A year or two ago, the western budget electric skateboarding market was a burgeoning place with Chinese brands like Meepo and Ownboard dominating. These boards usually featured lackluster performance, mediocre to bad hardware, and virtually no customer support. There was really not too much other choice unfortunately. Over the past years, we’ve seen the industry grow and transform. Budget boards are no longer something you have to put up with. Instead, they’re now a really valid option, and sometimes maybe even a preferred option. As a result of the budget board boom, there are now many manufacturers trying to stake out their claim to the space. And so, here we have Ride1UP, an e-bike company just starting their own electric skateboard line. So how good is their first effort? Let’s find out!
Digging in…
The first thing you see when you get the board in the mail is the box. It’s your typical solid electric skateboard box. However, it’s the inscription on it that caught my eye.
“We sacrifice nothing.” “Bring on the competition!” Man those are some strong words. Fightin’ words. But you know what? I agree with that message. I would love to see more high performance, low price boards. After all, Exway can’t remain the king forever right? Well let’s bang on and see what this board is made of.
The Slopestyle comes with a bevy of accessories: a hex tool, a skate tool, a hub motor sleeve removable tool, cables, a charger… I think that’s it right? Of course, there’s the remote and board itself.
So let’s talk about the board.
In terms of skate hardware setup, it’s actually pretty good.
38″ Canadian maple rocker dropthru deck with a slight concave
Clone Paris v2 trucks
Pretty good 90mm wheels (time will tell if they hold up on rough streets)
Double barrel bushings setup, not something you see very often on these kinds of boards but ok
Pretty good for a budget eskate to be honest. You can tell they put thought into it and didn’t just find whatever from the grab bin.
So the hardware is good. But what about electronics?
And here’s where it sort of falls apart…
While hardware makes or breaks a traditional longboard, the electronics make or break the electronic skateboard. Quite unfortunately, the electronics break the Slopestyle. Let me explain.
There are two main ESCs (electronic speed controller) that are typically used in budget boards: The Hobbywing ESC and the LiYing ESC. Fellow ESHQ writer Paxson did a comparison in this article a while back. While they’re both budget ESCs, the performance of the two are extremely different. the Hobbywing ESC features FOC (field oriented control) of the motors for extremely smooth takeoff, acceleration, and braking performance, while the LiYing ESC uses square wave control algorithms to control the motors. At first blush, simply by reading specs, you’d assume the LiYing ESC was superior because it can apply more torque immediately and control switching is also immediate. However, in eskate, what you really want is a ramp up in torque and switching, otherwise you’re likely to have the board jerked out from under you. In this, the Hobbywing ESC excels.
I should also mention that while the ESC has torque, it’s not so good at braking. I live on a mild incline, around 5%. I had to fully footbrake down this incline to the bottom and all the subsequent hills I went down in San Francisco as full brakes did almost nothing to slow me down. Granted, this maybe good knowing the behavior of this ESC and it may be good for riding on flat ground, but it’s definitely not good for a hilly place like San Francisco.
I’ve recorded a video of braking behavior. You can see at full brake on HI+ speed mode I can still move the board quite easily. The brakes can also lock in place, but only if you hit slow enough erpm on the board, which requires footbraking. They also sort of “vibrate” when locked…
As far as the remote goes, the LiYing ESC has seen many remote shells that house more or less the same internals. Recently, the LiYing remotes have been upgraded with telemetry. I first experienced a LiYing remote with telemetry on the Teamgee H6 which I wrote a review of here. I didn’t like it then, and don’t like it now. While it’s been made better with a casing almost identical to the Hobbywing remotes, the ride mode differentiation is still “let’s add more deadzone and simply slow down the ramp-up time for the slow modes and keep everything else the same”, which is not really how these modes should be programmed. All this really does is make the board unpredictable for fine grain control.
You can see a video I recorded of this behavior below as well. The inconsistent throttle and bad ramp-up is very apparent.
Well, I’ve said all I really want to say about that. For the sake of the review, let’s move onto the rest of the board’s electronics.
Honestly, the rest is pretty good
Look, it’s not all bad for the electronics. The rest of the electronics hardware is very good. Samsung 25R cells in a 10s3p configuration housed by an unassuming front enclosure. A similarly unassuming enclosure in the back houses the ESC. While the 25R has higher discharge (20A cont.) compared to the 30Q, it has lower capacity by 500mAh. This may make the 25R seem like a worse choice, but it’s a pretty significant price difference of a dollar so I can understand it. However, this means the range takes a bit of a hit vs a comparable 30Q pack. In San Francisco, I got around 11 miles on average.
