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#Easy and Thrilling to Zip Around On – Review Geek

“Easy and Thrilling to Zip Around On – Review Geek”

Rating:
9/10
?

  • 1 – Absolute Hot Garbage
  • 2 – Sorta Lukewarm Garbage
  • 3 – Strongly Flawed Design
  • 4 – Some Pros, Lots Of Cons
  • 5 – Acceptably Imperfect
  • 6 – Good Enough to Buy On Sale
  • 7 – Great, But Not Best-In-Class
  • 8 – Fantastic, with Some Footnotes
  • 9 – Shut Up And Take My Money
  • 10 – Absolute Design Nirvana

Price: $300

Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard sittings against brick wall outside
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

If you’re looking for an easy way to get around town for work, school, or just for fun, Base Camp’s F11 E-Skateboard is an excellent choice. It’s compact, fairly lightweight, lasts for up to nine miles on a single charge, and can max out at a speed of 10 miles per hour.

Electric skateboards are just as convenient and comfortable to commute on as electric bikes, but for some reason, they’re not as widely popular. With a top speed of 10 mph and a 9-mile range, Base Camp’s F11 electric longboard should definitely be on your radar, whether you use it for fun or for a work commute.

Here’s What We Like

  • Great, compact size
  • Top speed of 10 mph
  • Battery can last up to nine miles
  • Stable rides, with strong trucks and large wheels
  • Battery and motor can be replaced when needed

And What We Don’t

  • Can’t handle steep inclines on its own
  • Heavier than a traditional skateboard
Review Geek’s expert reviewers go hands-on with each product we review. We put every piece of hardware through hours of testing in the real world and run them through benchmarks in our lab. We never accept payment to endorse or review a product and never aggregate other people’s reviews. Read more >>

Specs

  • Deck Construction: 8-Ply Maple
  • Deck Dimensions: 74 cm (29.1 in) x 23.5 cm (9.25 in)
  • Wheel Size: 90 mm x 51 mm
  • Weight: 11 lbs (5.5 kg)
  • Range: 9 mi (14.5 km)
  • Top Speed: 10 mph (16 kph)
  • Max Load: 220 lbs (100 kg)
  • Battery: 4000 mAh
  • Motor: 300W Brushless Single Hub Motor
  • Charge Time: 2 – 4 hours
  • Max Incline: 10 degrees

Design & Build Quality

When you check out Base Camp’s F11 on Amazon, it’s described as both a skateboard and a longboard, but it’s closer to the longboard definition. Yes, it is shorter than most longboards, but a longboard isn’t always defined by just being a “long board.” With the F11 specifically, the deck, trucks, and wheels give off more of a longboard vibe.

Made of eight layers of maple wood, the deck is pretty sturdy. It doesn’t have a whole lot of flex—which can be a good thing or a bad thing with skateboards and longboards—but I think the deck being more rigid is a good thing since you get up to such high speeds. The rigidity of the deck, along with the anti-slip grip tape, gives you all the stability you need.

Standard wheels of the Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

The bearings are nice and smooth, and the wheels are a good size at 90 millimeters and have a decent softness with 85A PU. One of the wheels contains the 300W hub motor within it, and you can—and should—regularly rotate the wheels with the included skate tool. You can even email Base Camp to order a new motor or battery when the time comes to replace either.

I didn’t need to adjust the trucks or anything else after unboxing the e-skateboard. Everything comes well-adjusted enough so you can just unbox it, turn it on, and get going. In addition to the board itself, the remote, and their respective charging cables, there’s also a carrying bag you can wear as a backpack, the manuals, and as mentioned before, a skate tool for adjustments and maintenance.

Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard accessories and carry bag sitting on concrete
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Overall, the F11 is well-built and looks great. I love that the board’s design is neutral, sporting a classic blackish gray and white combination. Right now, the board doesn’t come in any other colors or designs. The remote is plastic and feels less-than-premium, but it’s pretty ergonomic to hold and stood up to one accidental fall.

