Most electrical riding devices, such as e-bikes, e-boards and e-scooters still feel like non-electric vehicles. If you can ride a conventional bike, you can drive an electric bike, and if you can ride a skateboard, you’ll easily ride an electric one as well. However, a 1 wheel electric board is a completely different story. It’s unlike anything else available on today’s market. It features a thick deck that’s balanced on a fat tyre, and as soon as you step on it, you’ll notice the three accelerometers and gyroscopes come into play – the motor starts up, and you and the board are level. These devices are designed to feel similar to snowboarding on powder. The chunky tyre of the Onewheel board allows you to ride it in any terrain, including gravel, dirt and sound.
The most popular 1 wheel electric board models are the Onewheel +XR and the Onewheel Pint. The +XR doesn’t feature a handheld remote controller like most other models do, but instead reads minute shifts in your body positioning. All you have to do is lean towards the direction you want to go, and the board will take you there. If your thrust your body forward, or you recoil from going too quick, the board will speed up or slow down, respectively. Additionally, the Onewheel will lean as you turn, allowing you to carve.
As someone who has been skateboarding and surfing since I was in my teens, the Onewheel +XR is the first device I’ve ridden that got me scared. I fell within 2 minutes of riding it my first time and sprained my knee. A friend of mine fell face first on the concrete. This doesn’t mean that the Onewheel isn’t extremely fun, it’s just more difficult to get into, especially if you aren’t experienced in riding boards. Always wear a helmet and elbow and wrist guards.
The Onewheel +XR has a range of 25-30km and it’s powerful enough to take you uphill or through rough terrain. It’s about the same size as a conventional skateboard, but it’s much heavier. It comes with a indented handle below the deck, making it easy to carry around even though it’s 12kg. To ride it, you need to download the Onewheel application, and connect the board to your phone via Bluetooth. The dashboard will show you information like battery level, the speed, your range and how many kilometres you’ve ridden each time you’ve used it.
You can also use the Onewheel application to change the settings. You can choose between six different modes, each of which has different maximum speeds, an estimation if the mode is best for trail or town, and different levels of responsiveness. The slowest setting is Sequoia, allowing you to go about 20 km/h, whereas the fastest setting is Delirium, allowing you to go as fast as 32 km/h. The middle setting is Mission, and it provides a similar ride to powder snowboarding.
When you first get the Onewheel board, you might have some trouble getting on and off. To stop, you have to lift one of your heels or your toe. There’s a blue line on the front panel of the board, and to stop moving, you have to remove the pressure on either sides of the line. Sometimes, the board won’t stop even if you lift your heel up. Some people recommend that you should just jump off with both feet if things go south, but that runs the risk of the board hitting something and getting damaged in the process.
But even figuring out when you should jump off the board is difficult due to the board’s operational quirks. For instance, it an go downhill and uphill. When you’re going downhill, the board will slow down if you lean back. On the other hand, it will go faster when you lean forward. If the hill is steep, however, the board might get scraped as it will try to keep you level. If that happens, it can be difficult to start again. While there might be some people who are brave enough to tip forward to get it restarted, it’s not something you should attempt as a beginner.
These devices are water-resistant, so you can ride them through puddles and rain without a problem. You can equip it with a fender, so that you don’t get grit or mud on you. It’s also equipped with LED lights underneath, so you can ride it at night. The battery is also high-quality, and you can ride it for several hours before needing to recharge, which takes about an hour or two. You can ride for 10-20km without worrying the battery will run out. All of this makes it extremely fun to ride, especially if you live in an area with broken roads or near trails, where you can’t ride a conventional skateboard.
Australian Youth Lifestyle 
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