Lost connection on downhill means no brakes!

I had a scary experience over the weekend that I’d like to share. I mentioned in an Evolve facebook group about it yesterday, as coincidentally someone else posted they’d had a similar thing happen, but I thought it would be better to discuss at length here (and I didn’t want to hijack someone else’s thread).

I decided to go out for a ride around my neighbourhood in Wellington, New Zealand, which is mostly steep, narrow, winding roads. Everything was going fine and I was having a great time, then while going downhill I lost my ability to break/accelerate. The first time it happened I rode it out until I got to a road that branched off and went uphill, and was able to jump off the board. When I checked the remote it had gone into safe mode, which I realise now means it had disconnected and reconnected. I turned off the board and remote and back on and continued on, assuming it would be a one off, when a couple of minutes later it happened again. This time on a steep winding downhill with no options to turn off. When I lost the brakes I was already going faster than I’d be able to jump off (probably about 35kph). I thought about bailing any way but by the time I’d thought about it I was going even faster and it didn’t seem like a viable option. I thought about trying to slide the board, which I’ve never done, so I discounted that as an even worse idea. It didn’t occur to me to drag a foot. I carved as much as I could, by this time I was going much faster than the previous time it happened, and was starting to get some wobbles. I think 35-40kph. I then tried the brake again and this time it worked and I was able to slow down, stop, and thank the gods of eSkate for saving my arse (and arms, legs, head…).

So, some thoughts/observations:
• I started out in Fast or Eco mode, I can’t remember which.
• The board Carbon GT with AT wheels, the remote is R2, they are a couple of months old so should both have the latest firmware.
• I don’t understand why when the first time it happened it went into safe mode, but not the second.
• There seemed to be no brakes in Safe mode – is the level of braking proportional to the mode i.e. is braking in GT better than braking in Eco?
• When I noticed I’d lost the brake I pulled the accelerator trigger in a few times which did nothing. I figure must have already been going too fast for it to make a difference, or the board was still disconnected. But I didn’t notice any surge or queuing of the commands when it did reconnect (which has been previously used to explain when people experience their board jamming on the brakes and throwing them off the front).
• I need to learn how to manage this type of situation, and probably not go any faster than I can run off when going downhill.

There were a few suggestions made to deal with it in response to my post on facebook:
• Hit the up button when the remote reconnects to go to the last speed setting - good thought, weird I didn’t have to do that the second time though
• Drag a foot heel to brake - didn’t occur to me, duh
• Slide the board - I’ve never done this before and am sure it would have caused even worse calamity
• Grab both rails and sit down on bum, then brake with both feet - not sure this would have worked for me as I was having to steer around bends. Also not sure how I’d go negotiating a sit down at speed, and am imagining that putting both feet down in front of you at speed whilst sitting could end up with two badly sprained knees. Probably better than face first on the road though I guess.

So, I’d like to learn how to slide the board (as well as doing some practise foot braking). I’m thinking this is going to be a lot harder to learn on an eSkate with AT wheels than on a normal longboard. Has anyone learned this skill on an eSkate without having first learned on a longboard? Should I buy a crappy longboard and do some practise on that? Should I invest in some stoneground wheels for the Evolve just to learn sliding on (I won’t use them other than for that, as our roads are too ****)? Or should I just learn some self discipline and not ride fast downhill (unlikely to be honest..)?

 

I have not had this happen but given all the reports of remotes loosing connection I do worry about it, especially when going down hills or coming up to roads. I tend to be careful when going downhill to always ensure that if something does happen I have somewhere to go, ie grass should things stop working and if coming to a road start slowing a bit early so that if something stops working I still have time and space to react and at least jump off and run forward before reaching the road. This does mean going annoyingly slow coming up to roads, but meh.
Once I get up around 35-40kmh I find any movement impacts the board, so I expect doing something like trying to sit would be a disaster. I was free rolling down a hill the other day and got to around 40kmh, even engagning\disengaging the brakes was a little scary as my moment changed when I did this. (I know ride the brakes down that hill )
I have spent some time trying to learn to foot break, and it is a lot harder than it looks. But I think this is probably the way to go. Possibly someone more skilled than me will correct me here, but I assume it is a matter of if getting enough strength and balance in the leg that will be on the board to hold yourself with your leg slightly bent while you gently slow yourself with the heel of your other foot.
Even if proficient with this there is probably a max speed at which you can do this, based on my experience going down a hill with bumps, sticks and other small obstacles at 40ish kmh you do hit a speed where you are 100% committed to just staying on the board, so it is important to be aware of what speed this is and either ensure you always use the brakes to keep under this speed or be willing to accept that if you are going that fast there is a risk of injury.
I have also thought that it would be worth practicing transitioning from path to grass at speed. I am fine doing it at lower speeds, and it slows you down much faster. Now that I am typing this I feel I should go and to that this weekend I guess coming off on grass would also hurt a bit less than coming off on a bike path.
It is also a worry for me that you have this happening on new board with the new controller. I was hoping that Evolve had sorted this out and looking at other posts it did appear that the issues were with the older remotes and patch versions. I have been using my board as my daily commute since January and tend to zip around pretty quickly, however I am very used to relying on the brakes for a range of situations. I have had a few situations with pedestrians\cyclists where they suddenly stop or pull out in front of you where I have had to break quite hard and a break failure in these situations would be very messy. I do try to be considerate of other people and go slower when I am around them, but a small number of people, pedestrians especially, often seem to pay no attention to what is happening around them and will suddenly change direction as you go to pass them.
Sorry to hear about your experience, I can imagine that it was very scary at the time and has probably impacted your enjoyment of the board. Hopefully you get the issue sorted, and I will try to update you in the future on how my learning to foot break is going...

 

Weka,

In response to some of your questions… Yes I would learn to slide the board. You don’t have to learn to slide from a standing position to start with. Learn to slide so you come to a stop, yes sliding to control your speed is nice but stopping to begin with is where I would start. Also if you are going to practice sliding so you slow invest in a pair of sliding gloves. Having said that try this with regular skateboard wheels (stone ground 83s, 97s, whatever) not the AT’s. The AT’s have too much grip. If doing this on a regular skateboard is more comfortable by all means start there. You can also drag your foot but when you get enough speed going that route to can be a little hairy and scary. I wouldn't sit down and drag my feet but that's me. What you have described has happened to me but not so much with the R2 remote. I think when I first got the R2 remote it happened once or twice but there are a couple of things I do that maybe help but either way it hasn’t happened since. One is I don’t ever have the remote really far away from the board, say above my head. I don’t know if that helps but it keeps me happy. The other thing is when I shut down and re-sync the board and remote. Somewhere on the forums someone gives instructions. Something like turn board off first, went 10 seconds, hold power button on remote until you feel it vibrate 3 times. When turning on, power on board first, went 10 seconds and power on remote. Syncs correctly every time. Also on really steep hills I end up carving not so much because I don’t like speed but because I like to carve. You can also control your speed that way. Keeping your nerve at speed is the biggest thing and carving helps minimize the wobbles but there is a balance you have to find when setting up your trucks for good carving without getting the wobbles when going fast and not carving. It sounds like you are doing everything you can to stay in one piece and you have nerves of steel so practice your manual braking methods and enjoy. Hope this help.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys, some good ideas there for me to put into practice