BACKFIRE ZEALOT | 3 Months Later Review

[@LloydSim]

***UPDATE 2 years later (2022):* Old video and this is the first version of Backfire Zealot. Backfire released an updated version with a new deck (same supplier as Boosted Board). I have about 1,500+ miles now for this board and it still rocks! Get your minimalist smart wallet for when you shred the streets with your Zealot: ► Ekster Wallet up to 20% off Sale Link: shop.ekster.com/LloydSim (or use code LLOYDSIM at checkout) Video breakdown below. And yes, I’m hyper aware I pronounce “Zealot” with emphasis on the LOT part instead of your good old American accent “Zealut”. It was intentional, makes youtubing more interesting, and because...well, why NOT you Zluts! 😂 0:00 - Intro 0:19 - Unboxing and what you'll get 0:48 - Real world range in Mode 2 1:04 - Changing to Cloudwheels 105D 1:16 - Mini review of the cloudwheels 2:17 - Board's flexibility and stability 2:23 - Turbo mode/stability 2:43 - Hill comparison with Boosted Rev 2:56 - Other perks the board comes with 3:10 - Changes I made with the board 3:22 - Thing I don't like about the board 3:41 - 3 months mileage total and remote 4:00 - Conclusion

[@Willsimm1986]

Upgrading from my cheapo hub drive Chroma to this board and I'm super excited. Just ordered it today.This video was the one that put the nail in the coffin for me. Was choosing between the exwave flex, wowgo 2s, and the backfire zealot.

[@Big_Krone]

This board is coming in the mail for me. Thanks for the review boss 😁

[@tecto_andy]

I have the keeps v3 standard, I like looking at the other boards to see what's out there and I gotta say your work and this video deserves so much more and you deserve more subscribers.

[@LloydSim]

Thank you, highly appreciate it! ! 🙏

[@caseywiseman5286]

Bought da G3 with flex dexk, first Eboard, plug and play, luvit, I would recommend for first board, I will b getting a second board 2 ride with my kid and friends, been w8n for this technology 2 catch up, only took 48 years, better late than never, live 2 ride peeps, cheers

[@Ec8625ec]

im not purchasing it but i recommended it to my buddy who is barely getting into electric skateboarding. I think its the best option for the price range it’s in.

[@Baptross]

I finally received mine today. Also my first electric skateboard. I'm a little bit scared of going above 20 km/h so I am finding the acceleration a bit too agressive. That aside, it's the best feeling in the world to ride it!

[@LloydSim]

Congrats! Yes, I find the acceleration quite aggressive too (ive been thrown off a few times when I first got it), but leaning forward when accelerating and leaning back when braking definitely does wonders. Enjoy the new board!!

[@Partnerthedog]

I had been skateboarding and bombing hills on my longboard for over 13 years before I got an electric longboard (team gee h7) about a 700$ longboard. In 1 week I almost wrecked like 3 times because it was so damn fast. And im highly experienced. Amazing beginners are just jumping onto machines like this

[@maxheadroom7214]

Its better to be to have too much power. You will adjust very quickly and get board of it if it is only fast enough to make you reach your limit of comfort currently. The whole out of your comfort zone feeling is excitement. Same thing. You might not notice that right away. Once your used to the speed it won't be as exciting. The more speed you have in reserve the longer the board will be fun and exciting. If you were comfortable with its top speed now then in a few weeks you will be board or just over the idea of having it.

[@shenvega6688]

I bought some wall hangers for my boards as well. I like the mini shelf under the boards. That's a really good idea. I've had my first electric board for about 5 days now. I bought the G3 Plus. I'm also based out of Olympia, Washington. If you're in Seattle, we should do a group ride someone!

