- in vibration handling.

Remote

Wowgo 3 uses a very elegantly designed remote. The shape and the soft-rubber finish give it a very premium feel. The design is really ergometric and feels nice in hand.

It has a screen that shows top speed, odometer, and battery percentage.

It only has one button that controls everything:

Single press changes the speed modes.
Double press changes the forward/reverse.
Long press to turn on and off.
Holding it to go into pair modes.

Speed modes:

  1. Slow mode: 0-12miles/h(0-20km/h) 
  2. Normal mode: 0-18miles/h(0-30km/h) 
  3. Fast mode: 0-24miles/h(0-39km/h) 
  4. Turbo mode: 0-24miles/h(0-39km/h)

Customer Service

There isn’t much that I can say about Wowgo’s customer service.
Wowgo is now one of the most established electric skateboard brands from China, and their post-sale service is considered reliable.

Unfortunately, all the post-sale service is still based in China but the company seems to be doing pretty well performing their post-sales duty. Sure, there is still some occasional complaints heard from time to time, those are usually drowned amongst the cheers of satisfied customers.

So, not amazing but good.

Verdict

Wowgo 3 has a clear design focus. The same design focus that makes the Boosted popular to be a very comfortable ride for the last mile solution.

It doesn’t try to push the envelope in top speed, torque, range, or wheel size. The result might not be exciting, even boring for some but I believe this is a deliberate design choice that Wowgo made, so that the Wowgo 3 can be the most comfortable ride you can find, at any price.

I think they succeed in their vision. Wowgo 3 is, as mentioned in the title, is butter. The control is buttery smooth. Carving all around is buttery smooth. Everything just felt so smooth.

As always, we have secured a small discount code for our fellow readers:
Click to receive $5 off Wowgo 3

For those who are from a European country, you can choose to shop from a local dealer – Speedio.
Speedio is an Electric Skateboard re-seller based in the Czech Republic. While you do pay a little premium, they offer a 2-year warranty, local support, and fast 2-5 days shipping.

Posted on by Paxson Lim

Event: Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival (12th-16th June)

Skaters will begin making their way across the country over the coming days to Colorado for the 1st Annual Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival. The five-day festival is an open to electric skateboarders of any skill level and includes various off-road, street course, city, mountain, trail and night-time rides in the Denver area spanning from Wednesday, June 12th – Sunday, June 16th.

Participants will also have the opportunity to submerge themselves in local food, local beer, and local music during the Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival; while taking in some of the most unbelievably beautiful landscapes of Colorado.

Registration fees for the five-day Esk8 event are $100 per person with the option to receive a swag bag for an additional $25. For those who are interested in becoming a sponsor, fee’s range from $400 to $5000 depending on the level of sponsorship desired. Both registration and sponsorship fees can be submitted here.

Itinerary:

Day One: City Cruise and Meet & Greet
The Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival will kick off on Wednesday, June 12th at the Denver Skatepark located at 2205 19th St, Denver, CO 80202. The Denver Skatepark is one of the largest skateparks in the United States with over 60,000 square feet of skateable, concrete terrain. The skatepark lies in the heart of downtown Denver, overlooking Coors Field and the Denver Skyline. The group will through Denver for lunch at Adelita’s Cocina located at 1294 S Broadway, Denver, CO 80210, before returning to the Denver Skatepark for a night ride and Scavenger hunt.

Day One: Schedule
11:00am – Meet and Greet at Denver Skatepark
1:00pm – Group ride from the skatepark to Adelita’s Cocina
2:00pm – Lunch at Adelita’s and time to charge boards
4:00pm – Group ride back to Denver Skatepark
5:00pm – Break and charge up until 8:00pm
8:00pm – Meet at Denver Skatepark for the Scavenger hunt and night ride

Day Two: Street Course Race Day
The IMI Motorsports Complex located at 5074 Summit Blvd, Dacono, CO 80514 will be the event hub for days two and three of the Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival.
IMI Motorsports Complex prides themselves as an extreme sports complex consisting of six different tracks. While off the tracks, riders can visit various sponsor booths, grab a bite to eat, enjoy music or just hangout, relax and charge their rides as they prepare for the next race.

