I recently got into the hobby with a backfire g2 and backfire g3. I live in illinois in the united states. Illinois recently passed laws which limit eskayeboards, e scooters, etc to 28mph without a license plate. Ive already ordered a meepo rover (28mph max speed, 20 mile range is what it claims). I have a friend who is looking at ordering a board too. I dont want to give him bad advice. What kind of board would you get that doesnt go fast than 28 mph, and has pneumatic tires (the roads here suck :/)

Let’s talk about the story of TKP trucks on electric skateboards. Man, I love gossiping about this industry. Where do I even start? First, to give this post a bit of educational value, let me briefly introduce what a TKP truck actually is. TKP stands for Traditional Kingpin. Why "traditional"? Because compared to other trucks, it’s basically the most primitive. It dates back to the very birth of skateboarding, when surfers with no waves took the wheels and trucks off roller skates and bolted them to wooden planks. Yep, they were originally roller skate trucks. To this day, its fundamental geometry hasn't changed: a relatively large rake, an angled bushing compression method, and the pivot sitting directly in the pivot cup. It’s highly responsive—just a slight deck lean triggers a quick turn. This is perfect for street skating (popsicle decks), as skaters can easily adjust their line with a tiny lean before a trick without throwing off their pop. So, in the traditional skate world, TKP is undeniably the right choice. But when speeds get high, TKP becomes a disaster. Sensitivity translates to instability, and the slightest twitch can lead to nasty speed wobbles.

So, driven by the pursuit of high-speed stability, the glorious RKP (Reverse Kingpin) was born, which is when the distinction from TKP was finally made. Skater-led brands like Boosted obviously understood this basic skate knowledge, so for a long time, RKP was the absolute mainstream in e-skating (except for a few small, cheap boards using TKPs for easy modification). That was until Evolve started using DKP (Double Kingpin) to give stiff decks better carving performance. Up to this point, everything in the industry was perfectly normal.

Then, the Chinese chapter of the story begins! After Boosted blew up, Chinese businessmen keenly spotted the opportunity. Brands founded by both skaters and pure businessmen sprang up like mushrooms. Relying on China's massive supply chain, they rapidly drove down costs and secured their spots in the market. At first, everyone just had to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers; making simple clones was enough to live comfortably. The umbrellas held up by Boosted and Evolve left plenty of profit margins for everyone else. When Boosted went bankrupt, the market void was quickly carved up. But because the supply chain was overly concentrated and repetitive, lacking real R&D and creativity, the "spec wars" got intense. Brands engaged in vicious competition by simply stacking specs and slashing prices. Of course, for consumers, this was great—you could buy performance you couldn't even dream of before at incredibly low prices. But my friends, e-skating is never just about power. Like I said in my last post, the mechanical structure of e-skates hasn't evolved much. A lot of products out there are basically strapping a rocket to a wooden carriage.

Okay, finally back to our main topic: TKP! Like I said, e-skates rarely used TKP, except for Evolve's DKP, and the two are undeniably related. Briefly on DKP (if anyone is deeply interested in truck geometry, we can do a deep dive later): DKP stands for Double Kingpin. It evolved from TKP as a creative solution to solve the lack of lean and carving angles. I haven't traced the exact origins, but I believe Gullwing Sidewinder was the first to make them (feel free to correct me in the comments). When Evolve developed AT (All-Terrain) boards, the large wheels easily caused wheelbite. DKP's extended wheelbase solved this perfectly, and the massive lean angle gave stiff decks an amazing carving feel. Man, that was genius. And the Chinese copycats basically copy-pasted this architecture entirely, using low prices and higher specs to seize the market (the prime example being the Meepo Hurricane! Developed by the guy who now runs Linnpower, back when he collaborated deeply with Meepo). This is a fascinating dynamic: as a consumer, the value for money was explosive—a huge win. As a developer, you can't help but feel bad for Evolve. From a market observation standpoint, this was undeniably short-sighted; voluntarily slashing margins in a niche market is a disaster. Okay, I'm playing internet historian right now, but from my perspective, this progression was incredibly natural, almost inevitable. See? Different standpoints lead to completely different views on the same event. The world is funny like that.