A sample route I took to achieve the range
The hub motors used here are also not too shabby. They feature replaceable sleeves, and Ride1UP includes all the tools you need to change them out, a really nice touch. The urethane used on the hubs are also not half bad. They feel good, but the durability is yet to be seen.
In terms of power cycle, I had no issues cycling through hard acceleration and braking tests (besides control as mentioned above), and the hub motors didn’t heat up too much after periods of riding.
Unfortunate conclusions
However, what it really boils down to is this:
The impact of the ESC, its configuration, and its remote is fundamental to how an eskate feels and behaves. If an eskate has jerky torque application and mode switching with large deadzones and unpredictable control in the remote, it should not be recommended. I’m happy to revisit my assessment if Ride1UP changes the ESC they use. It should be more or less plug and play to be honest. But until they change it, I can’t really recommend the board. “We sacrifice nothing?” Unfortunately Ride1UP has sacrificed the most important thing of all.
Every day, my daily commute involves one of two vehicles: the original Exway X1 or the Speedway V. If it’s raining or if I’m otherwise unable to skate, I take the Speedway. However, if it is at all possible, I take the Exway.
I really like the board. It’s my de-facto commuter vehicle. Many an errand has been run on it, and it’s even survived being run over by a car. The only real issue I take with it is the fact that in a city like San Francisco with hills all over the place, the X1’s range can become a bit short depending on where you’re going, something like 4-5 miles of hard riding. Pair this with the 85mm wheel upgrade, a necessary upgrade to make roads as bad as these bearable, and you will start wishing for a bigger battery.
So What Did Exway Do About It?
A while back, a certain person from Exway China came to visit Exway USA here in San Francisco. I talked with this person at length, and learned two things. The first was a fast charger that would charge the X1 in just under half an hour flat. The second was a long range version of the X1 called the X1 Pro. Of course, I was excited about the fast charger and picked one up as soon as I could, but I was really excited about the X1 Pro. I mean, fast charging is great, but it would be even greater if you had to do less of it.
Around half a year later, here we are. The X1 Pro is now shipping, and boy have things changed.
So What’s Changed?
The original Exway, which I reviewed here, was a light platform with excellent handling at speed. The usage of Seismic skate hardware made for a stellar ride and the durable construction easily withstood abuse. Precise control was achieved through the pairing of a well designed remote and a reliable FOC based ESC, and I’m happy to say that the remote hasn’t failed or cut out on me once.
With the X1 Pro, I’m glad to report that none of that has changed. The hardware remains just as good as before. However, that’s not to say that Exway hasn’t included a few significant improvements to makes the X1 Pro a worthy big brother to the X1. Right out of the box, the board simply feels more solid. The standard 85mm wheels are the perfect size for balancing agility with ride comfort, and with Turbo mode on, maxing out top speed felt fun.
Perhaps the biggest change though, is the extended range. I no longer have to start each ride by planning how I needed to get where I needed to go, I can now simply just go and not really have to worry about range, since I regularly get around 9 miles give or take a mile. It’s very freeing. I do still carry the fast charger with me sometimes when I know I’m going to be out for a while, but I no longer stress if I forget it.
OK, But There’s Gotta Be Tradeoffs Right?
Of course. You don’t just get extended range and increased power without sacrifice. The sacrifice in this case, however, comes in the form of a slightly heavier and thicker board. When I read about the changes, I didn’t think it would be dramatic. And to be honest, I still don’t. You definitely will notice it if you’re coming from an X1 though.
So Has Performance Really Increased Like They Said?
Yes. With the X1 Pro, we see improvements in range, torque, and top speed. With increased torque, I’m climbing hills that I was previously not able to climb at all. Range almost doubled judging by my range tests, which is good news! The most impressive though, I think, is how they managed to eke out an even higher top speed. I’ve hit 30MPH and beyond on the X1 Pro drag racing the industry standard Boosted Board. More on this later.
…So What About Riot?
Ah, Riot. When I first heard this codeword, I was just as curious as most people. I thought, when I first heard it in context, that it would be a light system or something. Now I’m not not a fan of lights on a board, but I’m no longer easily impressed on that front as there are many good options out there now.
