Electric Skateboard Motors [The

Complete Guide]
by Dax Montilla

The main component of any electric skateboard build is the motor. You
should plan your entire build around your motor(s). You have to think about
how fast you want to go, and how far you plan to travel. You have to think
if you would still like to have the freedom to be able to push your board or
have the ability to climb hills.

• Do you want to ride off-road, trails, and parks? Yes, please

• Are you going to be commuting, weekend riding, or just out
shredding the streets at night? Yes, please
• Are you going to try it at your local skatepark? Wait, what?
• Are you uphill/downhill racing? Uhhhh…..
• How about tearing up your local BMX dirt tracks? Really?

Yes, there are many options. However you spin it, any choice you make
revolves around your motors.

Contents hide
1 So What Kind Of Motor Should I Buy?
1.1 Hub Motors
1.2 Belt Drive Motors
1.3 Direct Drive
1.4 Gear Drive
2 Which Features shall my Motor have?
2.1 How fast do you really want to go?
2.2 Do I Really Need to Know About Gear Ratios for my Build?
3 Putting Power to the Motors
3.1 Non-Programmable
3.2 Programmable
4 Battery Choice
5 Wheel Choice
5.1 Motor mounts
6 Pulleys and belts:
7 Get to know the Vocabulary of Electric Motors
8 Most Popular DIY Motor Vendors
9 Complete Eskate DIY Kits
10 Final Thoughts

So What Kind Of Motor Should I Buy?

I am not going to tell you which one is better. That is an argument saved for
Facebook groups and builder forums. My duty is to simply inform and
hopefully point you in the direction of your build.

Hub Motors

Hub Motors are motors that are exactly as you read it; they are motors that
act as the hubs of the wheels (normally the rear). As they revolve, so goes
the wheel. They require no other moving parts, make barely a perceptible
noise, and come in quite a few different fixed speed configurations. You
can even hit the skate park and ride this like a normal board if you’re
supremely confident and have a bulletproof battery and ESC enclosure.
Since hub motors only use sleeves as wheels, you are limited on what kind
of wheels you can buy. However, it is easy to find replacement sleeves and
new styles are coming out all the time. A unique feature of hub motors
besides their silence is the ability to still kick-push your board normally if
your batteries die. And depending on your motor configuration, you may
even be able to recharge the batteries this way.
Belt Drive Motors

Belt drive motors feature a brushless motor(s) with a pulley on it connecting

via a belt to a larger pulley on the wheel. Belt drives offer you multiple
swappable options for gear ratio, high torque, and speed. These can be great
motors if you live in hilly country or plan on mixed on and off-road use for
your build. Some DIY all-terrain riders convert their belt drives to chain-
driven for even more durability. You can run them as a single motor or dual-
motor configuration. They also tend to have a lot of moving parts that can
require tweaking and may vibrate loose or move out of square. Depending
on your setup, the torque these little monster motors put out may require
adjustment to motor mounts, belts, and motors during and after a hard ride.
But when dialed, the power will put a smile on your face. Truly the best part
about the belt drives besides the high torque curve is the fact that you can
adapt any system for use on virtually any skateboard truck, any skateboard
wheel, or all-terrain wheels you can fit a pulley on. The online community
is huge and there is a lot of support if you need help and no crazy questions
are unwelcome.
Direct Drive

Direct drive offers the best of both hub and belt drive in that they have the
high torque and high speed of belt-driven motors with the direct input of
hub motors, so there are no belts, mounts, or pulleys. The acceleration is
100% tunable just like the belt drive with all that power going straight to
the wheels. On top of all that direct power, these motors tend to dissipate
heat quickly so running higher speeds for longer periods makes these the
ideal choice for the uphill racer. With these motors, you have the perfect
cocktail of ease of use, quick acceleration, and well-balanced power control.
Best of all, you can use any skate wheel you can fit an adapter on, including
all-terrain wheels and push kick when you were too dumb to charge your
battery at the last stop. Of course, there is no perfect motor for all situations,
and direct drive has its flaws. Direct drive motors are BIG. Their relative
size puts them real low to the ground and subject to damage from debris.
Their cans are not bulletproof, and even a small rock can do damage. Riders
using pneumatic wheels on street and off-road would benefit greatly from
direct drive. For the brave soul who wants to feel the power and run low
and fast on urethane street wheels, you will want to start learning how to
carve and weave quickly.
Gear Drive

