Be as Cool as Casey Neistat – Boosted Board 2nd Gen
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,311 words · ~6 min read
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The Boosted Board second gen Dual Plus is the latest and greatest
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handcontrolled electric motorized longboard from Boosted. And after riding
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it around for 2 months, I can tell you that it's every bit as cool as it looks.
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But is it $1,500 cool? Let's find out.
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Massdrop's Ktype mechanical keyboard features custom switches, RGB, and is
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completely programmable. Check the dropout now at the link below.
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Probably the first thing you'll notice about the Boosted Board is the relatively lightweight and flexible
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deck. This is what makes it feel a lot more like a normal longboard and also
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contributes to a noticeably smoother ride when compared to rigid boards like
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the Blink Board and the Zboard. This dual plus model has 2,000 watts of
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power, giving it an impressive top speed of 22 mph with the ability to tackle
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grades of up to 25%. But I'd personally go for the step down
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model since having this extra 500 W of
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power will tempt you to use it, giving
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you less range. And besides, both models
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have dual motors, one for each of the back wheels, so you'll always have power
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no matter which way you're turning. Now, let's talk about controls. The ZBoard
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and ZBoard 2 have pressure sensitive foot pads that let you control
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acceleration and braking with your feet by leaning forward and backward. Lionus
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liked this in his review, but I found that keeping track of this while also
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steering and balancing is difficult and dangerous for me, so I wanted a hand
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controller. The one for the now defunct Blink Board looked promising, but it
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turned out to be incredibly cheaply made. Acceleration was imprecise and the
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brake would engage all at once, often bucking you off the board like a
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mechanical bull. And I know what that's like.
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Fortunately, the Boosted Board 2 does it right. Their ergonomic Bluetooth enabled
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remote is really easy to use with a trigger to engage the motors and a
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spring-loaded knob for proportional control of acceleration, braking, and
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reversing. It features a button that lets you choose one of four speed
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profiles from beginner to pro. And the battery readouts for both itself and the
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board go a long way towards preventing you from getting awkwardly stranded.
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Overall, the Boosted Board 2 definitely has the best riding experience out of
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all the electric boards I've tried. And thankfully, it does not require a stupid
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sketchy smartphone app in order to unlock its full functionality. Unlike
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the Blink Board and Smartpad, it's quick to start from a dead stop, even if you
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don't push off. And the hill climbing is seriously impressive, even though I
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weigh in at 205 lbs with all my gear. Going down a hill, I never felt out of
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control since the proportional braking allows me to slow down as much or as
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little as I like. And when the board did get away from me, I was still able to
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bring it to a stop using the remote, which has an impressive range of up to
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130 ft and will beep at you if it loses the connection. All this is a huge
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safety bonus and also great for doing parlor tricks like this walk the board
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bit that really grabs people's attention. As if it wasn't cool enough
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in its own right. What did you ride? What the hell are those trucks?
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What the is that? Oh, you didn't know this is electric.
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It's electric? Yeah, man. That takes the fun out of it, but also
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Oh my god, that's amazing.
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Well, I'm not really a longboarder, but I think the motors make it more fun. The
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board got me around town in style and was plenty fast enough. Though, without
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the 12m extended battery, the standard 7m battery doesn't have quite enough
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range for my typical afterwork routine of Chipotle, Costco, gym, home. But if
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you lose power, at least you can still ride it like a normal, albeit heavy,
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longboard. To avoid this, you can keep the charger in your backpack for a quick
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top up at the coffee shop or wherever else. There's no handle on it, making it
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slightly awkward to hold, but the Boosted Board is small enough to take
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inside pretty much anywhere, including cars, buses, and trains. You can even
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take it shopping. Casey Neistat, a
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prominent YouTube vlogger, used to bike around New York, which I know because of
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this hilarious video.
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But now he always rides a Boosted Board. Why is that? Well, New York happens to
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be the perfect city for electric longboarding. Its dense population means
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that everything you need is probably well within a 7mi radius. It's easy to
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split lanes and maneuver in tight spaces. And unlike a bike, you don't
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have to lock it up when you reach your destination. Downtown Langley, BC, on
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the other hand, is nothing but urban sprawl. It's a jumbled mess of turns,
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parking lots, and weird intersections. The easiest way to get around here is
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with an electric bike, not a car, and
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not the Boosted Board, either. Because Langley's few bike lanes are often
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filled with debris and sidewalks are a definite no, it was safest for me to
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ride on the street, but I rarely rode on busy streets since hitting a sizable
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crack or rock could be enough to throw me off into traffic, even with the
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relatively large 80mm wheels. So, here's
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the conclusion. For numerous practical reasons, I prefer electric bikes. But I
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still love riding around on the Boosted Board whenever the weather is favorable.
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So, it all really depends on your environment and your lifestyle. The
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Boosted Board is not cheap, so I'd recommend first renting or borrowing one
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to see how well it works for you personally. But in my opinion, if
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weather, legality, and urban layout are all favorable, the Boosted Board is just
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a really fun, cool way to get around.
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And I know cool.
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And if you want to make a cool website,
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you should check out Squarespace. They have all sorts of templates to get you
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started. You can make a website out of anything. You could make a website
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that's totally devoted to uh skateboard wipeouts. And I'm sure that such a thing
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probably exists. For only $12 a month, you can get a free domain as well if you
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buy Squarespace for a year. and they have 247 support via live chat and
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email. The templates feature responsive design so that your website will look
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good on any device or screen size, which is awful if you're trying to code it
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yourself. So, thank you Squarespace for doing that for us. They've also got
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commerce if you want to set up a store on your website, and cover pages, a
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feature that allows you to set up a beautiful onepage website in just a few
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minutes. You can start a trial with no credit card required, and start building
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your website today. When you decide to sign up for Squarespace, head on over to
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squarespace.com/lttT and use offer code LTT to get 10% off
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your first purchase. Thanks for watching, guys. Give the
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video a like or dislike. Get subscribed for more Taran videos. That's a lie. My
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videos are few and far between. But you can watch this one about the Rad Mini,
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which I still ride around almost every single day. We've also got a community
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forum, a merch store, and a link to Amazon. That's where I got these gloves,
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which make me look cooler than I actually am.