First Impression: Evolve Bamboo GTX

Living in the hilly city of San Francisco, I did not feel that Inboard M1 was adequate. To be fair, it was never advertised as a powerful board, but rather as a board that you can travel with. With recent changes in my situation, I will likely not be traveling as much as I thought I would be. As a result, I decided to pick up a more powerful board.

I was deciding between Evolve Carbon GT, Evolve Bamboo GTX, and Enertion Raptor 2. First, I did not want to wait, so Raptor 2 was out. Being a rather old city, San Francisco has some pretty terrible pavement. As a result, my feet always hurt a lot when riding Inboard M1, so I decided to go for a board with a flexible deck, so I went with Evolve Bamboo GTX. While Evolve Bamboo GT and Boosted Boards are both great options, I wanted longer range and did not want to wait to get it. Furthermore, the option of AT wheels was extremely enticing. As a result. I ended up ordering Evolve Bamboo GTX 2-in-1.

I ordered a bit past midnight of Monday, July 17th (so technically I ordered on Tuesday, July 18th), and my order probably was not processed until Tuesday, July 18th. Then, the inevitable and excruciating waiting began.

But thanks to Evolve USA’s quick processing, and being in the same state as their warehouse, I received a tracking number on Thursday, July 20th and received my package on Saturday, July 22nd. This was extremely quick in my opinion.

And so, I received the package and went up the stairs with this 34 lbs package and just admired it. But there really wasn’t much to admire as the package was pretty beat up. (Oh UPS, will you ever return to your former glory?)

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Then, I proceeded to open the package (After initial opening, I got too excited and forgot to take pictures of all components :]).

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It was amazing.

The board looked like it came from another dimension compared to Inboard. If Inboard M1 were like Prius, this Evolve Bamboo GTX looked like a Cadillac. As I inspected the rest of the package, I started fiddling with the remote and the street wheel kit. Then, I actually started checking out the board.

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When I was inspecting the motors, I noticed something wrong. There were scratches on there already, despite the QC sheet included said the motors were free of scratches or blemishes.

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But I understood that they were going to be like that after a few rides anyway, so I was not too mad. However, I decided to contact Evolve. I contacted them on Saturday (the day I received it), and on Monday, I received an email from them apologizing and offering a $50 gift card (this is in their warranty policy to offer $50 gift card if the defect is deemed to not be from misuse or anything). I was and am pretty happy with this resolution, as a few scratches were not worth sending the board back.

I did switch the wheels immediately to street wheels, as I really wanted to try out the 97mm wheels. The switching was nice and easy, even as someone who’s never taken apart any kind of skateboard/longboard. Then, I took about 2 mile ride to Safeway to pick up some groceries.

Man, was it amazing. It was a completely different experience from Inboard M1. Although I was afraid that my weight may actually break the deck, the flexy deck was comfortable, yet felt solid and responsive. The Super Carve trucks were a joy to carve on (albeit at a very beginner level for me), and the turning was amazing. The power of the belt motors were on a completely different level from the hub motors on Inboard M1.

The remote took a bit of time to get used to as it was sort of weird and felt dangerous not having a dead man’s trigger. But I did get used to it quickly and I have no complaints about the remote or its connection.

Despite the bad things I’ve been reading about the Evolve 97mm wheels, they felt great and really nice to ride on. The only comparison I have are the wheels on Inboard M1, so this may not mean much, but it gripped well, and went over cracks and metro tracks with ease, with no sign of wear or chunks coming off (I have been commuting for 3 days with the wheels, and went on a 5~6 mile ride today and the wheels are just fine).

The tools included are great, and feel solid. Even the loose Allen wrench feel nicely made, and I threw those into the remote case and carry it in my backpack, along with the skate tool.

Overall, it is a solid board with a lot of power and ability to carve/turn. I do need to get used to the less stable deck at higher speeds, but I’m sure that will come with more experience. And their customer service has been pretty good for me so far. For now, it does not look like I will be touching Inboard M1, aside from when I want to go boarding with my friend who does not have an electric skateboard.

UPDATE: I actually forgot to add one more thing. I LOVE BEING ABLE TO DRAG THIS BEHIND ME. With Inboard M1, I cannot, because either tail or nose would drag on the ground. With the Bamboo GTX, due to its drop through style, I can just drag this behind me, which saves my arms some work out (well, I guess I could use some arm work out, but they get it when I go up the stairs so it’s all good).

A full review of this board will come in time, but I want to ride this one a little longer before I actually do a full review. I also have a story coming on my interaction with Inboard’s support. As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments and I’d be more than happy to answer them.