However, when I heard that it was actually a whole hot-swappable drivetrain module, and that it was a belt drive, I immediately became excited. Thus far, I haven’t seen any mid-range belt driven boards anywhere close to the X1’s level of polish. If Exway pulls this off, they will have an even more appealing product on their hands.
“Well why would you want a belt driven board Sof?” you may ask. Let me explain.
The main appeals of belt driven boards are twofold: torque and full urethane drive wheels. Gearing ratios mean you have control over geared speed and torque. This means you can climb steeper hills, take off the line harder, and hit higher top speeds faster. Fully urethane drive wheels mean you will have a way more comfortable ride since you’ve got more urethane between you and the road. The downside of course means that now there are belts that may wear out or snap, but those events do not occur often with correctly set up belt systems.
But anyways, without further delay, let me present you an exclusive preview of Riot, the X1 Pro’s hot-swappable, belt-drive module.
First, let’s get some specs out of the way.
Dual 5255 motors with 4235 stators (for reference 5065 motors have 4035 stators)
200KV winding
1:2.57 gear ratio
255-5m-10 belts
5.2nm^2 of torque
Rear mountable for better pothole and curb clearance
Impressive stuff on such a diminutive form factor. What does it look like then?
Really nice stuff.
So does it perform?
Hell yes it does.
The best way to understand it would be to take a look at the drag race video I put together below with my friend Neil. We tried to even the variables as much as possible, which is why I’m wearing a weighted backpack and Neil is wearing nothing. Neil is around 160LB and I was around 150LB with the backpack. Racing against the Boosted Dual+ and the Stealth, the X1 Pro just fucks off.
Well that’s pretty impressive. I’m convinced. Where do I get Riot?
It’ll be available as an add-on to the X1 Pro April 2019.
So you recommend the X1 Pro?
Yes. The X1 Pro is a board designed with intention and attention to detail. It is the ideal board for an urban commuter who wants to also have fun all the time. If you are that person, the X1 Pro should be at the top of your prospective purchases list.
Meepo. Wowgo. Ownboard. Teamgee. There are countless “brands” that are putting out boards that sell at cheap prices but have off the shelf components. These boards flood the low end market, resulting in very similar products, the only differentiating factor at times being the form factor. In this review, we’re taking a look at one such product, the EFlow Electric Cruiser X2.
Due to the nature of these types of boards, I’m going to write this review somewhat differently than my previous ones. I’m going to use a bullet point format as an experiment. Sections will consist of Features, Test Results, Pros, Cons, and Closing Thoughts. I will also do a mini teardown so y’all curious peekers can see what goes into these types of boards.
He pose
Features
Dual hub motors
17mph advertised top speed
3 ride modes
Standard “Boosted style” Hobbywing remote
Tiny form factor
25% incline
IP65 liquid and dust rersistance
10.8lb weight
Distinctive look and feel
Plastic deck construction with integrated enclosure
10S1P Samsung INR18650-25R battery pack
Test Results
Extremely tiny platform suitable for low speed, low traffic density, low range transportation
Hobbywing remote paired with FOC based ESC makes for inoffensive board control
Eked out 3.5 miles of real world riding on top speed mode on hilly terrain
Truck and wheel hardware is just “fine”, stock bushings were atrocious
Dual hub motors do not provide much torque, not unexpected on a 1P battery setup. Steepest I was able to take it up was around 20% or so.
Teardown
On the test bench
11 screws hold the electronics cover closed
Some important bits labeled. Potted electronics… dangit
We can see it’s a 10S1P pack, but besides the cells being made by Samsung, we don’t really know anything else. Let’s find out!
Huge BMS for a 10S1P running the entire length of the pack
Cutting through the fishpaper reveals that they’re 25R cells, a relatively low discharge model for low power draw electronics and possibly quite a big of sag…
Pros
Extreme small size makes it easy to carry anywhere and unobtrusive to store
Built in rails under the deck contribute to ease of carry
Relatively quick charge time on a 2A charger due to smaller battery pack
Rock solid remote and control scheme due to Hobbywing ESC and remote
Inoffensive all-in-one package makes for a great errand board or campus cruiser
Kicktail is effective for what it is
Cons
Lack of top end, torque, and platform area means it’s annoying to ride across more varied terrain
Silver paint job on the plastic deck is very easy to scratch off, looks and feels cheap up close
Every time I use the kicktail I get scared I’m going to snap it off. Seems to be more for aesthetic than actual use
Closing Thoughts
Honestly, most everything about this board is just “fine”
If you know what you’re getting into in terms of range and use case, you will enjoy it
Note: The version of the Mellow Drive I reviewed was from before their switch to paid software unlocks. I will not be covering that in this review.