[@LloydSim]

Hey there! Thanks for watching! Congrats on your first e-board! glad to see local Washingtonians watching my vid, definitely up for some group ride if ur ever up here in the Seattle area! There's also a FB group called PNW Esk8 collective, and they sometimes organize esk8/escooter group rides around Seattle and eastside area :)

[@arturovasquez7514]

I just ordered mine today can wait for it to come

[@LloydSim]

Nice! Hopefully it won’t dissapoint!

[@bigpoppa4094]

Just got mine yesterday. Freaking insane, a lot of fun. I only road those lime e scooters that topped out at 15mph. This board is like twice as fast in acceleration and top speed as those lime scooters. Did drive numerous Electric cars too

[@joshuastanaland7099]

How has been the reliability?

[@kung1984]

I have the same setup but with red cloudwheel and shredlights. Haven't got the chance to go riding around Seattle area. I went across Tacoma Narrows bridge though and that was fun!

[@LloydSim]

Right on! Come join the FB esk8 group called PNW Esk8 Collective they organize group rides from time to time, so if ur ever around the Seattle area u shud definitely come join the rides :) Btw, How do you like the shredlights? I'm debating if I should get it, but I use an extremely bright flashlight when I ride at night lol

[@kung1984]

@@LloydSim I just joined the FB over the weekend actually, so I'm efinitely will make it out there one of these days. As for shredlights I haven't got the chance to try it just got it installed and charge it up. It has couple modes you can charge to and it's bright at max setting. I got a set of 4 (2 front, 2 back) I was going to go with iwonder v2.0 skateboard lights but I read some reviews said they aren't very durable.

[@gotcha1248]

300 miles on mine no problems honestly only getting better with Time

[@mahalilhayat833]

Mine is coming tomorrow. Im excited asf

[@Daveyboii87]

Nice review! I like how you "customized" it to your liking.

[@LloydSim]

Thank you for watching!!

[@kemckelv]

Thinking about replacing my exway x1 with this

[@ErGardenF12]

You’re a nice dude, and great review! Earned a subscriber

[@LloydSim]

Thanks for watching and the sub! Highly appreciate it!

[@emrahmete1mete397]

@@LloydSim you have any issue with zealot?i will order bro

[@LloydSim]

@@emrahmete1mete397 no issues for me personally after almost 1 year of owning it and racking up 500 miles (bought got it in June 2020). Only had to tighten/loctite a few lose screws and replace the belt due to wear/minor tear but overall a really well built electric longboard :)

[@emrahmete1mete397]

@@LloydSim thank you so much for answer helped me a lot subscribe :)

[@steveo7767]

You should try different wheels rather than the ones provided or the cloud wheels. I tired the Bigfoot Cored and that things flies! 90mm

[@mountaingoat1975]

Great video! I live in the Seattle area as well. Let me know if you want to ride in the spring post pandemic.

[@LloydSim]

Thanks for watching!! Glad to hear from another Seattleite e-skateboarder! I don't see too many around here--seems like they're mostly down in Tacoma/Olympia. Absolutely would like to do some group rides someday post pandemic (crossing fingers) !

[@Marcos-yx3nz]

Yo! Fellow seattleite esk8er here, definitely don't know anyone out here that also esk8s. Count me in on that group ride, even though it might not be til next spring lol

[@sirvival5461]

Does someone know if the zealot uses standard bearings or special backfire sized ones? Thx

[@tito-vm7nr]

So you didn’t need a conversion kit for the cloud wheels? Backfire has kit but only black wheels. No other colors

[@kemckelv]

How much range did u lose with cloud wheels

[@LloydSim]

I lost about 3 miles in my experience. I weigh roughly about 170 lbs. and I was able to get max of 19.5 miles with stock wheels and stock everything with no adjustments via Sports Mode on mix terrains of hills and flat road at variable speeds. In the same sports mode with same terrain and variable speed, I did two tests with the cloudwheels but with different belt tension. First one with the belt too tight, I only got 13.6 miles but braking was awesome. Second testing with the belt at just the right "sweet spot", I got 16.5 miles. I did more testing a few weeks before posting this video and it remained the same, hovering at 16 - 16.5 miles. So it will suffer quite a bit. Daniel Kwan posted a good video about belt tension as well (kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYe3lJ6Njad9idk) check it out as not only wheel size like the cloud wheels affects range, but also belt tension.

