This Electric Skateboard Could Popularize Rideables
The Blink Board is an affordable and practical ridable that could dominate this new market.
Electric rideables are cool, but typically expensive, impractical, and have a history of catching fire. The company Acton has a solution with its affordable and portable Blink Board that may yet popularize the rideables market.
The electric board lets users hop on like a normal skateboard and control how fast it goes with a hand-held remote control that allows riders to top out at 15 mph. Turns and maneuvering are all done through shifting of body weight, again, like one would on a typical skateboard.
One of the biggest problems with rideables has always been their portability. Sure it’s cool to zoom around in a motorized personal vehicle, but what do you do with it once you’ve brought it to work, or need to place it in a car or a subway? In order for a piece of transportation tech to work, the ridable needs to either have the necessary infrastructure to lock it up when you don’t need it, like a bike, or be small enough to carry with you wherever you go.
Gently moving the joystick forward engages the board into motion.
Blink Board certainly accomplishes the later with a form factor that’s not too much bigger than a typical skateboard, at just nine pounds and 27 inches in length. Other skateboard rideables have taken on the size of a longboard, but users have said the smaller size of the Blink Board allows for greater mobility when skating around the streets.
Riders can travel up to six miles on one trip and it only takes an hour to recharge, according to the company’s website.
It’s got a great distinctive look about it as well. It’s not this pristine piece of high tech gloss, it’s got a little dirt on it, the bottom of the deck is colorful with pinks, purples, and strange cartoon characters. LED lights line the bottom sides of the motor to create a neon blue glow through the streets.
A tutorial video shows how to take the proper stance on the Blink Board
All of this comes at a price of $499, which, while still expensive for the average consumer, is a much more affordable price range than options stretching as high as $2,000. Pre- orders are shipping now on the company’s website.
Hoverboards had their moment in 2015, but now that the novelty has worn off and the fires are still raging, perhaps there’s a moment to be had in electric skateboarding.