The Mellow Drive. The swappable, flexible drive kit that started everything. Originally conceived as a Kickstarter project and funded on June 11th, 2015, it’s famous for enabling the dream of turning any board electric. The dream was within reach!
The hardware engineering on the Mellow Drive is flawless. Heavy, durable construction can be consistently used to describe every facet of the physical product. It’s impressive, really, how nice the drive unit itself feels in the hand. It’s so hefty and solid in fact that I would say you can knock somebody out with it.
The battery packs are well engineered as well. 7S2P and each with its own BMS, they’re water resistant up to IP65. I was given two batteries to test, and had no difficulty carrying one in a small backpack to swap out on rides. At under 99Wh, they fall below most airlines’ safety regulations and so can be carried onto planes to double as a battery pack to charge your stuff (USB port is included on each pack).
The Mellow app provides a really nice interface for looking at vital information on the fly. Setup is easy. All you have to do is connect the app to the Drive. Software updates are also provided this way, and are pretty easy to apply. During troubleshooting sessions with Mellow, the level of access they were able to obtain through the app was astounding. It’s really all a very, very nice setup.
The Rundown: Unlimited Eon R Kit
If the Mellow Drive is the ruling big brother from Germany, the Unlimited Eon is the underdog younger brother from Spain.
Where Mellow went for the one piece design, Unlimited went for the fully modular approach. The entire drive system is meant to fit on almost any setup you can think of. The hubs are designed to be installable on almost any truck, and the battery and ESC setup under almost any deck. The only limitations are drop decks and trucks with non-standard axles, such as the 10mm on Surf-Rodz.
Speaking of the battery and ESC setup, I’m quite impressed with their forward thinking approach. Each ESC runs FOC and comes in a pigtailed module that connects to each other via an external CANbus module. That same middleman module also allows the ESCs to connect to the battery modules, which are each 10s1p packs with their own BMS and rated IP65. What this means is you can have ultimate flexibility in your setup. Want to optimize for mileage? Run one ESC with two batteries. Want to optimize for board weight? Run one ESC with one battery and carry the extra one. Want power? Slap both batteries and ESCs on there my dude. It’s also worth noting that the batteries come with USB ports for charging devices as well. Unlimited does provide a fast charger, although only a 3A fast charger as the internal PCB traces may burn at a higher amperage I’m told.
Unlimited does have an app, though it’s only a very basic one for updating firmwares. I was not able to test it as I had to return my review unit before the app was released, but I was able to take a look at it after the fact and can only assume it works though the interface is extremely utilitarian.
The Matchup: Flexibility
Consider: any deck? or any deck and any truck? I’ll take the latter please. The Unlimited hub system is really a game changing system. Easy to install on almost anything with no modifications and easy to remove after, I was able to put it in many ridiculous configurations and setups. At one point I even put it on a G|Bomb push pumping setup.
The Matchup: Cruise
Living in San Francisco means it’s much easier to get from point A to point B using alternative transportation methods due to traffic and street layout. However, the frequent and frequently steep hills means that it takes a vehicle with decent power and good brakes to get up and down those hills to cross town. Unfortunately for Mellow, it sort of all starts to fall apart once you start maneuvering those hills. The max hill grade for the Mellow Drive is about 20%, or 11-12 degrees. I found this to be true most of the time, although many times the Drive would start beeping at me and slowing down going up a 9-10 degree hill, and I’m not even that heavy (125lb). The Unlimited kit would power up the same hills no problem, though even though it’s rated for 36% grade hills (20 degree), it can’t reasonably power up anything more than 25%.
Going downhill sucks as well on the Mellow Drive. Often times, I have to brake down a hill and stop at an intersection while still on the hill. The Mellow Drive does this thing where it will actually cut brakes once you drop below a certain ERPM. What this effectively means is that I will almost stop at an intersection then the brakes will suddenly let go and I’ll start rolling again. It got to the point where I had to start relying on foot braking more than the actual brakes. The Unlimited R Kit didn’t have these issues, though the brakes on both drive units were pretty weak so weren’t that effective at stopping you anyways.
