Category: Product Reviews

Posted on by Ziyad Khairi

Backfire G2 Black 2020 Review – Any surprises?

I consider Backfire to be among the Top 3 Chinese electric skateboard brands right now, and they are in the prime position to compete for the crown as the best entry-level electric longboard. With improving aftersales service and polish, the Backfire G2 Black, 2020 edition, could be a no brainer for anyone who is looking for a budget board.

Backfire G2 2020 Review – the Blackfire 20

The new Backfire G2 Black is a good representation and measure for what you can get with $419 in 2020.

  • Deck Size: 38-inch x 9-inch (97cm x 23cm)
  • Top Speed: 24mph (38km)
  • Range: 11-12.5miles (18-20km)
  • Battery Pack: 188Wh 10s2p (5.2Ah 42V)
  • Weight: 17lbs/ 7.8kg
  • Motor: 2 x 400W hub motors.
  • Wheels: 96mm 78A
  • Price: 399-419 USD

The Parts:

Deck

The Blackfire 20 uses a 38” (96.5cm) deck made out of fiberglass, bamboo, and maple. It has a tiny bit of flex, but when I was riding it, the board felt stiff.

I think we are just pampered by having reviewed too many much more expensive boards, with better decks. The deck only has a tiny concave, so small that it’s barely noticeable. There is not much camber to it either, mostly a flat profile.

Trucks

Unlike their premium line-up, the G2 Black is not using Caliber II trucks, but instead it features Backfire’s own proprietary trucks. We will talk about how they ride shortly.

Wheels

Continuing the tradition, the Backfire G2 uses 96mm wheels with 83A. Most beginners love larger wheels sizes, so going with 96mm is appropriate for the niche it’s trying to serve.

Larger wheels can roll over bigger stuff, hence safer. It also helps to dampen some of those road vibrations when riding on rough pavement.

Battery & Range

The Backfire G2 Black uses 5.2AH battery pack, with non-branded cells in 10s2p configuration. That’s 187.2WH, and it promises a modest range of 12.5 miles (20km), which we are able to hit. Most brand has moved away from using genuine Samsung 20R for their budget line-up, as generic battery are not only cheaper but has better numbers on paper. So far, there is no noticeable performance drop, but will this translate to worse battery longevity? I’m afraid is a questions that can only time would answer.

In the budget board war, Blackfire 20’s batteries are slightly larger than it’s peers. To be precise, the standard is 4.0AH, while the Blackfire has 5.2AH. Again, showing that going with generic battery cell do give you an edge at least on the numbers.

Motors & Top Speed

Backfire G2 Black 2020 uses a set of 400W hub motors and that yield a top speed of 24mph (38km/h). We managed to hit the marketed top-speed during our test, no surprise here.

In 2020, 400W hubs are considered standard for entry-level board, as they are functionally strong enough; However, you indeed can find entry-level boards with stronger hubs. For instance, both the Meepo and Wowgo have 540W, and Meepo brags about them quite abit.

ESC and Speed Control

Blackfire 20 uses the latest Hobbywing ESC, which has the updated remote, but in usual Backfire tradition only 2-speed modes. No smart turn-on here, which is disappointing.

The Hobbywing ESC is buttery smooth, but you already know that. Everyone except beginners will be using the higher ‘Sport’ mode, as it is just as smooth as the Eco mode. The brakes are sufficiently strong here; at this point I am confident in the braking strength of Hobbywing ESCs. In fact, in 2020, I found that only the most generic Hobbywing ESC has weak brakes.

Ride Feel and Board Control

While going with Hobbywing ESC means you won’t be wrong with the speed control, the entire riding experience obviously are more than just the electronics.

First, let’s again talk about the trucks.

The Backfire proprietary trucks pale in comparison to branded trucks and came in on the tighter side. After loosening them up a bit, we would say this truck veers towards being more stable than carve-y.

Next, the deck. The fiberglass, bamboo and maple deck has only a little flex to it, and hence, again, not extraordinary for carving but great for cruising at high speed. I would love if the deck has a little bit more concave to it, so I could more easily feel my foot position without having to look down.

Stiff decks + hub motors also means the board is not the most fun to carve in and doesn’t lend much in reducing road vibration. As the previous-gen Backfire G2 Black, just a solid B in handling road vibration.

With that said, you can cruise in high speed on this thing pretty comfortably.

I get the feeling that Blackfire 20 is designed for with stability as the first consideration, something that I suppose would be a priority for newcomers to this hobby.

Summary

As a reviewer, Backfire G2 2020 is a very boring board. It has no special strength to talk about, no unique personality to angle on, and there is also not any glaring weakness to talk about.

But, please don’t confuse boring with bad.

Indeed, the Backfire G2 Black is mediocre when you compare it to higher-priced boards that have a better ride feel and far better performance, but for $419, the Backfire G2 Black 2020 delivers what it needs to deliver and some more.

It has comfortable and safe speed control, an above-average performance at the entry-level price and a top tier build quality and polish. Also, while not rated to be waterproof, the electronic components are themselves sealed, which should give good water resistance. While it has some trouble with rough road surfaces, it will ride just as nice as any board on regular roads.