[@kemckelv]

@@LloydSim for me thats plenty range here in nyc. If I want to go on a group ride for a long time I will switch to Street wheels thanks for the info!!! Be safe brother!

[@drippless4173]

Ayyy, I get that about the Seattle roads. I don't think they maintain anything up here.

[@jokwonpope1561]

I have the x1 pro coming in, I want the cloud wheels but I skate relatively smooth with my drop through landyacht longboard. I’ll need to see how bad it feels when riding to and from places

[@mitchellhardy9346]

Mine should be here in a few days, Would you say this board is going to perform well going downhill? It seems pretty fast? I'm only like 10-11 stone so doubt I'll have much trouble hitting 30 or more maybe? I had a backfire G2 when they first released ages ago and it was shocking for range, But good on speed, I wanted a fast board to rip about on, But didn't want to spend 1000£ of pounds for a higher tier board :P Hope I made a good choice but Im pretty confident this is going to perform how I want, I bought a set of purple orangutang nipples just in case this thing gets a bit unstable at higher speeds too :)

[@LloydSim]

Nice and congrats! This will definitely be quite of an upgrade for you as far as speed and range goes On the video at 2:45 , I'm actually going down a pretty steep hill with a buddy of mine (who's on a OneWheel XR) and the braking is good. If you're going for downhill speed runs though, which I think you are, I probably won't recommend using this board because of the belt driven mechanism which somewhat prevents it from free rolling a tad bit based on my experience--don't get me wrong, it's still fast and faster than my WowGo 2S on a flat road, but the belt makes it seem like my speed is somewhat being governed when I let go of the remote. But yeah, 10-11 stone is the weight that most folks rides these, I'm 12-13 stone with backpack/equipments on, so you'll have no problem hitting 30+ at all :)

[@mitchellhardy9346]

@@LloydSim Just what I wanted to hear! May just keep my downhill setup alongside my electric:') Thanks man and awesome videos btw!! :)

[@LloydSim]

@@mitchellhardy9346 Sounds great, and no problem! Thanks for watching and cheers on the new Zealot board comin' your way!

[@mitchellhardy9346]

@@LloydSim So it arrived today! But both of my grub screws were missing? And my plug to charger box won't stay securely fitted into the charger port on the box, Emailed backfire support but I'm all to aware this is gonna take a while :') Kinda sad cause I waited so long for it to come:') Oh well! Hopefully I'll be shredding in the next week or two! :')

[@LloydSim]

@@mitchellhardy9346 Dang that's a bummer for the charger port man and the screws! hope the Backfire teams got back to yah and sent you a replacement or something. Did you get the new deck btw? I've been seeing that Backfire made a new deck for folks who doesn't want too much flex

[@geo9995]

Great review thank you

[@DevanSingh-f5t]

how long does it take to ship to you I'm in the US and its already been over 3 weeksand no

[@LloydSim]

Oh. That’s a great question and a unique one for my experience. I ordered these during pandemic lockdown in late April 2020. If I remember correctly, I paid air shipping for it to be shipped here in USA, cuz the the sea shipping was gonna take 3 months back then because of China’s strict lockdown. With air shipping in 2020, it took almost 2 months to arrive. I don’t recall how much extra I paid, I think it was $100 more though. But again, the year was 2020 and keep in mind, that was the time when everything was shut down and things were arriving very slowly, even with paying extra expedited shipping.