Day Two: Schedule
8:00am – Track and Sponsor booth set-up and early bird warm-ups on the tracks
10:00am – Start of Race Day (race schedule provided on the day of events)
5:00pm – Races end, open use of track, music, hanging for the camp out.
10:00pm – The night time lonely road ride, departs from IMI Motorsports Complex.
12:00am – The Campout at IMI Motorsports Complex! Sleep under the stars, in your cars or in your tents and hang out until the second race day on the off-road course!

Day Three: Off-Road Track Race Day
The racing fun continues at the IMI Motorsports Complex located at 5074 Summit Blvd, Dacono, CO 80514. After wrapping up the second day of racing at the IMI Motorsports Complex, Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival skaters will take to the streets of Denver to embrace the food, bars, clubs and night riding scenes across the city. Participants are urged to join the Telegram Group Chat, for real time correspondence with your fellow skaters, while they are out and about in the city here.

Day Three: Schedule
8:00am – Track and Sponsor booth set-up and early bird warm-ups on the tracks
10:00am – Start of Race Day (race schedule provided on the day of events)
5:00pm – End of Race Day

Day Four: Mountain Side Rides
Participants in the Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival will be gathering at the Golden City Brewery, the second largest brewery in the city of Golden, Colorado. The Brewery is located at 920 12th St, Golden, CO 80401. Skaters will then migrate to Lookout Mountain which overlooks beautiful Golden, Colorado and even houses the famous gravesite of the most colorful figures of the American Old West; William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. After an afternoon of exploring, the group will enjoy lunch at Woody’s Wood Fired Pizza located at 1305 Washington Ave, Golden, CO 80401 before returning to Denver for a night ride at the Denver Skatepark

Day Four: Schedule
10:30am – Meet at Golden City Brewery
12:00pm – Short carpool up to the base of Lookout Mountain, ride up Lookout Mountain.
2:30pm – Head back to Golden City Brewery to park again.
3:00pm – Late lunch at Woody’s Wood Fired Pizza, opportunity to charge boards
5:00pm – Ride out from Woody’s and hit some of the park trails around Golden.
7:00pm – Take a break and head back to the city, rest for a few hours
10:00pm – Meet at Denver Skatepark for the night ride

Day Five: Exploration for the Bold
The Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival will meet up on Sunday, June 16th at the Denver Skatepark. While there, riders are encouraged to share any suggestions that they may have for breweries, dispensaries, food, parks and any other places of interest for the group to explore. Be sure that you have joined the Telegram Group Chat, for real time correspondence with your fellow skaters, in case you are separated from the group while exploring about in the city here.

Day Five: Schedule
11:30am – Meet up at Denver Skate Park
12:15pm – Ride out and Explore the city for the day

For additional event details please visit the official Thunder in the Mountains Electric Skateboard Festival website: http://www.theelectricboarder.com/

Posted on by Paxson Lim

Meepo City Rider Review – You asked, they delivered

For the review of the 2023 new Meepo City Rider 3, please click here.

Foreword and Introductions

On 28th April 2019, MeepoBoard announced something that many Meepo fans have been waiting for – their version of the All-Terrain electric skateboard.

Meepo City Rider while not marketed as an all-terrain board, features a 6-inch airless tire that could, in theory, handle rough terrains; at least the rougher roads on a city street. This is probably what most of the Meepo fans were asking for, not an affordable Trampa but more of an affordable Lacroix.

So the 719 dollar question is, after long being the go-to option for anyone looking for a budget electric longboard, can Meepoboard recreate the magic for the AT segment?

Meepo City Rider Review

These are the specs of Meepo City Rider:

  • Top Speed: 22mph (35kmh)
  • Range: 15mil (25km)
  • Weight: 28.7lbs (13kg)
  • Charge Time: 4.7hrs
  • Features: 2 hub motors, regenerative braking, handles up to 30% slope, 6-inch airless wheels.
  • Price: 719USD with shipping included.

Build Quality

Packaging

Meepo’s unboxing experience is pretty standard. A box, plenty of foams to protect the products, and some mask shift A4 paper printed manual.
It’s not quite the Apple unboxing experience but everything was quite neat.