Update: Injury recovery and Evolve Bamboo GTX Review

Hello!

I apologize for not having written any posts in a while. But after that accident, I didn’t feel comfortable riding for a while. I’m still not fully recovered in terms of my wrist mobility, but it is a lot better.

So I just received my Evolve Bamboo GTX 2 in 1, and ordering experience, first impression, and review should be coming in the next week or so, possibly a bit later, as I am quite busy with work this upcoming week.

Thanks and see you guys in the next blog!

A Trip, A Little Accident, And A Reminder: Wear Your Protective Gear, At Least A Helmet

Today, I got off work a bit early with my coworker and he recently got a non-electric longboard. I thought it’d be a good idea to go cruise the usual route (see previous post) and just kind of show him. Although the route has uphills, that means there are downhills. I figured it would be pretty fun for him too.

And it was really fun. Until this happened.

This goes back to when we were on our second half of the trip. The second half is essentially just the first half of the trip backwards, so we just finished doing a massive downhill portion. Then, wanting more speed, my coworker and I thought it would be fun if I dragged him behind me. We had done this on our way to the peak that divides the route in half, so we were pretty confident. However, this was on the sidewalk near the beach. The sidewalk is pretty wide, so there was plenty of room to maneuver, but less smooth, as sidewalks are usually composed of blocks of concrete.

We were cruising down, having a great time, and then there was a slightly elevated block of concrete. We had done something like that just a few moments ago, so we wanted to push through it, so I sped up.

We didn’t immediately go down, but go down we did. It was a massive wipe.

We fell of our boards. I landed on my butt and partially my back, and the coworker landed on his back. We did bang our heads against the pavement, but we were both wearing helmets (the coworker purchased the helmet right before we began our ride as I refused to go riding with him until he had a helmet, so we went to a nearby bike shop), so our heads were perfectly fine. I got a small scrape on my palm and sprained my wrist.

The one day I forget my wrist guards at home, I fall. Thankfully though, I was wearing my helmet as I have been conditioned to wear helmet whenever I skate, bike, etc. My coworker had all his gear, except for elbow pad on, so he left pretty unscathed. I am pretty sure that neither me nor my coworker will be riding without all our protective gears for a while.

Despite this happening, I really enjoyed the ride and so did my coworker. As my girlfriend does not board, it was fun going there with a bud for once. Also, we will both be leaving our current jobs in about two weeks, so this was another fun episode outside of work that we could add to our collection.

I had forgotten to write this in my previous posts: REMEMBER TO WEAR YOUR PROTECTIVE GEAR, OR AT LEAST THE HELMET. YOU MAY THINK YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH, BUT YOU NEVER KNOW AS SOMETIMES, THINGS ARE NOT UNDER YOUR CONTROL.

A Beachside/Trail Trip with Inboard M1

This is actually not my first trip on this route. But this time, I decided to venture a bit further into the trail and actually record the ride using Strava. I forgot to record right as I was leaving the house, so that adds about 0.7 miles of route.

First up, here are Strava screen shots of the trip.

I chose Irving St. because the street was relatively freshly paved, so it’s nice and smooth. The ride was nice and I had no issues with going down the road. I’m still getting used to the board, and until I get completely used to it, I won’t be able to do the action cam that people usually do while they board. I do know that it’ll make this blog and potentially the YouTube channel I may make in the future much more interesting.

Anyway, there is a little stretch where elevation just spikes (as you see in the graph), that is about 7.0% grade according to hillmapper.com, but this incline seems to have been calculated over the whole stretch of the road, instead of small stretches and there are definitely differing grades of incline here and there. But it went up without a hitch, although it did slow down a lot at times.

After getting to Land’s End, I went onto hard packed/pavement road with dirt on top. Some of the roads were really really bumpy. Despite the bumpy road, Inboard handled it well.

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After these bumpy roads, I stopped by a pretty cool memorial to a battleship.

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Around where the turn back to Irving St. is, I had to change the battery. I noticed that the speed was definitely a lot less. This WAS at 1 LED worth of battery.

Other than a few sideway glances and some “right on”s, the ride was pretty uneventful. I had a blast riding it around, but every time I take this route I realize how underpowered the hub motors in Inboard M1 are. The motors work well for my needs though, and I am loving that swappable battery.

It was a lot of fun trying the off road. But after getting back, I had a lot of cleaning to do. But I think it was worth it to test the limits of the board. I think down the road I definitely want to get a second board, probably a Evolve Bamboo/Carbon, since they have AT wheel options.

