Drakarn

Ceramics are very nice, It feels like my board actually has more power/speed with those, not sure if its a huge difference tho. What I like about these bearings tho is that they are low maintenance, I should be cleaning them more often, but its been about a month or 2 since i bought them, and only cleaned them first time today. But being ceramic, can go on longer with out cleaning.

Yeah, I also use it to go to work 8-10 miles, depends which route I take. But sure beats the hell out of riding a bicycle and leaving it outside where someone can steal it lolz.

Yeah the pieces are fairly easy to take off and put on a different deck...just gonna need to drill some holes in the right places, you can see in my pics I kinda messed up because i was rushing it wanting to skate...but i made it work. Also my deck is not flat...its concave so thats why i made a bracket to hold the battery in place with the control box...otherwise the battery kept falling out(even when just standing on the deck with out riding yet...the flex of the deck would pop it out of place....) but with my bracket it has been fine for last couple of weeks with long rides and no problem...although I didnt do maintenance on it last few weekends so today when cleaning my bearings I noticed one of the nuts on front truck was missing...guess it fell off, and the truck was a bit loose....could've been a painful discovery later on lol. I would stay check all your screws and nuts are tight at least once a week.

The wheels I have on my AIR are the ones that come with the Steel Pivot Pin trucks that I have on there. I tried the Gumball wheels...and they were great! ....but only for 2 days...then they started popping and ripping...so I wouldnt really recommend those unless you magically only ride on super smooth surfaces....mine popped on a crack of a sidewalk...you can see picture in my gumball wheel fail post.

What sort of ranges do you get out if your air? Im hoping it will get me all the way to work which is 8 miles various terrain.

This board can do 10 miles easy, I havent tested out the max range after all my mods yet...but i know it can do that and more. I got to 11 miles tops before switching things up, but on the super reds bearings tho.

Yeah I got a guy in San Diego to build the deck for me. He's a pro and does it fast, here's his website for all kinds of decks and you can customize the designs with lights to pretty much anything:

http://starlitmusicandapparel.com/shop/skateboards-1.html

This is specifically the one I got...but he designed it specially for my needs as far as an electric skateboard, so that the lights and the battery/motor/control box dont get in the way.

http://starlitmusicandapparel.com/shop/skateboards-1/starlit-hill-shark-complete-downhill-board.html

As far as fitting the battery/control box on it...honestly, I had a lot of trouble haha. I kinda fucked up when drilling the holes...so I drilled the battery pin holes too far so it couldnt fit, did it again closer but too close so also didnt fit...i ended up drilling a line all the way thru and making it fit...but that way it was kinda loose....and battery would keep falling out of the control box if i step too hard down the middle of the deck or hit any sidewalks or cracks or bumps...was frustrating, so I ended up making a custom bracket made of plywood and screwing it on top of the battery/control box thru to keep everything nice and tight together. So now its something im proud of spending weeks of working on. It's not perfectly built, but it works, and doesnt fall apart any more haha. I'll post the pics of the above details later when I get a chance.

Here are a few more pics of my Modding of ES 500 AIR.

I completely swapped out the deck for a longer concave deck with built in LED lights. These pics are a little dated now, because I also installed new STEEL Pivot Pin Trucks and new wheels on it, as well as a custom made(by me) control box/battery cover casing. I'll upload the new pics with the trucks/cover case later plus the videos of the rides day n night =D

Let me know what you guys think of this mod.

He said the wheels are usually 75 but I got them with a large discount

dont know, he said the wheels come with the trucks

Yeah I did have to pay for the wheels, but he gave me a discount, since I pretty much shop from ES weekly lol

Andrew from ES specifically told me the new trucks will not work with older wheels...and come with new wheels.

Nah man, I'm buying everything from the ES website, their steel trucks fit right in the place of the original magnesium alloy ones...they come with new wheels too, to fit the pivot pin design. Bearings, I got the Bones Super Swiss Ceramics for $110 a set...really smooth. The belts I am also getting same ones, but just for replacements for later

Yeah man, I know what you mean about the weather...its REALLY nice here in Cali right now.

