May Progress Update
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 07:50:10 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Latest Progress Update
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 06:53:15 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Latest Progress Update
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 01:10:21 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Company Progress Update
about 3 years ago – Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 02:00:52 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Product Changes Update
over 3 years ago – Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 10:02:52 AM

Hello everyone,

as promised during the last update and when talking to people in the comments here on Kickstarter, we have prepared an update that will let you all know about the changes that have happened during its development.

We were working with a ton of customization at the very start of the campaign, trying to satisfy and meet the needs of as many people as possible. While this sounded like a good idea then, after the campaign ended we were faced with the fact that more than 90% of all of the backers were backing the same tier, with only a couple of backers going for all of the other options.

All in all, if we were to work with all of the options, we would have around 120 possible combinations of how the board could be like, while the vast majority of the parts would rarely be used. Because of this, we’ve decided to make a single, high-end, no-compromise option of what the XTND Board is supposed to be, and not have 120 possible options of what it could be.

To make it specific, every board will have:

Large battery pack (133 Wh)

• The batteries will be Li-Ion, and not Li-Pol as previously mentioned. We decided to go with Li-Ion batteries mainly because Li-Pol batteries are sensitive to higher temperatures, which makes them more susceptible to damage or even the possibility of explosions. Li-Pol batteries are also more difficult to manage in terms of depletion, they break more easily and have a shorter lifespan.
• These findings led us to rethink our choices. Since safety is one of our primary concerns, we decided to favor the safer battery type even at the expense of the few extra millimeters they’ll take up.
• We also had to change the design of the battery pack, however, this has just made the battery smaller and more compact.
• This change significantly changed the deck design, which resulted in a bigger overall size, and added additional millimeters in the bottom side of the deck.

Dual-motor version

• Originally we also offered a single motor option, however, almost everyone chose the dual-motor version of the board during Kickstarter. The only downside here is that the weight of the board will be higher due to the added weight of the second motor. The upside is that there is more power for everyone.

A unified board hardness

• There will only be one final Board hardness which we will select during the final steps of the manufacturing process. The reason for this besides reducing the number of SKUs is that we are aiming for an ideal combination of comfort and control and we also have to consider the effect the deck flexibility has on the internal components. There is also no universal standard we could use for our Board hardness and our customers could find that their idea of the selected hardness differs from ours which could lead to disappointment.

A unified black color

• Initially, we also planned to make a silver version of the board, but this was also by far the less popular choice.

Street wheels option

• When designing our terrain wheels, we were aiming for a more comfortable ride on rough surfaces by implementing a thread pattern. After tests with our terrain wheels as well as other terrain wheels that were available on the market, we found that in order to offer an actually more comfortable ride, we would have to go with wheels far larger than regular longboard wheels which would put us in a completely different longboard category. There was no benefit in our terrain wheels that would make the change worth it. The only actual difference was the design, but the threaded tires did not match the minimalistic design language of the product.

With all of the customization options out of the way, here are some additional changes that have been made to the board.

Deck and Trucks

The decks of our original prototypes were manufactured using carbon fiber fabric and epoxy to form a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. This a method that requires a lot of manual work and results in a shell that needs further processing to get the desired appearance. It allowed us to create a lightweight deck that was very strong, in some carbon fiber pattern configurations even too strong. After the deck shell was done, we then needed to implement an internal structure that would hold all the internal parts securely in place. This was another step in the manufacturing process, but we knew we are making a premium product and we accepted all these steps as necessary.

During our first visit to China and discussions with the first potential manufacturing companies, we came to the realization that this design only made things complicated and didn’t offer any benefit in return. Instead, it could even lead to high scrap rate or low-quality products at a very high manufacturing cost. Every manufacturer we spoke to suggested using injection molding instead and we soon found out that new premium materials containing carbon fiber were already on the market. In fact, the materials were so new, that none of the factories had a direct experience with them yet.

Switching to a new manufacturing technology meant redesigning the whole product as the original design didn’t make sense anymore. Now we could design the deck parts in a way that internal components would mount directly into them. Instead of trying to find the right stiffness of the board by adjusting the carbon fiber pattern, we could now do that by increasing or reducing the percentage of carbon fiber in the material.

In our first samples, we were working with carbon fiber material even on the baseplates and trucks. It was a very complicated process, but the result was a part lighter than normal aluminum trucks and we tried to save weight at every cost. In the beginning, the results were excellent but later we found out that even a slight imperfection in manufacturing is enough to make the part break under load, and that’s exactly what happened during one of our test rides.

By switching to magnesium and reducing the amount of unnecessary material, we were still able to save enough weight and it was a much safer choice. As mentioned before, safety is the most important thing when it comes to products like ours and we do not want to compromise it at any cost.

Waterproof vs. Water-Resistant

With these changes to the deck materials, we’ve found that the board was more prone to flexing than the previous version, which is definitely a good thing for the riding experience, as it offers a more natural ride than being on a very stiff board. However due to this additional flex, it is not technically feasible to make the board completely waterproof as we originally planned, and we have to change the terminology to water-resistant. In either case, we would still not recommend anyone to ride the board in the wet, as this can make any board feel quite slippery and even unpredictable and dangerous.

Motors

In order to get the maximum torque from our motors during acceleration, we were using a small planetary gearbox inside each motor. This was a very effective solution but we later discovered the gearbox was unable to withstand long-term real-world usage. After a couple of hundred miles, the motors got noisy and the gearboxes were showing signs of damage.

In the meantime, motor manufacturers continued the development of hub motors and by the time we were looking for a new solution, their motors were already so good that no additional gearbox was necessary.

Add-ons

Lastly, regarding the possible add-ons that you could have purchased during the campaign, here’s what is going to happen once the boards start shipping:

• Backers who purchased an additional small or medium battery will have an option to either request a refund or pay the difference in price between your chosen add-on and the large battery price.
• Backers who purchased the dual-motor version will receive a $150 refund for what they paid extra over the single motor version.
• Backers who purchased an additional set of terrain wheels can either get a set of street wheels instead or a refund.
• Every backer should also receive an additional set of wheels for free as a baseline. Since we are not manufacturing terrain wheels, everyone will receive an additional set of street wheels instead if they selected terrain wheels.
• Backers who purchased the travel backpack will receive a refund.

Thank you all for taking the time to read through these changes, and we hope that we’ve explained all of them in detail so that you have an understanding of why they were made. In the end, we believe that this will be a better version of the board than what we were originally planning to do.

In terms of funds for the tooling, as we mentioned in the last update, there’s still not much that we can share with you at this moment, as these conversations usually take some time. We will keep you updated when there is more concrete information to share.