There’s also a feature that stops the Mellow Drive from accelerating without a rider on it, although it doesn’t always work. I’ve had the Drive shoot into traffic a couple times, as well as cut power while I was doing some heavy acceleration. I did bring the issue up to Mellow, and the response I got back after much troubleshooting was that I was likely too light and that it wasn’t likely to be fixed. Welp.
Where the Mellow Drive really shines, though, is flat, wide open spaces where I can just crank the throttle all the way up and carve. There’s no other feeling that can come close to carving at speed on a smooth, long road devoid of pedestrians, and the Mellow Drive simply delivers on that front. While testing, I found zen by going to Crissy Field, turning on Endless mode, and just carving without having to deal with a remote. While the R Kit does also have cruise control capabilities, it doesn’t feel as refined and sort of “jerks” into the mode when the button is held and vibrates when it’s activated while not moving, a side effect of unsensored motors. In comparison, the cruise mode on the Mellow simply feels a lot more refined.
The Matchup: Performance
There’s no question the R Kit is simply way more performant than the Mellow Drive. Off the line, the R Kit can put out more torque and so wins straight up. The R Kit hub motors are pretty strong and though it is unsensored (mandating kick pushing off the line to get started), the R Kit takes off faster once the ESC catches.
Now, you must allow me to rant a little bit as I’m passionate about this subject. Personally, I’m not a fan of unsensored motors for eskate. In a city like San Francisco (and this is true for any dense urban environment as well), having the ability to accelerate from standstill without having to kickpush is a godsend. Often times, it’s hard to achieve an acceptable speed kickpushing uphill for the ESC to discover the stator position, which means you can’t accelerate. Sensored motors solve this problem handily and I don’t quite understand why they still aren’t considered standard.
Unsensored motors aside, riding hard on the highest speed modes finds that the R Kit lasts longer (though not that much longer) than the Mellow on one battery. This makes sense since the R Kit technically has six more cells than the Mellow Drive. There is a caveat to this though, which is the fact that we’re comparing two physical batteries for the R Kit to one physical battery for the Mellow. If you want to swap batteries for the R Kit and carry extra batteries with you, you will need to carry two physical batteries vs. the one battery for the Mellow Drive.
The Matchup: Remote
Now we must discuss a huge sticking point for most electric skateboards: the remote. The Mellow Drive remote is… not too great. While it does have a rock solid connection, the remote is largely ruined by its form factor and ergonomics. The slide mechanism, while novel, is not great in practice. It often sticks and yields less than ideal control, and while Mellow has done throttle control smoothing to try and remedy the issue, it just doesn’t induce confidence.
It’s also often hard to see what mode you’re in in direct sunlight. The mode indicators are hard to read, and there’s no speed indication, an unfortunate omission.
On the other hand, the Unlimited remote is ergonomic and fits quite well in my small hands. It uses a more traditional thumbwheel with nub based approach, and really is quite well designed. Again, rock solid connection here, and the integrated display is quite readable in direct sunlight. This isn’t to say that I don’t take issue with some aspects of the design, however. The battery indicator on the remote showing the R Kit’s battery status never quite reached full. At first I thought it might be a pack balancing issue, but I was not able to fix it even if I charged the batteries separately. Navigating settings was also a slight bit difficult due to a combination of slightly questionable English translations and settings bugs, chief amongst which was I wasn’t able to get the measurement units settings to persist across remote restarts. This was supposed to be fixed in an upcoming update, though I never saw the update. There is also a cruise control button on the remote, though I found it funny that it would just vibrate the motors if you pressed it while standing still.
The Verdict
In the end, it depends on what you’re after. I can’t speak to the durability of the R Kit, but I’ve heard good things about how much the Mellow Drive can take a beating. I can’t speak to the effectiveness of the friction mount system employed by Unlimited in their hub motor mounting system, but I have never had an issue while using my review unit. If you’re looking for power, Unlimited might be a good bet. If you’re looking to just cruise on mostly flat terrain, Endless Mode on the Mellow Drive is very enticing.
TL;DR
I’ve included a pared down version of my notes that I took while reviewing the two drive kits. Use them as a tl;dr of the above.
