OneWheel Riders Tour?

[RogueStar]

Friends, Wheelers, Countrydudes, lend me your fenders.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a go-pro rig, and the few videos I have are only walking vids.

I had a great time in Japan. Represented cities in the pictures are Akihabara (Tokyo), The Big Ass Gundam (Tokyo), Dotonbori River (Osaka), and Osaka Castle (a large compound with walls upon walls of skating areas), Shibuya Crossing (Tokyo, as in the place where the dude goes drifting through a crowd and doesn't get hit.), Shinjuku

I spent about 1 week in Japan, and rode the OW in every opportunity for a good ride. I've ridden through extremely dense crowds, and have carefully kept balance. Zero spills during that trip.

unfortunately I didn't have a GO Pro rig and my own smartphones camera sucks ass.

Anyway, it was an absolute blast.

Would anyone be interested in a OneWheel Riders Tour of Japan in 2018? I'll share the relevant base costs I had for it :

$1700 : round trip ticket from SFO to Tokyo, nonstop. (I chose a nonstop flight, with the shortest travel time, so I wouldn't waste vacation hours on transport. The flights to connecting regions suck ass, upwards of 36+ hours to travel from SF)

$50-$150 a day for lodging, depending on how large of a space you reserve at a cybercafe with showers, or one of those capsule things in Shinjuku, so it was about $350-$1050 depending on how much you wanna spend.

$400 : JR Green Railroad Pass for 1 week. This was probably the best bargain. I took a roundtrip ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto riding the bullettrains, in the "first class" car, which was extremely comfortable (and you'll need all the space you can get in Japan, its super crowded here). The pass also let me go through Tokyo rail stations, without having to do Advanced Quantum Dynamic Japanese Moonrune Maths to calculate train ticket costs......

$10-$30 a day for storage rentals and other incidentals. The storage places all over Tokyo subway stations were a good place to keep the OW when going to other tour areas, or just to keep it safe somewhere without constantly lugging it around.

Don't worry about meals or drinks, lol, there are places to eat and those vending machines are everywhere. I'm sure we can all bicker about restaurant choices on the trip. But, generally speaking, yen prices for food match whatever's in the USA. Except for fruit. Fruit prices in Tokyo are fucking insane.

As for being able to skate. My opinion, most busy Tokyo streets are butter-smooth, or enough to skate comfortably. However, it takes a bit of skill, paying attention, and discipline to ensure you don't run smack into someone. I practiced a lot of "stop and go" motions before the trip. I also learned to quietly and calmly stand on the board for long periods, which happens when its extremely crowded, and you get gridlocked in this sea of Asians.

Shinjuku, Shibuya, Kabukicho, Akihabara, and the Divers City mall with the Giant Fucking Gundam Robot all had excellent skating areas.

Though, most of the time on my trip was spent on touring, relaxing, and hanging out, I'd say about 20% of the time, I was out skating.

One thing that would have been more fun : was to have other riders on the OW, going through these superb skating locations.

Would anyone be interested in taking the trip? It would spectacular to have a "OW Gang" rolling through the neon glaze of Osaka.

I mean, we gotta keep up with Mario and Luigi yo.

[Aaron Broward FL]

Its a cool idea. I will start offering OneWheel Cruises as soon as we fix the Airline thing. Although we could ship the Onewheels to me for the cruise. But, I'm not sure people want to go through all that yet.

[enjoi408]

@RogueStar Can you tell us your experience with traveling on the plane with your OW? Did you have any trouble? Did you do carry on? Did anyone question you? Details please!

[sonny123]

What camera is that?
Stunning pictures.

[RogueStar]

@sonny123 OnePlus2. The video recording features tho, not good enough while riding (it was too big to grip, and I wanted to focus on riding so I wouldn't hit anyone, especially during peak commuting hours)

[RogueStar]

@enjoi408 I rode with Japan Airlines. They have specific guidelines on what kind of batteries you can and cannot take. I read the documents they have online, since they limit how much lithium-ion based materials each passenger can have.

That said; the people who asked me on check-in "do you have any kind of these materials", I basically just said "Nope!". I wrapped up the OneWheel inside a dufflebag, and locked the dufflebag. No issues boarding the plane, with a checked-in OW, both going into Tokyo, and coming back to SanFran.

[RogueStar]

@Aaron-Broward-FL I'm hoping to do RidersTours overseas, primarily. Next year, I want to hit Japan again, and visit all the places I've missed. I imagine I'll be spending about $3000 just for hotels, flights and meals, but I'm still optimizing that setup with AirBnBs and other cheap things found all over Japan (Tokyo Kombini stores really have decent prices for food tho)

It's a matter of finding other wheelers who want to go around riding as a large group, like so :

[sonny123]

It'll be cheaper and easier to hit NYC
I'm game for Onewheel gathering.

[RogueStar]

@sonny123 Eh, NYC roads are kinda.... lol.

Plus I prefer Tokyos train system over NYC anyday. But I'd be down to ride the city. I just don't know if the NYC wheelers are around.

[sonny123]

@RogueStar

Not too many around but it'll be good to arrange a trip.
Heck, I got an empty room for couple fellow Onewheelers.
Don't forget Central Park.

[Aaron Broward FL]

@RogueStar yes, and we have charities that do bike rides like this. I have wanted to do a onewheel group in the parade that is the same....