Small pulley replacement / lifespan ? Only option from Evolve is full motor replacement???

So I'm getting stoked, have an Evolve GT ready to be at my doorsteps at any moment since I'm on the next shipping pre-order. Can't wait to see what its all about, sure does look sexy. I've been reading on a few forums about the Carbon GT, about how much fun it is and also about how its holding up from very good every day usage.... For me, my electric skateboard is my commuter to get to the bus station and work from home, so I put the miles on it, since I commute anywhere from 8 to 12 miles per day. I'm sure others have a longer commute. But at any rate, I highly use and depend on this board.

So my first worry / question is with the pulleys. Curious why Evolve opted for plastic, I know its cheaper but its not that durable from heavy use. I come from the Metro-Board electric skateboard and have bought my first one 3 years back, I'm now on my 4th MetroBoard and love them. The one I love the most is my 41" Longboard Slim that has the 40 mile optional battery pack. Very reliable, does 22mph top speed with 97mm wheels, and it built like a tank. Also the customer support at MetroBoard is unheard of awesome. Any issue you have he's there to help and get you going again. He also strives to make the board better and most importantly more reliable and if you do need a part for the board he doesn't gouge you and will make it available. He runs a steel motor pulley for that the front, he earlier ran aluminum but it had shown to wear out quite fast, steel he found held up better with prolonged use. You can buy a larger pulley there if you want one or two MPH increases (two sizes avail) For the rear pulley he has the option to run a removable aluminum pulley. They come standard if you buy the ABEC 11 97mm wheels. If you buy the MetroBoard 97mm wheels, which are generic ABEC 11 wheels, he runs the plastic rear pulley. I have both setups. The plastic is quieter, no gear or whine when accelerating or holding speeds. The aluminum is louder. However the Aluminum trumps the plastic for durability.

So with this I came across a post on a forum where an Evolve GT owner wore out his front (believe aluminum) pulley, so bad the belt would skip. He contacted Evolve and they said he needed to buy the entire motor at the price of $189! He was stunned.... And reading that I am too. I don't want to be putting new motors when only a pulley that should serviceable is not available. Anybody know what the true word is on this? I should email Evolve to question as well. Also why not run a steel pulley up front and an aluminum in the rear like MetroBoard does so the board is at least durable to people who relies on them daily. This is rather simple knowledge to only improve your product and better please your customer.

Evolve GT | Wheels Sizes & Pulley Setups

Does anyone have any info on if this is true or not about the full motor replacement and no option to buy the small pulley? Have people used their boards enough to wear that pulley down and if you did what did you do?

I'd suspect the old pulley should be able to be pulled off with a puller and another one made by some fabrication shop if the RC hobbie shop / Electric DIY Skateboarders doesn't have a cross-over.

 

Even MetroBoard doesn't have the pulley listed on their website, but if you contact them saying you need one they sell you one the same size or larger for only $14 and you just need a battery terminal puller to pull the pulley off the shaft. Simple and its like changing out your rear on a car when they wear, you don't buy a whole brand new driveshaft when that time comes. Hopefully like I said this isn't true or Evolve has changed that, if not I think we need to come up with a solution as a team who use these boards hard and often. Below is / are pics of different pulleys in E-skateboards. Small one is the one that will wear most / fastest since it has the most revolutions per wheel turn due to the smaller diameter, plus its right where the highest energy driven from the motor is. I don't have / can't find pics of at the moment of the motor / small pulley on the GT. Once I find one I'll post.

 

Well I got a response back from Evolve USA. They never answered my original question of if I needed to purchase the small pulley, if they'd make it available for me to purchase They also said that forums make up a small percentage of their customers and that taking that sample is not a correct sample for what's really happening in the field. And that forums are in a sense where people vent. I tend to disagree with all that, I'm a very active forum member for lots of consumer based products. Own a Tesla Roadster, work and maintain it myself and have found that the feedback coming back in from the forum is not venting, but rather, constructive engineering to understand and make the car better. Yes, you may get one or two people randomly venting, but the majority is quite a good sample. I own a Zero Electric Motorcycle and 4 MetroBoard skateboards, same thing, its all about sampling but the sample will tell you something. Note a greater sample is a better method, but you can't throw out data of a smaller sample as useless. I'm also a QA Engineer in consumer products, working both at the hardware and software levels. So I understand this a little bit I've also seen customers come back with issues and tied those issues to ones we've seen in the test lab with smaller a smaller sample size.