As of September 2019
Mellow Notes:
Sensored but no standing start, cites safety but is major inconvenience
No-rider safety braking system works most of the time but not all the time, board shoots into traffic
Braking doesn’t work without weight, and cuts off once drive senses you’re adequately slow. Weird when going down hill and reaching bottom. when board rolls away you have to chase it instead of just braking
Push start is a bit unforgiving. You can only kick it once, kick it twice and you’ll likely lose your balance
Remote slide mechanism is a bit “tacky”, not a completely smooth as I’d hoped, otherwise pretty effective Remote
Onboarding UX is excellent. UX in general is excellent for the most part, including in app. Too many manufacturers forget about the UX part
Batteries feel solid this time around, unlikely to fall out
Doesn’t run for very long on top power mode
Unlimited R Kit Notes:
Unsensored, must push above certain erpm to start, big dislike
Lightweight and properly powerful
Pretty small and nice remote
Hub motors were mountable on any truck I tried, very solidly built and clever securing mechanism. Super innovative
Custom built ESC they call “MESC”, R kit links dual MESCs together via CANbus, passthrough charging multiple packs at once. Very clever.
UX was a bit confusing and felt unpolished
App launched as of 12/07/18, feels super unfinished, was not able to test if functional
Unable to use faster charger than 3A because charging traces may burn internally
Batteries last an ok distance on top power mode, 8-9 miles
Note On Unlimited Kit Availability
While Unlimited kits have been shipping, the R kit is currently unavailable for purchase. Unlimited states the following: “We are currently manufacturing a big batch of product that we are hoping to have available during spring to summer.”
Update by Paxson: Along with the announcement of Unlimited X Loaded, Unlimited Kits are now available for purchase. Finally, the wait is over. Check out Unlimited X Loaded here.
This review was originally published on February 5th, 2018 and reflects my honest opinions at the time of publication. No part of this review has been redacted in any way. It has only been corrected for grammar and spelling.
Today (02/03/18) was a rare, sunny, California “winter” day. At around noon, I answered my apartment door to welcome a friend, Marvin of Bay Area Eskate, who had graciously agreed to let me ride and test his brand new Acton Blink Qu4tro. I’d previously had experience riding this board. Acton themselves had previously invited me down to their Santa Clara headquarters to test the prototype version of the Qu4tro. I had many thoughts about the prototype board at the time, but I also believed that my concerns were related to the fact that the product was in prototype phase and not at all ready for public consumption. Now that the board is in production, I will be reviewing the board as is, assuming that Acton has put in the required QC and intended for this to be the final product.
Hardware
Let’s start with the deck. The deck itself hasn’t changed much from the prototype, and I still harbor the same concerns as I did when I tried the prototype. It’s made up of three distinct pieces. The front and rear scaffolding, to which the suspension is attached, and the middle electronics housing, which… houses electronics. The deck is as durable and stiff as it was in the prototype. It is also as heavy and flat as it was in the prototype.
Because the deck is so incredibly heavy, it has more inertia than other boards. This translates into a whole host of problems, chief amongst them excessive inertia. This means that braking is a lot weaker due to forward inertia (though I suspect hub motors and the braking curve are also major contributors in this area) and carving is a lot harder due to difficulties experienced when trying to throw the deck around while fighting forward inertia (carving is also very hard because of the suspension and four wheel drivetrain; I’ll get to that later). The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that the deck is also completely flat, with no curve at all. This makes it very hard for your foot to get a good grip on the surface for control. So, in addition to wrangling a heavy deck, you’re also constantly trying not to slide off. All this does not make for a very good deck, which generally is supposed to enable you to enjoy the ride, not inhibit you and be something you have to explicitly wrangle around. Plus this also makes the entire board heavy and is a bitch to carry.
Besides the rather unfortunate deck, the rest of the hardware is less grim. There are white front and red back lights as well as white side lights, all of which are controllable via the app. Though, as of the time of writing, there seems to be some bug that prevents the Android app from controlling the lights properly. It is worth mentioning that these are visibility lights, as they do not get bright enough to illuminate any meaningful distance of the road ahead of you. The trucks (not suspension!) and hub motors seem to be the same ones as the Blink S2. They work, though I do worry about some of the reports of hub motors falling off on the S2 and wonder if they could happen on the Qu4tro. I’ve included pictures of the hardware and innards for those interested below.
