Bluetooth Hand Brake

[misdirects]

I would certainly pay for a handheld bluetooth device that I could squeeze which could slow down the OneWheel, as the only real difficulty I currently still have in riding is when I get going too fast and can't easily shift my weight to slow down!

[forzabucks]

Practice, practice, practice. No need to tie up your hands on the OneWheel.

[ThatGuy]

Seems like a brake would slow you down from the feet up - out of balance and not leaning into the deceleration. It would thus throw you off the board, forward. You certainly would slow down that way, though... ;)

[parrothd]

You need to practice..

Do some drills/warm ups, try accelerating as fast as you can then stop as fast as you can. Do it 10-15 times each time you start, regular and goofy. You should be able to make the tail drag on the ground regular and goofy, or stop as quick as possible...

[DVO]

Dude, you don't need a hand held device bro, #Lurn2OneWheel. They specifically designed the OneWheel to NOT use your hands. Hand Held will not happen.

[veryous]

Everyone complains that the electric skateboards don't feel as connected and when you brake that it feels like it wants to throw you off. This would be a huge negative to me if I had to do anything with my hands.

As everyone else has said, practice more. It'll take time, but you'll get it. =)

[Andrew]

The OneWheel could have a braking system quite easily - because it already has one in the form of pushback.

A brake button could engage pushback, forcing a slowdown until you released the brake or it stopped.

But my bluetooth connection to the board is not reliable and I couldn't rely on it. Any handlheld brake device connected to the board would need to be significantly more reliable than the phone connection currently is.

[DocBlock]

Lol, I can't believe this thread is still here

[J-Glide]

While riding today, I tried to imagine what would happen if the board started braking without me leaning back. I'm pretty sure I'd just fly off every time. Leaning back is a must just to stay on, and well... It also causes the board to brake the way it is now. I guess no upgrade or hand held device is needed.

[misdirects]

Just to be clear, my proposal for a hand brake was not as a substitute for mastering the OneWheel's natural braking mechanism, but instead was just for a type of backup brake for those who are still trying to learn the OneWheel.

Some (like myself) had never had a skateboard before and so there has been a fairly steep learning curve with the OneWheel. In particular, both myself and a couple of my friends have had rides where we got going faster than we are comfortable going and then found it hard to immediately shift our weight to slow down (while maintaining our balance) and had to jump off.

In such circumstances, I think a hand brake would have been a good option, even if only during the first few weeks or months of practice.

I also have seen that some other commercial powered boards have hand brakes by default, so I'm not sure why so many think it's a totally bad idea, even if advanced riders would forgo it (and likewise recommend not relying on it).

That said, thanks for all the tips, which I've been incorporating into my practice schedule. Smart practice does make perfect---

[lardnicus]

I am definitely not the target market, but I'm having a hard time imagining a market at that price...

However, it does have some stuff that is interesting like the sonar to detect and react to road surface variations. That said, more features needlessly complicates a board and leaves it open to having more things go wrong with it...

There's a reason I bought OW and not any of the other toys etc that have come before :)

But I am not sure it will get people to buy OW... A lot of people will be seeing this for the first time. Everyone has seen those little hawk wheel toys but there are not that many videos of OW on youtube (yet).

[Andrew]

@Banjo said:

a giant rollerblade wheel!

Looks like a solid / non-pneumatic wheel which means no shock absorption at all. Not great on uneven sidewalks.

@Banjo said:

I reckon they could learn a couple of things from this for OW 2.0 :)

Hopefully the OW team do buy one and see what's in there that could possibly be used.

Does look cool though!

[BadWolf]

I just feel sorry for those (7 at the moment) that probably dont even know about onewheel, and is going to pay shitloads for a obselete product.

[Brutha Man]

http://youtu.be/jn4CFVhcTe4

One of our own had a chance to ride it

[kbern]

@Brutha-Man way to go, enjoi! I wanted to go to that thing too, but was not in town for it.

[enjoi408]

Hahaha! uh oh! I've been caught! hahaha. Actually, I wasn't the first one OneWheeler that Robert (Founder of Hoverboard) has come across. He mentioned that there was a kitesurfer (not sure if hes a member on this forum) who had a OneWheel and was testing out the Hoverboard.

[rainynite]

So what's the verdict? How does it compare? What did the Hoverboard owner say about the Onewheel?

[Brutha Man]

@enjoi408 what are your thoughts on the Hoverboard compared to the OneWheel?

[Franky]

I'm also interested in hearing feedback but even if it was somehow better than onewheel(impossible), the price and toy look is a joke. I cannot believe they have a prayer getting fully funded.

[BadWolf]

wait, whaaaat? Have you guys read the comments? They want 1200$ for international shipping!? Thats almost a whole onewheel?

