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The Vokboard Pilot is an electric skateboard that has a traditional longboard feel to it.
When riding, it feels a lot like the old Boosted Boards or the WowGo 2S from the good old days.
And no wonder, considering the build is very much like those old eBoards, but with a few modern upgrades.
It has a marketed top speed of 28mph / 46kph and a range of 18 miles / 30km.
Considering these numbers, for $699, it’s fairly decent value.
However, let’s dive in and put this electric skateboard to the test.
Who Is It For?
It’s great for commuters whose route consists mainly of flat ground and avoids too much uphill riding.
When we get into the tests later on, you’ll see why.
It’s very beginner friendly in the lower modes but still has a lot of power in the higher modes so you can step the eboards power up as your skill and confidence progresses.
Like all belt-drives, they make a bit of a whirring noise and there is the chance that you could snap your belts. So you’ll want to be the kind of person that doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty if/when this happens.
If you’d prefer to ride quietly and not mess around with fixing belts, then the hub motor version, the Vokboard Riot, might be a better option for you.
Vokboard Pilot Review
Deck
The Vokboard Pilot is made of mainly Canadian maple with one layer of bamboo.
This makes the deck quite stiff with only a small amount of bounce.
Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed this for a change. It made me feel a lot more in control of the board.
However, it does come at the expense of a little bit more fatigue on longer rides.
I mainly put that down to the deck being so flat.
Most decks these days have some kind of raised edges that make turning really easy, however, the flatness on the Vokboard Pilot requires a little extra effort to make turns.
There’s also no shock-absorbing grip tape which generally does a good job of relieving you from vibrations, but on the Pilot, you feel it all. That’s an upvote for some, but a downvote for others.
Trucks
The Vokboard Pilot has some generic eskate trucks, but they’re still pretty good.
They aren’t flashy, but they still perform really well.
The way they responded to my movements were predictable so I felt confident making turns and carving around.
Wheels
The wheels are standard 90mm 82A black polyurethane wheels.
Again, nothing flashy, but they’re good.
I could feel them gripping the road as I went around corners.
I had some heart-skipping moments when riding over a patch of gravel, where the wheels lost traction and spun out, but that’s just a consequence of street wheels in general.
You can get Cloudwheels for the Vokboard Pilot, so if your roads a rea little less-than-perfect, this would be a good idea.
Motors, Top Speed and Hill Climbing
The Vokboard Pilot has dual 1200W 5055 belt-drive motors.
These are quite small in comparison to motors these days.
On flat ground, they performed much like any electric skateboard in this price range.
I was able to hit a top speed of 22mph / 35.9kph with plenty of room in the throttle to get more.
I am confident that it’ll be able to hit it’s specced top speed of 28mph / 46kph.
Where the Vokboard Pilot lacked was in its hill climbing ability.
It just wasn’t able to get me up a reasonably steep hill with any sort of speed.
It slowed down to about 10kph at the steepest point, which is still faster than walking, but I did feel liek Iw as putting a bit of stress on the board.
Lighter riders likely won’t get this much of a reduction in performance, and power is definitely not an issue on flat surfaces.
ESC, Acceleration and Braking
In the lower modes, the acceleration was very gradual.
Great for beginners and younger riders who want to find their feet on an electric skateboard.
The higher modes were tuned for a lot more torque and were tuned well.
I felt the adrenaline in speed mode 3 and 4.
If you watch the video at the top of this article you can see the acceleration power in each speed mode.
As for the braking, they matched the modes well.
Nice and easy in the lower modes but ramped up to be a lot more powerful in the higher modes.
Battery and Range
The Vokboard Pilot has a 10S2P 288Wh battery and is specced to hit 18 miles / 30km.
On my test ride I got 14.5 miles / 23.34km, which is pretty bang on to what I expected.
I’m actually impressed that I was able to get this kind of range on a board with this hardware.
I weigh 90kg, I rode it on a few steep hills, did the top speed test and acceleration test and rode mainly in mode 4.
All of this will impact the range.
I spoke to Will from Vokboard who was the test subject for their range spec.
He’s 69kg and he rode mainly on flat city roads.
There’s two good datapoints you can use to estimate what kind of range you would get from this eBoard.
On top of that, you can opt to go with the Vokboard Pilot ER which has a larger 423Wh battery and urban-terrain wheels, for only an extra $100.
That would bump your range up to 22 miles / 35km, which for the price is something worth considering.
Remote
We’ve seen this remote being used by other brands before, and I have to say it’s one of my favourite remotes.
For starters, I like the finger-hole. It gives me more confidence that I won’t drop it.
It has auto start. So you can turn the remote on, kick push off with the board and the board will automatically turn on and sync with the remote.
I love it because it saves you from the hassle of flipping the board over and awkwardly fumbling for the power button.
Even though you can change the speed mode while accelerating, something that I’ve expressed my dislike of in the past, the mode button on the remote is far enough away that, unless you have huge hands, you’re not likely to accidentally press when riding.
You also have cruise control, reverse and you can manually change the braking modes independently of the speed modes.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I strangely like the Vokboard Pilot.
Despite it’s lack of uphill power, it still zooms on flat roads and the range is accurate.
It rides like an old school electric longboard, as weird as that is to say given eboards haven’t been around that long.
Call it nostalgia, but I liked being able to feel a little bit of the road vibrations.
However, I did fatigue much faster than on a board with all the bells and whistles.
In the end, I’d recommend this eboard to beginners and those who want a non-fancy electric skateboard to commute on go cruising and carving.
That’s it, that’s my Vokboard Pilot review.
I hope I’ve helped you on your journey to find the best electric skateboard that’s right for you.
If I have, please share this article with a friend, it would really help me out.
Ride safe out the eSkaters.
Get $20 OFF with code ESKHUB
On Vokboard’s Website
