cloudwheels Archives - Electric Skateboard HQ

August 7, 2021January 18, 2022 by Paxson Lim

Cloudwheels Discovery & Cloudwheels Donut Review – Everything you need to know

Today we will be reviewing iWonder’s Cloudwheels Discovery and Cloudwheels Donuts.
(This is the updated version of the previous Cloudwheel review here)

These wheels became a showstopper in the eskate community. People are either top fans or serious haters for the Cloudwheels. So what is the real deal? Are these wheels as fancy as they say?

For those who don’t already know, Cloudwheels are $139-169 urban “off-road wheels,” that come in sizes 105mm and 120mm. A donut version is also available for hub boards. The wheels are marketed as all-terrain wheels, which is something that we might not be able to just take their words for.

So, what are the Cloudwheels?

Cloudwheel Discovery Wheels are built with urethane in a durometer of 78a. These babies are very soft because of their foam core. iWonder calls the technology Dampening Foam Core or DFC when they try to sound cooler, I call it “pretty bubbles inside the wheel.” Aside from the softness, the style also allowed a lighter weight as compared with your normal big urethane wheels.

A softer wheel should offer more grip, but it’s the opposite for Cloudwheels. This is due to the fact that Cloudwheel has a very narrow contact patch. iWonder didn’t provide a measurement for the contact patch, but it’s pretty obvious to the eye. The curved tread design means only the center of the wheel is in contact when riding on flat ground.

This gave a specific ride feel for Cloudwheels that not everyone became fond of. We will discuss more on the ride feel later.

Abit of scandal on the initial days of Cloudwheels:

Every product can use a little bit of scandal on launch, eh..?

Now, here are a few more things to note about the core. Back when it was launched, the first version of Cloudwheels used a regular ABEC core. This version seemed to crack for some riders.

To resolve this concern, iWonder used Nylon Fiberglass to reinforce the core and also made the spokes thicker. This design was named Discovery core.

Installing Cloudwheels

By the looks of it, the latest Discovery core might still look like an ABEC core, but it’s not! The Discovery core has a thicker spoke than the average ABEC wheels core. Your ABEC pulley might not fit the Cloudwheels.

However, the Cloudwheels pulley can still be used with your typical ABEC wheels, but there will be slop on the wheels, which means, it will be loose, and that’s not very nice (or safe).

No worries for the pulleys though, since Cloudwheel has made pulley kits for almost every eskate on the market. Cloudwheel has pulleys, if you have coins. (You can check the list of Cloudwheel supported boards by going here)

Now, let’s talk about Cloudwheel Donuts. For hub motor lovers, the Cloudwheel Donuts may just be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Cloudwheel Donuts are basically sleeves for your hub motors. It is not difficult to see where the name came from.

Donuts are compatible with a lot of hub motors but not all, so be sure to check the list of compatible hub motors first when buying Cloudwheel Donuts.

To check out other eskates compatible with Cloudwheel Donuts, click here.

It will take around 15 minutes to install these wheels, depending on how quickly you maneuver from unscrewing bolts to slide out the hub motor’s back wheels up to secure all the new screws for the Cloudwheels.

For a quick look on how to install Cloudwheel Donuts:

What an introduction, huh? Now let’s go to the part you’re all excited about—the pros and cons of Cloudwheels.

Like we mentioned, people are pretty divided on their opinions for Cloudwheels. They either love it or hate it.

Let’s begin with the good things about these wheels.

PROS

Safer and smoother ride

Obviously, the main advantage that the Cloudwheels can give is a safer and smoother ride.

We’ll say upfront that iWonder’s Cloudwheels are basically semi-AT. We would never even dare to call it all-terrain or made for off-road like how it was marketed. Still, the wheels provide significantly better cushioning on a roughly paved road. The ride won’t be as harsh for you.

Riding with Cloudwheels Donut 105mm — Exway flex with 105mm Cloudwheel Donut

Cloudwheels is probably most popular among eskate commuters who simply aim to travel from point A to B safely but consider the bulky AT set up to be a trouble for carrying around. Not to forget, Cloudwheels are a lot lighter than even the standard PU wheels of similar size.

Cloudwheels also help a lot in cushioning the ride though super rough roads, making some unbearable – leg-numbing road bearable. And obviously, big wheels means less lightly to get thrown off the board when hitting a stone.

Cloudwheels = All-terrain?

While the 105mm wheel will do enough to make rough pavement significantly more tolerable, the bigger 120mm is obviously better, and almost necessary when you plan to go off the standard path.

To handle grass, small cracks, and stone, the 105mm wheels are enough, but if you’re gonna go through sand and pebbled roads, a safer choice would be the 120mm wheels. BUT, if that’s the kind of terrain you’re gunning for, then you should probably go for AT wheels instead.

