hey eskaters
Nate from eskatehub here and today's
electric skateboard review
is of the Exway Flex which is one of the
best budget electric skateboards
available at the moment
but it's not like any other cheap
electric skateboard out there this thing
is packed with
premium specs and features. The Exway Flex
has
two motor options. You've got the hub
drives and the riot kit which
is the belts. So in this video, I'm going
to
compare both of them and pit them
against each other in a range test,
top speed test, acceleration, braking and
hill climb
to show you exactly what the difference
is between the two
and which one is right for you.
So the Exway Flex hub is 649
while the Riot kit is 699.
So aside from a different drivetrain
what else does that 50 bucks get you
in terms of value and more importantly
is it worth it?
Let's take a closer look and see if we
can answer this question. I've just been
going through the footage
and I’ve realized how enthusiastic I am
about the Exway
Flex. It almost kind of looks like an ad
but I wanted to reassure you that it is
not. Exway haven't paid me to do this video.
They didn't even send me the board for
free. I bought it with my own
money so everything in this video is
completely unbiased, it's
test-driven and it's a real-world
example of the board.
I just happen to love it a lot. So,
I hope you enjoyed this video as much as
I enjoyed reviewing it.
straight up as soon as you open the box
you can instantly feel
the quality of this product. I think some
of it has got to do with this
blue envelope with the gold Exway logo
on the front of it
it just looks premium. I haven't read it
yet
I want to do it together at the end of
the video so stick around for that.
There are huge reminders on the deck to
make sure you upgrade your mobile app
and not to upgrade the board's firmware
so make sure you do that because
safety on these boards is so important.
But just take a look at the board it is
stunning
it has all the finishings that make it
look and feel like a premium electric
skateboard
but without that absurd price tag. Really
Exway,
well done. You guys deserve a huge round
of applause.
This is the first time Exway has strayed
from their
sleek and slim design like the x1 series
and have decided to opt for two
enclosures, one for the battery
and one for the ESC. The reason they've
done this is because they want the board
to be
flexible which I’ll show you in just a
sec. The deck on the x-ray flex is 37
inches long
11.5 inches wide and made from a
composite of bamboo and fiberglass.
The bamboo is what gives the board its
flexibility while the fiberglass
makes sure it stays strong. When they
decided to call it the Exway Flex,
they really meant it. It has a lot of
bounce
but it's not the same kind of bounce
that you see on the boosted stealth or
the WowGo 2S.
Their bounce is more gradual up and down
the Exway Flex I feel has more of a
trampoline
style bounce where it's slowly down and
kicks back
up from the bottom quite fast. And that
might sound unnerving
but it's actually a lot more subtle than
the way I describe it
I found that it brought me back to
centre and balance a lot faster than on
a loaded vanguard board. And when you've
got your feet over the shoulders of the
deck
that flexibility feels more like
suspension rather than a bounce.
That flexibility does cause some
bottoming out sometimes and it scrapes
and scratches
the enclosure but it's made of a nice
hard plastic which is very durable
and all those scratches I think they
give it a little bit of character.
Here's another cool feature while we're
looking at the enclosure. When the board
is off,
you can single click that power button
and the rings
around that button light up to indicate
how much juice is left in the battery
this is just another example of how
Exway are paying extra attention to the
details.
No longer do you need to waste your time
turning on the board, turning on the
remote
to see how much battery you have. You can
just one click it to see if you've got
enough
battery. What seemed like a fancy trick
at first, I have actually been using it
quite a lot. More than I thought I would.
It's so handy to just click the button
to see how much battery I’ve got and
make sure I’ve got enough to get to
where I’m going.
The Flex has Exways shock-absorbing grip
tape on it which
is only thin, but the squish that you
feel in your feet when you stand on the
board
is so satisfying. Plus I really do
think it helps absorb some of the
vibrations from the road
saving your feet from agony on those
longer trips.
These deck flares are massive.
Surprisingly massive actually.