Suspension
I suspect the suspension system will polarize a lot of people. The main problem here is physics.
Here’s the thing. Currently, the way a regular TKP (traditional kingpin) or RKP (reverse kingpin) truck is set up, there’s a pivot cup and a kingpin that forces the truck to only rotate in a sort of semi-circular fashion in one plane around the pivot point. In other words, the truck rotates around the axis determined by the pivot point and the kingpin keeps it in place. However, with Acton’s suspension trucks, in addition to the regular RKP single plane rotation, the suspension is further allowed to deform in infinite directions due to the nature of the design. See my beautifully drawn graphic for an example of what I mean:
Keep in mind that in a traditional suspension, you only want yourself to be suspended along one axis. If you need to be suspended along more than one axis, you add more *distinct* axis along which to be suspended. You almost never want yourself to be suspended in all possible axis, because then you’re really just jiggling around. That’s what’s happened with the suspension on the Qu4tro: You’re really just… jiggling, which prevents you from properly turning or carving with confidence at any reasonable speed. The suspension will deform and neutralize the majority of your turn. It’s honestly not great, and the default hard bushing Acton includes doesn’t make it any better.
Edit: Avenue, the makers of the original suspension trucks, have informed me that they have in no way licensed their suspension trucks for Acton, nor are they working with Acton on suspension trucks. Here is their statement:
[Statement Removed Due To Ongoing Legal Dispute]
I’d originally written a how-to and review on Avenue TKP suspension trucks modded onto my Carbon GT and quite enjoyed it, so please do not let this review scare you away from suspension trucks!
Remote
The biggest thing here is the lag on the remote. It’s just inconsistent enough during low end acceleration to get annoying. Sometimes, I would try to accelerate to a slow speed but end up just sitting there for a bit before the motors kicked in. I have no idea what the issue here is.
As far as I can tell, the outer shell design of the remote is left over from Acton’s original remote-as-carrying-handle idea. They’ve simply taken off the bits that make the idea work. This is unfortunate due to several reasons:
The original tradeoff of the ungainly remote design would have been fine had the remote been able to act as a carrying handle. This is no longer the case. Since you can no longer clip the remote to the board, you would obviously try to put it in your pocket. The remote does not fit in your pocket.
The design itself is not very ergonomic. The angled bits make the remote very weird to hold for people with larger hands. My hands are considered small and even I felt that holding it was a bit… strange.
There’s no deadman switch. Even Evolve has seen the value of a remote with a deadman switch. This would have maybe been ok if the throttle was in a less easily triggered place, but nope, it’s very exposed.
There are other design considerations that have been overlooked. The board’s charge information is not glanceable from the remote. You either have to stare at the single blinking LED on the remote to sort of gauge your battery (similar to the battery flashes on the Yuneec E-GO) or fire up the Acton app and wait for it to connect to your board to get a more detailed reading. This is in contrast to every other high end board remote that shows either individual LEDs or a percentage readout on a display. I did not find a place to attach the strap either. These sort of things just feel like UX that could have been easily improved upon but were not.
It is worth mentioning though that even while riding through areas with heavy radio activity, the remote did not lose connection once. It also instantly connected with the board when turning both on, similar to the S and S2. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast I was able to turn both on and get going. It’s just unfortunate that the design is lacking.
Technical Testing
Testride Route:
Rider specs: 125lb, 5’6″
As part of my reviews, I perform a series of measured, purely technical tests on review units. These tests are meant to push the units to the extreme that their electronics can handle and reveal any problems that may have not been revealed by simple riding tests. Technical tests are done under the most favorable conditions possible.
Acceleration
Acceleration on this thing on flat ground is no joke. On all modes, the Qu4tro accelerated to top speed beautifully and as expected. The curve is smooth and ramps up linearly on all modes. There’s almost no worry of being thrown off the back if you’re prepared. Acton nailed this regard. I will say that it’s not the fastest acceleration out there by hard numbers, but the Qu4tro manages to *feel* fast while accelerating due to even power delivery from the four wheel drivetrain, and that’s really no easy feat.
Acceleration on hills is another matter. On every single significant (+15%) hill I went up, I had power delivery issues even though the app said the board was at close to full battery. Every other small bump or turn I experienced going up hill meant loss of acceleration power. Every loss of power meant ramping back up from 0 again. This only got worse as the battery drained through the course of the day. At around 50%, the board basically refused to go up hills. After charging the board from 50% to 60%, I gave it back to Marvin. After riding for a short time on some relatively calm roads, he completely ran out of power. This should not have happened on the types of road we were on and in such a short time after charging. After we wrapped up our ride, he encouraged me to write about this issue as he was pretty disappointed.