Riding over a pothole with 105mm Cloudwheels Donuts — Challenging a pothole with 105mm Cloudwheel Donuts

Pretty good Durability

Another surprise we have with Cloudwheels is their durability.

We rode the Cloudwheels for almost 200 miles and there was zero chunking. And nope, we weren’t careful at all! Also, regarding the new Discovery core? It held up without cracks too. Combining our experience and the fact that there aren’t any more complaints on the internet after the switch to Discovery core, we are pretty confident that the new Cloudwheel will be just fine.

Cloudwheel that's beaten up — This is an old, pre-discovery core version of cloudwheels.

Now, what are the not-so-nice thing about Cloudwheel?

CONS

Less fun with carving

As we said, you’ll get a less grippy ride with Cloudwheels due to its pretty narrow contact patch. Not to worry though, the narrow contact patch doesn’t actually cause the wheels to lose grip, so there aren’t actually any safety concerns.

Riding with 120mm Cloudwheels with Wowgo AT2 — Carving with 120mm Cloudwheels on Wowgo AT2

It did mean that carving became a lot less fun, though, if you compare it with riding on street wheels. Simply put, carving on Cloudwheels will never be as fun as carving on Caguamas; but it’s still better than carving on 6” pneumatic wheels.

Next, let’s talk about the range.

Decrease range

As uncle Ben used to say, with great wheel size comes great battery consumption. The bigger the wheels, the lesser the range. However, the range drain wasn’t actually as significant when it came to Cloudwheels. This is probably the result of the narrow contact patch on the wheel, resulting in better use of energy.

If you do the math, our test showed us that going from 90mm hub motors to 105mm Cloudwheels gave a drop of 25% in range. We got 16.8 miles on 90mm wheels but when we started using 105mm Cloudwheels, we only got 12.4 miles. From a different perspective though, switching to the 120mm Cloudwheels will allow you to size down from all-terrain wheels and your range will significantly be better.

Now that we’re done with the rundown of specs, pros, and cons, what’s our verdict?

THE VERDICT

The Cloudwheel Donuts is hailed as the savior for hub boards, and it might not be an overstatement.

The biggest pet peeve that eskaters have on the hub boards is the thin urethane sleeves and hence agonizing vibration when riding on rough roads. Remarkably, Cloudwheel Donuts basically solved that problem. The 105mm wheels probably won’t open up new ride paths for you, but would make commuting much safer and more comfortable.

The verdict on the regular 105mm and 120mm Cloudwheels (for Belt drive) are pretty clear too. If you like big wheels for its safety, semi-AT use, and don’t mind the less grippy ride feel, you will love the Cloudwheels.

If a big wheel with a narrow contact patch is not your style, then you should already know that Cloudwheels is not for you. Eskate connoisseurs would probably prefer something like 107mm Super Flywheels or 110mm Torqueboard Wheels instead.

Basically, Cloudwheels are just very practical wheels, period.

If you are interested in buying the Cloudwheels, be sure to check out our affiliate discount link here and uses code: “ESKATEHQ” to receive $10 off 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!

March 9, 2021April 2, 2021 by Paxson Lim

Maxfind FF Street Review

Today, we will be looking at the Maxfind FF – Street.

As a reviewer, I can’t help to consider Maxfind an interesting brand. Circa 2016, Maxfind was a brand that put out crappy budget boards and selling them on Amazon. During those days, their after-sale service or lack thereof has made them unpopular within the Eskate communities. Lately, however, they have almost completely abandoned the “entry-level market” but instead trying to establish themselves as a brand that offers polished products for a slightly higher price. (Oh, and I heard they are improving in after-sale service.)

Amongst Maxfind’s latest “more polished” product comes the star of today -Maxfind FF – Street, an $899 hub board with gorgeous looks, double kingpin trucks, a Hobbywing ESC, and a 6Ah hot-swappable battery.

Specs of Maxfind FF

Just like usual, let’s start with the build and the specs:

Deck Size: 38-inch x 9.4-inch (97cm x 24cm)
Top Speed: 25mph (40kmh)
Range: 17miles (28km)
Battery Pack: 216Wh (Samsung 30Q 6.0Ah in 10s2p)
Weight: 20lbs/ 9.1kg
Motor: 2 x 750W hub motors.
Wheels: 96mm 78A
Price: 899 USD
Features:
- Remote with Telemetry,
- Swappable Battery
- IP 65 waterproof
- Cloudwheel Donut Compatible

Deck – Composite deck with Carbon Fiber coating

Maxfind FF has a super flexible composite deck made of PolyPhenylene Sulfide and Fiberglass, coated with carbon fiber.