Verdict

Good performance, pretty standard riding experience and top tier polish, Backfire G2 Black is undoubtedly a worthy contestant as the best entry-level electric longboard in current year and the year to come.

What’s more, while individual preference might mean everyone has a different pick as their best entry-level board, Backfire, at least at the time of this post, should come up on top when it comes to brands.
I hate to parrot their marketing pitch but, having a local warehouse in US and Europe is indeed a huge plus when it comes to delivery and aftersales service.

So yes, I do think the Backfire G2 2020 should be the standard that other entry-level boards would be compared to, and a safe pick for everyone.

If you are interested in buying a Backfire, be sure to check out our affiliate discount link here and uses code: “ESKATEHQ” during checkout.
It will help you get a small monetary discount and helps us out too. On top of that, you’ll be tagged as an Electric Skateboard HQ customer and probably be treated better. Cheers!

Posted on by Paxson Lim

Ecomobl ET Review – True AT?

Being an electric skateboard reviewer and getting the opportunity to sample a huge variety of different eskates is fun. However, I’ve never gotten my hands on any board that can be called a true off-road build.

Take the Wowgo AT 2, a board that we reviewed a while ago (spoiler alert! It’s great!). It has 7” pneumatic wheels and powerful motors that allow you transverse harsh terrain, but no one in their right mind would use it to climb a mountain trail. The board is too delicate for that.

That’s why, when Ecomobl offered to send us an Ecomobl ET for a review, I knew I needed to climb a mountain with it. It brags about being a “True All-Terrain Board” after all.

  • True All Terrain huh
  • Extra Griptape? Yeah, definitely needed that.

Ecomobl?

Hold on, let’s rewind a bit. “Who is this Ecomobl,” you may be asking. Honestly, I had to do some research on the brand before agreeing to do this review. Being a little bit reserved is always good when a brand’s flagship product looks like a copy of another brand’s products. Let’s introduce the elephant in the room: the Ecomobl M24 looks like a Bajaboard, with the upside of being $1000 cheaper and more available outside of Australia.

After doing a little bit of digging, I found that although Ecomobl itself is pretty new to most of us and to the consumer markets, they have actually been manufacturing and supplying Eskate parts to other eskate brands for a while now. In 2020, word of mouth started to spread, people started taking chances on their product and so far, the after-sale service has really been on point. Something like a ratio of 10 praises to 1 complaint.

Want to see it for yourself?
Check out Ecomobl Owner’s Group and Ecomobl Official group.

Ecomobl ET Review

Now that we’ve talked about the brand, let’s talk about the board, the Ecomobl ET. This is not their flagship product, that would be the Baja-like M24; but in my opinion, the ET is a very important board not only for Ecomobl but for the eskate community as a whole.

Why?

This is the cheapest it gets for you to get something that can climb a mountain trail – I’m not talking about grass, stick, and stones; I’m talking about sand, mud, rocks and huge cracks on a steep incline. So, if this board turns out to be good, it might serve as a gateway drug between street eskating and mountain eskating. A lot of wallets are at risk here.

  • Deck Size: 39-inch x 9.8-inch (99cm x 25cm)
  • Top Speed: 35mph/56km
  • Range: 20-25miles/32-40km
  • Battery Pack: 648Wh 12s3p Samsung 50E (or Samsung 40T)
  • Weight: 27lbs/12.2kg
  • Motor: 2 x 2000W planetary gear drive.
  • Wheels: 6″ airless rubber wheels (150mm)
  • Features: 
    • LingYi ESC with push to turn on.
      • The option of Range-focus ESC or Power-focus ESC
    • Integrated board light, headlight and taillights.
    • IP 56 Waterproof
  • Price: 1159 USD

By the way, the review unit that I receive is with the Samsung 50E batteries and with Range Focus ESC.

We will talk about their potential differences when we speak about the range.

First, let me show you the parts:

Deck

Ecomobl ET uses a 39 inch deck with aggressive drop. There is some nice concave to it so you know where you feet are. Aggressive drop deck not only makes the ride lower and more stable, the drop also serves as a step for you to place your feet during steep incline or decline. Nice!

Even with the aggressive drop, there is a 4″ (10cm) ground clearance. That’s pretty enough for most terrain.

Enclosure

Using a full length aluminium enclosure means you can forget about having any flex on the deck. I don’t know if I can fault them for going with the aluminium enclosure as you do need something that’s strong enough to withstand abuse, and this enclosure is that. It’s also pretty well sealed, giving me a peace of mind when riding not only through puddle but through muds.

This also makes cleaning the board a much easier process.
It’s IP 56 waterproof.

Trucks

Ecomobl ET uses a 15″ (38cm) (in axle width) trucks.
Right out of the box, the trucks are too loose and it takes me a while to find the right tightness on the trucks. With the right truck tightness, I got a pretty good balance between stability and maneuvrebility.

I think upgrading the bushing would further improve it.

