Sharing your ride
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Ttomtnt 30 October 2015, 03:44 UTC
Do you guys let passerby try out your onewheel? I was cruising in the park on brand new OW and bunch of teenage skateboarders asked to try it out. Bam, board shot from under him and scraped the nice blue rails. They ended loving it until I told them the price.
But I think I'm going to avoid letting others try in the future. Not worth hurting the board or potential liability issues.
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I only let a stranger ride my OneWheel once. As he sped away, it occurred to me that there was no way for me to catch him on foot. He turned and came back, but he could have just as easily rode away on his new OneWheel...
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I've let a few dozen of people try it. Both people I knew and random people.
This was mainly several months back, but it still happens from time to time.I don't mind too much. I bought it because it looked super fun, and I want to share the fun a bit.
A bit more reluctant to say yes now, unless I have a lot of time and they seem like really nice people.
Too many lack respect for other peoples things.I'm going to refuse anyone from trying it when I have the fender on however.
edit
Not really been afraid of me not being able to catch them on foot. Very few rides it faster than I run on the first try.
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NNat 30 October 2015, 13:31 UTC
I also used to let people ride, but not anymore. I also agree with the lack of respect people seems to have for other people things.
Most of the time I just ended up ignoring people, which obviously isn't very nice. But I have yet to come up with a nice way to say of saying "no". Anybody got a good line to share?
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I've wondered about this too. I haven't received my board yet, but I plan to use it for commuting, so most of the time I'll be late for work already, so that can be my excuse.
But it seems weird to me that people even ask to ride it. If they see someone in a car they like, would they ask them if they could drive it?
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Depends what they look like. I've had some absolute 10's ask to try, and I was more than happy to oblige.
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Aadubberley 30 October 2015, 16:16 UTC
I generally let people try, if we're in a safe area and they're nice about it. It's a really cool device and I think there should be more of them in the world. And I don't have to worry about the cosmetics of the board; I push its limits regularly on mountain bike trails, so I have plenty of my own scratches.
I had one guy on the Alantic City boardwalk that I was pretty sure was thinking about trying to get away on it. But I knew he'd crash within 30 feet and I could pick up the board and walk away. And that's exactly how it happened.
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Exactly. I think the only people really qualified to ride off on a stolen Onewheel and keep balance at high speed for long enough to get away are already Onewheel owners.
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That's what surprised me actually. The guy who jumped on rode it fast and agile immediately, and raced away from me faster than I could have done myself at the time. But - yeah that's pretty unusual.
Most people I have let try it moved very slowly or cautiously and made wild dismounts - often rolling the board over. Only one hurt himself, which I felt a bit bad about. Holding their hands helps - especially if you have ulterior motives for letting her ride.
After sending the board in for repairs once, I decided to take the a little easier on the wear and tear.
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@Nat You can always just smile and ask people for a deposit. They'll get the idea. Or tell them "I'm sorry but I'm conserving the battery" or "For safety reasons, I don't let others ride" or just speak a few words in a foreign language - that works well for me since I live in Japan. Asking for emergency contact information would probably work too.
Honestly, since I've been riding faster, very few people ask. I think they assume it's more difficult to learn now that I don't appear to be a beginner.
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NNat @jeff8v7 30 October 2015, 21:41 UTC
@jeff8v7 Thanks for the tips man, that last bit definitely works though. The faster I go the less people seem to be interested in wanting to try. Doesn't make people scream and shout out in awe any less though! ;)
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I let pretty much anyone who asks to ride it give it a shot. I'v been surprised at how good some sorority girls are right away. I guess it really depends on how good your balance is.
Not really worried about anyone speeding away, as I ride on a huge college campus and people know me by now. (including the campus PD) Come to think of it, I might have the only onewheel in Oklahoma rn:alien: