Read before buying OneWheel+ going nose dive without reason.

20 July 2017, 00:18 UTC

I was cruising around 15 MPH from side to side while out of the blue in "mission" mode just like this:

https://archive.owforum.co.uk/topic/7138/why-did-the-onewheel-suddenly-brake-at-23-mph-result-nosedive
https://archive.owforum.co.uk/topic/6944/nosediving
https://archive.owforum.co.uk/topic/6903/is-there-no-pushback-on-mission-setting/24

it just shutoff, and I landed really hard broke my phone (that did not return any error or anything) and bruised all my right part.

The support I have got so far, its like send your one wheel but if we don't find anything you pay for it.

Its the second time this happened to me, the first time I thought it might be unexperienced or some short because of asphalt with water.

So well it seems the product its still not so well developed, please be advised to buy the product until its fix.

Rodrigo

20 July 2017, 01:09 UTC

I found that while carving it easy to put too much weight on the front foot and nosedive when doing a heel turn.My heel turns is also much sharper than toe turns.

20 July 2017, 13:59 UTC

I had problems with nosedives out of the blue when I first got the OneWheel, but it has since worked itself out and works great.

Do you feel pushback when you ride in any mode?

Be sure your front foot is close to the tire. I ride with my foot in middle of the pad erring towards closer to the tire. Also be sure you are not leaning forward rather changing the level of the board by pointing your foot down.

If you ride with your foot anywhere close to the end of the front pad and / or lean forward to go then you are guaranteed to have nosedives.

20 July 2017, 15:37 UTC

Were you going up a hill at the time? And what is your weight? Was there a lot of wind? What was the psi on your tire? All these factor in to the speed threshold on the motor, and could cause pushback, and potentially a nosedive at a lower speed than is considered 'normal'.

29 July 2017, 02:29 UTC

I had a problem with this some at first but if you keep your whole foot on the sensor at all times than you won't nosedive and sometimes on an incline you will eventually. Sucks that this happens but I think it is usually (think) from user error. But since I didn't experience it I can't tell for sure.

1 August 2017, 00:23 UTC

@offroadow I've only had my onewheel a few days and I am a complete novice. However... what offroadow says is pretty much been my experience. I was just going slow in the driveway and doing what I thought was an easy turn and the motor cut out. Thankfully... no injuries or weirdness with the board. However... since my wife was watching she did see what happened and I knew what it was the minute it happened. My heel was NOT planted when I was leaning to board towards my toes. My heel came up just enough to disengage the sensor. I have since made a very conscious effort to keep my entire foot planted on the board.

Again... I am a complete novice and I don't snowboard either. I think the way I ride is what they call goofy footed (I am moving with my right foot on the sensor pad and the sensor pad forward). I've tried it with my left foot forward and it usually ends badly.

Anyway... I've looked at a LOT of the videos of this phenomena since it was worrying me. I would be willing to say only 1 in 50 of the recorded incidents look like it was an actual board malfunction. In a lot of cases you can see the person trying to accelerate and nosing forward. And... sometimes you do see the heel come up on the sensor pad.

1 August 2017, 19:07 UTC

@doctorew Only one sensor needs to be engaged when riding at speed, so lifting a heel shouldn't be a problem. It's the shifting of your weight too far forward that causes 99.9% of these "unexpected nosedives with no warning."

1 August 2017, 21:28 UTC

@thegreck

Correct.

It's physically impossible to be off both sensors at the same time,
unless your front foot is on the fender or all the way at the front tilted forward.
Odds are the motor disengaged because it was over pressed.
Especially on the + since the sensor area has been widened.
In fact, I've been wondering why I've had dismount failures too often and I think I know why.

Being that the senor area is wider and my front foot is angled,
when I lift my heel, it's possible that my front foot is still touching the second sensor.
Now when I dismount, I lift my heel and twist my foot backwards.
Yet to have a single dismount failure.

2 August 2017, 07:05 UTC

Ow+ going nosedive without reason...you're kidding!
I can't understand why people are not
asking themselves the right questions....
No offense but this board is awesome and you just have to take your time,ride slowly at least the first months,learning how it works and all will be good!

2 August 2017, 13:54 UTC

@thegreck Were I not chicken... I would test out the theory that you only have to have your foot on one sensor at speed. =) I will take your word for it.

As for me... I am sure my issue was operator error.

I have the "luxury" of working in an office that is pretty lenient about us using electric mobility devices indoors. Today was the first time I REALLY got to play around with the onewheel in a relatively safe/flat environment. I just have to dodge cubicles.