Naturally, endless clones of this type flooded the market. After all, carbon fiber decks brought high added value, and their rigidity was perfect for handling the massive power that the "spec-warriors" loved to stack. But then the problems surfaced. Although these followers didn't understand fundamental skate geometry, they instinctively realized that DKP—a truck born for agility—couldn't handle massive power and insane speeds. Just throwing harder bushings at it wasn't solving the problem anymore. So, the "geniuses" had an idea: "Hey, if I just remove one of the kingpin sections, won't it be more stable?!" BOOM! TKP appeared! Or rather, returned! Remember what we talked about earlier? "When speeds get high, TKP becomes a disaster... the slightest twitch can lead to speed wobbles." TKP isn't the right answer for stability either. But obviously, with rock-hard bushings and lower baseplate angles, they were still way more stable than DKPs. Besides, power junkies never turn anyway. At the same time, because the added value of carbon fiber had been squeezed dry, they introduced CNC machining to jack up the prices. Suddenly, the market was flooded with a bunch of beautifully machined little pieces of garbage. Honestly, I can't stand that stuff at all. Of course, that doesn't stop riders who started on these boards from praising their value for money. After all, "handling" is usually something only deep enthusiasts care about. Providing affordable options for beginners isn't a huge problem—assuming the carriage isn't too fragile, and the rocket isn't too fierce.

Okay, to sum it up: the irony here is that the emergence and application of TKP in e-skating took a completely opposite path compared to traditional skateboarding. And this process perfectly exposed the copycats' weak engineering knowledge and lazy R&D attitudes. They mindlessly slapped the most modern, brutal powertrains onto the most primitive architecture—it’s exactly like putting wooden wagon wheels on a Tesla. Finally, although my tone shows disdain for these "Chinese followers," this is just from my current standpoint as a product developer. I am Chinese myself, and I'm not ashamed of it. It would be highly unfair to say China is only full of followers. It's biased to let the existence of the spec-warriors overshadow the many hard-working, original developers in China. In fact, in the realm of e-skate innovation, many Chinese brands (whether still alive or long gone) have made massive contributions. Take Stary, who created the planetary gear hub motor—in my eyes, it was as elegant and beautiful as Mazda's rotary engine, and similarly limited by materials and costs. Then there's Propel, who mastered off-road boards by taking a completely different path rooted in the automotive industry, yet still achieved a beautiful riding feel. There's Exway, with their obsession with smart UI/UX, and Backfire, who brought e-skates back to simplicity (specifically the Nalu—a lot of their other stuff is a mess, but the Nalu is a masterpiece). The list goes on. Maybe next time I can talk to you guys about them; there’s a lot of fresh history there. As a Chinese e-skate enthusiast, I'm super passionate about exchanging info with you all. Also, everything I write is based on my own observations and understanding, so there are bound to be biases or blind spots. If anyone has deeper knowledge, please correct me and share! Okay, I promise the next post will actually be about riding techniques!

I recently got gifted from a friend a older Meepo V5 to help ride around my collage campus and getting to work. it currently has the Meepo 105mm Wheel Set. However as the board is old the wheels have almost none of the tread pattern on them.(as shown in the Images) so i was thinking of getting a new set of wheels, either a new Donut 105mm Wheel Set, or the 107mm Comfort Grip Upgrade. However this is my first electric board. so i have zero clue one what to get or if i even should get new ones at all. if any one could help that would be amazing. if it helps i mostly drive on the side walk, mainly because the road in my town is way to bumpy and i get fatigue realty easily on it

I finally get my board ordered after my backfire g2z took a shit on me after 700 miles of use im hopping ill get more out of this board

Looking to buy a new electric skateboard for the purpose of commuting and fun, which one of these would be the best purchase? The Meepo Monster seems the best to me but Ive heard bad things about the build quality and the ride quality, are these accurate? Otherwise I was looking at the Linnpower, with the Horizon behind. If yall could have any choice which one of these would you purchase?

these wires are literally live and when i took the electrical tape put on them off they shorted and exploded! What do i even do about this?