The gear drive may seem new, but DIY “gearheads” have been
experimenting with gear-driven systems for years. For the most part, gear
drive systems are small sophisticated close fixed gear systems that feature
the best of all the systems above. You can change your wheels whenever
you want, no belts, with the torque of belt drive all in a compact system with
room to tear up both mountains and the urban landscape. Most of these
systems are incredibly responsive and ridiculously compact. Some
incredible DIY all-terrain race rigs even feature changeable gearing,
though, for the most part, you are going to find fixed gear systems are the
norm. The biggest drawback to this system is the gear noise which can be
deafening for the most sensitive (for the rest of us it’s just annoying), the
complexity, and the expense. These can be very expensive integrated drive
trains for a lot of DIY builders to take on. However, the expense is well
worth it if you can afford it. If you are a serious off-road racer in desperate
search of a high speed sealed system, this may be the motor/drive train
combo for you.
Which Features shall my Motor have?
Before you can eSk8 you need to decide what kind of electric skateboard
you want to build. Do you live in the city and don’t hit the hills or the trails
that often? You can build an inexpensive but quick hub motor board or a
single belt drive with a light battery and put it on an old school kick
tailboard, or retro pintail deck, and style your way through the urban
wasteland. Do you feel frisky and like to get muddy? Then a monster dual-
motor belt drive with 8 or 9 inch knobby AT wheels and pneumatic tires
paired with suspension trucks on a Trampa style deck with bindings is
gonna give you a real good time. DO you have the need for speed? A long
drop thru downhill board paired with direct drive and a 12s4p battery will
push the eyes in the back of your head. Now that you have your dream build
in mind, put it down on paper. Write down which style of board you want.
Visit a website like Skateshred.com, Zumiez.com, or better yet, pop into
your local skate shop and check out what they have to offer. Write down
the style of a skateboard you want to buy. This will be the start of your parts
list.

A special note about this, skateboards have a wheelbase size and that tells
you how much space in the middle of the board you have to put a battery,
ESC enclosures, motors, disco lights, etc. It helps to know how much space
you plan on using for these items before you hit the Pay Now button.

How fast do you really want to go?

This needs to be said before we move any further. Even a cruising speed of
15mph is your fastest running speed.
A good rule of thumb is to base your top speed on your skateboarding
experience. Have you spent years skateboarding, snowboarding, or surfing,
wiping out, and getting back up? Riding any board is probably instinctual
for you so you already have a good grasp on control, better still; you have a
feel for when things get out of control. Grab a direct drive or dual belt setup,
max out the power, and put it down.

If you have never been on a skateboard before, it would make more sense
to stick with a slower hub motor setup where you can work your way up to
the higher speeds while working on skateboarding fundamentals like
carving and control. Better yet start with a single belt drive setup, and then
when comfortable with the speed, you can add another belt drive setup
easily and double your speed.

Hey Cool Guy! You know who you are. The guy who thinks he’s too cool to
wear a helmet because he used to be punk rock back in the day. Or the
hipster who plans to spend as much time mall carrying his board as he does
riding it and doesn’t want a helmet to ruin his hair. These skateboards CAN
KILL you. Even a crash at 15mph with no helmet can make you a vegetable.
I have been to a friend’s funeral after a downhill ride gone badly. Don’t be
a statistic, find a helmet, and wear it!
Do I Really Need to Know About Gear Ratios for my Build?

The short answer is No. As I mentioned earlier that hub and direct drive
motors do not use gears or belts to work. So you can bolt and go. Belt driven
motors have pulleys that require you to eventually learn about gear ratios if
you want to make quick mechanical improvements to your launch or top
speed. It especially helps when trying to figure which belts you will need to
buy for your build. That is the biggest problem with belt drive builds is
finding belts that match the mounts and motors of your build. There are
plenty of apps for your IOS or Android compatible device (like esk8calc)
that will help you calculate those ratios for you until you have the setups
you like.

