ZBoard Electric Skateboard San Francisco Special
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,624 words · ~8 min read
0:00
So, let's get this straight. Buying expensive clothes, watches, food, and
0:04
the like doesn't make you cool. You're either cool or you're not. But some cool
0:10
people also happen to have lots of the bling bling. And if I was one of those
0:15
folks, this is the kind of amazingly
0:18
cool stuff I would spend my rich people money on. Welcome to my video of the
0:23
Zboard San Francisco Special. their fastest, longest range, longest lasting
0:28
Zboard
0:35
yet. With its power loss protection, affordability, and performance, the
0:40
SP920 from Adata makes upgrading to an SSD remarkably safe and simple. This
0:45
unboxing was actually the most fun I've had opening a product in a long time. It
0:51
actually has the strongest new product smell that I think I've ever encountered
0:56
outside of like a car. And when I first discovered it has headlights, I was
1:00
like, "Oh my god, it has headlights." I
1:04
think the only person who had more fun opening this product than me is my cat.
1:08
Everything about it is crazy beefy. The international compatible charger has an
1:12
integrated cooling fan in the allmetal housing to go along with its LED charge
1:16
indicator. And the board itself is not light at 28 lb. The top is a six layer
1:22
maple deck with a super grippy printed surface layer over top. Embedded in the
1:27
deck are the cushioned handle and the very straightforward control pads. Push
1:31
softly on the front to go slow, push hard to go fast, and then push on the
1:35
back one to use the board's regenerative braking or to go backwards a little bit.
1:40
On the bottom, we find the grippy smooth wheels that can be rotated for more even
1:45
wear and then replaced from the spare parts store, which includes most of the
1:48
easily worn out stuff at a reasonable price. The battery and electronics
1:52
housing that includes the front and rear-mounted LEDs, the charging port and
1:56
power switch, and finally the motor that powers the drive wheel. Overall,
2:01
touching it in person versus watching videos of it makes it feel a lot less
2:05
like a toy and more like a serious form
2:08
of transportation. And on that note, the manual is pretty serious business, too.
2:13
You need to sign a waiver to activate your six-month warranty. It gives a big
2:17
old list of gear to wear when riding, and there's a detailed pre-flight
2:21
checklist before they want you to even turn it on for the first time. But once
2:25
you do, wow, this thing is amazing. Some
2:30
things in life just put a smile on your face, no matter what kind of a mood
2:33
you're in, and I've got another entry for the list. It is a little tricky the
2:37
first time, even after you've memorized the acceleration stance and breaking
2:41
stance. And new riders will probably find themselves standing a bit stiffly
2:46
instead of maintaining a more relaxed posture. But what's great about this is
2:51
that because of the way the controls are set up until you loosen up and get more
2:55
confident shifting your weight around, it's actually really hard to do anything
2:59
dangerous. But this uncomfortable phase doesn't last for long. As someone whose
3:04
only board sport experience is on a snowboard and who has never once
3:08
successfully moved more than 10 feet on a skateboard, I really wanted to review
3:12
this, but I was worried about even being able to do it. Not an issue. On my first
3:16
charge, I spent most of my time figuring out how to loosen up a little bit. I
3:20
went slowly up and down my street, experimented with leaning to find the
3:24
minimum turning radius, and that was about it. On my second full battery
3:27
charge, I was able to move around my neighborhood. On my third ride, I was
3:31
able to carve a little bit and maintain full speed on straightaways. And then
3:34
around my fourth or fifth ride, I was able to carve more comfortably and
3:38
corner without easing off the accelerator. Very fast learning curve.
