Urban Transport

JCR electric skateboard's speed is controlled by leaning fore and aft

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The JCR Board is presently on Indiegogo
JCR Board
The JCR Board is presently on Indiegogo
JCR Board
Assuming the JCR Board reaches production, a pledge of US$499 will get you one
JCR Board
The JCR Board weighs a claimed 14 lb (6.4 kg)
JCR Board
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While there are now a ton of electric skateboards on the market, almost all of them are controlled by a handheld remote. The Chinese-made JCR Board, however, is controlled by shifting your weight – leaving your hands free.

First announced several years ago, the JCR is currently the subject of an Indiegogo campaign. The device utilizes integrated sensors to detect when (and to what extent) the rider leans to the front or back.

Needless to say, leaning forward makes the thing go faster – up to 24 km/h (15 mph) – and leaning backward slows it to a stop. If the rider should jump or fall off, the board will stop automatically. According to the designers, this setup not only leaves the rider's hands free of a wireless remote (which could get lost or broken), but it's also more intuitive and thus easier to learn.

The JCR Board weighs a claimed 14 lb (6.4 kg)
JCR Board

The board itself features a laminated Canadian maple deck, front and rear LED lights, brushless hub motors, rubber-tired wheels, and a set of 36V/4.4-Ah Samsung 18650 lithium-ion batteries – one 2-hour charge is claimed to be good for a range of 11 miles (18 km). The whole rig reportedly tips the scales at 14 lb (6.4 kg), and can support a maximum rider weight of 280 lb (127 kg).

Additionally, all of the electronic components are IP54 water-resistant, meaning they can withstand sprays of water from all directions.

Assuming the JCR Board reaches production, a pledge of US$499 will get you one (the planned retail price is $1,300). You can see the skateboard in action, in the video below.

And while this isn't the first "weight-controlled" electric skateboard we've ever seen, two of the best-known previous efforts – the Starkboard and the ZBoard – appear to no longer be available.

Source: Indiegogo

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3 comments
minivini
If this could be optioned with larger wheels for rough surfaces (dirt road, cracked pavement, light gravel), I’d order 3 today.
ljaques
I don't see how the sensors could work in the real world. Just as a car's front brakes perform 70% of the stopping power, when you try to stop on this skateboard, your front leg automatically gets most of your weight. That would tell it to speed up. That sounds like a safety hazard.
Mayhem
This might be an intuitive set-up for some, but for this old snowboarder, it is exactly the opposite from what my body is trained to do. On a shred sled (as the kids were calling them ca. 1989), putting weight on the tail makes you go faster. I can see myself out on one of these having the same experience that my counter-steer trained brain had on classic jet skis... just biting it again and again with the vehicle giving me the exact opposite reaction than the one I had expected...except on asphalt instead of water. The lean response should deffo be user definable.