Wheels

(150mm) 6″ airless rubber wheels can indeed roll over anything that’s meant to be rolled over. Pneumatic wheels are softer, that’s for sure, but airless wheel don’t get punctured when riding over dodgy terrain.

Planetary Gear Drive

Ecomobl ET uses a gear drive that I’ve never seen before. They call it planetary gear drive and they are 2000W per piece.

Besides looking fascinating when spinning, the gear drive makes a loud, rather sharp mechanical noise when accelerating.

It also freerolls okay-ly, meaning not as resistant as a belt-motor but not as freely as a hub or a regular gear drive.

Battery

As mentioned, there is two battery variant both in 12s3p settings:

  • Samsung 50E in 15 AH setting (648wh) or
  • Samsung 40T in 14 AH setting (518wh)

Although Samsung 50E has a higher AH rating (5000mah vs 4000mah in 40T), Samsung 40T is actually considered a better cell as it has less voltage sag.

It means, with Samsung 40T, the board stays “stronger” when battery drains, meaning happier ride and it might still give you almost the same range as the theoretically bigger pack of Samsung 50E anyways!

PS: My review unit has Samsung 50E.

ESC

As mentioned, there are 2 version of ESC.

  • Range focus ESC
  • Power focus ESC

Both are LingYi ESC; the differences lies just within the settings.

PS: My review unit has the Range focus ESC.

Remotes

Standard LingYi ESC remote with telemetry, and the standard mislabelled reverse button.

The reverse button is speed mode, double tap power button to reverse.

The remote needs no further introduction. It’s comfortable in hand; it has good connectivity.

I just wish it look cooler.

Lights

Ecomobl ETs come with integrated lighting systems. You can turn it on or off by holding the reverse button for 3 second.

The lights are cool, and very very useful. They are the headlight, board lights and taillights.

The board lights are an LED stripes lining the enclosure, they are purple. I hate that colour, I wish it was white or yellow or red or anything not purple.

Ecomobl reps describe this color as electric blue and maybe it is in some situations but let’s face it; it’s purple.

The headlights are white and they are bright enough. Not as bright as the Shredlights or the Backfire Canon headlight but they are good enough.

The tail lights are slightly angled upward so it is visible to anyone behind you. They are red, of course.

All 3 light systems lit up every time you engage the brakes, much like how it is on a car, even if you didn’t switch them on. And as far as I know, there is no way to make them stay off.

Q1: Is the Ecomobl ET a capable mountain trail hiking board?

Yeap!

I rode the ET up a rough mountain trail through mud and sand, stones and cracks, and it can handle them, which is amazing!

This is the first time that I was able to ride on a path like this and it is really something else. Now I understand why mountain biking and mountain boarding are popular. And finally, it is a $1000 production board that can hang with the likes of the Trampa DIY build that’s at least 2 times the price!

The big wheels were able to handle all of the cracks I faced, and the 2000w planetary gear drive motor is strong enough to handle any incline as long as the wheels get traction. The aggressive drop on the decks serves as a step during sleep inclines or declines, and hence allows me to keep myself onboard both uphill and downhill.

The super-stiff deck does take some fun out of a street ride, but I think it is a logical choice for a board that is designed to go on a mountain trail. A flex deck would have bounced me off the board like a trampoline.

The 6” airless wheels are second best in cushioning the vibrations from rough terrain. Pneumatic wheels are, after all, the gold standard.

The airless 6” wheels nonetheless did a decent job and make stone and pebble roads at least tolerable. Plus, you don’t have to worry about puncturing them and ruining the rest of your trip, where you are forced to drag your board downhill as a punctured wheel means it impossible to make turns. Don’t ask me how I know…

Pneumatic wheels are comfortable, but also runs a risk of flat tire.

Q2: How smooth is the speed control?

Does the LingYi ESC do well in the Ecomobl ET? Throughout the years, and after … was it 7 iterations? … LingYi ESCs have become very close to Hobbywing ESCs when it comes to control smoothness. It is now at the point where they are difficult to differentiate from one another. The stereotype that LingYi ESCs are jerky and strong, while Hobbywing ESCs are smooth but weak, is no longer true.

However, I have to take that back when it comes to the Ecomobl ET. The control of the Ecomobl ET, with its LingYi ESC, is very stereotypical of that raw and punchy feeling, as compared to, for example, the Hobbywing ESC on the Wowgo AT 2 – or even those of the customized LingYi ESC on the Raldey MT-V3.

I am guessing that the powerful motor accentuates the jolt and makes the imperfections much more obvious. With that said, the control of the Ecomobl ET still fell within what I would consider as “Smooth enough that I can relax while riding it” – but perfectly smooth it is not. The Brakes are strong, however, and that I like.

Q3: Is the Ecomobl ET fun to ride?

Depends on your definition of fun, actually. If your idea of a good AT ride is a buttery smooth ride, with the smooth carving of double kingpin trucks, then Ecomobl ET is definitely not it. Your ideal board would be something like the Evolve or Wowgo AT 2.