About the trucks...I'm on my second set on the ES 500W Air and I'm actually REALLY careful with them because the first ones broke so fast(about one week, maybe two tops). NOW I dont go up and down sidewalks over half an inch and never over speed bumps any more =[. I have a lot around where I live, so kinda sucks stopping and picking up the board to carry over a bump or a crack every time lol. But saves my trucks for longer.

Also, I noticed the screws holding the motor come loose fast too, so I tighten them up almost every day now.

The end result, I also agree about the trucks quality. They are really light and thus sacrifice the strength. I ordered the new STEEL pivot pin trucks for the ES 500W Air from ElektroSkate, which should be much stronger and as said, would not break. Should get them some time soon.

I know the ES600 and 900 sport must be heavier than my 500W air, so guessing the trucks would also give out faster.

Sorry to hear that about your board, but I'm seeing a lot of people mod their original skateboards from every company they buy to make them better stronger faster and more reliable. I'm actually spending a lot of extra money on mine to make it the best it can be.

I really like the motor and the electronics on mine, but the DECK, TRUCKS, WHEELS, BEARINGS, I'm replacing them all with my own high end high quality ones. Until I find even better. lol

Hope you get to ride your board soon. I know that feeling well.

Somebody told me, I've given the "Shredding" a new meaning. lol.

FML.

yup! standard 8mm bearings. I just purchased the Bones Red Super Swiss Ceramic bearings for $110 for this board, going to stick em in tomorrow. Should be lighter, faster and get dirty less...so less need for maintenance. Keep trying to increase my range/speed =P

From the day I placed the order? 3 weeks.

But on the website it said its not available so they ship from warehouse in china, takes longer.

Patience is key. haha...I know that anxious feeling of excitement. :thumbsup:

So I've had this board for a few weeks now and been riding it every chance I got....meaning if its not raining, I'm on it! I'll keep on posting pics/vids/news about it in this threat to keep track of my experiences here in Bay Area, California =D. Summer is here, so I'll be talking about this board a lot.

Just a note; I also own Altered Electric Pro-Line 600W V-2 and M6 800W "Green Machine" offroad boards, both use Lead Acid batteries...and were my first two boards, so I compare the ES Air 500W to those 2 boards only.

I keep on playing around with my setup for the ES Air 500W and I think so far I found the best solution for best look and results...but the project is NOT OVER yet...I have BIG BIG BIG plans for this board....maybe in the next week or 2 you will see what I mean.

But as of NOW....here's what I did from the date of receiving original package:

-Changed out original Control Box PCB because it was defective from the beginning.

-Changed out broken trucks for new ones(same material, so we'll see how long they last, but I ride with a LOT more caution now knowing they can break like that)

-Changed the deck look by getting custom grip tape and painting it.

-Changed out default GREEN wheels for black Gumball Wheels purchased from ES

-Changed out the bearings (tried 4 different kinds and the Bones Super Reds just feel so much faster, smoother and give it a supreme range and speed over any other bearings I tried) Might try Bones Swiss next time. These puppies just seem to roll and roll even if I ride on neutral, or KICK PUSH my board, its much easier over default bearings or some skate bearings i bought at a skate shop...

Here's a pick of the deck....the wheels are now black tho.

Impressions after all the mods.....this board is AMAZING! The way it rides and turns is super responsive and smooth. The acceleration and braking works great! I was even able to ride it through a lake park with HUGE amount of people and crowds walking on the walking path...and I could avoid all of them, since none of them even BOTHER to get out of my way, I carve all around them like a pro haha....most just get kinda startled or stunned with the speed I pass them on a skateboard.

The Cool parts are:

-smooth acceleration and braking

-turning is super responsive and QUICK

-carving and sliding on the board is so fun and EASY

-new grip tape really improves my balance and stability while carving like crazy all over the road

-its very light and portable, pick it up with one hand and carry anywhere like a regular longboard

-easy to mod, take apart, put back together, change bearings.

The Not so cool parts are:

-going up VERY steep hills is a bit of a problem for this board, it just cant do it. It can take on DECENT hills, but if its very steep and long it just gets locked. Downhill is no problem, very stable but I would also not advise going down too steep of a hill unless you can do power slides with it or something to slow you down. The brakes might damage the electronics working that hard(i dont know lol).

