My new toy

It’s been a few weeks since I bought the Onewheel, so I thought I’d write a quick review of it and answer the question, “Was it really worth the $1,500?”

Short answer: Yes. Go get it. And let me know so we can ride together. 

Now that we got that out of the way…

I first heard about the Onewheel through a distribution list at work, and went to the web site to check it out. I was instantly hooked, and told all my coworkers and friends about it. The video on the web site made it look super easy, so I was thinking that I could probably use it to commute to work.

The web site was surprisingly difficult to navigate for simple questions like:

1. How heavy is it? (25 pounds)
2. How long would the battery last? (6-7 miles, or around 50 min)
3. What’s the return policy? (no)
4. What’s the warranty? (1 year, covered for basically everything short of submerging it in water) 

Next step: finding a store that carries it and will let me try it out. Thankfully, a local shop in Santa Cruz had it, so I went with a friend to check it out the following weekend. (Find a dealer close to you here.)

I tried it, and discovered that it was much harder than it looks. Wearing flip-flops didn’t help, but I found it kind of difficult to balance on. Still, though, it looked super fun, and the guy convinced me that it’d only take a day to figure it out. So I bit the bullet and bought it. With the fender and tax it came out to $1,700, which is ridiculous for what basically amounted to a toy and offered nothing but potential death and/or endless entertainment. (Side note: having ridden it for a few weeks now, I don’t think the fender is that important….but your mileage may vary.)

The user manual illustrated this quite well, starting with the glossy and promising cover:

Turn the page, though, and the warning was pretty stark…

Safety disclaimer: wear a helmet. And gloves. And pads. Gloves are almost more important than the helmet. Thankfully I’ve really only fallen twice, and only got hurt once where I tore a hole in my shoe, injured my left foot, and bruised my butt.

But…it’s SO. MUCH. FUN. I’ve ridden it practically everyday after work, and it brings a smile to my face every time. It’s just a bonus that it looks cool and is guaranteed to attract attention everywhere you go.

Indeed, it only took me a day to figure out how to turn on it and go where I want to go, but it’s going to take a much longer time for me to feel comfortable commuting to work on it.

Still, riding on it makes me feel like a kid again, and that is priceless.