When you step on the board you will feel
them instantly in your heels
and your toes but after a while you do
get used to it
and you will be so thankful that they
are there.
They help turning a lot. The turning
circle becomes
really tight. Carving is super easy
because you can throw the board out
and really hold on to the board when
you're coming back. The amount of control
that these things give you
is absolutely awesome.
The stock wheels on the Flex are Exway's
own 85mm
76a street wheels and they're some of
the best eskate wheels that are made
by
a manufacturer, There are a lot of
companies trying to make eskate wheels
but they've all been
a little bit of a failure. but Exway have
nailed it. They're nice and squishy
to absorb a lot of the vibrations from
the road and they're grippy so you have
a lot of control when you're going
around corners.
However as you can see, they do lose
their colour quite fast but there is no
signs of cracking or chipping at all
just yet.
Due to the design of hub motors the PU
sleeves on the Exway board
can be replaced but you can't put on any
other wheel type that you would like but
that's fine, if you just want to ride
street wheels then the hubs are perfect
because
there's plenty of PU between the hub
motors and the ground
which means you don't get that hub board
feeling it's
very smooth and rides extremely well. The
Riot kit on the other hand has belts
which means you can pretty much put any
wheel on here that you would like
aside from pneumatics. They've got kegel
cores
which means you can chuck on any other
wheel that's got this type of core like
the Orangatangs up here.
If you want to put on ABEC style wheels
you're just going to need to get
yourself a new
wheel pulley. Exwray also have their own
branded version of the cloud wheels so
if you were looking for an all-terrain
type of
ride then that's probably gonna be your
closest bet.
Exway makes a massive deal about their
trucks
and rightly so because these things are
incredible.
They're called Trist trucks and the reason
everyone is talking about them
is because they're made with the same
process that
premium skate truck brands make their
high-end skate trucks.
So, they're forged instead of cast which
means they're going to be a lot
stronger and they're CNC’d which means
they're going to be very
precise and you can really feel the
difference when you're riding.
You know exactly how they're going to
respond when you're cornering and
carving plus while you're riding at
really high speeds I didn't feel
any speed wobbles. They're paired
with double barrel bushings and what
seems to be a
five mil riser pad which just adds to
the experience of that smooth
ride. It is completely crazy that we're
getting a pair of these
preemium skate trucks on a budget
electric skateboard it's
it's just awesome.
The two motors that we've already spoken
about are the hub motors and
the Riot kit. In terms of power, the hubs run
at 2x 1200 watts and the Riot kit
runs at 2x 1500 watts
and you can definitely feel
that power when you're riding.
The riot kit has a lot higher low end
power so
it's going to be faster at accelerating
and climbing hills
but you're gonna see the difference
between the two of them when we put them
through the tests
a little bit later on in this video.
The ESC. Where do I start with the ESC?
Well let's just say it is amazing.
Firstly, it is made by Hobbywing which
are
a very reliable and well-known brand in
the e-skate industry
Secondly, this thing is built for control
and when I say control it comes in two
forms. The first is when you're riding
the board
and secondly, control over its
customization.
It is crazy smooth with just the right
amount of oomph. It is
super reliable. The responsiveness of the
board to the remote
is exactly what you expect and is what
you want when you're riding. This
board it just gives you so much
confidence. With the Exway app, you can
customize pretty much
every aspect of the ESC from the
acceleration,
to the braking, the turbo, there's a few
other things in there
but there is a lot to go in for that so
what I’m going to do is create a new
video which
is just about the Exway app that's going
to be released later on this week so
make sure you subscribe down below and
hit that bell button so you get notified
of when that comes out.
Exway has developed a smart battery and it is
actually smart. Here's something I
realized only after riding the Exway Flex.
on occasion, maybe two or three times per
ride the remote would vibrate
and throw me a warning saying
‘Power Limited’
and this would happen usually when I was
trying to accelerate really fast from a
standstill
or going up a really steep hill and
that's when I thought,
ah man that's the thing, that's the thing
that the Exway Flex
is no good at. It doesn't have the power...