The First Ride

Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard box with open flap showing printed information
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

When you first unbox everything, charge up both the board and remote, and set out on your first ride, you’ll be in Beginner Mode, the lowest speed mode. Base Camp recommends that you get comfortable with the board in Beginner Mode—in which the throttle is less sensitive and your top speed is lower—before transitioning to one of the other three speed modes: Eco, Expert, and Professional. If you’ve ever ridden a skateboard or longboard before, it won’t take long at all before you switch to Professional Mode.

Before you do anything else, become familiar with the included remote because it’s required to use any electric features on the board. To control your acceleration and braking while on the board, there’s a throttle wheel in the upper right corner of the remote. Then, there are a few indicator lights on the remote that can easily get confusing because they can mean multiple different things—battery life of both the remote and the board, which speed mode you’re in, and how much braking distance you want—but more on this later.

Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard chargers, skate tool, and remote
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Everything that the manual recommends for your first ride makes complete sense, and just seems like what someone would naturally do. Move the board slowly, lightly increase the throttle, keep a wide stance and low center of gravity, lean forward when accelerating, and lean backward when braking—pretty intuitive.

I think I only experimented in Beginner Mode for about five minutes before I was comfortable enough to try out the other three speed modes. To switch, you just have to tap the power button quickly a second time after initially turning the remote on.

Even on my first ride, I felt comfortable bumping it up to the third and fourth speed modes. I mainly rode around on residential streets, with lots of straights and a few gentle curves. Honestly, getting used to the brakes took a longer time than getting used to the throttle.

As a reference, I haven’t been on a skateboard or longboard in months, and it took me only a few minutes to get used to Base Camp’s F11. But even if you’ve never skated before in your life, I don’t think the learning curve would be huge. You could buy a regular skateboard first, see how you like it, and then buy the F11 e-skateboard—or just invest in the F11 and take your time getting used to it around your neighborhood.

Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard sittings in grass leaning against bricks
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Overall Riding Experience

There are four different speed modes to experiment with: Beginner, Eco, Expert, and Pro. I always thought of the speed modes more as numbers, with Beginner as speed one and Pro as speed four. For the most part, I stayed in speed four, and sometimes bumped it down to speed three.

The fastest you can possibly go is 10 miles per hour, and trust me, that’s enough. Any faster, and I’d be afraid of how harsh a fall would be. On one ride, I hit some gravel with a larger rock in the mix and the board stopped, but I didn’t. I was wearing jeans and a longer shirt, so I didn’t have any larger scrapes, but if I was going faster than the max speed of 10 mph, that fall could’ve been much worse. At 10 mph, there’s a noticeable difference between the F11 e-skateboard and a regular skateboard.

There are also four options for braking distance, each indicated by one of the middle four lights on the remote. The bottom of the remote’s four middle indicator lights gives you the most braking distance (or least braking force), while the top light gives you the least braking distance (or most braking force). I typically used the third option, no matter how fast I was going, because I felt like it gave a good balance of braking distance and stop force.

You can also reverse everything if you want to while you’re riding, but I only did this once to test it out. Since most people either ride regular or goofy, not both, it was much easier for me to physically step off the board and flip it around than try to accelerate and brake in reverse mode.

Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard and carry case sitting on concrete
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Base Camp’s F11 board really shines in open spaces like parking lots, where you can just carve all around and have fun, not worrying about how fast you’re going. Parking lots are where I also love to ride around on a traditional skateboard, so this makes sense. There’s not much wobble, which usually translates to a wider turn radius, but this didn’t matter in a large, open space like an empty parking lot.

This might go without saying if you have any knowledge on skateboards and/or longboards, but don’t expect to do any tricks on this board. Even if it’s possible, I wouldn’t risk it because the battery is housed on the bottom of the board. I’d sometimes use my feet to redirect the board when I came to a sharp 90-degree turn on the sidewalk, but often, it was just easier to pick it up since it is slightly heavier than a traditional skateboard.