 

Review: Inboard M1 Electric Skateboard after a week and a half

Background: I am a 6ft, 200lbs male living in SF. While I have only ridden a Walmart skateboard for a very short time back when I was in elementary school, I have never actually done any actual boarding aside from snowboarding.

 

Construction

The Inboard M1 seems to be built very solidly. Especially with no motors hanging out. Aesthetically, I definitely prefer the hub motor over belt motors. Due to how the deck is built, there is zero flex whatsoever. The wheels also seem to be doing great, and a lot of my daily commute has terrible pavement with a couple of muni/metro tracks. I can’t really complain much about construction so far.

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Performance

Inboard M1 definitely is not the strongest out there. But that is well known that belt motor ones and even some other hub motor boards are much stronger. But within reasonable conditions, it does well, even in eco/intermediate mode. Climbing hills is definitely where it falls short. I have a hill that I have to climb on my way back home that sits at ~10% and I do feel a slowdown climbing it. Anything over 10%, I need to be going full speed at advanced mode to even attempt going up, otherwise the board will stop climbing after ~3 seconds of climbing. I’d say their estimation of 15% is pretty accurate, as that was probably tested with a lighter rider and a much better paved hill.

Surprisingly, Inboard does uneven pavements better than I thought it would. Still not being 100% used to riding the board though, I do need to slow down before cracks and such (one time I tried going full speed, I lost my balance and fell).

 

Battery life

One of the main, if not the main, selling point for Inboard M1 is the easily swappable battery that you can take onto planes. That said, each battery gives ~5 miles of range for me, which was a bit disappointing but still makes sense as I am heavier than their test rider, and have to switch to advanced mode from time to time to climb a bunch of hills that are on my way to and from work. But it is truly very easy to swap batteries, and I just take a battery with me just in case. One weird thing that keeps happening though, is that the remote will tell me I have only 1 LED (~25%) battery left, so I open up the battery compartment and check the battery, and it tells me I have 2 to 3 LED (out of 5) worth of battery left. I’ve contacted Inboard about this and they are saying that the remote may be at fault. (More comments on this in customer service section down below.) And then, if I unplug and replug the battery or just let it rest for a bit, the remote’s battery display will go back up to 2 LEDs, which better matches the actual battery’s reading. It seems that the remote estimates the battery to be lower than it actually is when I use the board, or the battery itself estimates it to be higher than it actually is. According to Inboard, it’s actually the former. But we shall see.

Remote

Remote is amazing. I haven’t tried other board remotes, but my second runner up candidate for my first board was Evolve, and although I really like that LCD screen, I really like the dead man’s switch on Inboard’s remote. The tail actually works well for me as well. Have not lost a connection yet, aside from when board died from battery running out. It is really comfortable to hold in hand, and I love this joystick throttle, and I think I definitely prefer this one over other options (just a wheel, a button that goes up and down, etc). It’s also not too jerky, probably due to lower torque that hub motors provide for Inboard, but for me that’s fine. Oh and one thing that I almost forgot: I LOVE THAT I TURN ON THE REMOTE AND IT TURNS ON THE BOARD!

Customer service

Now this is where it gets a bit tricky. Their chat has been amazing. I talked to someone named Michael and he was able to direct me in the right way and provided me with a bit of info about the whole battery discrepancies between remote and the battery’s own display. Then, he proceeded to tell me to email support, so I did, but it has been over 24 hour turnaround time for each email (I only received one back and awaiting a second reply). Coincidentally, the person emailing me is also named Michael, so I’m wondering if they’re the same people why they couldn’t just get thing started on chat? Maybe it’s a written record thing or email feels more official? I don’t know.

 

Accessories

I bought 3 extra batteries, Triple8 helmet and wrist guards, and a Nixon Landlock ii backpack. Helmet and wrist guards do what they’re supposed to do just fine, although wrist guard’s plastic part seems to be wearing out a bit fast, just from it rubbing against the grip tape. The backpack cannot hold the board, and I scuffed it up near the bottom just from me trying to do so. But it’s a good backpack and I will be keeping it for when I get into regular longboarding.

Also, I am using a guitar stand I bought to stand up my Inboard. Works well, the soft part is wearing off though. Also, I got a surfco tail guard and a just a generic nose guard and they are working perfectly, especially the tail guard. I love that there is no bulky protector on the back. I may try to grab a nose guard from surfco as well.