Top Speed
My speedometer said 23MPH at 100% charge and 21MPH at around 70% charge. This is pretty normal behavior and technically satisfies Acton’s top speed claims.
Braking
Good news! Braking at 100% no longer seems to shut down the board! This is a great improvement from the prototype. Braking is also very smooth! This means you will not get thrown off, unlike a certain other “evolved” board we all know…
However, braking in all instances still leaves much to be desired, unfortunately. The curve goes something like this when you apply full brakes:
This is maybe not so problematic at slower speeds. It will ease you to a sort-of-stop in a decent amount of time. Where it does get problematic, however, is at higher speeds going downhill, when you need brakes the most. It takes way too long to get to 100% braking power. I even almost ran into the back of a stopped car once because the brakes took way too long ramping up. That sucks.
Stress Handling
I do acceleration and braking stress testing in a series of eight consecutive acceleration and braking sequences on flat ground. In a system where a lot of power is transferred to and from various parts of the system, this is an important test. Unlike the prototype, Pro mode here revealed no problems. It seems Acton has fixed the braking shutdown issue. Hard acceleration and braking seems to maintain consistency, and I did not get any cutouts.
Turning Radius
Due to the suspension, turning radius was mostly unsatisfactory. I’d borrowed a Boosted Board Dual+ from Last Mile SF to test the turning radius on a standard single kingpin truck, and the radius was better than the Qu4tro’s with both kinds of trucks tuned to the loosest they would go. The suspension on the Qu4tro would also try to bounce you back to neutral with every bump in the turn. This is definitely not desired behavior.
Drag Race
Carbon GT (5.2s) edged out the Qu4tro (5.6s) in the end. We had a couple boosted boards in the race at the beginning but there was no point having them in the end. We would have had a Raptor 2 as well except its FOCbox broke so it’s now in the shop… for the third time. We tried to equalize the external variables as much as possible.
Thanks Joseph from Bay Area Eskate for operating the DJI Spark! Sorry you couldn’t catch up to us in the end with the drone…
Ride & User Experience
In addition to my comments on the suspension system, I have some comments about the four wheel drive system. During any sort of harder turn or carve, if all four wheels rotate at the same speed even though their radius throughout the turn is different, the wheels will slip and you will start to slide. This is by nature of the four wheel drive system, but coupled with really slidey wheels, is a huge issue on the Qu4tro. It means you can’t really safely turn or carve at speed. To mitigate this, most modern four wheel drive systems, such as those in cars, have a differential system in place to handle the rotation speed differences necessary to reduce slip. I believe the Qu4tro especially really needs something like an active differential, though I can’t imagine the complexities that go into implementing something like that. It would really solve the slipping issue.
Putting aside wheel slipping, riding in a straight line is a blast. The zero to max power takeoff of the four wheel drive system is really something to experience. The only boards I’ve felt that really parallel the smoothness on takeoff of the Qu4tro is the dual hub drive Raptor 2 and a couple DIYs by /u/Spooky_Ghost.
Conclusion
What Acton has built here, then, is something that could have been much more, but is unfortunately marred by its own nature. I have very mixed feelings about this board, and I’m not the only one. Even the owner of this board told me he had mixed feelings. My personal opinion is that if you live somewhere with smooth, straight roads and lots of hills, this is probably an excellent board. On the other hand, this board seems to struggle climbing up hills at battery levels under 70%, which is supposed to be its claim to fame. The jiggly, ineffective suspension and heavy deck doesn’t help its case either.
My, what a dilemma.
TL;DR
Wanna be fast and torquey in a straight line in a hilly area and don’t mind the weight? This is your board.
Wanna carve effortlessly or live someplace with heavy traffic? Look elsewhere.
Special Thanks and Notes
This review would not have been possible without the kindness and help shown to me by the following people:
Marvin, Joseph, Tone, and everybody from Bay Area Eskate group (woo BAEskate!)
Last Mile SF
I try to write fair, unbiased reviews for fun, not profit. All equipment used is either borrowed or purchased. Hope you enjoyed reading!
