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:
- 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.
- 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.
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