Footomobiles

Posted byRandall 197 Comments on Footomobiles

I was recently reading through newspapers from around 1898 to 1901. In a collection of articles from midwestern papers predicting what life would be like in the year 2000, I found this cartoon:


(Brown County Democrat, December 28, 1900.)

The label on the device reads ‘footomobile’. Words fail me.

Now, I have ridden a Segway (or, as I guess I have to start saying, ‘Footomobile’), and it’s actually tremendously fun. But of course they’re too expensive to be practical. Instead, I’ve found an alternative: electric skateboards.

They’re like Segways, but without all that silly safety stuff. I bought two cheap ones off eBay for about $40 each and tried them out. They were fun and worked well for getting around campus, so when I moved to Boston and got rid of my car, I bought a nice one from Exkate for $330 — the Raptor 3.0 model (I swear I didn’t pick it because of the name. They’re just everywhere!). It has a 10-mile range, travels pretty fast (10-15 mph), and recharges quickly. There are other longboard models with longer ranges and top speeds of 20 mph. Zero to twenty in four seconds. Yes.

The boards are heavy — mine is 28 lbs, and it’s the lightest they have. They still use lead-acid batteries because they can’t find cheap-enough lithium-ion packs. If they could switch to lithium-ion batteries, they could cut the battery weight in half and up the range to 60 miles. Sixty miles. Man. (Side note: if anyone has lithium-ion packs sitting around and wants a cool project, if you document it well, Exkate might be willing to send you some boards at cost to play with.) Their website isn’t the best, but if you have any questions, give them a call. The guys there have been really helpful, and they’ll give you any additional specs you’re looking for. You can also visit their shop in southern Orange County.

Now, the bad stuff: my board has suffered from various mechanical failures, and eventually I had to send it in for repairs. They said it’d take 2-3 days and it’s ended up being a month. I’m still waiting, in fact, but I think it’s finally on the way. Also, I’m a little disappointed the boards don’t hover like the ones in Back to the Future. But I’ve looked at some other companies and Exkate seemed like the best.

So, electric skateboards are magical. They’re practical for getting around cities or campuses, and they’re just plain fun to swoop around on. There’s nothing like carving up a hill. I hear Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics rides longboards and might be interested in getting one like mine, so maybe we can start a webcomic-author electric skateboard club. Practically everyone I know has a crush on Ryan, so it’d be interesting to see which was a more effective accessory for picking up girls — the skateboard or Ryan North.

197 replies on “Footomobiles”

  1. It’s good to see that both the bowler hat and the monocle will live well on, into the 21st century, and beyond.

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  3. It’s fun to note that our driving skills are about as described also…

    just one of those things I suppose

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  5. @Grant: is that a cowcatcher? To me it looks like a coupling, so that — if you want to move with your footomobile, and not just stand around looking silly on a box — some kind of tractor (or horse-car) could be coupled onto the footomobile and set you in motion 😉

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  7. Skip lithium ion and replace the lead acid cells with lithium polymer cells. Over the last few years these have come into widespread use for electric-powered model aircraft, and hence become affordable.

    A 3-cell series pack runs between 9 and 12.6V, making a good drop-in replacement for a 12V lead acid cell and has significantly less weight. You just need a suitable charger.

    What is the capacity of your current battery and the peak current draw of the motor? Let me know and can suggest you a setup.

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  10. We shouldn’t laugh too much at their “predictions” of transportation or clothing styles. They were, at least, numerate enough to discuss the twentieth century in the future tense on December 28th, 1900 – a distinction way beyond the comprehension of most alive on December 28th, 2000.

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  12. I predict that in the year 3007, footmobiles will long be replaced by “legzoomers”.

    And they will totally float like the ones on B2TF.

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  13. The first available year that the January shown could fall in would be 2002. January 2000 starts on a Sunday and ends on Monday, 2001 starts on Monday and ends on Wednesday. Which if you consider that the Seqway was first revealed at the end of 2001, makes the predictions of “footmobiles” in 2002 seem like a pretty good vision.

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  14. Pingback: Oh my god, everyone is Chinese! :) « Werther in China

  16. Let me know when you start reading newspapers from 1901 to 1904… there are some doozies there. Just curious, why were you reading ancient newspapers?

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  18. To those asking, the board I have uses two 12V cells in series, supplying a total of 13-16 amp-hours (note: the discharge curve is such that they lose voltage gradually, so a nicer battery would be an improvement even if it didn’t have more total capacity).

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  19. Do you stop by stepping on the tail? Is that tricky? Safe in traffic?

    I commute in Manhattan on (human-powered) skates and it’s great. Faster than either cabs or subway if there’s any traffic or walking on either end of the subway stops which there always is.
    And certainly kicks your skateboard’s ass. (Top speed ~50km/h (30mph) on flat, >60km/h (40mph) downhill. As for range, I’ve done 180 km (110 miles) in a day, but not without “recharging”.) Fast bikes kick my ass, but not nearly as light and portable.

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  20. I think some are confused… or maybe just me. Aren’t they talking about the “new century” as 20th century, which is 1901 to 2000?