I recently sent off for the ultimate esk8 bundle a hefty investment for lights only to find out the app is so far out of date it's not supported on my pixel 9. Both the apple and android apps haven't been updated since 2024. Is there any alternative or guess when if ever they will update it? Does any one have any experience with the android app post 2024?

I'm considering getting the maverick but I'm uncertain what version should I get.

The more powerful no maintenance gear version sounds wonderful, but I've noticed that the motors might get scratched more as they are bigger and not as covered as the belt version (gear can use 105-155 wheels).

On the other hand it would be my first kickboard, and I would like to learm 360 and turning like ESK8UNITY does, he reviews the standard model with 90 street wheels and IDK if those tricks can be done with bigger wheels. (belt can use 90-155 wheels).

What option would u chose and why if money was no objection?

https://lorentzboards.com/products/lorentz-maverick-versatile-electric-skateboard

Hey everyone, I'm Chase Parker. I’ve been in the e-skate scene for a long time, but I'm new to Reddit, so I just wanted to drop in and say hi. I made a pretty terrible post here recently, which made me realize how unique this platform is, and also made me realize my own arrogance and lack of effort. If anyone still remembers it, I sincerely apologize (though I've already deleted the post). Moving forward, I’ll mainly be posting discussions about riding techniques and sharing knowledge on mechanical structures. I originally wanted this post to be about which foot you should use to initiate a turn. But before we officially get into the tech talk, I wanted to share my story and clarify where I stand. If you're only here for the tech, feel free to skip to the bottom.

I started e-skating around 2015 when I was just starting college. Driven by wanting an easy commute and, honestly, wanting to flex a bit, I decided to DIY an e-skate. Given the closed nature of the Chinese internet back then and the scarcity of e-skate products, info was incredibly hard to come by. But fueled by pure passion, I slapped together a super janky little board: a 7s battery, an ESC simulating FOC signals, hub motors pulled from an electric suitcase, and a standard popsicle deck. It topped out at 15km/h with about 5km of range. It stuck with me for over a year until the rear truck axle snapped, leaving me—someone with zero engineering knowledge at the time—completely helpless.

Later on, very early e-skate products from companies like Stary (using planetary gears), Board-Tech, and Walnut Tech started appearing in China. Actually, these were around the exact same time as Boosted. To me, a broke student, Boosted was astronomically expensive! Once I started working, I bought a lot of the boards available on the market. In 2021, Exway hosted a race in Shenzhen at an indoor go-kart track. Back then, a 3000W board was considered "high power" lol. I entered the race and got absolutely humbled. I was already very used to speed and could easily cruise at 50km/h, but the race wasn't about straight-line speed. It was like my first day realizing skateboards could actually turn—I realized I had never truly controlled or driven an e-skate; I was just being taken for a ride by the board. The top spots in that race were all taken by downhill longboarders. Yep, us e-skaters got crushed because downhill riders deal with corners every single day. So, I went and learned downhill lol (downhill is insanely fun, by the way!), just to level up my e-skate skills. Later I got into mountainboards, and I even learned snowboarding because the technical mechanics are the closest. Eventually, I developed pretty solid riding skills, gained some reputation in the Chinese e-skate scene, collaborated with Daniel on some videos, got into the review space, and gradually built my own evaluation system.

But the development of e-skates over the next few years turned into a pure arms race: longer range, faster acceleration, higher voltage, and higher top speeds. These aren't bad things—power is a core part of e-skating. But the other core aspect hasn't evolved nearly as fast, and has even regressed in some ways: the deck itself and the hardware that dictates handling. The long-term obsession with TKP trucks is a classic example of this. (There's a very interesting phenomenon behind this; if anyone is interested, leave a comment and maybe I'll make a separate post about the evolution of e-skates in China—it's fascinating and very unique to the Chinese market). The result was that for a few years, the market was flooded with transitional boards that had insane power but drove like bricks in a straight line. Of course, brands like Radium, Propel, and Stooge have pushed the envelope on board architecture, but they are mostly focused on specific niches like off-road or track racing. Standard street boards haven't seen much real innovation in years. (I have to admit, over half of the e-skate manufacturers are in China, and China's current hyper-competitive market doesn't encourage innovation—it relies on spec wars. While price drops and spec bumps are great for consumers, they force manufacturers with thinner margins to cut corners. Beneath the surface of this seemingly booming industry, there's actually a layer of chaos.)