The deck is wide and has a good concave to it, so we can always know where our feet are during a ride. The deck has a double drop design, decreasing the riding height. It uses rubber grip tape, which we prefer as it doesn’t catch on fabrics and damage them.

The deck has a built-in electronics compartment that can be accessed from the top. This allows for hot-swappable batteries and gives the board a very pleasant unibody look. There is a concern that a top access design would be bad for waterproofing. When it rains, the water could seep into the compartment, turning it into a water bucket. This is a problem that Evolve Carbon used to have. (But you shouldn’t ride an eskate in the rain anyways.)

For me, this board scores 10 out of 10 in the looks department.

Trucks, Wheels, Motors

For trucks, the Maxfind FF goes with Double Kingpin trucks and pairs them with soft 96mm wheels. We will talk about the ride feel of the trucks abit later.

The durometer is 78A, and at the back, two 750W hub motors power the board. These hub motors are compatible with the Cloudwheels Donut, and you can pay an extra $100 to bundle them with your Maxfind.

Top speed and Range

These 750W motors give the Maxfind FF a marketed top speed of 25mph (40kmh). In our top speed test, it fell 1 mph short of that max speed. That’s alright.

The swappable battery is a pack of 10s2p batteries with Samsung 30Q cells, that’s 216wh, and gives a marketed range of 17 miles (28km). In our range test, we were actually able to hit that marketed range of 17 miles. Can’t say I’m not a little bit surprised.

So, the Maxfind FF has a nice, polished design, and acceptable performance for its price. Next, let’s go over the riding experience.

Riding Experience of Maxfind FF

Speed Control

First, let’s talk about speed control. If you don’t already know, every board with a Hobbywing Electronic Speed Controller on it has a smooth and intuitive speed control. Smooth acceleration and braking in all 3 of the speed modes, good strength in both acceleration and braking. Nothing for us to nitpick here.

Next, we’ll talk about the maneuverability of the board, and how the double kingpin trucks perform.

Allow me to share a little bit of context here. When it comes to double kingpin trucks in eskate, there are some really good ones (Evolve, Wowgo, Backfire), but there are some that weren’t as good (Ownboard, Raldey).

For this Maxfind, unfortunately, it falls into the latter category, of the not-very-good double kingpin trucks. These trucks have poor rebound to center, and this makes carving less fun.

If we tighten the trucks all the way down, the board becomes hard to recenter after a turn; inversely, if we ride the trucks loose, the trucks will easily wobble at higher speeds. We can’t seem to find a good configuration with the trucks, perhaps changing the 98a bushing is the way to go.

Road Vibration

Another important part about the riding experience is how well the board handles road vibration from rough roads. In the case of the Maxfind’s FF, it handles these quite well, even though it is a hub driven board.

The double kingpin trucks, drop-through deck with good flexibility, and the rubber grip tape probably all helped. For those who want bigger wheels to further reduce the road vibration, the Maxfind FF is CloudWheel compatible. Just install the CloudWheels Donuts and that will relieve any of your issues with rough pavement. These take just 15minutes to install, and, well, an extra $100.

Now that we’ve shown everything about the Maxfind FF, let’s put it into perspective.

Summary of Maxfind FF

For $899, we can usually expect either amazing performance, or awesome design from a board. The Maxfind FF obviously falls into the latter category.

Unlike most Chinese eskates, this is a board that is not made just by combining off the shelf parts. For this Maxfind, 70% of your money goes into the design and build, and 30% into the motors, ESC, battery, etc. This means that, while costing $899, Maxfind FF has a performance that some $500 can match, but has the polish and design to match other pricier premium boards.

(An opposite example of this “design over performance” approach would be the Backfire G3 Plus, which prioritizes performance over a fancy design. It reuses all the parts from other Backfire boards, and then puts those savings into better performance.)

Another thing you should think about when buying a Maxfind is the company itself. You can consider Maxfind as a brand that has just come back from rehab. As mentioned, a few years ago it was known to be putting out cheap boards and having bad after-sales service. In recent years, however, we are hearing fewer complaints about the brand, but we aren’t hearing many singing their praises either. What we can verify here is that Maxfind’s new product lines are all well-built and polished.

Verdict: Is Maxfind FF worth it?

With that said, if you are tired of that generic look that most eskates share, and don’t mind the brand and the trucks; the Maxfind FF is the board for you.

If you are interested in buying a Maxfind, 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!

October 16, 2020August 7, 2021 by Ziyad Khairi

Cloudwheels Review – I must break you. Will I?

This content is brought to you by our dear friend from Electric Skateboard Malaysia.

Cloudwheels, are they any good? Do they actually feel like riding on the clouds?

Today we, Electric Skateboard Malaysia, are going to go over the all-new Discovery Cloudwheels, from iWonder, and let you know what we think of them!