But then,
What I realized was that even though it
was giving me this warning,
it was still powering up hills and
accelerating really hard.
What I realized was happening was the
battery working with the ESC
was letting me know that the board is
under more stress than it would
like and to please back off a bit. So
what did I do? Whenever I got that
vibration I backed off a bit waited for
that warning to subside and then kept
going
and I didn't have an issue. The battery
is trying to prolong its own life.
It's a self-aware battery. Other electric
skateboards would be going through the
exact
same situation where too much power is
being drawn from the battery in a
certain scenario
but they don't warn you about it so what
happens, the battery puts up with it
and eventually burns out faster than
usual. This is what makes the battery
smart and this is why Exwray is one of
the best electric skateboard
manufacturers
in the market at the moment. they are not
like any other
chinese electric skateboard manufacturer
building copycat boards.
They're out there innovating, researching
and designing the best possible product
for us eSkaters. It's just awesome to
see Exway leading the charge in all of
this.
But all batteries must die, even smart
batteries.
Luckily, Exway have got their fast swap
system on their enclosure. It's a little
bit like the old boosted board
enclosures where you've got
three bolts on either side of the
enclosure which you can just
undo, whip out the old battery, chuck in a
freshy,
put the enclosure back on and away you
go. As for the battery specs, it's running
sony vtc6
18650 cells with 259 watt
hour capacity. It's massive.
Alright, how you doing eSkaters?
We've covered a lot so far. We've done
pretty much all of the specs of the
Exway Flex.
Now it's time to jump into the fun part
which is the tests.
But before we crack into them, please, if
I’m doing a good job,
smash that like button and if you want
to see more electric skateboard reviews,
news and other eSkate stuff in the
future
hit that subscribe button and the bell
notification button so you don't miss a
thing.
Alright, let's get straight into those
tests.
Let's start with my favourite test to do
which is the top speed test.
With the hub motors, the top speed I hit
was 28.8mph
which is 46.4kmh and
with the Riot kit
I hit 30.6mph which is 49.3kmh.
For a budget e-board that is an amazing
speed.
Even the premium boards like Evolve
don't even have a specked top speed
of that. For the range on the hub motors
I managed 11.2 miles which is 18 kilometres
and with the Riot kit, I made
it as far as 12 miles or 19.2 kilometres.
So the Riot edges out the hub boards
ever so slightly on both
top speed and range, but the real
difference
is in the power so you're looking at the
acceleration the braking and the hill
climb tests which we're gonna do right
now.
The hub motors and the Riot kit are both
quick off the mark
with no surprise, the Riot kit is a bit
faster.
Because of the belts, the Riot kit has
just a little bit more guts
on the take-off. the Hub is a lot
smoother and there's really no chance
you're going to be thrown off the board
while the Riot kit
has got a little bit of a punch at the
beginning so if you're not braced and
ready for the takeoff
you could lose your balance and fall off.
The same pretty much goes for the
braking.
The hubs are super smooth. They're going to
bring you to a stop relatively quickly
but there is no jerking whatsoever on
the way down.
The Riot kit, however, is real snappy.
You're gonna come to a stop a lot faster
than you do on the hubs
so make sure you're ready for it brace
yourself and get
ready to slow down. The hubs did
surprisingly well on the hill climb test.
It climbed the steeper parts of this
hill at about 19kmh
which
is a lot better than some other hub
systems out there.
The Riot on the other hand, powered up
these hills at about 25kmh
And that's a difference that you can
really feel. The hubs,
they take you up the hill, it's going to
get you there but it's not going to be
pulling.
The Riot kit, it really wants you at the
top of those hills so it's going to bust
its gut
to get up there. Well the benefits of the
hub board is that
firstly, it's very quiet. The belts have
this beautiful whirring sound that a lot
of people like.
Well the hubs are almost silent so if
you're doing a lot of early morning
riding on the way to work or whatever
then you might want to use the hubs so
that you don't annoy the neighbors.
