REVIEW – I grew up skateboarding and liked bombing down hills. Stopping was achieved by… dragging one foot as a brake, an influence slide (in the event you may management it), working off the entrance (attempting to maintain your toes underneath your self), or unceremoniously hitting a small stone or crack and having the bottom come up at you HARD. I spent most of my time skating road and launch ramps, however lengthy boards had been at all times fun. Now that the years (of ankle and knee abuse) have caught up with me, I’ve obtained a way more measured method and a protracted board simply feels steady and fun. Enter a chance to review a brand new longboard; the Vokboard Riot Electric Skateboard from Vokboard. Get as much as cruising pace by rolling a dial along with your thumb? Hills simply conquered up and down due to motors and a brake? LET’S GOOOOOO!
What is it?
The Vokboard Riot is a protracted board type electrical skateboard with motor-pushed rear wheels. The battery and motor controller are mounted beneath and a handheld distant places pace and braking proper at your thumb tip.
What’s within the field?
- Vokboard Riot Electric Skateboard
- Handheld Controller
- Controller Charging Cable (USB-A to USB-C)
- Charger Block for Skateboard (Barrel plug)
- Skateboard Tools (Truck/Axle wrench, Tri-Allen key)
- Wall hanger and mounting screws
- Skateboard eraser
- Instruction handbook
Hardware specs
Battery: 42V 288Wh battery (makes use of 21700 cells)
Motor: (2) 200W wheel motors
Motor Controller: LY-FOC ESC
Board: 8 layer – 7 layers Canadian Maple + 1 layer of Bamboo
Wheels: 90 x 62 – 78A hardness
Trucks: Diecast
IP Rating: IPX6 Water Resistant
Range: 30-35km
Speed: Max 28mph – Mode Limits | Slow 6mph | Normal 12mph | Fast 28mph | Turbo 28mph
Dimensions: 17.7lbs | 37″ lengthy x 9″ large
Design and options
Looking on the Vokboard Riot Electric Skateboard from the highest, you may not even know that it’s an electrical skateboard.
From the facet, it’s clear there’s one thing completely different. Two giant enclosures are suspended beneath. The entrance enclosure (left) holds the battery and charging port. The rear enclosure (proper) homes the motor controllers and energy change.
The entrance wheels (left) are conventional whereas the rear wheels (proper) don’t have a visual axle and nut as a result of the hubcap hides and protects the interior motor.
The handheld distant is sufficiently small to be unnoticeable in some palms. There’s a finger loop for a superb steady maintain and a thumb wheel that you simply roll ahead to go and backward to brake. A wrist leash retains issues safe.
Setup
The Vokboard Riot Electric Skateboard arrives effectively packaged and absolutely assembled. Setup is just ensuring to high off the batteries. Connect the big charging block to the wall and the barrel to the port on the battery pack. The charger reveals a purple mild whereas charging or a inexperienced mild when completed (or not related). For the distant, you’ll want to supply your individual USB-An influence adapter and then join the cable. The distant’s show reveals the cost stage.
I used a slim wall adapter (and a shorter cable)for the distant. I arrange a small charging station within the storage by mounting the included wall hanger to assist the entrance wheels with out taking the complete weight of the board.
Very cool that they included this. When each are absolutely charged you’re able to hit the streets. Wear a helmet and relying in your capability you may need to contemplate knee pads or extra.
Here are the working fundamentals…
Press the facility button on the skateboard. It will make a quiet chime and the LED will flip blue to let you already know it’s on. Now press and maintain the facility button on the distant. The display screen will present a skateboard and then the next stats display screen letting you already know it’s related to the skateboard.
The Vokboard Riot Electric Skateboard’s LED will even be blinking blue, and the transmission icon within the high left of the distant display screen will probably be blinking (the above photograph is between blinks on that icon which would seem simply above the phrase pace). If you turned on the distant however not the skateboard, the distant simply says ‘DISCONNECTED’.
Both day out and energy off in round 5 minutes of no exercise. If you solely energy off the distant, the skateboard will day out in 5 minutes.
The mode button on the distant allows you to modify just a few parameters.