[@biddle444]

Great review. Just got mine a week ago. Already 100 miles. Have u had to mess with the drive belts cuz I can not tighten mine. There is no track to slide like I have seen on other videos. Thanks again

[@LloydSim]

tnx for watching! I learned a lot of the esk8 stuff from Daniel Kwan (i actually used his discount code to purchase my zealot 2 years ago). As for the drive belt, weird that you can’t tighten it…watch Daniel Kwan’s video though, it might help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYe3lJ6Njad9idk

[@bryansbag]

Hey man I have had mine for about a week, I understand you get around 17 miles in your range test and you said the cloud wheels greatly reduced that. How much range would you say you have it with them on and running around in Sports mode. Also hows it been after a year lol

[@LloydSim]

hey tnx for watching. oh man it’s been almost 2 years this coming June actually! but so far so good. I can tell the battery is at reduced capacity now though, but that’s probably cuz I rode it last summer in 108 degree temps here in Seattle, probably fried some stuff in there but unsure. I’m still getting a pretty decent range in sports mode-roughly 12.5 - 13 miles around flat trails. Hilly areas though, I’m only getting 10.5 - 11 miles. Cloud wheels are chipped here and there, and some parts are smoothed out due to extensive riding and also age.Might need to replace them this summer. The only repairs I’ve done really is replaced the belt numerous times as they’ve snapped and sometimes pebble got stuck, causing a tear and whatnot. Imma also need to change out the grip tape soon..they’re balding

[@bryansbag]

@@LloydSim Thank you so much for your very detailed answer! Looks like a lot to look forward with a lot not to great to look forward lol

[@reallytho99]

Rather than wrap the wires like that, did you try using a riser pad, or does it already have one?

[@LloydSim]

Nah, i just DIY’d it with some of the materials I already had last year-wasn’t too big of a deal for me. Daniel Kwan had the same issue with his Exway Flex and a couple of risers did indeed solved it. Few redditors followed the same too for their zealot and I think a 1/8 riser fixes the issue. It’s been a year since I got this board though and I believe backfire already fixed the issue with their later batches and the Backfire Zealot S.

[@luckyb3939]

you said you have the wowgo 2s and that's my first electric board. my battery died and the motor makes alot of noise so im thinking of buying a new one and i really am interested in the zealot and im wondering about the belts what kind of difference is there from hub motors or should I just get the g3?

[@LloydSim]

Hey tnx for watching! Belt driven boards like the Zealot, has more accelaration, braking, hill climb/torque, overall comfort, and easy customization option such as changing the wheels to Cloudwheel, Revel Snugs or Boosted 105’s to name a few. However, belt driven boards are also slightly pricier and will require more maintenance (mainly overall maintenance of belt and pulley, bit of inspection and maybe replacement of motor cover). Also, belt driven boards are noisier because of the belt, but you kind of get used to the noise and it sounds dope when riding :)

[@luckyb3939]

@@LloydSim thanks for the info. one more question, when kick pushing it while it's off does it move easily?

[@LloydSim]

@@luckyb3939 ah yes-missed this part cuz i never really had kick push my zealot, unfortunately, due to the belt mechanism of belt driven boards-it doesn’t free roll as good as hub motor ones

[@ryanyepp50]

just want to know if you think this board is loud or quiet for a belt drive board. i am debating on belt drive or hub drive.

[@LloydSim]

tnx for watching. old vid but i still have my zealot for joyrides. anyway, any belt drive boards will be louder than hub motor as it's an exposed, moving part. Also the tighter you adjust the belt (for riding preferences), the louder it becomes

[@ashed7976]

Is there a rackling sound??? I heard a lot of complaints in internet...

[@LloydSim]

that’s probably the grub screw that goes on the motor shaft to hold the gear in place, and other essential screws since right off the box it’s not perfect and I highly recommend to tighten and check all bolts/screws before riding. Here is a redditor’s PSA for new Zealot owners: www.reddit.com/r/ElectricSkateboarding/comments/hfmvv5/psa_to_all_the_new_zealot_owners_out_there/?