Evolve did agreed a steel pulley would be stronger, but they said just keep your belt tightened and you will not really see any where from that pulley, and that that one gets the least wear.

So with that once I get my GT I'm going to take a close look at the motor shaft, get the dimensions and start hunting down a spare replacement made of steel. Also will look at larger teeth so I can play around with higher top speeds but don't have to shell out $95 for two rear pulleys and belts. At most I'm sure I'd get away with $15 per small pulley and $6-$10 in belts. Would also be nice if someone would CNC new rear pulleys out of aluminum so that they'd be more durable, especially riding around in dirt and sand. As I mentioned earlier the aluminum will have a bit of a whine but its nothing major.

 

I have had a Bamboo GT for about a month now. I've adjusted the belts a few times & swapped from street to AT wheels too. The motor pulley is metal, aluminum I believe & the wheel pulley is plastic. I have well over 100 miles on it & the motor pulleys look fine, other than some of the anodizing is worn a bit. I wouldn't worry about the pulley wearing out too soon as long as your belts aren't too loose or dirty..

 

Thanks for the reply. Every data point matters. I think 100 miles isn't that much use really, not enough time to show any sign of wear. But you only had it a month so there's more time to ride. Awesome you have the Bamboo! We'll see as time moves on how these pulleys hold up, and as Alex mentioned, when they do we'll find a way to make them better.

I put about 200 miles minimum per month on my MetroBoard for just my work commute, then add in the weekend play and fun to that. You start adding up these miles and things very quick... with that parts will start to show wear, so that's what I'm worried about. I picked up the Evolve GT since it has a couple MPH more top speed than the Metro and it can do street and off-road. However if I'm putting 200+ miles/month on this GT (letting my Metro sit) I seriously don't want my pulleys going south if it can be improved with a simple $15 pulley. Nor do I want to be checking my belts ever friggen day, week, or two weeks. That's just ridiculous. I personally don't like running tight belts, they can be too tight which then leads to premature wear on the motor bearings. I like to have a little wiggle to the belt and have a bit of error that the system should handle when it does become loose.

Also there are people who are putting way more miles than me on the electric boards, hence where I pulled these photos, and would like to make my skateboard practically bullet proof and limited with maintenance. Its my daily driver that I count on to get me to / from work without any issue.

Here are pics of what an aluminum pulley looks like when worn and a new aluminum pulley next to it.

I also have to see if the GT runs the two side guards on the front pulley, they keep the belt in line in case the belt does loosen and will help prevent your belt from damaging your motor cover. You can see the new pulley in the "Life is Good" pic has both sides to prevent the belt from running away to the side, where the old one or new one in the top pic only has one side.

 

The GT motor pulley only has an inboard "guard" the wheel pulley has an "outside" guard...

 

It was my pulleys that wore down with the belts at the perfect tension and don't use covers. Wear and tear from many Kms of Gting off-road etc. I wasnt forum venting or complaining btw. I was asking the community in the for sale section if anyone had a dead motor so I could have their pulley.
Evolve thereafter emailing them provided me with two new pulleys. I guess I have done the most Kms! And nearly all with 8s requiring extra load and with Beta motors.
I can only assume they hopefully will plan to make spares available as needed in the future. So don't stress.
BTW the large plastic wheel pulleys have zero wear. But many more teeth to take the load!

 

^ Thanks for the feedback and looping the thread back around!^

Happy Evolve resolved the issue in the correct manner, gives me confidence. I still want to hunt down and find a steel cross-over for my own preventive maintenance and way of seeing things as a QA engineer.

Nice you clocked some good miles on your board!

 

Hey all... just installed these steel pulleys I ordered from a guy in cali. He supplies inserts to fill in gaps but I did not use them. Just popped them on and jumped on board. Found him through this forum post www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/evolve-gt-wheels-sizes-pulley-setups/5485/93.