- Press and launch to increment pace modes 1-4 (it wraps again from 4 to 1 in the event you preserve urgent)
- To modify the braking energy (1-4), roll the thumb wheel backward and maintain, then press the mode button
Here’s a video exhibiting all these particulars…
Now it’s time for a check journey. We’re going to start out simple as a result of there’s a ton of torque out there and the facility might be shocking even in the event you’re an skilled skater. I began on Speed 3 / Brake 2 and virtually got here off the board on acceleration and stopping. So I like to recommend setting each the pace and brake modes to 1. This limits the pace to eight mph in addition to decreasing the torque.
Hopefully, you’re already assured on a daily skateboard (of any form), or no less than comfortable browsing or snowboarding. If not, I’d counsel spending a while getting snug on Riot Electric Skateboard earlier than hopping on the Vokboard Riot. I’ll assume that is the case and that you already know which foot you need ahead and which you wish to push with (all preferences welcome).
Here we go…
- Place your entrance foot simply behind the slim space on the entrance of the skateboard.
- Step up and place your again foot simply in entrance of the rear slim space.
- Take an athletic stance with bent knees and extra of your weight in your rear foot.
- Slowly roll the distant wheel ahead to start out shifting, then you possibly can lean and flip the way in which you usually would.
- Before you go to decelerate, preserve your weight shifted again however push in opposition to your entrance foot such as you’re about to slip on ice.
- Roll the distant wheel backward to come back to a cease.
Once you’re feeling snug you possibly can strive growing the pace and braking modes. Play with the modulation to search out what works for you.
Depending on the rider’s weight, turning preferences or stability at pace, you could have to tighten the vans. Use the included wrench on the middle nut. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. I positively needed to tighten them up a bit for my dimension.
Performance
All I really want to say is that this product was named appropriately. It actually is a Riot to journey.
If you’ve spent any period of time on a protracted board, all of the feels will come flying again to you rapidly. The largest change in the way in which you journey is studying to brace your self on acceleration and braking. Other than that you simply’ll be grinning up the hills and marveling that you may come to a cease with out taking your toes off the board. I’ll let this video talk a number of the fun. There’s some hill climbing, a superb instance of a full cease on a hill and acceleration from zero that caught my son off guard on this one.
He then determined he wished a distinct video angle and set to work in CAD and 3D printed mount to bolt on the highest of the entrance truck bolts. It makes use of the folding arm part from GoPro’s older 3-means Grip pole accent. Here’s a hyperlink to that file on Thingiverse if any of you need to strive adapting it for related functions.
The ensuing video showcases how even clean roads can really feel tough and additionally how extremely clean GoPro’s new horizon lock is on the brand new Hero 11s. You may also see a bit extra of the hand held distant in use.
And for any of you questioning about turning, I had a blast carving on the Riot Electric Skateboard. In this one, I strapped the GoPro to my rear calf so it’s a cool angle however you get to see extra of the ankle movement wanted for deep curves. The vans have a reverse pivot in comparison with conventional skateboards which positively offers a extra surfy really feel.
The solely factor lacking is that I couldn’t discover a solution to change the distant show to point out MPH as an alternative of KPH. Small gripe in that you’re too busy driving to trouble trying on the show display screen.
Oh and in the event you’re questioning what a skateboard eraser is, so was I. It’s mainly a compressed rubber brick for cleansing grip tape. I had no concept that was a factor.
What I like
- Push-free skateboarding FUN!
- Awesome high quality and ease of use
- Natural, intuitive distant operation
What I’d change
- A solution to change the distant to show MPH as an alternative of KPH
- Nothing else
Final ideas
After utilizing the Vokboard Riot Electric Skateboard for a stable month, I’m kicking myself for not attempting an electrical skateboard sooner. It’s an absolute blast to journey and simple to make use of with a really fast studying curve for anybody with expertise in any of the sideways sports activities. If you’ve obtained good climate and clean roads, this may simply be probably the most fun solution to get round.
Price:
Vokboard Riot – $649 $449 (presently on sale by means of Jan. thirty first)
Vokboard Riot ER – $749 $489 (Extended Range model)
Where to purchase: Vokboard
Source: The pattern of this product was supplied by Vokboard.