Disclaimer:

First and foremost, I am not a skateboard enthusiast, so I am not an expert in what makes a good board or not. This is just my honest opinion on the board. I also suck at writing, so pardon any grammatical mistakes.

Feel free to email me if you have questions! so.strange.apps@gmail.com

A little bit about me and why I got the Sportster Hybrid X+:

I previously owned an OG V1 Boosted Board (Dual motor Longboard) which I paid about $1300 for when it first came out. When I first got it, I was super excited. It was my first electric skateboard, and I used it daily to/from the gym and public transport. My biggest dislike about that board was that I only got 5-6 miles on a full charge. Whenever I took it out, I had to worry about running out of battery midway through a trip. It operated perfectly fine for years, but I felt like it was time to get a new board. I ended up selling it to a friend and looked for recommendations on a new board. I was recommended to check out Bustin Boards. They were supposedly a pretty reputable skateboard company and assembled their products in the USA. This was important to me because I didn’t want a cheap blueprint generic board that’s mass produced in China that you could find on Alibaba or something like that. Their Sportster Hybrid X+ has an 18 to 20 mile range, has a top speed of 30 mph, and is able to be pushed even when the battery is dead. Compared to my Boosted, these specs were great.


The Specs:

  • Speed: 30 mph (48.28 kph)
  • Range: 18-20 miles (29 km – 32.2 km)
  • Full Specs
  • I read somewhere that the range specs were based on a rider who weighed 160 pounds (72.5 kg) going 10 mph (7 kph). So the range would vary per person and usage.


The speed and range I experienced:

Speed:

  • If I turn the board upside down and go full throttle, it can reach up to 31 mph.
  • I honestly haven’t pushed the board over 20 mph on the street because it feels too dangerous and unstable. I also have experienced a lot of “speed wobbles”. I read it’s the rider’s fault (my own poor riding skills). Once I hit some bump, I kind of freak out and overcompensate and I believe that’s what causes the speed wobbles to go out of my control. No street, at least where I am is perfectly smooth.
  • It feels fast and accelerates quite quickly and smoothly. I haven’t had an issue where it accelerated from under my feet. Compared to the Boosted, it feels relatively similar.
  • I honestly haven’t had the need to go more than 20 mph in most cases.

Range:

  • I weigh 140 pounds and am 5’8” ish. On a really chill ride, around 10-15 mph average on flat ground, I was able to reach 20 miles with still some juice left.
  • My feet were tired out before the board ran out of battery.
  • The board’s range is plenty for me for now

The Ride:

  • Floor clearance:
    • Compared to the Boosted Board, this board sits much lower. Maybe at half the height of the Boosted Board. If the boards were cars, the Boosted would be an SUV and the Bustin would be a sedan (in terms of height, not width for sure. The Sportster is pretty darn wide. Like wide load wide.)
  • Smoothness:
    • The Bustin rides quite smoothly. It really depends on the type of ground you’re riding on though. You still still feel every bump in the road, and if you ride for too long, your feet will feel the tingle. Compared to the Boosted, I personally feel like the Boosted was a bit smoother. Perhaps this is because the Boosted Board has quite a bit of flex. The Bustin’s Sportster has pretty much no flex at all as the battery takes the center length of the bottom of the board. There ain’t no bouncy bounce!
  • Pushing:
    • One of their selling points is that the board can be pushed even when the battery is dead. It rolls on its own without any engagement. I think it’s a great feature so you aren’t stranded when the battery runs out. When I owned the Boosted, you’d have to put in a lot of effort just to manually get it from one point to another. With the small range, that was necessary from time to time. I think the reason why this is possible is because the Bustin’s Sportster has brushless hub motors in the wheel while the Boosted was a belt driven motor. 
  • Brakes:
    • Something I had to get used to was that there is no reverse mode like the Boosted Board has. Apparently, Bustin’s first Sportster version did have a reverse mode, but customers complained that they would reverse the board accidentally and fall off. So they removed that feature. Since I’ve been riding, I haven’t had the need to reverse, and frankly, I realized I never really used this feature.
    • The remote has 4 different brake modes. 1 being weakest and 4 being strongest. I usually leave mine at 4.
  • Control: 
    • I guess it really depends on how loose or tight your trucks are, but the Bustin’s Sportster X handles well. You can carve and squeeze tight turns easily. Perhaps the large width of the board and the low clearance has something to do with that.
    • As I mentioned before, I experienced speed wobbles when going over 20 mph, so I actually tightened the trucks a bit more. As expected, I experienced less wobbles but lost some maneuverability. Still, even after tightening the trucks, I found that the board still had more carving abilities than the Boosted Board.
    • So I feel like if you want control and decide to loosen the trucks, you shouldn’t go too fast, otherwise you could lose control.
    • If you want to go fast and tighten your trucks, then you lose maneuverability

Aesthetics:

  • The Bustin Board Sportster X+ has a low profile and thin look. Most people would probably not notice that this was an electric board especially because of the hidden hub motors. It’s also really quiet. The loudest synthetic noise you hear is the brakes when coming to a stop, which is fine by me because it helps people in front of you know you’re there. 
  • Unfortunately, there’s no customization on how the board looks. They only have one deck and one set of colors for the wheels. And because the wheels are this white/clear color, they get dirty really easily. It seems like the rear wheels are a slightly different material than the front wheels.
  • There’s no other option for different wheels, like off-road or something.
  • Coming from the Boosted Board, I noticed this board was much wider. I actually don’t really like how wide it is from the perspective of how it appears. It’s chonky. It’s probably good for control and stability though.

The Remote:

  • The wheel:
    • Forwards is forward
    • Backwards is brake
    • The wheel honestly feels a little cheap. I can hear it twang if I just mess with it, like pulling it back and letting it go. 
    • When I’m using it, the wheel actually gets stuck in a slight forward position so it’s at a constant speed even when I’m not holding it forward. I’m not sure if it’s defective or it’s meant to be like that. Regardless, I’m okay with it since it’s kind of like how a car moves forward even without your foot on the accelerator pedal.
  • The LED screen
    • Current speed
    • Board battery
    • Remote battery
    • Lifetime Odometer
    • Trip Odometer
    • Speed mode (G1 – G4)
    • Brake mode (B1 – B4)
  • The LED screen is difficult to read in the sun
  • I think a vertical layout would be more intuitive
  • I don’t particularly like how the trip odometer works. It resets every trip, which basically means if you turn off the board, the trip odometer resets. If you take a quick 5 minute break and your board turns off automatically, you will lose your trip distance, and therefore lose an accurate reading of your true trip. I would prefer if they let you reset the trip distance or reset it per “charge”.
  • The board battery is not that great for estimating your range. It only has 4 “bars”. Meaning you’d possibly only see 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. It also sometimes fluctuates between ranges. For example, one moment, I’ll see 75%, and the next I’ll see 100%. More bars or just straight up percentages would be clearer.

Price

  • Yoface 33” hybrid $700
  • Sportster 35” hybrid X $899 or X+ for $999
  • The purchase process is interesting. They make you pay 50% to reserve. Then when they ship it, they’ll send you a link for you to purchase the rest of the board. I guess it’s a good thing because that means they don’t save your credit card information.

Coupon

  • I don’t know where it is, but I scavenged the internet for some discount codes and fell upon a $50 any hybrid board luckily. Please look for coupons before hand if you decide to purchase one.

Conclusion

  • Overall, I’m satisfied with the Bustin Board Hybrid X+
  • I’ve been looking for a new skateboard to replace my old V1 Boosted Board Dual, and this is a great board for a decent price