The board automatically senses wheel movement, so if I get on the board and start pushing manually, I’ll hear a beeping noise. Then, all I have to do is turn the remote on if I want power. With the Fiido D3 Pro E-Bike I tried out, you could use the throttle to give you extra power, but the bike’s motor would still kick in and assist when you pedaled. With Base Camp’s F11 board, all the power comes from the throttle control on the remote. Without the remote, you can manually push the board all you want and it’s just a regular skateboard.

Motor containing wheel of the Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

Base Camp says the board can climb 10-degree inclines. I live in Texas right now, which means that it’s pretty much flat anywhere you go. When I would find a rare hill, I could tell that the motor was working a bit harder, but I never had to take my feet off to push and manually climb a gentle hill.

I also tested the F11’s incline strength with my driveway, which is pretty steep and at least double the incline the board is rated for. Riding up to it at full speed, I was almost able to reach the top, but not quite. When the board couldn’t go anymore, it kind of just held me in place and I was able to safely put my foot down to manually push the rest of the way.

Battery Life & Charging

The F11 e-skateboard has a 4,000 mAh battery that has been UL2772-certified through testing. It has a maximum range of nine miles on a single charge, but this all depends on how fast you’re going and how many small hills you’re going over.

Base Camp F11 Electric Skateboard lying upside down on carry case
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

To fully charge the F11, it only takes about two to four hours. Then, the remote is still going strong after a few weeks of use, so you likely won’t have to charge the remote much at all—certainly not as often as charging the skateboard.

On the right side of the remote, there are six light indicators. The top indicator lights up when the remote and the board are connected, and the bottom indicator lights up red when the remote reaches 20% battery capacity and needs to be charged. Then, the middle four indicators primarily show the board’s battery life, and when all four indicators are lit, you’ll know the F11 is fully charged.

base camp f11 skateboard remote diagram showing battery indicators
Sarah Chaney / Review Geek

However, these middle four indicator lights can also indicate the charging status of the remote’s battery when you are actively charging the remote. You also use these middle four indicator lights to set your preferred speed mode and braking distance. To change your speed mode, you tap the power button again once the remote is already on, and then use the power button to toggle between speed modes, watching the indicator light to see which mode you’re in.

To customize your braking distance, you pull the throttle wheel backwards as if you’re braking and then tap the power button to enable changes to your braking distance. Then, you push the power button to toggle between the four different braking distances, and watch the four middle indicator lights to make your decision.

base camp f11 skateboard remote diagram for speeds
Base Camp

As the battery life of your board drops, you’ll see only three indicator lights, then two, then one, and then your board is dead. There are also four battery life indicator lights on the side of the board as well that correspond with what the remote shows you.

The board only ever died on me once, but I took it out when it only had roughly 50% battery life. I was out for quite a while and anticipated that it might die, but I didn’t care since I was pretty close to home.

If the battery dies while you’re out, you have two options: walk or just ride it like a traditional skateboard. That said, I’ve gone to a nearby gas station four or five times since charging it last—roughly a ten minute ride each time—and the remote still shows all four battery indicator lights for the board.

Verdict: Really Freaking Awesome

There are some pretty compact electric bikes out there—I’ve even reviewed one—and even electric scooters that fold down, but none are quite as compact as an electric skateboard. Base Camp’s F11 electric longboard (or skateboard, however you want to look at it) is so easy to zip around town with and pack up in a convenient bag you can wear on your back when you need to go in somewhere. It has a great battery life, a healthy top speed, and feels incredibly comfortable to ride on.

Here’s What We Like

  • Great, compact size
  • Top speed of 10 mph
  • Battery can last up to nine miles
  • Stable rides, with strong trucks and large wheels
  • Battery and motor can be replaced when needed

And What We Don’t

  • Can’t handle steep inclines on its own
  • Heavier than a traditional skateboard

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