One of my coworkers is an avid snowboarder (and soon to be onewheel owner now) and he ran into the same issue I think most people do. After the initial shock of figuring out how to comfortably maneuver on the onewheel you get comfortable really fast. Complacency kills. I've found the same problem... I start to feel REALLY comfortable on the onewheel and I stop thinking about not being stupid. =) It's taken a lot of effort on my part to not just go full out.

But hey... I am a noob and I was never a skateboarder or snowboarder. Also in my early 40s so perhaps I am more cautious than I was when I was younger. So far I've not taken it out of sequoia and the fastest I have gone is 7.7 MPH (between cubicles). I am just trying to ease into it and not get too comfortable.

2 August 2017, 14:49 UTC

@doctorew

Similar approach for me... but still went to Mission day one. If you gradually increase you speed with skill/time/comfort, when you do hit pushback you will recognize. Or at least that's how it worked for me.

As I've said before, looking nerdy with full gear on (knee, elbow, wrist, helmet) is my preference over road rash and missing work. Enjoy the board and let your skill and daring-ness (is this a word?) growth together.

I also find riding in grass or uneven surfaces helps increase confidence and skill on pavement. I make a point to buzz the grass patches between the road and sidewalks or whatever else when possible. Makes you feel that much more stable when back on flat ground.

2 August 2017, 20:37 UTC

@fabuz Not all OW+ boards are built the same. I had two separate warranty issues on my OW+ that was 1 month old at the time. My first nosedive could have been related to being a newbie, but the ones at 5mph with battery cutoff - no. I had a bad battery control module and bad gyro messages.

There may be boards with defects out there - I just hope they get ironed out so we can fully enjoy our purchase. My wife's 2017 Mercedes Benz and my $60K Chevy have had recent recall issues - it's all part of the manufacturing process.

3 August 2017, 14:12 UTC

@doctorew said in Read before buying OneWheel+ going nose dive without reason.:

@thegreck Were I not chicken... I would test out the theory that you only have to have your foot on one sensor at speed. =) I will take your word for it.

It's not a theory, it's a safety feature. The more you understand how the board actually functions, the less scary it is.

I made a video to demonstrate this a while back because a lot of other people doubted it as well: https://youtu.be/IU_sfGo7bJ8

3 August 2017, 22:30 UTC

@thegreck

I work in technical support. It's been my observation that knowing what's behind the curtain doesn't always make it better. =) That being said... I've graduated myself up to Cruz and I've hit 8.1 MPH jetting through the cubicle farm. =) Right now my biggest nemesis is turning right since I ride goofy-footed.

The board isn't scary to me. However... it's not heights that kill you... it's the sudden stop at the bottom. =) I look at the board the same way. The board is not the scary part... me doing something stupid and hurting myself is.

@usn said in Read before buying OneWheel+ going nose dive without reason.:

@fabuz Not all OW+ boards are built the same. I had two separate warranty issues on my OW+ that was 1 month old at the time. My first nosedive could have been related to being a newbie, but the ones at 5mph with battery cutoff - no. I had a bad battery control module and bad gyro messages.

There may be boards with defects out there - I just hope they get ironed out so we can fully enjoy our purchase. My wife's 2017 Mercedes Benz and my $60K Chevy have had recent recall issues - it's all part of the manufacturing process.

And this is very true... there are always defects and recalls. I am sure there are/have been boards with issues. My point was that the topic of this thread seemed to almost be a warning to people to not get a onewheel and of the videos that I've seen... a lot look like a layer 8 problem more than anything.

3 August 2017, 22:39 UTC

@doctorew I like your approach of easing into it and not pushing yourself past your comfort level, keep it up and soon you'll want to move up to Mission and reach faster speeds. I suspect most of us who've been around this for a while would agree that the vast majority of the boards FM puts out are error-free, and also that the vast majority of riders who attribute nose dives to the board being defective are newer to the sport and just need more time and experience. Like anything else that's produced in large quantities, there's going to be an issue here and there so for sure, some boards are going to need to go back, but overall the boards are solid and I really don't think there's a widespread QC problem with Onewheels.

4 August 2017, 10:06 UTC

@doctorew

@doctorew said in Read before buying OneWheel+ going nose dive without reason.:
@thegreck Were I not chicken... I would test out the theory that you only have to have your foot on one sensor at speed. =) I will take your word for it.

Since the begining, I always ride 1foot sensor at high speed because of my duck foot position...you can see it in almost all my video!
And I never had any issue...