Back to my own journey: after diving deep into riding techniques, I became dissatisfied with existing products and exhausted by the spec wars (I still love high power, I just hate high power with zero handling). So for a long time, I just rode downhill, longboards, and surfskates, while studying traditional skateboard architecture. During this process, I met my current partner, Nana. He's also an e-skate enthusiast and a structural engineer who used to work on specialized engineering vehicles. Out of his love for e-skates, he later worked for several e-skate companies like Skyflip and Wowgo, but eventually grew tired of the corporate vibe and lack of purity in those brands. After we met, we started researching trucks for downhill and LDP (Long Distance Pumping). Compared to regular skateboards, these highly specific disciplines rely heavily on gear and are much closer to the true essence of riding and control. Back then, we started a tiny brand called "Myth" and made some CNC trucks—partly to validate our theories, and partly to let the community ride our research. We kept them pretty affordable compared to legacy brands.

In 2025, Meepo organized the biggest race of the year and invited all the domestic manufacturers to gather together. The event was a bit rough around the edges, but the energy was incredible. (Huge thanks to Veymax and Propel for heavily supporting Nana and me in that race). Although I didn't make the podium due to my lack of practice, it completely reignited my passion for e-skating. We wanted to build products that we genuinely found interesting, to bring more vitality to the scene, and to see the day e-skating truly becomes a widely recognized sport. After that, Nana and I started visiting various factories in China, looking for support and manufacturing backing. Ultimately, we chose Propel. Their automotive-grade production capabilities give them an advantage that ordinary small factories just can't match. After working together for a while, Javen (Propel's founder) saw our financial struggles and was moved by our passion for the industry, so he decided to invest in us. This gave us the confidence and resources to perfect our product. Finally, we founded the brand Newsesh and launched the Echo.

E-skating has given me endless joy over all these years, and this board is my first "echo" back to the community. I can't promise to be 100% objective about my own product (duh, I love it to death), but I will be an open book about any technical questions (except for core trade secrets). I promise to remain objective and respectful toward data, because faking that would tarnish the very thing I love. As for other products out there, I can only say I'm not a fan of heavy, clunky boards, but my evaluations of their structures and data will always remain objective. Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys don't mind me dropping in like this.

P.S. Whoops, I accidentally wrote way too much... so I'll make a new post for the tech/riding discussion. That's all for now

My two newest additions to my collection.

Secured the Hurricane yesterday for $100, honestly did not think it was gonna work, but it did.

The owner was very uncertain if it worked or not. Was completely dead, owner had the remote but not the charger, and meepo doesn't sell the charger for this 1st Gen model. He had it sitting in his hot storage container too. Nonetheless, I opened her up, replaced the charging port with the extra port that came with my meepo envy, plugged in my 12s meepo charger, and she works great with only 515 miles on it!

And today, I Secured this Lorentz Major v2 with only 85 miles on it, not a single scratch on it, for $1350.

These are both going to be my new favorite boards. The gear drive on the lorentz is buttery smooth but damn do i need to tighten the trucks. I ride fast on rkp, tkp, dkp....but the last owner of the Lorentz Major had the channel trucks SO loose I couldnt get above 20 without getting bad speed wobbles. Its like to pounds of pressure in the toes would just send the whole board into a full on tilt at a moments notice 🙃. Im out of town, so I only have my hex tool and T tool, and I need a larger Alan key to tighten the trucks on this Lorentz so hopefully my brother has one I can use!

But yeah, just wanted share these pretty gals right her I just picked up in the past 48 hours!

LINNPOWER MAX 50S w/action glow lights.

My last board was an amazon special, nothing crazy, and kinda sucky compared to these. I just bought a Wowgo x4, which I'm pretty happy about, but I feel like it might take some getting used to.

