I would like to put a quick comparison of the boostedboards v1 vs the new version v2. I had the v1 for 2 years and put over 5k kms on the board and then sold it. I then bought the v2 a month and a half ago and have put over 200 kms on it, which sounds like not many esp in comparison to the mileage I put on the v1, but its still 20 full charges in a month, so its actually quite a bit. Either way, I know the board.
For all intents and purposes the boards feel the exact same. There are a few noticeable improvements and 2 things which actually got worse, but mostly things stayed the same, for the better and for the worse:
Improvements:
- There are absolutely no disconnections from the bluetooth remote. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT improvement they did, previously there were places all over the city (tel aviv) where there were consistent disconnections, and Ive ridden all around all of them in the past month and have never had a disconnection. This is really the only justifiable reason in my opinion to upgrade, bc previously riding really fast downhill could get sketchy if there is a disconnection. Apparently they did this by putting dual-bluetooth connections, so if 1 disconnected there is still the second. Either way, it works, so nice job boosted 👍🏻👍🏻.
- The “removable” battery. This is really more just a gimmick, which got me at first as an amazing feature, bc in theory you can carry an extra battery and swap out when you run out of juice. This doesnt work in practice, bc its 6 bolts you need to undo, and then fiddle with the connector to disconnect the battery, definitely not worth going through the trouble of every 10 kms or so you run out. Also the bolts are meant to be loc-tited, making that solution even less practical.
- They used 4mm bigger in diameter wheels. There isnt a noticeable difference in ride quality, which remains good.
Retrogressions:
- The trucks are now generic (forged?) “boosted” trucks, instead of being the world class independent caliber trucks they had used previously. I understand this move because they are definitely cheaper for boosted to use, dont have noticeable performance differences, and they built in the motor mounts on the back truck, so its easier and cheaper than having to cnc motor mounts onto the independent trucks. I dont feel any difference, so its more of a quality decrease as opposed to performance retrogression, and the overall experience is none the worse.
- I dont have proof of this, but in my subjective opinion the battery has a tiny bit less juice, or else I had an unusually good v1 (this is possible bc riding next to my brother on his v1 dual (i had a dual+), I would consistently get 1-2 kms more per charge). Either way, when I disconnected the battery to travel with my board, on the bottom of the battery pack there are the indents for the li-ion packs and they are very small and inefficiently packed. There has to be a way to pack more juice into such a relatively large battery pack.
This brings us to the things which stayed the same (for the better and for the worse). Ill start with the worse:
- The range is pitifully bad, and I ride super conservatively (gentle braking and acceleration, I take into account 10kms/charge). There are cheap e-scooters and e-bikes which go the same speeds as the boosted (admittedly accelerate slower), but go 30+ kms/charge. In my opinion theres no excuse, its just cheapness on boosteds part. I end up having to take the charger wherever I go and charge on arrival, and the range is good enough to go basically anywhere I would want to go on skateboard, but its annoying to have to carry the charger, and what if Im going somewhere its not convenient to charge up?
- The rolling friction is too high, its quite uncomfortable to pedal the skate… very quickly the gliding slows down and requires too much effort to keep going, especially on a gradual incline (not to mention a steep one). This is especially annoying bc of the pitifully short electric range, and I guess is due to the 3-1 reduction in belt drive gears, which means every turn of the wheel the motor is turning 3 times, which means its turning much faster than the wheels, which means the friction is a lot higher. Either way, it sucks bc the board cant be pushed like a regular longboard.
- The feeling of control over the board is perfect. Its almost like the board responds to your thoughts, the remote is super responsive, better than any other motorized vehicle I’ve ever ridden/driven, including cars, motorcycles, bikes, you get the idea. This mean it feels super safe weaving in an out of traffic/pedestrians/bikes, you know when you throttle you will go and when you brake you will slow, and not half a second later.
All this aside, I bought the boosted for my second time (after buying the first one for over 2000$, due to bad timing), after buying another one also for my brother, and if I could go back I would buy it again, because despite its shortcomings, it saves me hundreds (or maybe thousands) of $$$ a year on taxis, buses, cars, gas, and insurance expenses, as well as lowering my carbon footprint and saving me time. In total Ive payed over 4k$ (minus 800$ bc I sold my v1) for my boosteds in the past 3 years, but Ive never got stuck going somewhere (no flat tire, no electrical problem, only once a wet wipe got stuck in the belt and I had to take it out), never had it stolen (I had 2 bikes with a net worth of ~2k$ stolen in that time), and it has saved me much more than that in expenses.
Could the board be better? Yes.
I also didn’t have amazing customer experience with them, and ended up having to buy my v2 privately off of someone on craigslist for 1800$. They’re fair but let’s just say they don’t bend over backwards to accommodate even early returning customers. Either way, right now they have a monopoly on the market of quality reliable electric skateboards, which you buy and ride without worrying about problems. The Marbel company is a joke, I backed their project on kickstarter over 3 years ago and still haven’t received my board, the e-go’s controls are significantly worse, and although I havent tried the evolve recently, it seems too similar to the electroskate es-500 I had 4 years ago, so until another company puts out a similarly high quality and reliable product, I have no choice but to come back again and again.
Heres to a better boosted with more range and less rolling fricion 🍻
Last but not least here’s a video of how I ride, across Tel Aviv in under a minute 😎🤙🏼
hovermanbronz 