Gadgetory

this is the inboard m1 it's a Kickstarter electric skateboard from a company called inboard on in santa cruz california after over a year of follow-up work to get it out to backers we can finally put a production version of this high-end board through its paces at 13 99 comparisons to the popular 1499 boost board are inevitable and yes the specs are close in board claims that the m1 can go 24 miles per hour boosted board can go 22 miles an hour the in board has a range of around 7 miles and the standard boosted board also has a range of about 7 miles but really these boards couldn't be more different the biggest difference between the two boards are the motors the m1 uses something called hub motors where the motors actually sit inside of the wheel itself this gives the m1 a much cleaner look with only a single well hidden wire snaking up into the motor from beneath the truck the boosted board on the other hand uses a belt driven motor I'll admit I wasn't expecting there to be too much of a difference between these motor types but there definitely is the hub motors feel a lot more like gliding where bell motors feel like you're directly in control of the power at lower speed hub motors feel sluggish and kind of bad where belt motors give you an immediate kick at takeoff but at top speed riding on the M ones hub motors feels a lot like a smooth luxury car ride where the belt motors feel kind of like writing an angry wild animal on a phone call with Ryan Evans one of the inboard founders I was told that one of the biggest reasons why the company decided to go with hub motors is because they can be programmed the hub motor allows us to upgraded performance and change the performance of the wheel over time in like pretty significant ways because everything is electromechanical versus having like a belt system where if we're going to really change the way that the motor works we would have to introduce a new hard worker fogging up basically entirely new product like loosen me to one of them boards engineers claim to have complete control over the motor performance from torque to the acceleration curve the second biggest difference is the deck itself the m1 uses a high-tech composite board that's extremely stiff and this has a huge impact on how it feels to ride the stiffness gives the m1 a stable feel that's good for true beginners and experts who need control a top speed this is a major departure from the boost board which has an extremely flexible bamboo deck in my opinion the flexible deck of the boost board is a lot more fun at middling speeds but if you're going somewhere in a hurry you can't beat the luxury feel of the m1 at top speed one area where the m1 really shines however is its battery it's truly swappable meaning that you can drain the battery in the board completely and swap in a fully charged battery in less than a minute that means that the m1 s range isn't really limited to seven miles it's limited to how many of the company's two hundred and $49 batteries you can afford and carry there are other nice touches on the m1 as well like a touch sensitive underbelly for pairing with the app as well as the front and rear LEDs one thing that isn't so great is the remote there's a lot of play in the throttle which sometimes makes you wonder if you're really in control of the board in my version there are also several different signaling mechanisms the remote beeps vibrates and flashes LEDs when you're on the board it's sometimes impossible to figure out why it seems to be unhappy as it rumbles at you I've been told that this is an over-voltage warning but at times I've been confused of what the board is trying to tell me so is the m1 fit to sit at the high end of the electric skateboard market the company is still very young but the m1 seems to have hidden depths just when you think you're at max speed there's a little more and just when you think you couldn't break in time you can the m1 is a luxury board that's very good today it may even be great tomorrow and board down in red pants me cool