-Going up and down sidewalk or over speed bumps is sometimes rough on the motor/trucks because it ends up smacking against the pavement, especially if you're going fast...it hits HARD...and might break it.(as what happened with my previous trucks). So I try to avoid those situations...but its just not as fun taking that out of my freedom of ride.

-needs a bunch of modifications from the original model and parts sold to make it good enough for my needs

Overall, this is by far the best Electric Skateboard I have ever ridden and owned. But I've never tried the ES 600 versions yet, those looks pretty sweet too...not sure if they can turn and carve as well as the ES 500 Air tho. But the range is by far greater on the 600w....Would be cool if ES 500W Air could last that long, I'd be skating everywhere with out the 4 hour break in between to charge it.

The stats for my board at best setup I had were:

Top Speed: 17-18 MPH

Range: 10-11 Miles(mostly carving all over the road, so the GPS could probably tell me more if I went in a straight line)

With my recent setup with bad bearings my speed was lesser and the Range dropped down to only 8 Miles...

So I went back to the older bearings but better version....so we will see how that will go in the next few days.

hopefully!

So how is that 900W super sport? try it out yet??

Dave...i always tighten the wheel, then I untighten about half the full circle or a whole circle. I put in 3 washers on the inside of the drive wheel and tested it out tonight...but still the range is much smaller than before....I think I'll try to put on the default drive wheel on and try again later when the rain stops.

quick followup to the above post. I put an extra couple of washers inside the drive wheel for more space...I think that makes for less resistance and less work for the motor. Will have to try it out again later and see how the range is. If its still no good, I'll have to switch out the drive wheel for the default one for more range.

I am using the gumball wheels from ES on my ES Air 500W now and the ride is much smoother now...BUT for some reason I now have a lot more resistance, i can really feel it when kick pushing the board....thus, I noticed that my MAX range dramatically dropped on this board. With standard wheels I got about 10-11 miles on it max range....now, its significantly less...dropped to 8.5 miles max. I'm not sure why that is. I'll have to ask ES about it, and also maybe I put on the drive wheel wrong or something. not sure....

Just got my replacement trucks in the mail =D along with the gumball wheels! sweet! :peace:

Have to go to work now, but will install later tonight and take for a night ride to 7-eleven :D

^Honestly, so far with my experiences with e-boards. ES is by far the best I had. The way the board rides and controls is awesome! I might've gotten a little unlucky with the manufacturing defect at first and the motor snapping loose, but its good to know that I can count on nice customer support and get things fixed. :cornut:

It sucks being boardless, I feel like its my baby now haha. When I had my Altered boards from right here in California...their customer support is almost non existent! They NEVER reply to my email, and when I try to call, they pick up the phone only once in like 10 calls. Thats a bit frustrating in getting any help.

Also, I am only reporting my experiences with the board. Bad or Good, I will most likely share with all of you guys. Especially since most of the English forum part is empty...and the main board I ride is the ES 500W Air now, great board! :peace:

So it seems like I've gotten a "lucky" board.

1st: it came with a defective control box, which only lasted about 5 mins, after 3 weeks of waiting for my order.

It was replaced by another one, which took another week to get but worked just fine...until...

2nd: the truck broke n bent and now i even noticed that the motor wire is also cut a bit, most likely from the motor flailing around....I have a feeling that might go out next....but i have my hopes up.

I already spoke with Andrew and they will send me a replacement trucks. But I will have to wait yet another week for that.

Customer support is great, but I just think this is too much headache and waiting on a $914 purchase. I understand its manufacturing defects, but damn...how did I get so lucky? haha.

I dont own a car and I rely on my skateboard to get me to work every day...and thats 27 km roundtrip...it cant be breaking down after every week. I'm just sayin....

on the 500W air yes they are standard size...but my guess is that on the ES Sport version they might be 10mm instead of 8mm...so those are extremely rare...even the dudes at all my local skate shops dont have any. I would say if you want to upgrade, your only choice is to get some online or go with those Ceramic bearings ES sells on the site