Tag: Ownboard Bamboo AT

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 Paxson Lim

Ownboard AT + GT Review – Coming on Evolve GTR hard.

In late 2019, many brands, as if on cue, simultaneously came out with their own versions of an Evolve clone. First, we have Fabian’s Faboard Black Carve, followed by Ownboards Bamboo and Carbon AT, which was then followed by Verreal RS and several more by smaller brands.

Needless to say, the most notable among these Evolve contenders are the Ownboards, as they are a major Chinese brand, and hence we have high hopes for them to put out a quality product and be the Evolve killer. Obviously, Ownboard is not trying to hide their intentions in going after the Evolve crowd. Ownboard Bamboo and Carbon AT were made with every feature that the Evolve Bamboo and Carbon GTR have, including the ability to switch between AT set-up and street set-up, the use of double Kingpin trucks, double drop decks and belt motors. To top it off, Ownboard achieves all of these with the price of $999 which undercuts Evolve by half.

So, today, we are going to find out if the Ownboard Bamboo AT and the cloud wheel set-up (named Bamboo GT) have what it takes to be the Evolve Bamboo killer.

Components

Deck

Right off the bat, let’s talk about the components used in the Ownboard Bamboo AT. Ownboard uses a broad, flexible deck made from Fiberglass, Bamboo and Canada Maple that has an aggressive concave. Unlike the Evolve, Ownboards deck features an aggressive drop in its double drop deck, allowing a lower ride height and therefore a far more stable ride, which is sorely needed in the Bamboo AT. Unfortunately, this also means the option of using normal street wheels is off the table, as even with the relatively large 120mm cloudwheels I still bottomed out pretty often.

Thankfully, the flexible plastic enclosure below the deck looks like it’s durable enough to endure the scratches.

Trucks

The Double Kingpin trucks on the Ownboards are maneuverable to a fault and allow for a super-narrow turning radius. I honestly think Ownboard should use better and harder bushings for these trucks. I tightened them to the max and the wobbles were still bad, limiting my speed to below 22mph (36kmh) in the AT set-up. Even after switching to the smaller 120mm cloudwheels (GT set-up), going at 25mph (40kmh) still felt pretty sketchy to me.

Of course, any Evolve rider will tell you that Double Kingpins are not meant for high-speed, but with a bushing swap, Ownboard AT could achieve much higher stability. In fact, with harder bushings in the cloud wheels set-up, cruising comfortably near top speed would’ve been possible, thanks to the very low riding height.

Wheels

On the topic of wheels, both the 6″ airless honeycomb wheels and the 120mm cloud can go off-road. Though you don’t get to play with the tire pressure like you do with pneumatic tires, the airless honeycomb felt on par with pneumatics when it comes to absorbing bumps on rough terrain. Even the freaking HUGE cloudwheels are big enough to render most obstacles harmless. However! Riding the cloudwheels off-road is definitely not something you should be doing often, as the wheels are soft and will damage easily on harsh terrain, and those wheels aren’t cheap. I tested them off road and I have to admit that I was nervous about my wheels the whole ride.

Many people ride fast and look to big wheels to stay safe from bumps and cracks. For them, my advice is to go with the GT cloudwheel set-up. Though the big AT wheels can roll through sticks or stones at high speed without issues, the wobbles are a big problem. On the other hand, riding on the smaller cloudwheels is a much more stable ride, and equally crack-and-bump proof!

ESC and Control

Next, let’s talk about the controls. Similar to the other Ownboards, the Bamboo uses a 10s Hobbywing ESC for this board, and for those who are familiar with Hobbywing ESC the controls need no further explanation- they are known for Intuitive, responsive control that’s perfectly smooth in both acceleration and braking.

Update: New OLED remote with telemetry is now available

Power and Performance

Before receiving the board, I was worried that the 10s ESC might not be able to deliver the required power and torque for an AT set-up. After my test, I am happy to report that this baby is plenty strong and has no issues on steep angles.

The two 6368, 170Kv, 1500W motors should definitely be powerful enough for most people. Those who dislike Hobbywing for its tame braking power are still going to be disappointed by this board’s brakes. They are not at the level where tight-brake lovers will enjoy it, even though the dual belt set-up did increase the braking strength. Comparing Hobbywing’s control to the Evolves, Ownboard Bamboo is smoother in acceleration but tamer when it comes to brakes. Which is better? That comes down to personal preference, just like the everlasting argument between Hobbywing ESC VS LingYi ESC.

Range

Now, it’s numbers time.

The 504WH, 14AH Sanyo GA 10s4p battery pack is marketed to last for 19miles(30km) in AT set-up, and 26miles(42km) in the cloudwheels GT set-up. I am happy to report that my range test yielded results that exceed the marketed numbers for both AT and GT set-up. Perhaps the test is slightly conservative this time, as the speed wobbles kept me from going as fast as I usually go, but the numbers are still impressive. One thing to note though, voltage sag does set in at around 25% battery level and when that happens the board will have a delay when drawing power for acceleration. However, the acceleration curve does stay smooth and the power picks up eventually, so I think that’s forgivable. Fun fact, the Evolve Bamboo GTR has the exact size 504wh battery with Samsung 35E cells and promises similar range.

Ownboard AT Full range test

Speed

Marketed top speed for the AT is 24mph(38kmh) while for the GT it is 26mph(42kmh). Again, these numbers are similar to the Evolve GTR. While testing Ownboard’s range, I had no trouble exceeding the top speed in both AT and GT set-ups. The board even felt like it could have given me more speed, but it was too wobbly for me to really test the limits. If anyone has managed to get to the true the limit, please do tell in the comment section.

Verdict

All in all, I think Ownboard has a winner here, and I especially love the GT set-up with the cloudwheels. There are just so many great things about the Ownboard Bamboo. Carving on it is super fun thanks to the Double Kingpin trucks, the flex deck, and the soft cloudwheels. And it’s relaxing and carefree, thanks to the safety that larger wheels provide and the smoothness of the Hobbywing control. It also has great range, great torque, and good top speed. It really is one of the best boards to come out last year.

With that said, I wish Ownboard went all the way and strived for perfection. My wish list for this board would be better bushings, no voltage sag, and tighter brakes. Sure, none of these are deal-breakers, but at least some of them could be easily fixed by Ownboard and probably should be!

I also wish they didn’t have this thing written under the deck. Thankfully nobody sees it.

VS Evolve GTR?

Is Ownboard Bamboo AT worth buying over the Evolve? The answer is Yes, especially if you don’t care about brand names. Evolve may have better style and use more well-known skate parts, but when it comes to value and price? Ownboard is a clear choice.

If you are interested in buying a Ownboard board, 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!