If laying down high-speed carves is your thing, the Meepo Flow will certainly scratch that itch. Photo: Meepo//Will Sileo
Over the past few years, I’ve become a huge fan of surf skating here in San Francisco. With a board, wheels, and a set of pivoting trucks, the urban landscape turns into something in between a freestyle snowboard run and a peeling right-hander.
However, living in San Francisco, I also have to deal with the hills. That’s not a huge deal if I’m just going out for a skate to find my flow when the waves are flat, but to use a skateboard as a method of transportation in San Francisco, especially the hilly area of Alamo Square where I live, is a tall order indeed.
Unless, that is, your skateboard is electric. However, I’ve never been excited by the drop-through, speed-inspired, hard-to-turn electric skateboards that have dominated the market. So when the Meepo Flow ($599), a carving-style electric skateboard with DKP (Double King Pin) trucks, came across my radar, I was, for the first time, excited by an electric skateboard.
Bottom Line: With a 24-mile range, 32 mph top speed, and the ability to conquer hills with grades up to 26%, the Meepo Flow has the internals to hang with the top eskates on the market, and the DKP trucks provide a solidly surfy experience, while maintaining stability for higher-speed riding. It’s not quite the same as a true surfskate – those used to such may find themselves wanting a tighter turning radius, but any looser and you’d sacrifice a lot of stability at speed.
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The Flow ships with instructions, charging cables, tools, spare drive belts, and some extra screws. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Testing The Meepo Flow
I’ve spent the past couple of months testing the Meepo Flow here in San Francisco. I’ve used it for transport, and for fun. It makes quick errands an absolute blast, and I’ve found it to be one of the fastest ways to get around the city, coming just a little bit short of my class 3 ebike.
The city of San Francisco could not be a better environment for testing electric skateboards. There are plenty of hills to test a skateboard’s hill-climbing ability, and a relatively small urban footprint virtually eliminates range anxiety. Furthermore, being a very bike-friendly city means it is also a very eskate-friendly city, despite the dirty looks you might get from non-electric bikers as you zoom past.
Notable Features
Stated Range: 24 miles
Hill Grade: 26%
Top Speed: 32 mph
Power Delivery: Dual 2520 Watt motors
Battery: 432 WH /10 AH
Wheels: Cyclone 105mm
Warranty: 6 months
Simple, User-Friendly Remote
The remote is a hugely important part of the design for any electric skateboard, and I found it to be a standout feature here. It fits comfortably in the palm of the hand, with a thumb wheel that intuitively controls the throttle and braking – roll the wheel forward for oomph, backwards to activate the brakes. The screen is simple, but user-friendly, with an accurate battery readout that has enough detail to easily monitor the board’s state of charge while in use.
Between the individual board and remote battery readouts, speed, current mode, etc, the screen can feel a bit cluttered at first, but once you know the layout, all the information you need as you’re riding is available at a glance. Multiple riding modes let you choose how much power you receive when you activate the throttle.
Charging port on the Meepo Flow. The remote charges via USB-C. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Fast Charging
The board charges remarkably quickly, about 2 hours from empty to full, and the remote charges via USB-C for similarly fast charging, and the boon of only having to keep track of one proprietary charger (the one for the board).
Power, Speed, and Braking
The Meepo Flow is a belt-driven electric skateboard, meaning it has separate motors, which drive a belt, which drives the wheels, whereas a hub-drive electric skateboard has the motor integrated into the wheel itself. Belt-driven eskates tend to have better power and braking, but are a bit noisier, and don’t freewheel (run unpowered) as well, with the belt creating a bit more resistance as you cruise down a hill, for example. However, it does provide tons of power and great braking ability, which are huge pros for the hills of SF.
The board is capable of hitting speeds up to 32 mph – personally, I topped out around 24 mph before deciding that was fast enough for me, and different riding modes let you limit the power output. The powerful brakes also help keep all that oomph under control.
Having brakes is one of the huge pros of electric skateboards over traditional ones. However, it’s a fine balance between not enough braking power, meaning a long lead time to come to a stop, or too much power, where a light tap of the brakes can send you flying off the front of the skateboard if you’re not careful. I found the Flow to have a nice balance here, and a nice, gradual increase in braking power as I roll the controller thumb wheel back, letting me come to a smooth stop.
Dual Kingpin Trucks allow for a great turning radius. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Turning Ability
The Dual Kingpin Trucks provide as close of a surfskate experience as you can get, without having a true surfskate truck. Without getting too deep into the details of what counts as a sufskate-truck and what doesn’t (for that, check out our guide to The Best Surfskates), a dual kingpin truck is more of a carving experience than the snappy turning experience of a true surfskate truck.
Two things there. First, with the Flow being a fully-powered eskate, in my opinion, having a surfskate truck up front would be far too unstable at speed, so I think the DKP is the right choice for a board that can hit over 20 mph. Secondly, while surfy snaps are out of reach, the board is still capable of very tight turns – especially when you use the kick tail – far more than your average drop-through e-skate, and plenty enough to make light work of the sharpest corners SF has to offer.
If you prefer more of that free, surfy experience, at the cost of a lot of power (especially uphill-ability) and range, the Backfire Nalu looks like an interesting option. I’ve never tested it before, but Backfire is a highly reputable brand in the eskate space, so I’m sure it’s a good product.
The dual motor assembly provides top-tier power. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Drawbacks
As I mentioned just above, there’s a very fine balance between turnability and stability at speed. This is more of a trade-off rather than a true “downside,” but it’s still worth mentioning here so you, our readers, know what you’re getting into. This is a surf-inspired carving board, rather than a true surfskate.
Also mentioned previously, the belt-driven motor has some pros and cons. Pros of more power, cons of less efficient (and noisier) “freewheeling.” What’s that exactly? Freewheeling is when the skateboard moves unpowered, like coasting down a hill, and overall, there’s a bit more resistance at play here than with a hub-driven eskate, making for a bit less “free” of an unpowered riding experience.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the board is a little awkward to carry. Without a handle, there isn’t a super convenient place to grab and carry the board horizontally, and at 11kg, 22 lbs, it’s fairly heavy (as all eskates are). I’d love to see a feature like this added in the future.
Surfy and powerful, the Meepo Flow delivers. Photo: Will Sileo//The Inertia
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Meepo Flow is a top-tier eskate that’s well-worth the price. It costs a bit more than similarly-specced eskates from the Meepo brand, as well as others, but that’s reasonable given the powerful internals and special components that provide the surf-style experience.
This is a great skate for really anyone, from beginner to experienced rider. It’s something an experienced rider can have a blast with, but with the DKP trucks tightened up, and on the lower-powered modes, it’s something a beginner won’t be overwhelmed by. It wouldn’t be my first choice for someone looking for that true surf-skate experience, but anyone else will be stoked on this radical form of fun micro mobility and self-transportation.
Check Price on MeepoRelated: The Best Surf Skates | Best Fat Tire Electric Bikes | More Gear Reviews