We tested the 105mm Cloudwheels on an Exway Riot Flex over the course of about 187 miles, or 300 Kilometres. Since iWonder markets these as ‘All Terrain’ wheels, I tested them on just about every terrain possible. After all that testing, today I’m going to tell you all about the strengths and weaknesses of the Cloudwheels.

Let’s get started!

Discovery Cloudwheels – The Pros and Cons

The Cloudwheels really excel on rough roads. Riding them on those conditions you can feel the difference compared to normal street wheels. They absorb road vibrations very well and had no problem going through cracks and potholes. They call this cushioning effect ‘damping core technology’. I have no idea what that means, but it looks like they put some kind of cushion or foam inside the wheels, to absorb road vibrations.

I would say that they successfully reduce around 60% of road vibrations. But you shouldn’t expect them to be as comfortable as an All-terrain pneumatic tire, those are a night and day difference.

Cloudwheels help to reduce a portion of the road vibrations, making riding on rough roads bearable. Pneumatic wheels, on the other hand, basically cancel out all road vibrations and are way more comfortable.

Testing Various Surfaces

On sand, Cloudwheels just roll and do their job without a problem. They grip more, so they spin well on sand compared to street wheels. But I wouldn’t try to carve on sand, it’s still slippery and you will probably fall down.

On Grass it will spin well, if your motors have the power and torque to do so.

On small pebbles, the Cloudwheels perform okay. I would not call them comfortable, but it’s not that bad.

On rocks and small stones, it’s a different story. You’ll end up with a headache because the vibrations are too strong.

It’s just not meant for riding on that type of material. It would be terrible for beginners especially, but I wouldn’t recommend it at all since you could fall down.

So, naming the Cloudwheels ‘all-terrain’ is a bit of an exaggeration. Instead of calling them ‘All Terrain’, I would have called them ‘Hybrid wheels’, meaning that they are between street and all-terrain wheels.

What makes Cloudwheels unique

To understand why Cloudwheels are special, you need to understand the difference between street wheels and all terrain wheels.

Street wheels are fun to ride because they free roll very well without resistance. They give you the most torque and highest top speed. They are also lightweight, so you’ll achieve maximum range, but they suffer on rough roads.

AT, or all terrain wheels, on the other hand, are very comfortable, but they will effectively cut your maximum range in half. If your board is able to go 30 miles (50 km), you’re only going to get about a 15 mile (25 km) range. AT Wheels also grip more, so they free roll less, meaning that they are slow. Another problem is that AT wheels are very large, and can only be used on giant boards, like the Ownboard Bamboo, WowGo at2, and evolve GTR series.

This is where Cloudwheels come in. They sit between street and AT wheels. They are more comfortable than street wheels, but not as comfortable as AT wheels. But the best part is that you can use them on almost all boards that use a belt-drive setup.

They also don’t add much weight, so your range will only be reduced by a small amount.

Here is an example of the Exway Flex Riot. You can see that they can’t use AT wheels because they simply will not fit.

For boards like this, using cloudwheels is the best option if you are looking to reduce road vibrations while riding.

The original cloudwheels that I have were not very durable and chipped easily. However, after testing these I can say that this new version survived my tests.

I tried to destroy them by riding off-road, but surprisingly there was no chipping at all. 187 miles (300km) on rough roads and they still look brand new.

So, are cloudwheels perfect?

The answer is no, and here is a quick list of the small sacrifices that you will have to make.

First, due to the tread pattern on the wheels, Cloudwheels free roll less than street wheels, and because they roll less, you will lose a bit of range

Second, on wet roads, just like any other PU wheels, they are slippery. The best wheels for wet roads are rubber.

Third, you will lose a little bit of torque when you switch from street wheels to cloudwheels. It’s not really noticeable in a daily-use scenario, but it is most noticeable when going uphill.

So, what’s the verdict?

The new Discovery Cloudwheels by iWonder are great, and I consider that the sacrifices are pretty small.

They fit most boards. They Look good. They come in different colors to match your board and enhance the aesthetics.

The Cloudwheels give you a slight increase in top speed, and most importantly they perform great on rough roads, especially on boards that can’t use the full-size all terrain wheels. This is the best choice currently available. They aren’t true all-terrain wheels, but if you are skilled you can make them work.

By the way, the Cloudwheels come in two sizes: 105mm and 120mm. Choose the 105mm for boards like the Exway Flex, Backfire Zealot and WowGo 3x. Pick up the 120mm for big boards like the Evolve GTR.

And if you are from Malaysia, be sure to check out our online store @ https://electricskateboardmalaysia.com/ when you want to grab something! Cheers!

If you are interested in buying a Cloudwheel, 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 ($10 off) 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!

That’s all for this review! If u have any questions, please leave a comment below!