Deck

The City Rider uses the same deck as the one found on AWD GT.
It is a drop-through deck with the tiniest amount of micro-drop.
The deck is pretty wide with good concave, and has a fair amount of flex.

Longtime readers probably know that I have a thing for drop-decks and haven’t yet found one that I don’t like. Of course, this deck is no exception.
City Rider’s deck is wide enough to pair with the wide trucks. The flexibility is right where I want it too. Flexible enough to eat up vibration or terrain changes without turning the board into too much of a trampoline.

Component Enclosures and ESC

Meepo City Rider uses two enclosure set- ups, per usual.
This time, however, it’s aluminum.

No fancy design, no USB port, just two steel box holding the component safe. Pretty industrial design, that suits the theme of the board.

Inside the enclosure houses a big pack of 10s4p battery and Hobbywing ESC! Rejoice!

Wheels

City Riders comes with 6″ airless rubber wheels.
All 4 of them look the same, both hub wheels and normal wheels.
Going in without doing any homework, I thought this was a 4 wheel-drive set up. Alas no, it is just dual wheel-drive.

More on how the wheels impact the riding experience later.

Trucks

Instead of using a double kingpin like most of its competitors, City Rider again uses Shredder trucks.

I will talk about its performance later but I would guess the truck is probably the reason why City Rider is marketed for city rides instead of all-terrain uses. It looks robust but I would never trust a steel rod to get air-time like Cédric Okp.

Capability

Range

Can 10s4p Samsung 35E 14AH (504WH) power a board with 6″ tires to the marketed 15mil(25km) range? Well turns out it can!

I think the range was helped by the fact that the top speed was limited to a modest 20mph(35kmh).
There is no significant reduction in top speed until the very last few minutes – something I came to expect from every board in 2019.

*I weigh around 154lbs (70kg) and was riding in a mostly flat area in a warm climate. 

Speed and Torque

According to Strava, I did manage to go over the marketed top speed and hit 24.6mph/39kmh when the battery is full. After that, the top speed was consistently 20mph/35kmh as per marketed specs.

I was doubtful of the 30% incline claim that Meepo made, so I took the effort to try it on the steepest incline I could find. I did a stop-n-go test on a 23% incline, and the dual 650W motors were almost able to overcome it. Without stopping, City Rider can climb through the 23% incline without much issue.

Riding Experience:

Acceleration and Deceleration

The City Rider uses customized Hobbywing ESC, enough said?
Both the acceleration and braking are as smooth as they can be.

Braking is smooth and with enough strength; it still can’t stop the board completely down a 15% incline but it almost can, almost.

Of course, the board doesn’t take off from the starting line as fast as belt-drive AT set-up would be able to.

Stability & Maneuvrability & Vibration

Maneuverability is where City Rider absolutely shines. Even without using double kingpin trucks (which some people hate anyway), City Rider is very agile.

You can easily maneuver it around obstacles, potholes, and traffic cones very easily and comfortably. Or you can always just choose to ride over them, potholes I mean, not traffic cones.

I would say the board is more agile than some lower end street-wheel longboard that I’ve reviewed, and obviously much more so than a mountainboard like the Trampa.

It is so easy to carve in, I think Meepo should have named them City Carver instead, too bad, name taken.

Wide trucks and a modest 25mph/35kmh top speed means the board will never challenge your sense of balance. The story is different of course if you insist to bring the City Rider out of the City.

Riding on grass and stone trails, you get a sense of City Rider wasn’t designed for that. Rough trails tend to throw me off the deck due to the bounce of the deck, the regular trucks and of course, no foot bindings. After half an hour of playing around in the park trails, I decided that this is the case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

What is the comfort level when riding over rougher but flat terrain though?

While the 6-inch airless wheels perform amazingly to get you through ramps, cracks, and stuffs; the comfort level is not comparable to pneumatic tires.

Pneumatic tires absorb some of the bumps, the airless wheel is not soft and did none of that. Just think of it as a very big urethane wheel.

With that said City Rider is designed to handle the worst terrain found in a city setting and this set-up did exactly that, it is all you need in a city environment.