3:42
And now it's just way too much fun. It's been hard for me to get off this thing
3:46
since I started riding it. Half of the enjoyment has been zipping around,
3:50
pushing the limits of the Zboard in new ways. Uh, so far I've off-roaded on
3:53
grass for short distances, played around with finding the best ways to go up and
3:57
down curbs, crossed gravel, and gone way
4:00
too fast up hills attracting stairs from onlookers. And the other half of the
4:04
enjoyment is that last thing. The Zboard is way too much fun to show off. I don't
4:09
think I've ever had so many people stop me to ask me about a new gadget or do
4:14
the classic drive past and stare. Once you
4:20
get used to it, I wouldn't call it relaxing to ride. You need to be paying
4:24
attention, but it definitely isn't difficult. Speed control is a breeze. I
4:28
can match pace with an elderly couple on the sidewalk or cover the 5 km from home
4:32
to my badminton gym in less time than Google Maps estimates for a bike. and
4:38
braking on the rare occasions that you need to since the resistance from the
4:41
drive wheel makes it pretty hard to get out of control works surprisingly well
4:46
whether you're on a flat or on a fairly steep incline. Now, I found the rated
4:51
max speed of 29 km/h didn't happen often
4:55
unless I was on a bit of a downhill slope, but on my fastest kilometer
4:59
riding around where I live, I averaged 22 km an hour, which considering I was a
5:04
third of the way through the battery and in a hilly area, that's pretty damn
5:08
fast. It's not quite what I expected, but I'm still extremely happy with the
5:13
experience. Which leads us to range.
5:16
This is where the Zboard blew me out of the water. I managed to do 29
5:21
kilometers, including stopping, starting, up and down hills, and lots of
5:26
general fooling around. It's rated at 32 km on flats and a mere 20 km in the
5:31
city. Not the case from my experience at all. I don't know what kind of city they
5:36
were going around in when they got only 20 km out of it. So, that was when the
5:41
Zboard became a much more justifiable purchase to me. Dropping this kind of
5:46
money on a toy is out of the question for me. If it's an electric vehicle that
5:51
can be used as a legitimate form of transportation that also happens to be
5:55
really freaking cool, then that's another ball game. So, in conclusion,
5:59
I'd rather have a hoverboard. But if I can't have that, I'll definitely settle
6:03
for a Zboard. I love this thing. I'm going to use it all the time, but none
6:06
of the options are cheap enough to be impulse buys. So, you'll definitely need
6:10
to think about whether it makes any sense for you. There are a few things
6:14
that might help though. So, number one is the 30-day return policy. So, for a
6:18
$50 restocking fee, they'll send you a shipping label back and you can just
6:21
send your Zboard back if you're not happy with it for the rest of your refund. Number two is how well they've
6:26
supported their products so far. It's easy for these Kickstarter companies to
6:30
deliver the first product to their backers, then move on to bigger and
6:34
better things and forget about those guys. Intuitive Motion has provided
6:37
solid support in terms of replacement parts and by even managing to make the
6:41
original Zboard upgradeable to their new models at prices that I don't think make
6:46
their first customers feel ripped off. And then number three is that they're
6:50
actually offering Linus Tech Tips viewers $100 off any Zboard with offer
6:54
code Linus. Full disclosure on the deal, guys, I have no advertising relationship
6:59
with Intuitive Motion and I get no commission or any other kind of
7:02
incentive if you buy one. I just think it's a great product. I figured a small
7:06
savings might take some of the sting out. So, I reached out asking for an
7:09
offer code and they sent one. So, check that out. And that's pretty much it.
7:13
Thanks for watching, guys. Like the video if you liked it. Dislike it if you
7:17
disliked it. Leave a comment and let me know. Are were you happy to see us kind
7:20
of break out of our usual, you know,
7:24
computer hardware or at least remotely connected consumer electronics and do
7:29
something that's completely different and like outside under the sun? or would
7:34
you rather we just, you know, stick with computer stuff? I'd love to hear your feedback. Um, in the video description,
7:39
guys, you'll find the usual stuff, including the support us link where you can give us a monthly contribution. If
7:43
you love our content, you can buy a cool t-shirt like this one, and you can change your Amazon bookmark to one with
7:47
our affiliate code, so we get a small kickback whenever you buy new dentures.
7:51
I think people probably don't buy dentures on Amazon. You know, I wouldn't
7:54
be surprised if Amazon has dentures. Let's say reading glasses. Same theme.
7:58
Anyway, thanks for watching, guys, and as always, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already.