If you want a board that seemingly has the power of a jeep, can handle terrain like a jeep, and will make loud mechanical sounds when it accelerates, the Ecomobl ET would be a great board for you.

Maneuverability is good, it turns easily and unlike Trampa Builds, making a U-turn on a double lane road is possible with the Ecomobl ET. Everything is great, provided you find the right tightness and configuration on the trucks and bushings. The trucks are very loose when they arrive, and if not tightened things could get sketchy when riding fast.

Now, let’s talk about the numbers.

Top Speed

First, let’s talk about the top speed, others have told me that hitting the marketed top speed of 35mph or 56kmh is possible, but 33mph (53kmh) is a more reasonable expectation. I did not try the top speed as I kinda value my life… but I can say that the board felt it had a lot more to give when I hit 25mph (40kmh), even when there were only 2 bars of battery left; and with the trucks tightened it felt very stable at that speed.

Range

I hit 17miles (28km) and still had 1.5 bars of battery left, so I have no doubt it can hit the 20miles(32km), the lower end of the marketed range.

Again, my battery is a Samsung 50E pack and theoretically, the newer Samsung 40T pack would have less voltage sag and allow the board to retain a stronger torque even when the battery is low, and maybe even better longevity. This is not to say that I’m not satisfied with the Samsung 50E packs though, they work fine for me.

Verdict: Is Ecomobl ET good?

So, the verdict. Why do I like a $1200 board that’s not perfectly smooth in control, that’s not buttery smooth in carving, that has no flex in it, and has a motor that screams like a rusted motorcycle?

It is because no matter the faults, at the end of the day, it is one of the few boards on the market, that can be abused to climb a muddy mountain trail. The high I got from doing that is really something else.

Plus, even when riding on road, not needing to worry about road condition, puddles, belt-maintenance and about keeping the lights charged are just wonderful for a lazy person like me.

So yes, I think a lot of people would be really happy with the Ecomobl ET.

Check out the Ecomobl ET product page by clicking here.

If you are interested in buying an Ecomobl, be sure to use code: “Electric Skateboard HQ 5％OFF” during checkout.
It will help you get a pretty significant monetary discount and helps us out too. On top of that, you’ll be tagged as an Electric Skateboard HQ customer and probably be treated better. Cheers!

Posted on by Paxson Lim

Wowgo AT2 Review – One more shot, did it count?

Introductions

Designing a new product can be scary. After all, you can never know if something new might turn out to be a dud. But I guess we all know the proven formula to make a great electric skateboard:

  1. 7-inch pneumatic wheels with the ability to swap to street setup +
  2. Dual Belt drive +
  3. Double drop deck +
  4. Double Kingpin Trucks

Give the board a pack of 10s4p batteries and throw in some hexagon-grip-tape design and you’ve got yourself a very, very effective formula. The same formula that Evolve has been cooking for almost a decade now.

Evolve GTR Carbon

It wasn’t until 2019 that we start seeing brands copy this formula. Personally, I’m surprised it took these companies so long, but there are only a few notable attempts: Backfire Ranger X1 and now X2 did it with hub motors; Ownboard Bamboo AT made an attempt that we like, and then there was the first Wowgo AT.

Wowgo AT 2 Review

We never reviewed the Wowgo AT and we know we don’t need to, because right from the get-go everyone who took a glimpse of that board knows it’s troubled. To say the least, it had a very problematic rear truck that made it a poor ride.

Long story short, they tried again with Version Two and made lots of changes this time. Now let’s run through the specs of Wowgo AT 2 real quick.

  • Size: 38-inch long board
  • Top Speed: 25mph/40km
  • Range: 22miles/35km
  • Battery Pack: 504Wh 10s4p Sanyo battery
  • Weight: 30lbs/13.5kg
  • Features: 
    • Flexy deck made out of fiberglass, bamboo, and maple wood.
    • Double kingpin trucks.
    • Dual 6368 1500W motors.
    • Hobbywing ESC with smart turn on.
    • Two wheel-configurations are available:
      • 175mm pneumatic wheels or
      • 120mm cloud wheels.
  • Price: 1099.99 USD

Unboxing

Wowgo AT 2 gave me a few of small but nice surprises.

During the unboxing, I was surprised that they included a wheel pump in the box, a funny nice gesture. A bigger surprise came when I found out that it has the smart turn-on feature previously never seen outside of Exway.

I’m also mildly impressed that Wowgo had stepped up on the polish of the board, again. From the hexagon absorptive grip-tape, they use to the overall feel and look of the enclosure, couldn’t find any blemishes. All Chinese brands had been upping the ante in the product polish, but for the past 1 year, Wowgo seems to go slightly further in this aspect than the rest (especially since Wowgo 3).

Let’s put it this way, everything about Wowgo AT 2 felt really premium, and the only thing that doesn’t feel premium about it … is unfortunately the quirky brand name.

Of course, good specs and polished finish are just the qualifiers when a board costs as much as $1099.99 especially when the consistency and ease of access to aftersales service can and is a valid concern, an issue that’s unfortunately plaguing most if not all of the Chinese brands.