A good standard starting pulley setup for a street setup is a 36 tooth gear on
the wheel and a 15 tooth gear on the motor.

You can pick a wider pulley as well, which will give you a wider belt and
more positive power but may require you to alter the trucks to make them
fit.

Gear-driven is self-explanatory and would require more knowledge than I

have in regards to setting those up. Suffice it to say, you should have at least
a working understanding of gear rations for gear-driven setups.

Putting Power to the Motors

No matter what style of motor you go with, you are going to need an ESC
to power it. An ESC, or electronic speed controller is the brains of your
electric skateboard. It reads the signal from your remote control, takes
power from the battery, and applies it to your motor(s). For eSk8 there are
generally two common ESCs.

Non-Programmable

This ESC has preprogrammed onboard data that tells your motors how they
should operate. These have no programming, are 100% plug and play, and
generally come with their remote controls. These are most common on sites
like eBay, Amazon, or mboards.com. You have to know what the max
voltage these kinds of ESCs can handle before matching to your battery and
motors or you could have a short or even a fire.
Programmable

Connect your phone or laptop and this ESC is fully programmable. The
most popular of these is known as a VESC (Vedder Electronic Speed
Control), named after Benjamin Vedder, a robotic engineer who developed
the open-source software program used to customize all kinds of electronic
motors. This software app allows you to easily dial in and program your
ESC. VESCs are more expensive due to their programmable nature but are
by far the most stable ESCs you can buy. You can program battery style and
motor style right in the ESC, so one ESC can manage many different motor
styles and handle many different voltages.
The proper ESC can make or break your build so choose carefully.
Good programmable ESCs to check out…. Flipsky FESC 4 & 6, Focbox,
Unity, mBoards, Hobbyking, Maytech

Battery Choice
Batteries are what make your motors go. A lot of sites offer batteries, but
how do you know which ones to invest in? Ah, well, this goes back to what
you plan to do with your eskate.

Series (S) and Parallel (P) (eg 10s1p, 12s2p) – Are the configuration for
how the battery cells are connected.

I have a general rule of thumb I follow:

• 6s batteries: 15 – 20 mph, Short commutes, mid-range speeds on flat
ground.
• 10s batteries: Mid to high speeds 20 – 25mph and middle of the ground in
terms of range, not too hard on ESCs.
• 12s batteries: Best overall speed 25 – 30+mph with mid to high range. Can
be too much for some non-programmable ESCs or the wrong VESC.

What about the P (Parallel)? Well I have noticed the parallel rating in
eskate batteries tends to pertain more to the range. Since you can mix the
two you can have any of the above and any of the below.

• 2p batteries: About 10 – 12mile range

• 3p batteries: About 12 – 15mile range
• 4p batteries: About 15 – 20mile range

These are general figures. There are a lot of other variables to consider. I
just wanted to give you a general rule of thumb to help in planning your
build.

Great places to buy a reliable battery and charger. MBoards.com,

DIYelectricskateboard.com, Hobbyking.com.
For more info check out our Guide on Electric Skateboard Batteries.

Wheel Choice
Well, we can break it down like this:
If you are planning on spending most, if not all of your time in an urban
environment, and the only trails you are going to see are occasionally hitting
the grass to avoid dog poop or angry jogger, then you will want to ride
Urethane street wheels or smaller AT wheels with street tires. Both are
going to give you a real thrill with the smaller AT wheels safer for newer
riders. If you are going to be invading your local BMX track and jumping
doubles or tearing up your local forest trails, then the big gnarly knobby AT
wheels are the only way to go. For more info check out our Electric
Skateboard Wheel Guide.