Remote

The City Rider comes with the typical Hobbywing remote, which needs no further explanation.

It is also compatible with the Night Ride remote type B, which despite its look, is actually very comfortable in hand and practical in use. NR remote doesn’t come in the box and requires separate purchase.

Customer Service

Meepo customer service is still the same old, same old. Some swear by it, some swear at it. Consistency is definitely an issue but they at their core has every intention to resolve every customer service issue.

You can reach them via email, via Facebook or if all else failed, leave a message here – that will definitely bring attention to Kieran and the team.

Verdict

As you can tell, I am a huge fan of the City Rider. I think it solves the problem it set out to solve perfectly, which is, to be the board that’s agile for a city environment and at the same time able to handle the worst road condition a city commute may face. The riding experience simply left nothing for me to nitpick.

However, as we often associate AT setup as rugged, plowing, and powerful; I feel like it is important for me to emphasize that City Rider is not that.
It is a comfortable ride that handles poor terrain, has pretty good torque to drive the 6-inch wheel, but it is not a mountain board, don’t expect the performance of a $2000 Trampa build. It definitely can’t do trail riding, don’t even think about it.

All in all, priced at $719, it is safe to say that City Rider is currently the most affordable and the best deal for someone looking for a really big wheel.

(And it’s $599 for US buyer who are willing to wait for sea shipping.)

Check out Meepo City Rider Here

Posted on by Paxson Lim

Meepo Release Meepo Mini 2

Following the announcement of Meepo City Rider, Meepo NLS Pro, Meepo V3, MeepoBoard announced another new product – Meepo Mini 2 on the 31st May.

The new Mini 2 saw a refresh in design. The short-board deck obviously took inspiration from the Boosted Mini, using a short deck with a “Deep Dish” concave. Judging from how well the Boosted Mini was received, Meepo fans probably would be very happy with the new deck choice.

  • previous gen Mini
  • Mini 2

As compared to the previous gen Mini, Mini 2 has a longer wheelbase, allowing more stability. It is also broader to eliminate wheel bites by shoes.

A very important thing to note is that Mini 2 is no longer just a shortboard variant of their regular longboard (v2/v3). Though most of the parts are shared, the Mini 2 uses MEEPO FOC ESC (Hobbywing ESC) while V3 uses customized LingYi ESC.

On paper, I expect Mini 2 to have a much smoother acceleration and braking as compared to the V3, which focuses on power and torque.

Meepo Mini 2 comes in two variants, the standard variant and the variant with an extended battery. The standard Mini 2 will cost $429 (including shipping) and the Extended Range variant will cost $629.
(They probably should just call them Meepo Mini S and Meepo Mini X, or is that going too far?)

Mini 2 will come with the Night Ride remote. There is a remote with a screen (N2 remote) in development and will be open for purchase when it is available.

The board will start shipping from China on 9th June.

Interested but on the fence? Stay tune for our full review!

Click here to visit MeepoBoard.

Posted on by Paxson Lim

FÄBOARD release FÄBOARD Black Carve.

On 26th May, FÄBOARD, the brand by Youtuber Fabian Doerig announced it’s the second line of product, the FÄBOARD Black Carve.

FÄBOARD Black Carve was designed following the blueprint of Evolve Bamboo GT. It has a very similar double drop deck, and it too uses double kingpin trucks.

However, this is where the similarity ends; the Black Carve uses smaller battery pack 360wh but manages to get more range out of it (26miles/42km) by opting to use the more efficient and quieter direct drive set-up. Using direct drive also allows the Black Carve to switch between standard street wheels or 100mm airless “Mini-AT” wheels. However, the bulky direct drive also means that the drive has little to no ground clearance. That also limits the use of wheel size lower than 100mm.

Direct drive with almost no ground clearance

Control should be smooth with what looks like an Hobbywing ESC. Riding experience should be pretty good too.

To summarize, I think FÄBOARD Black Carve is a very interesting product with good value! The remaining question would be, can Faboard prove itself as a reliable company and deliver on it’s promise? What do you think?

Link to Faboard Black Carve here.