[@leightonbiker7526]

You should go test my diy board it tops out at 45mph and a rage of 20-40 miles

[@aarontorres6466]

If I'm 180 pounds is this still a good board

[@LloydSim]

Yeah, it’s gonna bottom out a bit since it’s so flexy. with my backpack and gears, I’m 170lbs and it bottoms out a bit for me. Backfire made a composite deck version of the board a few weeks after this video was published, so you might benefit better with that version instead of the bamboo deck version which is the one i have

[@aarontorres6466]

@@LloydSim so how do you get the other deck i dont see any options for a different deck on backfires websitr

[@LloydSim]

​@@aarontorres6466 Here easy access: backfireboardsusa.com/collections/electric-skateboards/products/backfire-zealot

[@aarontorres6466]

@@LloydSim thats weird are there 2 backfire usa websites cause that one looks different from the one I was on

[@LloydSim]

@@aarontorres6466 Nah, the other one is the international version

[@soraisfinallyhere1305]

Is this board good for carving or not?

[@LloydSim]

For me personally, yes. At stock out of the box, you will need to dial in the trucks/bushing to your turning/carving liking. I replaced my bushings to venom plug barrels though since the stock bushing was meh. You can also check out waterborne surf adapters for a more carvy experience.

[@soraisfinallyhere1305]

Thanks I am gonna get this board soon but I like to carve and heard mixed opinions, are the bushing you changed to good for it? Sorry I am new to bushings and the difference

[@bjed21]

Seems like its taking 3 months for mine to get through customs.

[@LloydSim]

Darn you COVID! Hope you get it soon! It'll be worth the wait :)

[@maxheadroom7214]

Take the foil off of your wires. Just the tape. The foil can cause a short and then a fire. That's enough aluminum to release a lot of power out of the battery really quickly. An insane amount of heat will be generated and maintained until the foil is completely burned up. By then you've got a full blown lithium fire going that burns hotter than the sun that you won't be able to extinguish.

[@LloydSim]

Eh. I’ve had this for almost 2 years now (bought it when it was released in April 2020). Have over 1,500+ miles and haven’t had any problems with it 🤞🏼

[@ProTuner06]

The Zealot S is out.

[@LloydSim]

yup, came out a while ago :) Looks dope. This video is almost a year old…

[@contorta960]

Your pronunciation of "zealot" is very interesting! ZealOt lol

[@6-carboxydetrahydropterin-485]

No

[@sottosotto4056]

I had it. It wasn't a bad board for the price. Kinda like a Chinese version of a boosted board. It's MUCH cheaper than a boosted board and just as if not more powerful. The only issue is that some of the parts do come cheap. So, if you don't take care of your board, it can quite easily breakdown. Also, the remote is not impact resistant. It will quite easily break if you drop it hard enough because the spring inside the remote that gives the remote wheel resistance is in a very vulnerable spot. Open up the remote and seee for yourself. Would I buy it again? For myself? No. Would I recommend it to a new rider that wants a good board for a good price? Yes.

[@emmamoyer396]

Should I buy it as my first board?

[@sottosotto4056]

@@emmamoyer396 yes.

[@emmamoyer396]

@@sottosotto4056 I think I'm going to buy the zealot S

[@sottosotto4056]

@@emmamoyer396 as your first eskate, you won't be disappointed! I remember the huge smile I had on my face first time riding the zealot!

[@llelsonbustillo6374]

cloudwheels are good for beginners

[@aarontorres6466]

I heard cloud wheels were shit and overhyped

[@LloydSim]

It’s mix reviews for them for the 2nd version (which is the one i have) the 1st version got a lot of bad rep cuz of how crappy they are since they break so fast. But different users have differing experience for the 2nd version-most are in favor of it from what I’ve seen on reddit and other youtubers. It’s definitely still better and worth it than the $700 Apple Mac Pro Wheels

[@aarontorres6466]

@@LloydSim apple mac pro lmfaoo