In short, besides looking pretty, the riding experience has to be really good too!

Riding Experience

i. Acceleration & Breaking

Unsurprising, but equally worth mentioning, is the control. Wowgo uses a customized Hobbywing ESC where we expected smooth acceleration and smooth braking, and that’s exactly what we got.

Customized Hobbywing has a tendency to have weak brakes, but for the Wowgo AT 2, the brake is actually pretty strong. No complaints here.

ii. Vibration

Duh.

You obviously couldn’t find a much better board to combat road vibration than a board with pneumatic wheels, is belt-driven and has flex in the deck.

iii. Top Speed

The marketed top speed is 25mph (40km). We manage to hit that.

That’s not impressive. What’s impressive is that for a board that uses dual kingpin trucks, Wowgo AT 2 felt really stable cruising near top speed, in AT configuration.

This is not how I felt riding on other DKP trucks, like the similarly built and priced Ownboard Bamboo AT, for example, that board doesn’t felt stable in AT wheels despite having more aggressive drop deck and lower ride height.

Stability concern is such a none issue that switching to the 120mm Cloudwheels seems unnecessary. You get more safety with the AT wheels anyways.

iv. Range

And the marketed range is 22miles (35km).

We were able to hit that number. It’s a big pack of Sanyo GA 18500, 504Wh, in 10s4p configuration after-all.

On a side note: Evolve Bamboo GTR also uses a 504wh pack, 10s4p configuration, Samsung 35E cells. It’s marketed range is 19miles (30km) and we hit around 20-21miles on it too.

A closer look at the parts

i. Deck

Wowgo AT2 has a less aggressive drop-deck and hence a higher ride height, so it should, in theory, be even more twitchy. But that wasn’t the case; the truck is configured so well right out of the box, and thanks to the harder bushing it is actually the most stable dual kingpin we’ve ever tried.

The slightly concave double drop down deck is really comfortable to stand on, and road vibration is never better countered than with pneumatic wheels, flex deck, and absorptive grip tape.

iii. Trucks

As mentioned, the dual kingpin truck is very well configured, probably partly thanks to the harder bushing it is using? One of the most stable dual kingpin we’ve ever tried.

iii. Electronic components

The brain of the board is the Hobbywing ESC with a smart turn on. Meaning, the board turns on just by turning on the remote. This is a big deal.

I feel like a nerd for saying this but I love the components case. It’s plastic but it’s pretty and elegant looking. No more off the shelf parts this time.

iv. Remote

Single-button remote with telemetry reading. Comfortable on hand.
The connectivity range seems to be shorter on this one than other remote, bring it a few feet away from the board and it will vibrate and disconnect.

iv. Wheel

Two wheel-configurations are available – 175mm pneumatic wheels or 120mm cloud wheels.

By the way, this thing weighs in at almost 30lbs (13.5kg), in AT set-up, and switching to cloud wheels is just gonna slice a pound or two off it. In short, it’s heavy.

Let me repeat myself here, if you are picking between Cloudwheels set-up or pneumatic AT set-up, go pneumatic.

Verdict

The Wowgo team deserves a pat on their back for the AT2; it has respectable specs and it has a top-notch feel to back it up. For those who have strong feelings against Evolve, this is the board to get. For those who don’t have strong feelings against Evolve, this might still be a better choice after considering Hobbywing ESC gives you better overall control and smoothness, and the smart-turn-on feature is huge.

If you’re willing to put up with average after-sale service and the woefully unpredictable shipping time during this pandemic, you certainly won’t be disappointed by this one.

If you are interested in buying a Wowgo, be sure to check out our affiliate discount link here during check out.
It will help you get a small monetary discount and helps us out too. On top of that, you’ll be tagged as an Electric Skateboard HQ customer and probably be treated better. Cheers!

Posted on by Sophia Tung

JayKay E-trucks Review – Tantalizing Future

Oh man… where do I begin with the JayKay e-trucks?

I guess the best place to start would be to explain what they are. The JayKay e-truck is a reverse kingpin longboard truck that has a bunch of electronics stuffed inside the baseplate and hanger. The truck links with a ring shaped remote with a thumbwheel and tiny display from which you can control acceleration and braking easily. JayKay sells these trucks in 2wd and 4wd options, though they recommend the 4wd option.

What this means is you can turn any deck into an electric skateboard with absolutely zero (0) modification. This, in turn, means total freedom of choice and ride. I love it. This is totally the fut– well let me back up to the beginning.

lol jk

I remember where I was when I first heard about JayKay. The year was 2017, the month was March, and I was sitting at home, reading a curious thread on the electric-skateboard.builders forum about an eskate Kickstarter from a company based out of Germany, JayKay Sports. The thread was mean. The people in it were tearing the Kickstarter apart and claiming that the trucks were “Grade A+ bull shit”.

I’ll admit, I was highly skeptical as well. Everything inside a truck? 7 mile range? Super tiny remote? Charging via USB-C? Zero-resistance hub motor with zero cogging? Sounds like somebody just took all the pipe dreams of an eskater and chucked them in one place! So I closed out of the thread and forgot all about it.

