“Cruising up a slight incline, fast, without pushing felt a bit magical,” he wrote in an email. My friend Eric Blattberg, who knows how to skate a city, took them out with me. Most of the riding that I did on these boards took place over one weekend. The next time I got on one, I set it to normal. I was passing pedestrians fairly slowly as I took that first ride back to my apartment. That’s a good place to start, but it’s much too slow once a person gets at all comfortable with one. But if you want an electric skateboard that's small, light, and relatively cheap, the Blink Board is your best bet - for now.The first time I rode one of these skateboards, I had the Blink S set to beginner mode. Dedicating your company to one particular type of product makes things like customer service and repairs a bit easier to maintain. With that in mind, maybe it's worth saving some money to spend on one of Blink Board's competitors. He says Rocket Skates were like a "gateway drug" to making electric rideables, and that Acton is more focused on creating alternatives to cars than it is on making one type of product. It also has much more character than most other electric skateboards thanks to a colorfully-painted deck and lights that line the underside of the board.Īcton already pivoted away from Rocket Skates to make the Blink Board, and Peter Treadway, Acton's CTO, isn't shy about the company's willingness to change course again. Otherwise the Blink Board feels solidly built, and the wide, thick wheels give it a smooth ride. It's an important and unfortunate weakness, though I can't say how big an issue it would be until I spend more time with the Blink Board. The joystick - which you use to control the board's speed - felt a little too sticky, and it'd be nice if Acton smoothed out the throttle response a bit more so that the board's acceleration (and braking) weren't so harsh. It feels like there should have been at least one more overhaul to the final design here. The weakest part of the Blink Board experience is probably the remote. That kept the top speed at more like 10 miles per hour, which was much more comfortable, and also wouldn't drain the battery as quickly. In fact, in my brief time riding it right here in Midtown, I kept switching back to the slower setting on the remote. Other electric skateboards top out at higher speeds, but 15 miles per hour is more than plenty on this smaller style board. It wouldn't get me through the 9-mile bike lane route from my apartment to The Verge's office, for example, but it would be useful for cutting down the 1-mile walk I take to and from the subway every day. Six miles might be enough range for early adopters and enthusiasts, or people with relatively short commutes. Those aren't necessarily deal-breaking issues. The Blink Board can go six miles on a full charge, and it tops out at 15 miles per hour, specs that are only on par with the lower-end models offered by companies like Boosted. The petite size comes with a downside, though: the motor and battery combination isn't quite as capable as Acton's competition. The Blink Board weighs just nine pounds, light enough so that it's not a burden to carry around when you're not riding it. The smaller size makes the Blink Board much more maneuverable, and it also makes it an unusually light electric skateboard. It's so much more maneuverable than a longboard The Blink Board, on the other hand, more closely resembles a regular skateboard. Most of the electric skateboards on (or about to reach) the market are well over two feet long, existing somewhere in the size range more traditionally reserved for longboards. The other thing the Blink Board does a bit differently is size. Next to all of those, the Blink Board seems downright cheap. And MetroBoard, which sells 10 different electric skateboards, only sells two for under $1,000. Yuneec's E-Go starts at $699, but is currently out of stock. The ZBoard 2 and the soon-to-be-released Inboard M1 hover in the same price range. Boosted Boards start at $1,000 and go up to $1,499. Don't get me wrong, $499 is still a big commitment for most people. The Blink Board is only $499 - at least half as expensive as many competitors.
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