[BadWolf]

And now on the kickstarter page there is a comparison of a few skateboards, and it says faulty that onewheel is built from wood :P

[Chance2Ride]

So here's their brief take on the differences, quated directly from their comments page:

Creator Hoverboard Technologies about 2 hours ago
Hey, Me,
Two major things make the Hoverboard different from a Onewheel - which is also awesome in its own right. The first is that the Hoverboard pivots on a narrow, very precisely round wheel. This gives it an entirely new dimension of freedom and agility - and is also why you can't just get on it and ride your first try, like you can a Onewheel. The second is that the Hoverboard is amped-up in every other respect, over twice the power, over twice the range, tons more features and all coming in at the same weight. This is costly to do, or Onewheel would have done it also. The Hoverboard is the Tesla of PEV. Obviously, a Tesla, however great, is not the car for everybody. And you don't have to be "rich" to buy a Tesla. You just have to be comfortable, - and then REALLY want it.
We would love to sell the Hoverboard for $500, but we would be out of business in about 5 minutes.
$1,200 for International is worst-case shipping and duties. We know duties aren't normally included, but maybe the fact that we do include them tells you more about who we are. Under best-case international shipping cost situations, we would definitely be willing to rebate or offer a credit in our store for the difference. We are just very busy and don't have the bandwidth to create separate shipping programs for every country up-front.
We will take excellent care of our loyal Kickstarter FIRST-ADOPTERS. If we actually make our ambitious goal, and the Hoverboard makes it to market, we will never forget precisely who joined our team and made that happen.

[ThatGuy]

He missed some points, but it's not his job to be complete about the OW.

Seems like it would be easier for the rider (i.e. less "like a sport") if he used two parallel wheels (one toward the left edge of the board and one toward the right edge), allowing the board to rotate on the roll axis between the wheels. You'd have passive roll stability, the capability to turn around in place, and still let the rider carve. You couldn't go off road, but you'd retain the range and speed enjoyed by his hard wheel design.

[SkateFirst.SamT]

Ive adjusted my veiws on their company, would be an awsome toy if i had the money but for now I am beyond pleased with OW and their company, they have been incredibly helpfull and their product is outsanding in its own ways

[enjoi408]

@rainynite @Brutha man The hoverboard is very similar to the OW. As you can see the tire (gigantic rollerblade wheel) is much skinnier than the OW. What I noticed from this was that the center of balance buffer was much smaller. You had to be spot on with your foot placement or you would be fighting yourself finding the perfect balance point. The other thing was that it was incredibly easy to pivot the board in circles because of it. I would describe this feeling like doing a twirl spin on rollerblades.

I let the owner ride the OW and he loved it. He said it was very easy to ride and was impressed with the offroad capabilities. In fact, here are some key differences between the 2. OW - Easy to ride, offroad capabilities, hill climbing power, overall tough / ruggedness, and can stand in one spot. Hoverboard - incredible speed ( top speed and acceleration), mileage, maneuverability (pivoting really easy, riders were able to sliver between tightly spaced cones), easier to carry.

I have done a lot of research on rideables and I have still come to the same conclusion. Each rideable is advantageous in their own area, but there is not one that is set up to excel in all areas (milage, power, rider experience, indoor / outdoor, offroad, maneuverability, easy to carry, charging times) even the OW. I have ridden Boosted, OW, Hovertraks, and Hoverboard. I have to say I enjoyed them all for their own reasons.

I have footage of the Hoverboard but I haven't gotten around to it. A lot of my footage just ends up on my hard drive :/ One day.

[Franky]

@enjoi408, thanks for the mini review!

Here is one big difference....price! Lol
Not sure what in the world they are thinking with that.

[enjoi408]

@franky Yes. You are right, I forgot to add that. I talked to the Founder and he said he doesn't care how much it is. He wants his product to be considered the Tesla of hoverboards. He says he paid about $20,000 per board. I don't know how true that is but I'm just quoting him. An interview I saw, he mentioned that if his Kickstarter doesn't make it, he's just going to sell a few to his friends and call it. When I talked to him, he kept mentioning he's not here to make a dollar. He's not in it for the money but rather a push forward in future of transportation. I see Robert similar to Kyle in that they both make multiple products and are not fully 100% involved in their hoverboard. They both are pushing for a better future at whatever cost, utilizing their engineering background. I suggested to Robert that he should help take a stand against the the bill AB 2054 banning all motorized skateboards of any form in California. Hopefully we can all come together to overturn this bill.

[Franky]

@enjoi408, can't say I understand his logic about the money. He is saying he paid 20k per prototype unit so he wants to sell them for 4K but on the other hand he isn't interested in making money and wants to advance transportation. I interpret that as they guy either doesn't understand the marketplace or he is just saying screw it, I'm tired of this long project and I'll be glad to be done with it after it fails by selling what I've got left to friends.

They guy will at least meet the goal of not making any money but if nobody buys his product, he is not advancing transportation unless someone buys the rights and puts together a realistic business model.

[rainynite]

@enjoi408 thanks for the review! You're pretty lucky that you had the opportunity t to try so many of these boards. I'd say that he's pushing it claiming to be the Tesla of the industry - he'd have to prove that the Hoverboard is a game changer industry wise.

[jim]

I got to try the Hoverboard last week at their office in Santa Clara. There is defiantly a learning curve to get over but I felt I could comfortably ride it after 20-30 min practice. I have almost 500 miles of riding on Onewheel so my balance is good. Yes it was bumpy on cracks and rocks but not as rough as I originally thought. The one area it beats Onewheel hands down is the easy to carry it when you run out of battery. The hole in the center of the wheel makes for a great handle and the weight is evenly distributed and you felt almost no effort to hand on.
They are still running beta software and the sensors did not always detect when you picked up the board and the motor was running. I am sure they will fix these small things in the production boards.
If the cost was the same as Onewheel I would buy one just for variety but at $3k+ it's priced out of my interest.