Electric power has increased the performance of previously manually driven mobility devices. Electric motors have made mobility more accessible to a larger variety of people, from bicycles to kick-scooters and even skateboards—chances are you wont have a hard time finding an electric equivalent of these. Of course, you could also say that riding e-bikes, e-scooters, and e-skateboards is a lot more fun than their traditional counterparts.
Ever since man invented motorized transportation, we’ve always wanted to go faster and faster—be it a car, truck, bike, or scooter—but what about a skateboard. Indeed, the standing record for the fastest electric skateboard in the world was 95 kilometers per hour—or around 59.38 miles per hour. That was until a mechanical engineer by the name of Raine Kent absolutely smashed that record with his newest skateboard.
Raine Kent, an Australian mechanical engineer, achieved a new Guiness world record for the fastest speed on an electric skateboard, traveling at 132.37 kilometers per hour—82.25 miles per hour—on a custom-built skateboard. Kent leveraged his mechanical engineering abilities to create the high-performance electric skateboard, and his startup firm, Raith, is now on the cusp of launching its products.
Raith manufactures a line of high-speed electric skateboards for a variety of applications. For example, they offer a high performance skateboard geared toward speed called the Vengeance, as well as a model for ordinary commutes called the Midnight. In total, it has taken the company four years to develop, fine-tune, and perfect its electric skateboards.
In an article by City Dwellers, Kent says, “I love the adrenaline rush that you get from e-skateboarding. I began my career in skateboarding in downhill racing so negotiating hills at speed and sliding and now I’ve moved into e-skateboarding. The speed, the adrenaline, the rush — I love it. It was very scary but exciting at the same time and it was good to achieve something that I had been talking about for so long. Breaking the record was awesome and hopefully we hold it for a few years to come.”
Kent used his mechanical engineering knowledge to create high-performance boards while keeping safety in mind. However, testing the capabilities of Raith’s high-performance skateboards on public roads without safety gear is not a smart idea. Kent used a full-face helmet and a protective suit that covered his whole body during the run. For comparison, the highest speed of the commercially available Vengeance model is 80 miles per hour, allowing consumers to have a board that performs similarly to the custom-built one that presently holds the world speed record.
The skateboards feature technology that is particularly designed to decrease instability at high speeds, resulting from speed wobbles. The truck angle was precisely engineered for high-speed stability. The skateboards steer from the front, much like a car. Furthermore, the Vengeance has four wheel drive, whilst the Midnight model has two wheel drive and can still attain a decent top speed of 60 kilometers per hour (37 miles per hour).