Secondly, they are easy to maintain
because they don't have a lot of
external moving parts. There's
not much that can really go wrong with
them. lastly it's $50
cheaper which is friendlier on the
wallet. The riot kit outperformed the
hubs in
every area. Even though it was only
slightly in some cases,
the Riot kit just has that little bit
more power which
a lot of people are going to enjoy.
Lastly you have the ability to change
the wheels on the Riot kit.
I think this is awesome. I couldn't
really think of a great application of
being able to swap between belts
and hubs maybe only if you do a lot of
early morning riding
during the week on the way to work and
then you want to take it out on the
weekend for a little bit of extra power
but the ability to change the wheels on
the Riot kit come in a lot
more use. You can change between the
cloud wheels and the street wheels
pretty quickly and when the wheels start
to wear out you can easily swap them out
for something else.
That means you can change your riding
style whenever you like. Overall,
the Exway Flex either with the hub
drives or the Riot kit
is an amazing e-board. It really is the
best electric skateboard available at
the moment at this
price point. it really does suit a lot of
different riders
from people who are just commuting to
work or school,
want to go out and carve really hard or
just want to go for your average cruise
to anywhere you like. Well, that's pretty
much it eSkaters.
I've got two more things to tell you
about but
this is the Exway Flex. There is a lot to
cover and I know i've probably missed
some things so
what I've done is I've written a whole
article
on the exway Flex which goes deeper into
all of the specs,
the parts, the features all that kind of
thing. It's on my website you can check
the link in the description.
Also if you have any questions, chuck
them in the comments below. I answer
every single one of those questions
because my job here is to help you
find the best electric skateboard that
is perfect for your riding
needs. So the first of the last two
things I want to mention
is you see these wheels up here on the
top here well
I want to give a pair of those Orangatang
wheels away
to one lucky winner. What you have to do
is
look at these boards on the wall behind
me and figure out
which board I have not yet done a review
for, come back to this video,
comment below which board that is, make
sure you subscribe to this channel
and the winner will be announced when
this review comes out in two weeks time.
So make sure you hit that subscribe
button and the notification bell button
so that you don't miss it.
Dear exway user, Thank you very much for
taking the time out of your busy
schedule to read this letter and a huge
thank you for your ongoing love and
support for us.
Exway is a young and dynamic team and
will always strive for the highest
technological innovation
and ultimate user experience. We've
definitely seen that with the Flex
forever committed to developing products
that inspires confidence in the quality
reliability and safety of every Exway
electric skateboard.
we wholeheartedly believe that the Flex
is one of those products.
It has all the performance
and features of the x1 pro
but with the most competitive price on
the market it carries all of our team's
expectations
you can rest assured that compared with
other products on the market the Exway Flex
will not let you down
it has not been easy in recent months to
say the least but we must live up to
their expectations of our clients
first and foremost we have been striving
to deliver our products as fast and as
safely as possible
amid the current global crisis we are
developing some other new cool boards
and constantly updating the product
information
so please pay close attention to our
official website and social network
platforms to get the latest news and
reports on situations as they arise if
there are any inconveniences
please contact us and we will sincerely
do our best to work together with you to
find a solution
as a gratitude of our support we would
like to offer you a $15
coupon or discount code to customers who
can shoot a photo of themself enjoying
their Flex
to share on social media and tag
@exwayboard6
and those who are willing to write us a
product review at our website
they can simply screenshot the posts or
reviews and contact service
exwayboard.com to obtain the discount
code which they can use to get the
deduction
from the next purchase from Exway board
finally
we hope you can now enjoy your Exway
board every day
that's really nice Exway I feel that
Exway really
cares about their customers and
producing a quality
product we've seen that in the X1
series the Flex
we've got the wave coming up the atlas
they've got a lot of amazing boards
coming which is super exciting Exway
are a brand to look out for good job
Exway I can't wait
for your new boards. Alright eSkaters,
that's everything. As always, ride safe
out there and I will see you soon.