Before there was a Mach One, there was a garage full of prototypes. The XP3 was the last of them to actually work, and the one where years of broken parts finally added up to a board that rode the way we'd imagined. It was never meant for production. It was the test bed.
Where it started
Work on what became the Mach One started in late 2019. There were no engineering degrees and no war chest from a previous venture, just a backyard workshop, a CNC machine and a lot of stubbornness. It took a full year to make the first carbon fibre parts we could actually use. Along the way a 3D-printed mould plug melted in the sun, and our first suspension test sagged to the ground before it was carrying even half a rider's weight.
The first working prototype, XP1, came together in 2021 on our own carbon fibre chassis. It had a range of only 10km, and it was awesome. XP2 was where the upgrades went in and the problems got ironed out. By mid 2023 the XP3 was ready to show.
What it proved
The XP3 was very close to the Mach One in overall spec, and most of what defines the Mach One was proven on it first.
Underneath was a Formula 1 inspired carbon fibre monocoque chassis with interchangeable decks. The deck itself was hollow carbon fibre with a urethane edge and weighed just over a kilo. The battery was a slim, modular PCB design where every cell group is individually fused and can be serviced without a single wire.
The motors were our own. Off-the-shelf motors were lucky to last three months on our early prototypes, so we developed our own 6485 specifically for electric skateboarding. They were strong enough to destroy every rubber timing belt we tried, some in as little as five minutes, which is how we ended up on polyurethane belts. They wear slowly and they don't snap.
The trucks were the sixth revision of our own design, the R6, with a 60 degree front steering angle that makes a 17kg board feel light. The swing-arm suspension took three attempts to get right, and it’s the third version that carried through to the Mach One.
It rolled on an early generation of our airless rubber wheels, the start of what became the SR125.
And it ran Radium Torque Steering, the first torque vectoring system on an electric skateboard. In a car it's nothing new. On a board it works the opposite way, sending more power to the inside wheel so the back truck steers with you, a bit like power steering. How hard could it be? It's hard. It's now patented, and once you've ridden with it, it's just not the same without it.
The livery
The XP3 was also where we first put a racing livery on a board. Red paint with yellow stripes, a black centre panel and a red powder-coated front truck. The base was automotive paint and the decals were applied by hand, and it took ages to get right. Although not specifically a race board, its Ferrari-style graphic was a tribute to a brand that has given us a lot of inspiration.
People have asked us to build another one ever since. It stayed a one-off because the livery took too many labour hours and manual process steps to repeat.
Ready or not
The XP3 never stopped being ridden. In 2024, with Liam's production board stuck in transit and less than a day before flying to the AUSPEV Nationals in Perth, we converted the XP3 to a li-po battery and took it racing. It was never built for competition. On aged, hard wheels it still hit 72 kph in qualifying and made the pro class.
Board #00
The Mach One production run finished this year at board number 100.
Radium is proud to present a one-off Mach One, board #00, in an XP3 tribute livery. There is only one.
It's a tribute to the XP3 rather than a copy of it. The red, the yellow and a small Italian tricolour are all there, carried onto a Mach One running today's SR125 wheels.
Board #00 is for sale. To buy it, inquire here.
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