Until 2020.

I was vacationing in Taipei, Taiwan with my boyfriend and linked up with the Taiwan eskate group, Esk8 4Ever. It’s always fun to find like minded people when you travel, and the Esk8 4Ever peeps were definitely fun. At some point during our visit, we met up at a board shop (one of the best ever, possibly in the world, I might add. Amgreat Integration. Definitely visit.) and one of the chaps, Cheng Li-Wei, asked if we wanted to see something very curious that he’d just received from Germany. Of course we were interested, and thus was my first time seeing the JayKay e-trucks in person.

“Wow. It’s really real. It’s not vaporware,” I remember thinking. The next thing that blew me away was the remote. So small and unassuming! How the heck did they manage to fit a display and Type C charging onto a ring that small? Then I rode the thing. What the heck there’s actually a decent amount of torque? What the heck zero resistance in the motors? What the heck zero cogging? What the heck’s going on?

I think it’s safe to say I was immediately and totally infatuated. Flexible enough to mount anywhere? Unobtrusive enough to be virtually unnoticeable? It’s like a cruiser’s wet dream! I immediately hit up my editor Paxson to see if he could get us a review unit to put through the test.

This is where a damper gets put on my hopes and dreams. It turns out that JayKay was generally unwilling to send out review units even though we only wanted to borrow them. We had to buy our own unit. Ok sure, no problem, we’re willing to buy review units in the name of the truth. So we bought a 4wd kit.

But then the wait began. What made the wait worse was that JayKay was not super communicative. Nevertheless, we persevered, and four months (almost to the day) later, an unassuming box arrived in my mailroom.

All it had on the outside was a shipping label, but that was enough. I read the return address. “JayKay”. Suddenly I was a kid again.

A Masterclass In Miniaturization

I was unreasonably excited opening the box. I had absolutely no idea what all would come in the box, but I wasn’t disappointed. The JayKay 4wd kit contains two trucks, one remote, a three port (2 x Type C PD, 1 x Type C QC3) charger, two magnetic Type C cables, one regular Type C cable (all of them braided), and a cool skate tool.

I think the most striking thing about the e-trucks is just how unassuming everything is. There’s no fancy design at all. The wheels it ships with are plain white. 90mm, with just the tiniest amount of sans serif text on the side. The hangers themselves are completely matte smooth with “JayKay” embossed on the front. The baseplate barely hints at the USB Type C PD charging port and LED headlight it contains. You’d be forgiven if you just wrote it off as a regular truck.

But what you don’t see is the masterclass in component miniaturization that is taking place inside each truck. A dual motor speed controller, encased in its own faraday cage, runs along the length of the truck, which also doubles as its heatsink. Four Samsung 40T 21700 cells take up most of the space inside, directly wired into the four layer pcb of the speed controller for minimal power losses due to resistance in longer wires. The motor controller actively switches between drawing in 4S1P or 2S2P configuration from the battery in order to optimize reduction of internal losses.

All this tech in the truck then communicates via powerline using a system of pogo pins in the pivot cup to the components in the baseplate that handles wireless connection, lights, charging, etc. It honestly confounds me how much tech and new ideas they’ve managed to pack in there.

Drivetrain Madness

The motors themselves are no joke either. A totally new design that JayKay’s motor engineer spent five years researching and developing for his PhD, it’s a total outlier in the current-day motor game.

The first thing you’ll notice is that these hubs have almost no rolling resistance and no cogging. It’s exactly as if you’re riding a regular skate wheel. This is due to the ironless stator and air-gapped windings JayKay has developed versus the typical iron-filled, slotted stators used nowadays with most common outrunner motors.

I will say, at 160kv and 90mOhm winding resistance, this isn’t the most efficient motor out there, but I think the real world results speak for themselves for JayKay better than the pure numbers.

Because of this novel motor design, there are no motor factories that can make this type of motor. So JayKay has to build each motor in-house, with tooling that they also built in-house, essentially hand winding each motor. It’s not exactly a fast process, and it shows in their delivery rate. Having heard Li-Wei’s story and having experienced quite a long wait time myself despite JayKay knowing I was a reviewer, I can confirm that you won’t exactly get your trucks fast, though they eventually did deliver.

UX Curiosity

I think it’s worth talking in depth about JayKay’s UX with their e-trucks as it’s certainly one of the more… unique things about the whole experience.

JayKay has opted to go all in on energy saving. They have to. Cause in comparison to basically anything else, the battery packs in these trucks are absolutely tiny. So in order to make the batteries last as long as possible on a charge, JayKay has implemented a bunch of energy saving quirks into their software.

For example, you must push off every time after you stop to turn the trucks on. This means no standing takeoffs on any sort of incline or flat ground. And if you let the remote sit without throttling for more than 2 minutes, you must click the thumbwheel to turn it on again. Also, there’s no “forward” direction. Whichever way you push off will become forwards. All this becomes second nature when you get used to it of course, but for the first while of usage, I kept on forgetting that I had to click and push after stopping at every stoplight.

