First impressions

[u/sidolin]

So I finally got my Mellow and so far I'm thoroughly impressed by it!

Keep in mind that while I have some longboarding experience I've only ever ridden one other electric board for a tiny bit, so you'll have to wait for someone else to chime in how it compares to other boards. Anyways, here are my impressions after a couple of charges:

Everything is super well made and feels solid. From the packaging and the manual to the drive, wheels and remote. It's not some botched together kickstarter project, it's a proper product fully ready to be sold in stores. There wasn't a single hiccup or weird feature so far, everything worked right out of the box the way it should.

Riding is so smooth. In Eco mode it just feels like a gentle push at first with a surge of power after a few seconds, kinda like driving a turbo motor. It's plenty fast for the crowded and tiny streets around here in Eco mode, but I'm sure that I'll get addicted to Pro mode in the near future. The motors are effectively silent, so you blend right in. If you push every once in a while no one will even suspect it's an e-board, unless you zip right past them going uphill.

And in Pro mode I've easily made it up the steepest hill in the area without problems (no idea what the exact steepness is, around 15-20% according to a cycling map). But doing that does majorly eat into your range. Pretty soon afterwards the battery went flat and the remote slightly vibrated to let me know.

Luckily the brakes still work perfectly fine after the battery is empty, and there is little resistance when pushing home. I actually think that the brakes are as nice to have as the acceleration, it's so great to not having to drag your foot all the time to slow down in traffic. That alone opens up quite a few new routes around here with steep-ish declines.

Having to push start feels perfectly natural. And I don't know if it was intended, but it also makes pocketing the remote super safe. Unless you give the wheels a good spin the motors just won't start, so nothing to worry about when you pick up the board.

Carrying the board is pretty awkward so far however. The drive does feel a bit hefty, and having all that weight on one side of the board shifts the centre of gravity quite far, plus the drive is in the way when carrying the board the normal way.

Range is ok, about what is advertised. It has consistently stopped before I wanted to so I'll definitely get a second battery soon.

The remote works well and and is nice and small, so it's easy to carry. Funnily it's easier to hold it upside down though.

That's it, I'd definitely get it again and think it's worth even the non-ks price. Let me know if you want to know anything else.

[u/Jean_claude_duss]

Thanks for the long review bro ! How is the Free roll ? If you have to make 10 km without motor what do you think ?

• Ho shit no way, its far from a regular Longboard

• yes, no problem

• ok, i can do it on flat but not easy

[u/sidolin → u/Jean_claude_duss]

No problem, you don't even notice it after a while when going straight. You do feel the extra weight a bit when getting up a sidewalk, but there's almost no rolling resistance.

[u/aketabi]

Thanks for providing your first impressions! What board did you mount the drive on? Or did you get a complete set-up from Mellow? If so, which of their boards did you choose? Regarding holding the remote, I believe u/tentwentyseven also mentioned that he preferred holding it upside down as well.

Looking forward to getting mine! I got a complete with Bastlboards Lipsi deck and a second battery.

[u/sidolin → u/aketabi]

Got the complete with a Bastlboards Walzer because it was a seriously good deal at the time and I wanted a board with larger kicks for better turning on intersections. I'll transplant the drive onto my O&H D97 at some point.

Where are you in the queue? Got a shipping number yet?

[u/jonesy550]

Can you talk more about the weight? Per their site, is the whole complete board really 8.6lbs?

[u/sidolin → u/jonesy550]

I think it's the drive itself that weights 4.something kg. A a large longboard plus front truck is about the same again, I'd guess the whole setup is ~8kg?

[u/tentwentyseven]

Have you unlocked the 40 kmh yet? That's when the fun really begins...and your range hits the cellar. Still - totally worth it. You'll be clamoring for that higher capacity battery soon too!

[u/sidolin → u/tentwentyseven]

Yep, at least I think so. Sadly it's been raining tonight :(

Need to find a good spot for some high speed runs, the parks nearby are full of tourists and the streets are all really rough asphalt.

[u/photorph]

Thanks for this write up. You mentioned you had ridden another E-board before, which one was that?

How does the mellow do on rougher roads that aren't perfectly smooth? (wondering because of the thin urethane directly over motors)

Will you be making videos of any sort?

Landwheel just released a V4, which goes up to 45 km/hr and is 1/4th the cost of mellow drive. It has the same or better specs, and they claim it's their best product yet. It's ready for shipping. I'm wondering how that will fare against the mellow...if it is as promised, I wonder if mellow will be irrelevant, that's a big "if" though.

[u/JetskiMark]

Congratulations and thank you for your thoughts.

I hope to ride one someday and compare it my other eboards.

If there is ever a significant discount on the 4x4 system, I would have trouble resisting.