So, let's get this straight. Buying expensive clothes, watches, food, and
the like doesn't make you cool. You're either cool or you're not. But some cool
people also happen to have lots of the bling bling. And if I was one of those
folks, this is the kind of amazingly
cool stuff I would spend my rich people money on. Welcome to my video of the
Zboard San Francisco Special. their fastest, longest range, longest lasting
Zboard
yet. With its power loss protection, affordability, and performance, the
SP920 from Adata makes upgrading to an SSD remarkably safe and simple. This
unboxing was actually the most fun I've had opening a product in a long time. It
actually has the strongest new product smell that I think I've ever encountered
outside of like a car. And when I first discovered it has headlights, I was
like, "Oh my god, it has headlights." I
think the only person who had more fun opening this product than me is my cat.
Everything about it is crazy beefy. The international compatible charger has an
integrated cooling fan in the allmetal housing to go along with its LED charge
indicator. And the board itself is not light at 28 lb. The top is a six layer
maple deck with a super grippy printed surface layer over top. Embedded in the
deck are the cushioned handle and the very straightforward control pads. Push
softly on the front to go slow, push hard to go fast, and then push on the
back one to use the board's regenerative braking or to go backwards a little bit.
On the bottom, we find the grippy smooth wheels that can be rotated for more even
wear and then replaced from the spare parts store, which includes most of the
easily worn out stuff at a reasonable price. The battery and electronics
housing that includes the front and rear-mounted LEDs, the charging port and
power switch, and finally the motor that powers the drive wheel. Overall,
touching it in person versus watching videos of it makes it feel a lot less
like a toy and more like a serious form
of transportation. And on that note, the manual is pretty serious business, too.
You need to sign a waiver to activate your six-month warranty. It gives a big
old list of gear to wear when riding, and there's a detailed pre-flight
checklist before they want you to even turn it on for the first time. But once
you do, wow, this thing is amazing. Some
things in life just put a smile on your face, no matter what kind of a mood
you're in, and I've got another entry for the list. It is a little tricky the
first time, even after you've memorized the acceleration stance and breaking
stance. And new riders will probably find themselves standing a bit stiffly
instead of maintaining a more relaxed posture. But what's great about this is
that because of the way the controls are set up until you loosen up and get more
confident shifting your weight around, it's actually really hard to do anything
dangerous. But this uncomfortable phase doesn't last for long. As someone whose
only board sport experience is on a snowboard and who has never once
successfully moved more than 10 feet on a skateboard, I really wanted to review
this, but I was worried about even being able to do it. Not an issue. On my first
charge, I spent most of my time figuring out how to loosen up a little bit. I
went slowly up and down my street, experimented with leaning to find the
minimum turning radius, and that was about it. On my second full battery
charge, I was able to move around my neighborhood. On my third ride, I was
able to carve a little bit and maintain full speed on straightaways. And then
around my fourth or fifth ride, I was able to carve more comfortably and
corner without easing off the accelerator. Very fast learning curve.
And now it's just way too much fun. It's been hard for me to get off this thing
since I started riding it. Half of the enjoyment has been zipping around,
pushing the limits of the Zboard in new ways. Uh, so far I've off-roaded on
grass for short distances, played around with finding the best ways to go up and
down curbs, crossed gravel, and gone way
too fast up hills attracting stairs from onlookers. And the other half of the
enjoyment is that last thing. The Zboard is way too much fun to show off. I don't
think I've ever had so many people stop me to ask me about a new gadget or do
the classic drive past and stare. Once you
get used to it, I wouldn't call it relaxing to ride. You need to be paying
attention, but it definitely isn't difficult. Speed control is a breeze. I
can match pace with an elderly couple on the sidewalk or cover the 5 km from home
to my badminton gym in less time than Google Maps estimates for a bike. and
braking on the rare occasions that you need to since the resistance from the
drive wheel makes it pretty hard to get out of control works surprisingly well
whether you're on a flat or on a fairly steep incline. Now, I found the rated
max speed of 29 km/h didn't happen often
unless I was on a bit of a downhill slope, but on my fastest kilometer
riding around where I live, I averaged 22 km an hour, which considering I was a
third of the way through the battery and in a hilly area, that's pretty damn
fast. It's not quite what I expected, but I'm still extremely happy with the
experience. Which leads us to range.
This is where the Zboard blew me out of the water. I managed to do 29
kilometers, including stopping, starting, up and down hills, and lots of
general fooling around. It's rated at 32 km on flats and a mere 20 km in the
city. Not the case from my experience at all. I don't know what kind of city they
were going around in when they got only 20 km out of it. So, that was when the
Zboard became a much more justifiable purchase to me. Dropping this kind of
money on a toy is out of the question for me. If it's an electric vehicle that
can be used as a legitimate form of transportation that also happens to be
really freaking cool, then that's another ball game. So, in conclusion,
I'd rather have a hoverboard. But if I can't have that, I'll definitely settle
for a Zboard. I love this thing. I'm going to use it all the time, but none
of the options are cheap enough to be impulse buys. So, you'll definitely need
to think about whether it makes any sense for you. There are a few things
that might help though. So, number one is the 30-day return policy. So, for a
$50 restocking fee, they'll send you a shipping label back and you can just
send your Zboard back if you're not happy with it for the rest of your refund. Number two is how well they've
supported their products so far. It's easy for these Kickstarter companies to
deliver the first product to their backers, then move on to bigger and
better things and forget about those guys. Intuitive Motion has provided
solid support in terms of replacement parts and by even managing to make the
original Zboard upgradeable to their new models at prices that I don't think make
their first customers feel ripped off. And then number three is that they're
actually offering Linus Tech Tips viewers $100 off any Zboard with offer
code Linus. Full disclosure on the deal, guys, I have no advertising relationship
with Intuitive Motion and I get no commission or any other kind of
incentive if you buy one. I just think it's a great product. I figured a small
savings might take some of the sting out. So, I reached out asking for an
offer code and they sent one. So, check that out. And that's pretty much it.
Thanks for watching, guys. Like the video if you liked it. Dislike it if you
disliked it. Leave a comment and let me know. Are were you happy to see us kind
of break out of our usual, you know,
computer hardware or at least remotely connected consumer electronics and do
something that's completely different and like outside under the sun? or would
you rather we just, you know, stick with computer stuff? I'd love to hear your feedback. Um, in the video description,
guys, you'll find the usual stuff, including the support us link where you can give us a monthly contribution. If
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I think people probably don't buy dentures on Amazon. You know, I wouldn't
be surprised if Amazon has dentures. Let's say reading glasses. Same theme.
Anyway, thanks for watching, guys, and as always, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already.