Update: Is the next big thing a new e-board or a kit?

Week number 3 was awesome! You might remember me talking about Yiimixin Blog No. 1 – Mission. They produce high quality, waterproof (level IP54) electric skateboards that are fun to use, which we did! We texted the CO-founder Collin, asking him if we can test his electric skateboards a little bit more. He agreed and also invited us to come and speak with one of his partners. Mr. Cao is the CEO of Huannifun Ltd.and is an online vendor of lots of different products from many different suppliers. Including Collin’s Yiimix products. 

Collin gave us a fully charged four-wheel e-board and a regular skateboard to test at a local Shanghainese skatepark. I think of myself as an objective reviewer of e-mobility products, but I fell hard for the four wheeled e-board of Yiimix. The maple deck provided me with a very smooth ride and when the battery finally died, it was easy to swap the battery with another fully charged one. Although the top-speed was not very impressive (40 km/h) it was great spending time cruising around the bund and the skatepark. We made some great video’s and photo’s which we will soon post on this page. 

On Friday shit was on again! After we nailed the Chinese language test in the morning meeting at Dongua University I took off to Shanghai Customs. SC is company located close to the French Concession and sells eCUB kits.These kits can be used to upgrade C70, C90 and ‘tank in frame’ C50 Honda Cubs to create a nice electric bike. The finished products look very (very!) slick! The finished bikes have a very nice retro look which perfectly suits the FatDaddy image. However, it is currently only possible to purchase an eCUB kitand not to get yourself a fully finished e-bike. Meaning that at this moment it is only wise to get yourself an eCUB kit if you are handy in building shit up from scratch! Although if you are that person you will have the coolest bike on the block.  

Oké, so I am going to be very honest with you now. Not too long ago the newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ published a controversial article about Amsterdam planning to banish electric cars from the special climate zones by 2030. If they succeed in doing so, I suspect that they will soon do the same for mopeds and bikes. My mission for FatDaddy is to find the next big thing in electric mobility products and although I love the e-board from Yiimix, I must be objective in my review of the e-board and the eCUB kit. We know that electric skateboards and scooters are illegal to use in the most countries and due to the first major accidents with these products it will take some time before that will be changed. This is the reason why I think that it would be smart get yourself a nice electric bike, such as a Shanghai Custom bike. 

But f*ck it, there is a time to be smart and there is time to have fun. I will get the e-board every day of the week! It is twice as fun as doing the smart thing!

Next week we will go to Beijing to explore the city and attend Yinjang Music Festival on The Great Wall of China. Afterwards we will head back to Shanghai to wrap up at Dongua University and then to Hong Kong for some side seeing before we fly back to Amsterdam. There will probably be no appointments in week number 4 and thus there will also be no blog. But, don’t be sad! We have been recording a lot of videos with you Go Pro and we will do our best to edit the content ASAP into a nice video of our mission. Once it’s ready we will put it online!