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Conclusion

Overall, it’s a solid board with its main point being the swappable batteries that you can travel with. Holds up to uneven roads pretty well. Remote is very comfortable and has a stable connection. Also, it is very convenient to be able to just power up the remote to turn on the board as well. If you’re looking for power and hill climbing, this is not the board for you. But if you are looking to travel with your board, and still want a decent performance, then this may be worth considering.

Inboard M1 Electric Skateboard First Impressions

I live in SF and relatively close to my work (~20 to 30 minutes by public transit), so I thought I would get a personal transportation device. I started looking at bikes, but two main things deterred me:

1. living in SF, space is at a huge premium, and it is no exception with apartments.Although I have space either in my garage or my balcony for bike, I didn’t feel that leaving my car outside the garage (albeit right outside and off the streets), or lugging the bike all the way up to the third floor every day would be very fun.
2. I don’t want to be sweaty by the time I get to work.

So I started looking into motorized modes of transportation. After looking at hoverboard, one wheel, electric bikes and more, I arrived at esk8.

And from there, my one week research into esk8 started. Most of the boards I found lacked range, and I go to Sausalito (~8 to 9 miles or 16~18 miles roundtrip) from time to time, especially when my friends come visit me while my gf is on her business trips (heh). So I stroke out most boards just from there. Then, I pretty much had Evolve Carbon GT and Inboard M1 left. From those two, I chose Inboard due to being able to travel with the board with up to three batteries total, and more if I have someone who can take it for me. Evolve Bamboo GTX coming out really made me consider Evolve Bamboo GTX, but the ability to travel, swap batteries, not having to wait, AND reports of Evolve’s remotes sometimes being spotty has pushed me toward Inboard.

Then, I began my search for Inboard deals. I found the $100 codes, and I wanted to get 3 batteries total, and calculated and it turned out to be worth it to just buy the Inboard and 2 batteries as 3 separate transactions, and that way, I can use the code on the batteries and the Inboard. But I began looking to see if I can find some deals on used or new that is not from Inboard website.

Called local store, but no luck. Went to craigslist, no luck. But then I went to eBay and this seller (doesn’t seem to be an individual) was selling new ones with 2 batteries for ~$1700, and looking at the sold records, person was very open to offers. Now, here, I thought this was brand new Inboard + 1 extra battery for 2 total batteries. I put in an offer for 1550, and the person accepted. But, I wanted 3 total batteries, so I ordered another one off of Inboard website. Shipping was fast from eBay seller, ordered last Monday? Tuesday? Got to FedEx Friday, but I was away so I just picked it up this morning. But Inboard’s shipping was impressive and the person I talked to on chat (sorry forgot the name of the person XD) made sure that it shipped out quickly and was at FedEx by Friday as well, and I ordered the battery on Wednesday or Thursday.

When I went to pick it up this morning, it turns out that there were 3 packages, not two. The third package was another extra battery from the seller. So for the price of ~1800, I have an Inboard M1 with total of 4 batteries.

Now to the actual impression. Batteries are solidly built, and love the lights and the magnetic charger. The board feels solid and hefty. I haven’t actually taken a ride yet, but the remote seems to work, and everything functions as it should. Coming from snowboard, the grip tape feels like sandpaper, which I know I’m not supposed to be running my skin over it, but whenever I grip it, it almost hurts, but that’s probably because I’m not used to touching grip tape. The lights seem very bright and should serve me well for night rides in alerting drivers that I’m there. I haven’t really loosened the trucks or anything but doesn’t seem too hard to make it turn, but I’ll find out this week as I ride it a bit.

As for accessories, I grabbed a tail/nose guard, helmet and wrist guard. I’m also using a $9 guitar stand from Amazon to stand up the board in my living room, as I don’t really have a space to just lay it down and don’t want to drill a hole in the wall.

Overall, it seems to be a pretty solidly built board with really easy to swap batteries.

UPDATE: I just took a 1 mile ride total to grab some bananas. I think I definitely need some time to get used to ground boarding as I have pretty much only snow boarded. And it kind of feels weird being so high off the ground (compared to snowboard where you’re practically on the ground). I mainly stayed on beginner mode, and went to intermediate/eco towards the end of the ride and the only time I went to the “advanced” mode was to get up the ~10% hill, because I could not get it to go up fast enough on beginner mode (I was going up for sure though. Just… Really slowly). I don’t own skate shoes and was just wearing the running shoes I have, and I just ordered some memory foam/gel soles so I can lessen the shock. But overall, it was fun. There is a lot I have to get used to, like holding the throttle at a certain point if i want to maintain that speed, instead of keep letting it go once I reach the speed I want to get to.

 

This post was written earlier on reddit, then copy pasted.