I need your advice: TO buy or NOT to buy... THAT is the question

Wiztecys post is very concerning to me. I have a GT coming in a few days and I didn't know it was even possible a board could just go into reverse for no reason. I am 43 and have no interest in injury. Let me sum up what Wiztechys point is. He is saying that e-boarding comes inherently with risk, in which he accepts that risk, however that risk should only be of his own decisions, actions, and skill. But when a board is capable of doing something such as stopping/reversing/accelerating on its own, that is 100 percent unacceptable in a product. There is no argument, its 100 percent unacceptable, end of story, period. Yes, bizarre mechanical failure happens with all mechanical devices that could cause injury, but they should only be very rare, isolated incidents, not something that seems too possible for the common persons risk tolerance. I am a business owner and from what I see Evolve is doing the best they can to run a honest and ethical company. Its hard running a business when your product is still not technologically understood enough to produce a truly safe product. Anyway, what I learn from Wiztecys experience is that my decision to ride an e-board has risks beyond what I currently believed after reading his and other people experiences. Bottom line, it does not seem the technology is developed enough to make a truly safe e-board yet. So to all you riders out there, know the risks before riding and understand the technology in not 100 percent developed yet. Kinda sucks because I want to ride worry free but won't be able to now.

 

I just want to chime in on my original thread just to clarify. After riding with AT wheels (safer) I am very certain the reason why the board jumped into reverse was due to the remote drop-out / lag. To the rider it appears that their gear/mode selection wasn't taken, no change on the remote. Also no change in perceived riding behavior. All those inputs appear to get queued up. Then when the remote establishes connection, the remote events get processed at the board. So as you're riding forward and you've been trying to downshift you can actually be dropping down into ECO REV / Reverse. I feel no board should be allowed to go into reverse as its moving forward in motion. If Evolve wants that for some reason, have an override in the menu. Same thing can happen going up in gear selection, a person can end up in GT mode not even thinking and get thrown off the board that way.

What I don't like honestly is Evolve going silent when I asked for a complete new board that they can verify is bug free or my full refund. Still no phone call from Evolve either to understand what happened.

Today my board is still glitchy, inconsistent with throttle response and feel. Sometimes I can take off and it works as it should, responsive, my inputs from the remote match what I want under my feet at the board. Then there's complete insanity, I give it 1/4 throttle, nothing, a little more and the damn board wants to jerk and take off.

Anyways, always wear your helmet and I'd first run the board with the AT setup to understand its behavior.

Also note that if you bought or looking to buy the Carbon GT, they enclosed the BlueTooth antenna inside the carbon fiber body. This is bad! Carbon Fiber acts like krytonite does to SuperMan in terms of signal strength, it is a very good RF filter. Which translates to your remote/board being vulnerable to RF interference since the carbon fiber has diminished the communication strength between your remote and the board. Meaning any stronger RF signal can easily interfere and cause yours to drop. And us as the rider have NO WAY to prepare for this, there is no audible tone, vibration or indication that the signal has dropped than looking an LCD screen that bleeds out in direct sunlight for a missing antenna and battery % icon. Good luck with that. So you just have to be very very cautious at all times if you want to be safe unless Evolve addresses these issues.

 

Not discounting anyone's personal experience and the reality is that some boards may need repair..., but there are 1000's of these boards being ridden happily. Consider the odds. My car has safety issues, but i got familiar with it and rely on it everyday. My mt. bike has tons of safety issues, but i ride it, more and more aggressively as i get to know it. These boards are no different.

The remote is very sensitive and responsive. (i like that about it). Once you get familiar with it, you will find it very predictable.

Wear gear. Take it slow. Get to know it. Take care of it. Go ride!

 

BUY !! Definitely !! forums usually only reflect issues....human nature to make effort to complain - but not effort to state no problems.

Mine has been perfect, and without doubt my best buy in years - do it, you won't regret it

 

When you get HURT from a board being defective, I'm sorry, that's not a complaint. Its a statement! And its not human nature, its warning others to beware. Also forums don't reflect the issues, they CAN be worse. I worked in a company selling lots and lots of devices, the forums didn't reflect all the issues that were coming in at all for defects!!! Majority of the forum posts for our product were positive, however, truth in the matter people DID have serious issues that were valid NOT captured in the forums. Only the company who's selling the product and getting the RMA devices / product know the true statistics and they won't share that with you.

To this day my board STILL:acts up. Remote is still choppy, drop outs happen almost every day, and Evolve still hasn't replied back to me when I asked for a fully functioning board that they can certify works as they think it should or my money back. I just have to ride it very very much with caution. Going to do the DIY route and build a better board, ditching this POS. Truth in the matter is that Evolve is using very very cheap components to make big profits in the #'s they sell. When cheap components go into things, reliability tends to drop.

Its sad since its a very fun, quick, and fast board. They could have made a real gem if they didn't skimp on quality. It gets frustrating when you get hurt from the thing, send it back, they find failing components, get the board back, and you find it better but still not right and still find that you can't trust it since the remote/board is unpredictable.

But hey, if you're lucky you might get one that works where you're safe. And honestly I wish all of the boards were like that, safe and free from dangerous defects. I also wish Evolve stood behind their product 100% quality and customer satisfaction. But from my experience with them, they don't.

When I hear other GT owners having similar issues that I had, and they request Evolve to give them a full refund and Evolve doesn't. That's wrong. It takes the customer getting lawyers involved in order for Evolve to get any of your $2,000+ back for the thing. I've been contacted by two people who had to go that route. What type of company does that? For me, its a company I won't do business with ever in the future nor do I support any company who does that.

Umm, no. I raced GSX-R street bikes, mountain bikes, work and maintained all of these and accept the danger of them. But my GSX-R doesn't have a sticky throttle sending me off the road and into a wall. That's TOTALLY different then the danger aspect of the sport. A DEFECTIVE product is a flaw that can get someone killed. The 1960's Corvair was an example of a flawed / Defective car. The car was had a rear engine, when the cars would corner, the suspension would load up, the tires would roll, and the rim would DIG INTO the ground causing the car to bite and roll over, hurting and killing people. That's a DEFECT, yes driving in cars is dangerous. But what your describing is the danger of the sport, you're not talking about a DEFECT, MALFUNCTION, or flawed design. Putting the radio receiver in a full carbon fiber body like Evolve did in my Carbon GT is a DESIGN FLAW which leads to a DEFECT in poor remote connection to the board. Carbon Fiber is an RF / Radio signal filter. Any good RF designer knows this.

I'm totally happy to swap with you my DEFECTIVE Carbon GT with your fully functioning one if you like to get a taste of what this is like, being on edge riding waiting for the board to F up, and only then might you understand a portion of this. But from what I can see you don't have any clue.

The remote is CRAP. Its made with very cheap components, the remote has a 33% deadspot in the beginning, 33% deadspot in the end, and you have only 33% of the throw for your throttle and brake. That's not acceptable for a control mechanism on a board going 26mph! They're using a 4 way potentiometer, we only need a quality 2-way. Why did they use a 4-way, its CHEAPER! Not better quality, CHEAPER. Its the same janky 4-way potentiometer they use in cheap gaming consoles. But people who don't know about hardware / electronics nor work in the field won't understand any of this. I wish I can throw out the crappy remote and radio at the board and use my own RC 2.5Ghz remote. Then I'd have some real resolution with the throttle/brake like I have and do on my MetroBoard.