Some more things you should know about Belt Drive Builds…

Motor mounts

Mount and truck combos are the best as they most likely were designed to
be used together and by design will be much stronger. Look for mount
supports if they are offered for the brand of mounts your choose to use.
There are generally two diameters to belt-drive motors, 50mm and 63mm.
Your motor mounts will fit one or the other depending on the first number
in your motor dimensions. Make sure you know which motor you are
buying before buying your motor mounts. Brands to note when buying
motor mounts….Evolve Skateboards, MBoards, Boardnamics, DIYE,
Torqueboards, Flipsky
Pulleys and belts:
Remember that these are DIY builds, and as such, there always tends to be
a place that gets little attention, yet can hold up an entire build. Enter the
drive belt. It can take weeks to locate the properly sized belts. Whenever
you buy a pulley set online it’s a crapshoot on whether the belt they ship
will fit your setup. Websites to take note of for Belts……vbeltguys.com,
evolvesakteboardusa.com, diyelectricskateboard.com, or mboards.com.
VBelt Guys even have a calculator on their site to help you find belts if you
get lost.
 Get to know the Vocabulary of Electric Motors
• Model Dimensions (4-digit number): The 4 digits of the motor denote the
size of the motor. For example, the motor on a 6384 motor means that it’s
63mm in diameter and 84mm in length.
• KV Rating (RPM/ Volt): The Kv rating of a brushless motor is the ratio of
the motor’s unloaded rpm to the peak voltage on the wires connected to the
coils. Knowing the Kv rating of a motor will help you determine how fast
that motor will rotate when a given voltage is applied to it. A tip: lower Kv
rating, higher torque. Higher Kv rating, higher speed. Good middle ground
Kv 190Kv.
• Max Power (Watts) : WattHours(Wh = Ah * max voltage) = Size of the
battery. The power that a battery can output in one hour. WattHours is the
total battery size and an even better indicator of range. The general rule of
thumb is WattHours/ 10km=Range
• Max Current (Amps): The current that a battery can give. This affects the
top speed.
• Continuous discharge current = The ampere that the battery can provide
continuously without overheating. Most electric skateboards need their
batteries to be at least 30A continuous.
• Ampere Hours: The charge that a battery holds. This affects the range.
(Number of Ampere that a battery can put out if it was to fully discharge in
one hour, hence Ampere/Hour) 1000mAH = 1Ah
• Max Volts (V): The torque that a board gives. Also improves the efficiency
of the battery hence range. Industry-standard = 36V. If the voltage is too
low, the board will not have enough torque. If the voltage is too high, the
motor/ ESC can not handle it.
• Max Torque (Nm): Torque in short is the twisting force or the force that
produces a rotary motion or rotational force.
• Motor Resistance (Ohms): The ohm is defined as an electrical resistance
between two points of a conductor when a constant potential difference of
one volt, applied to these points, produces in the conductor a current of one
ampere, the conductor not being the seat of any electromotive force.
• Unsensored & Sensored motor: Sensored motor allows the ESC to detect
the position of the motor at all times, which translates into a smoother start-
up. Unsensored motor, on the other hand, often is jerky when starting from
a standstill and often requires a kick push to have a smooth start.
• Shaft Diameter: The diameter of the output shaft on the brushless motor.
Generally in electric skateboarding, there are two shaft sizes 8mm and
10mm. 8mm is used on most electric skateboards while 10mm is normally
reserved for the larger more aggressive all-terrain eSk8 boards.

Most Popular DIY Motor Vendors

TorqueBoard : DIYelectricskateboard.com
Flipsky: flipsky.net
Maytech: maytech.cn
MBoards: MBoards.com
Hobby King: hobbyking.com

Complete Eskate DIY Kits

Build Kit Boards : Check out the Duo and Tayto Complete Kits. Full kits
including decks!
Torqueboards offers its Dual Motor Mechanical Kit. The only anodized
mount kits in the industry.

MBoards: Recently MBoards began offering an online kit builder. Simply

go to their website and start customizing your kit.

The Revel Kit: A complete bolt-on Direct Drive kit capable of turning ANY
existing skateboard into a full-blown electric skateboard the Revel Kit does
what a lot of eSk8 companies have tried to do. You have to check these guys
out at revelboards.com

Final Thoughts
Have I got you excited yet? Are you READY to build an Electric
Skateboard? You have drooled over the cool youtube videos of guys tearing
up the streets and trails, you have lurked in eSk8 groups, and you have
browsed the parts companies. You have drawn pictures of your eskateboard;
you have already named your eSk8 company, right? YOU ARE READY!!!!
So what’s left? Oh yeah, get out there and build your dream board!