JayKay has also opted to include other interesting features as well. For example, there’s an LED headlight and taillight integrated into each baseplate. It’s not really very bright so I feel like it’s a bit of a battery waster (I keep them turned off) but they’re there nevertheless.

Another interesting “feature” is that the battery is user swappable by just popping off a motor. I think this is more of a you can do it feature vs a definitely intended feature, but it’s there. I haven’t tried it. Yet another interesting feature is a wireless charging coil in the baseplate that can also do reverse wireless charging for devices, though JayKay tells me this will be for V2 and is not currently present in V1. It’s worth noting the instruction manual also mentions an app but JayKay tells me it’s also not out yet.

The One Ring

Of course, having only mentioned it only briefly so far, I must talk about the remote.

JayKay’s ring remote is a huge departure from the norm, and honestly I’m a fan.

It’s super small and wraps around your finger, just like a ring. There’s a spring-loaded section that grips your finger lightly so it doesn’t slip around too much and can adjust to various finger thicknesses. A bright, OLED display shows information like speed, battery level, power mode, and current charge, though I think it doesn’t update at a very high frequency because the speed indicator doesn’t change very fast.

I haven’t had any cutouts or disconnects on this remote, and I live in a fairly wirelessly dense area. That’s encouraging to me. The remote also has a signal strength indicator, though I don’t know if it takes into account interference. I haven’t been able to take it to any of the places where I can regularly get less capable remotes to cut out (mostly due to range) but so far my tests have shown that it’s doing fairly OK.

I suppose the most important thing that I must mention about this remote is the general user experience. In an effort to save power consumption, JayKay is very aggressive with its standby timer. This means that the remote and board goes into standby fairly often as the standby timer on the board is somewhere around half a minute and two minutes with the remote.

I’m not gonna lie, the standby timers catch me unawares quite a lot. A general flow of my interactions is as follows:

  1. Reach a stop at a stoplight.
  2. Stand for a couple minutes.
  3. The board goes into standby.
  4. The remote goes into standby soon after.
  5. I push off when the light turns green… but forget to click the remote so there’s no immediate power.

I don’t think this is really a usability issue, just a gotta-adjust issue. I understand where they’re coming from with the very eager auto-standby’s, I just have to get used to clicking the remote when I take off is all.

It’s worth mentioning that clicking the wheel while the remote is on doesn’t do anything. All menu actions are hidden behind a long click, so rest assured you won’t accidentally change anything if you click while the remote is not on standby mode.

Powerrrrrr…?

Now we must talk about power.

I would say that there is… enough? Look, you’re not getting this thing to go 30mph and rocket up hills. I think you should think of this more like an assist rather than a full eskate, as that’s clearly the direction they’ve gone in here. The whole point is to cruise, maybe kick a bit, and cruise some more. If you wanna have just a tiny bit more fun, you can certainly turn up the power mode to “huge muscle” and go full throttle, but I don’t think it’s very different from “big muscle” or even “small muscle” mode during regular riding. It only matters for hills and stuff.

During range tests, I was able to squeeze more than expected range out of them. I tend to average around 5 miles or so at a cruising speed, which is honestly more than I expected. This includes going up and down higher grade hills and starting/stopping, which tends to kill batteries faster. For reference, I’m around 130-135lb.

One of the longer range tests I did. We stopped for clam chowder!

Which brings me to torque. It certainly has it (I tested the 4wd kit) and I can go up hills just fine (though not fast), but I encountered some interesting behavior.

The JayKays are set up so that if you step off while the board is rolling, the board will brake. It’s a great idea, but in some instances, I’ve had that feature slightly backfire on me. When going uphill and going over an extreme pothole, the truck going over the pothole will slightly brake then resume powering. It’s a bit jarring as it feels like a momentary loss in power, and makes me wish there was a way to turn off the auto braking. Regularly though, it doesn’t happen when just cruising, and I think the extremely pot-holey hills I’ve got here are the exception, not the norm.

Also sometimes, if I take off hard from almost a dead stop, I can feel the trucks start powering slightly out of sync at first. Not always, but sometimes. What usually happens in these instances is one of them will start powering, then a fraction of a second later, the other one will kick in. It’s not really a big deal, just a quirk that I’ve found, but certainly something to keep in mind when bracing for harder takeoffs.

There’s also the issue of overheating. A couple times going up steep, extended stretches of hills, the remote starts warning me that the trucks were overheating. This isn’t something completely unexpected as most times when I’ve felt the trucks after riding they were almost always hot, but just another limitation to consider before purchasing. I can just about manage in San Francisco and there really aren’t a whole lot of places hillier than it is here, but if you’re in one of those places, I’d recommend you think hard about what you’re looking for in these trucks.

Konnichiwa Wildhearts

Honestly, it’s so refreshing to take a break from reviewing “yet another” eskate. The JayKay e-trucks may not go very far or very fast, but they’re something special. Cutting edge yet distinctly old school feeling at the same time. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything like it.

