Hi everyone,
I've been enjoying the forum for a while now and I thought it was time I contributed. I've been a big fan of electric skateboards for a long time, since the days before lithium when we were riding heavy, poor quality boards powered by huge, heavy SLA batteries. I sure don't miss those things but I remember those early days fondly. I found Evolve when they were just getting ready for their first production run and I really liked what they were doing. There's a lot of choice on the market today but back then there wasn't, and most of the few e-boards out there were big, heavy and low quality. I really liked what Evolve were going for and I somehow ended up getting on board with them (no pun intended) and starting up the distributorship, Evolve Skateboards Canada. With 2 staff members we built and serviced all the Evolve boards for Canada and ran the operation for 3 years. It was a great experience. I moved onto other things and I am no longer affiliated with Evolve but I'm still a big fan of theirs and an avid e-board rider.
My first Evolve board was the original Bamboo Snubnose and it holds a special place in my heart. I've owned all of their boards and yet that snubbie remains my favourite, even though it's a first generation design and not as good as the Gen2 Bamboo or the Carbon line. Recently I've been riding my Gen2 Bamboo a lot, not just for recreation, but for things like getting to the post office, walking/running my dog and doing local errands instead of wasting fuel and polluting the air with the car. But I always felt that all of my boards are too big, long and heavy to carry around at my destination. I always hoped Evolve would make a much smaller offering to compliment their larger, more performance driven boards. I hope for something that was more compact, lighter, easy to carry hanging by the truck with one hand without it scraping on the ground - something like a "last mile" board, geared towards commuters, students wanting to get around campus and anyone who has 'compact' near the top of their wish list rather than speed or long range.
They never did make such a board. Maybe they will in the future, but in the mean time I decided to build my own personal Snubnose Mini. Since I always loved the Gen 1 Snubnose, I based my design on that. I wanted to keep reasonably close to the aesthetic essence of the Gen 1 snub while using Gen2 electronics and avoiding aftermarket parts as much as possible. I made it the smallest size I could and that I'm comfortable riding at speed. I made the deck out of Baltic birch, gave it a suitable concave and sealed some silica sand onto the top layer rather than using grip tape. This allows the design to remain visible and is how the Gen2 Bamboo grip is done. It's grippy without being so much that it's painful on the hands when carrying it. All the other parts are from the Gen2 Bamboo. The battery box has been shortened to fit the miniature deck. The supercarve double trucks have been reduced to single trucks to reduce height, weight and bulk. The motor, normally mounted out at the rear on later iterations, has been moved to in front of the rear truck, keeping with the style of the original Gen 1 Snubnose and also reducing the overall length as well as looking more aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion. I had to modify the rear truck in order to mount the motor plate in the forward position.
It runs on a 36v 10S 5AH battery and charges from the stock charger. 5AH the largest pack I could build that would fit. I wanted to keep the weight down too. Given that the Gen2 Bamboo runs on a 7AH pack, this mini snub on 5AH should get around 70% (or 71.43% if we do the maths exactly) of the range of the Gen2 Bamboo. It has the same acceleration and top speed, as all the electronics and mechanical parts are the same. The parts are all installed closely together, wasting no space, in order to make this as compact as I could while still being and looking like an Evolve board. I know I could have used a much smaller motor, ESC and mounting hardware but I wanted it to be authentic and I wanted the look of the snub. It could be smaller and lighter still if I put smaller wheels on it but I love these 97mm Abecs because they soak up the vibrations of the rough road surfaces so well. And they last for years. I think they make the board look cute too; it's like the little board that could.
Here's some pics. Thanks again to all who contribute to this forum. It's a great resource with a friendly atmosphere.
Roo
I've been enjoying the forum for a while now and I thought it was time I contributed. I've been a big fan of electric skateboards for a long time, since the days before lithium when we were riding heavy, poor quality boards powered by huge, heavy SLA batteries. I sure don't miss those things but I remember those early days fondly. I found Evolve when they were just getting ready for their first production run and I really liked what they were doing. There's a lot of choice on the market today but back then there wasn't, and most of the few e-boards out there were big, heavy and low quality. I really liked what Evolve were going for and I somehow ended up getting on board with them (no pun intended) and starting up the distributorship, Evolve Skateboards Canada. With 2 staff members we built and serviced all the Evolve boards for Canada and ran the operation for 3 years. It was a great experience. I moved onto other things and I am no longer affiliated with Evolve but I'm still a big fan of theirs and an avid e-board rider.
My first Evolve board was the original Bamboo Snubnose and it holds a special place in my heart. I've owned all of their boards and yet that snubbie remains my favourite, even though it's a first generation design and not as good as the Gen2 Bamboo or the Carbon line. Recently I've been riding my Gen2 Bamboo a lot, not just for recreation, but for things like getting to the post office, walking/running my dog and doing local errands instead of wasting fuel and polluting the air with the car. But I always felt that all of my boards are too big, long and heavy to carry around at my destination. I always hoped Evolve would make a much smaller offering to compliment their larger, more performance driven boards. I hope for something that was more compact, lighter, easy to carry hanging by the truck with one hand without it scraping on the ground - something like a "last mile" board, geared towards commuters, students wanting to get around campus and anyone who has 'compact' near the top of their wish list rather than speed or long range.
They never did make such a board. Maybe they will in the future, but in the mean time I decided to build my own personal Snubnose Mini. Since I always loved the Gen 1 Snubnose, I based my design on that. I wanted to keep reasonably close to the aesthetic essence of the Gen 1 snub while using Gen2 electronics and avoiding aftermarket parts as much as possible. I made it the smallest size I could and that I'm comfortable riding at speed. I made the deck out of Baltic birch, gave it a suitable concave and sealed some silica sand onto the top layer rather than using grip tape. This allows the design to remain visible and is how the Gen2 Bamboo grip is done. It's grippy without being so much that it's painful on the hands when carrying it. All the other parts are from the Gen2 Bamboo. The battery box has been shortened to fit the miniature deck. The supercarve double trucks have been reduced to single trucks to reduce height, weight and bulk. The motor, normally mounted out at the rear on later iterations, has been moved to in front of the rear truck, keeping with the style of the original Gen 1 Snubnose and also reducing the overall length as well as looking more aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion. I had to modify the rear truck in order to mount the motor plate in the forward position.
It runs on a 36v 10S 5AH battery and charges from the stock charger. 5AH the largest pack I could build that would fit. I wanted to keep the weight down too. Given that the Gen2 Bamboo runs on a 7AH pack, this mini snub on 5AH should get around 70% (or 71.43% if we do the maths exactly) of the range of the Gen2 Bamboo. It has the same acceleration and top speed, as all the electronics and mechanical parts are the same. The parts are all installed closely together, wasting no space, in order to make this as compact as I could while still being and looking like an Evolve board. I know I could have used a much smaller motor, ESC and mounting hardware but I wanted it to be authentic and I wanted the look of the snub. It could be smaller and lighter still if I put smaller wheels on it but I love these 97mm Abecs because they soak up the vibrations of the rough road surfaces so well. And they last for years. I think they make the board look cute too; it's like the little board that could.
Here's some pics. Thanks again to all who contribute to this forum. It's a great resource with a friendly atmosphere.
Roo