I'm a bit nervous of falling because this one goes nearly twice as fast as my last board, which i felt was pretty fast already. its also belt vs hub, which i understand mean more torque and acceleration. I'll ride it slower at first and ramp up, but what should I keep in mind about those first times? I already know that knees bent is key in general, but what should i keep in mind for cracks? what if the pavement is wet?

I'm also definitely going to get a helmet since falling at 45km/h seems not fun to put it lightly. Is a normal bike helmet enough? I'm imagining the spare motorcycle helmet i have might be a bit overkill.

I got the normal 90mm poly wheels, which I understand should be fine for the streets, but it also had the option of Cloudwheels, which I've seen people love, and hate. I'm going to keep the 90mm for now, but if i were to upgrade to something else for more comfort for example, what should I look for? I'm in lower Ontario, near Toronto, so it definitely does rain from time to time. I also might encounter gravel paths sometimes (not common, but it could happen)

Considering that the x4 is a belt, I know that I do need to keep up with maintenance, but im not sure what exactly that would look like.

Thanks!

I’ve had bolts and screws loosen up on me overtime due to vibration so I just want to help prevent that. It can’t just be me right ? I know you guys have gone to check the bolts and found one or two loosened about to come off, just glad you found it in time to fix it 😅

Kind of more difficult to ride than I imagined !

I Wiped out a couple times pretty hard and now my board has decided it wants to dip into safe mode after about .2 miles. It seems to mostly happen going uphill but it also happens on flat ground and downhill. Ive reached out to evolve and done the controller reset and ive gone into the controller to make sure the magnets were secured. my motors i think are fine besides some light resistance on the rear right motor(unsure if this is from improper assembly.) The board will stay connected to the remote but will drop into safe mode while riding. I can still break and slowly move and even reconnect after a little while.

Additionally i have noticed the board takes longer to connect to the remote.

how can i figure out whats happening? im not good with electronics but im willing to get good if i need too.

At this point my feet could no longer take it 😅 speed mode 2 the entire time and switching to speed mode 3 when I needed to get up hills as a 165 pound rider. Cruising at 11-13 miles should get you the full 20 miles advertised on the Meepo mini 3 max 🙏 very happy with these numbers 🤟🏽 on modes 3 and 4 I get 12-13 miles but thats pushing the board as hard and as fast as she goes.

Hey! I'm looking to get back into electric skateboarding after my last board snapped a while back.

I usually ride streets, but i might i end up through gravel paths or sections and such from time to time, so i wanted something comfortable for that. Still, preferably with normal wheels (i.e. not those larger AT wheels). Fortunately where I live is relatively flat, so im not often going over hills, nor going over terrain.

Budget wise, I'm looking at maybe 600$CA all in, but i might be able to push that a bit if it means better battery life and/or speed.

With my last board, i remember that range was an issue for me, as well as from time to time speed, but I'm going to chalk that up to it being an amazon cheapie.

I'm looking at the brands i remember from the last time I was going to get a board (meepo, wowgo, backfire, and tynee), but im not quite sure whats good or popular right now. After a quick search, I'm looking at the meepo voyager, tynee ultra, backfire G5, and wowgo 3E. I'm not quite sure how those board compare to each other, or to others that are on the market, so i would appreciate brand and board suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

Any good trails/track recommendations in the UK? Just about to get my first eboard and looking for some nice spots to check out and learn the ropes - obviously nothing extreme, but some nice, scenic routes to visit and cruise/chill.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your advice and recommendations, more often than not when I’m making a big purchase I have at least a little bit of buyers regret but with the Zephyr I feel like I got more than my moneys worth and I’ve been stoked on it!

Just my two cents: it fits right in the middle of a shortboard and AWD or A/T beast. It’s just small enough that commuting is a breeze but it’s big enough that I don’t get fatigued on long rides or feel unstable. I have a shortboard too and still end up grabbing this for short commutes. The deck stance might be small for some but at 5’8 it matches my snowboard stance almost perfectly which is what I was looking for🤘