I don’t wanna be in love with the future, yet I am. And I love it.

A Note From Paxson (The Editor):
If you liked this review and are interested in buying the JayKay e-trucks yourselves, please support us by using our affiliated link here.

Posted on by Aiman Abd Rahman

Enskate R3 Mini Review – Wrong number but nice to meet you.

Introduction

Do you know what people say about Enskate? They don’t. Enskate is not a brand that usually comes to mind when it comes to Eskate companies. We know they are a good sport though, even after we made fun of their Enskate Woboard S in our previous review, they still came back for more and we respect that. They also addressed some of the complaints that we had with the Woboard S, by upgrading its ESC to a standard Hobbywing, and using a better, non-sex-toy-looking, standard Bobbywing remote.

This time, they want us to test out the Enskate R3 Mini, a practical portable, well-polished shortboard that’s intended for sidewalk commute. And here we are, trying to answer 2 questions with this review:

  1. Is R3 Mini amongst the top choices for sidewalk commute and
  2. is it time for everyone to start paying attention to Enskate?

Enskate R3 Mini Review

As usual, lets run through the specs real quick.

  • Top Speed: 20mph/35kmh ( Our test: 23mph/38kmh )
  • Range: 12.5miles/20km ( Our test: 6miles/9.5km)
  • Battery Pack: 2.5AH pack from Samsung in 10s1p configuration
  • Weight: 13lbs/6.0kg
  • Features: 450w dual hub motors, Hobbywing ESC remote controller,wide concaved deck, big and functional kick tail
  • Price: 399 USD

Riding Experience

i. Acceleration & Breaking

The board has pretty smooth acceleration and braking as expected from hobbywing ESC. Acceleration felt quite powerful and strong. This came as a small surprise as this, after all, is a 10s1p board, performance is not supposed to be its strong suit. Enskate did put a stronger than average 450W hubs on it, so I guess that explains why.

ii. Stability and Maneuverability

R3 Mini has a kicktail that’s useful for sharp turns in tight space and dodging pedestrians, however beginners should pay extra attention when accelerating as it might resulted in an accidental manual and fall on their back. Honestly, same can be said about most shortboard with kicktails, always gotta be careful about them if you are not use to it.

iii. Vibration

The R3 Mini performs great on smooth roads. It has wide concaved deck that makes riding felt stable. It is very nimble and responsive as well. Carving with it is very enjoyable and fun.

But as always for a mini board, when it come to rough roads, the board will suffer. The combination of stiff and short deck make the road vibration felt intense.

iv. Range & Top Speed

I bet you notice something doesn’t add up here. Unless Enskate has it’s battery magic imbued, there is no way that a 10s1p 90wh get us to 12.5 miles or 20km in range.

Our range test gave us 6miles (9.5km) Riding fast on mode 2 and 3 which is expected from a small battery. On the 5.5miles (9km) mark, the voltage sag is noticeable as it starts to slow down significantly.

In other words, Enskate didn’t break the law of physics, but it might’ve broken the heart of some buyers who actually believes 12.5 miles (20km) is possible. Unless, you weigh 88lbs (40kg) and you ride conservatively, there is no way you will get 12.5 miles (20km) with it.

Our tested top speed however is slightly higher than the marketed top speed. During our test, we get 23mph (38kmh). The R3 Mini is pretty stable at high speed but still for a mini-board, 23mph (38kmh) felt faster than usual.

A closer look at the parts

i. Deck

The deck is 8 layers maple with close to zero flex. It has a very wide concave which makes riding feels very comfortable. It has a functional kicktail that is wide making it easy to kick turn.

ii. Components

The board uses a standard 90mm 78A wheels.

There is not much to say about the 90mm 78A wheels that Enskate uses other than there isn’t much to say about them.

Let’s just say, they are good wheels but they aren’t Orangatangs.

iii. Truck

Generic trucks that are nimble and responsive enough

iv. Remote

The R3 Mini uses generic Hobbywing and it came with the first-gen Hobbywing remote that has no telemetry screen.

For two of you who are not familiar with Hobbywing remote, this remote is comfortable in hand, it has no drop connection, and it fits pretty comfortably in the pockets.

Verdict

So, what is our final verdict on the Enskate R3 Mini?

I hope that by this point it’s plenty obvious that the R3 Mini isn’t made for punishing terrain or group rides. It’s made for a very specific purpose, last mile commutes on a sidewalk. So, is it good for that? Yes. It’s a polished short board that rides comfortably and isn’t a chore to lug around.

Is it the best campus board for $399? It really depends on your situation, other budget shortboards like the Meepo Mini 2 are every bit as good and have 2 times the battery size, but like Uncle Ben says, with great power comes… greater weight. There is a reason we DIY-ed a 10s1p crappy shortboard after all.

If you are interested in buying an Enskate, be sure to check out our affiliate discount link here and uses code: “ESKATEHQ” during check out.
It will help you get a small monetary discount and helps us out too. On top of that, you’ll be tagged as an Electric Skateboard HQ customer and probably be treated better. Cheers!