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  21. FYI, UBC Engineering Physics runs a couple of senior project courses and a team in the past developed their solution to the expensive segway: a servo controlled skateboard. Their sensor solution was more cost-effective too in comparison. Here’s a link to entrepreneur’s site (it’s further down the page and there are videos at the bottom too):

    http://www.ebikes.ca/projects/Emanual/

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  22. I’ve had the pleasure of test-driving an electric motorcycle. Looks the same as a regular cycle except for

    1) A large drum around the rear wheel
    2) What would normally be gear levers was actually a simple knob – forward for faster, back for slower.
    3) An LCD display on the crossbar showing your speed
    4) A battery pack just behind the seat.

    We took turns, and back then I weighed 94 kilos (207 lbs) and it still took me at 10 kmph (6 mph) up a gentle slope. (Now that I weigh 73 kg / 161 lbs I suspect it would do better 🙂 ).

    Best bit was that like a hybrid car, the batteries recharged while braking. I don’t know what the range was, though, but we took six rounds around the block without re-charging.

    The electric skateboard looks cool, I’d want one!

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  23. They weren’t too far off about the “no one will walk” part. In some rural areas (such as where I live,) you have to use a car or else you’ll get run over. Also, you’ll be too tired by the time you get to the store.

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  24. Actualy somebody has made a promising breaktrough in Lithium-ion batteries. Chrysler will use that new version in their hybrid car which is due in 2010, so that could be a very nice future for the electrical skateboard!
    I shall look into the details of this.

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  25. What’s the learning curve on those things? Can an uncoordinated person pick one up and be confident to enough to use it in an hour or two? Does it get tiring standing up? Do you feel safe?

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  29. Well, that’s a funny prediction, but I, like Tom, think it’s for the 20th century, not the 21st, which actually makes it marginally funnier.

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  30. So, I dunno if anyone has brought this to your attention, but at PAX last weekend, Wil Wheaton was the Key Note speaker, and we around all weekend to sign autographs. Take note of his shirt on Saturday?

    wil wheaton

    Thought that might make your day. 🙂

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  31. Wow I must be really tired because there are at least 3 mistakes in that last post. Sorry about that. PAX was not LAST weekend, and “we” should be “was.” >.

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  32. i totally want an electric skateboard now, just so that all my friends can laugh at my totally uncoordinated ass when i fall off. a lot.

    until then, they’re simply going to have to do with watching me try to play games on the Wii. 😀

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  33. I was the MIT Flea this past weekend. There were two kids showing off a homemade segway project. They said the parts cost them about $600 and it worked really well from what I saw. It was also a lot lighter than the commercial model.

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  35. Um…

    You can get a for the same price that weighs less, goes faster, has better acceleration, and the bonus of not having everyone you know make fun of you behind your back for riding it.

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  38. Unfortunately, no–if you read this blog then you are not one of the cool kids… except on December 29 which obviously doesn’t exist. ZOMG!

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  39. This would be fun to get as a kit. Sadly, the shipping across the pond costs almost as much as the board itself; I guess it’d be easier throwing one together myself (and possibly even cheaper, at that).

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  40. hahaha they look like a cross between a radio flyer and a sit-n-spin. incidentally, has anyone else here ever used a wagon as a skateboard? because i sure have.

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  41. also, the direction in which the man’s coat flaps are flying suggest that his footomobile is travelling in reverse — and yet he is cheerily facing forward. hmm.

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  43. Hmm… I think I want to know what the capacity of the battery is and the drain at various times. It’s a DC motor in there…

    I wonder how long a set of laptop batteries would last… they’ve got built in protection from overcharge as well, which is nice as Li Ion batteries can go pop…

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  44. I’ve been skateboarding for about 10 years, but I’ve never actually seen one of these guys in action… and now I’m curious.

    I’m guessing the RC remote is used for acceleration and (hopefully) braking. Please correct me if I’m wrong!

    How do they act as a normal foot-powered board if the battery were to die on me? … I don’t think I’ll be able to ollie 28 pounds.

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  49. >also, the direction in which the man’s coat flaps are flying suggest that his
    >footomobile is travelling in reverse — and yet he is cheerily facing forward.
    >hmm.

    Well, he could certainly be stopping as well. Nobody said these footomobiles are easy. 😉

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  50. I also have a Raptor 3.0 that I used to commute to Google this summer. It’s back with me in Manhattan and I’ll have to see how it handles NYC… as soon as I get a new drive belt (mine busted in the middle of Mountain View, had to get a friend pick me up).

    The learning curve for an uncoordinated person like me was one day of scrapes and bruises, then within about a week of short trips I could go full speed no problem. Braking and acceleration is via handheld wireless remote. The brakes aren’t mechanical: it shorts the motor contacts. At low speeds you get very little braking, but careful braking from full speed: it will throw you off! And it accelerates VERY well – all beginners to this board (even regular skateboarders) seem to think, “Oh, I can handle it!” and squeeze the trigger back all the way and have the board fly out from underneath their feet.

    When I called Exkate they were very supportive and helpful, and even sent me a new drive belt for free even though it wasn’t under warranty since “it wasn’t supposed to break”. I highly recommend this board! If you’d like to talk to me about it, or want a chance to ride it, email me! flyashi at gmail.

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