Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • The Great Outdoors
  • On The Trail

Test Running the Onewheel, or as One Editor Writes—the “Fun Wheel”

  • July 12, 2016
  • Ben Osborne
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

I’ll admit I was skeptical at first. What is this motorized skateboard? What’s wrong with a real skateboard? It goes on dirt trails? So does a bike. What’s new about this? It sounded like a gimmick.

by Feet Banks

Then I saw it: One big wheel, well that’s new at least. Like a mini F1 race car tire with a battery, motor and everything contained inside. Skepticism turned into vague interest. Then I talked to the guy who invented it, Kyle Doerksen, a Stanford-trained engineer originally from Calgary who grew up snowboarding in the Rockies. While working in San Diego, Kyle developed the concept for Onewheel as an alternative to walking a mile to work each day.

“It was inspired by the feeling of riding powder,” Kyle says. “ Floating in powder is so awesome and forgiving – you can’t catch an edge or do anything wrong. And that is the key aspect of the Onewheel ride, it has that floating feeling, like an endless wave.”

 

IMG_0751
Todd Lawson photo.

 

Kyle began working on his pavement powder board in his garage back in 2007. “It was a long process,” he says. “At first I wanted to see if you could build a board with a single wheel that had no motor or balance control, the answer is no. Then I thought, with a computer and gyro in there, I could make it balance for me. What would that ride feel like?”

“Lean forward and the Onewheel accelerates (up to 24km/ 15mile per hour), lean back and it slows down. I didn’t even mess around with the app, which allows riders to customize the settings for their skill level.”

Motivated by that curiosity, Kyle began to tinker with the newest technology of the day. “Back then, the Nintendo Wii came out and that was the first consumer product with motion sensing built into it,” he says. “Then smartphones came out and that drove the cost of motion sensors way down. Now every smart phone has a tiny chip with 3 gyros and two accelerometers in it that costs about two bucks. The sensor’s the key to the balance of the Onewheel.”

Gyros and accelerometers? As Kyle explains it, the Onewheel begins to sound less gimmicky and more Back to the Future awesome. “The other building block was the motor,” he says. “The motor inside the hub of the wheel was a challenge – one moving part, no chain, with a centre of gravity in the middle. Then the battery, we went with the best available. We took the point of view that if people are gonna thrash these things around a lot, they don’t want to wait for hours to recharge. We designed a system that takes about 20 minutes, it’s similar to what they are using in electric cars.”

 

onewheel hr
Todd Lawson photo.

 

The Onewheel had my full attention, then finally, I rode it. Funwheel! The learning curve is short: within five minutes I was rolling around on the pavement, and after 15 I was carving up the walking trails in the forests of Brackendale. Lean forward and the Onewheel accelerates (up to 24km/ 15mile per hour), lean back and it slows down. I didn’t even mess around with the app, which allows riders to customize the settings for their skill level.

“We care about the ride,” Kyle says. “We built it for us and we want it to ride awesome. If we were just a bunch of computer nerds who didn’t care about the ride, this wouldn’t work. We are computer nerds who do care about riding.”

“The brains are the software,” Kyle explains. “At first, I did all that, but after I brought on a business partner with a software background, one of the most interesting things happened. If we get a rider who wants it to carve deeper in a low speed turn, we try to translate that into math and program it. The same way a snowboard or surf shaper listens to the rider and knows how to plane a bit off the edge to deliver a specific ride, we do that through adjusting the software. We really tried to connect the board sports world with the tech world.”

And that is the difference with Onewheel, a rider-owned company created by a real snowboarder/surfer who actually gives a crap about how the product performs. “We care about the ride,” Kyle says. “We built it for us and we want it to ride awesome. If we were just a bunch of computer nerds who didn’t care about the ride, this wouldn’t work. We are computer nerds who do care about riding.”

And it shows. Onewheel is the real deal. Carve the forest!
Onewheels retail for around $1,400 and can haul ass. For more info, check out onewheel.com

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • gear
  • onewheel
  • Technology
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • Paddling

Before the Drop: Waterfall Drops and How Media Tells Less Than Half the Story

  • July 12, 2016
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
Next Article
  • On The Trail
  • The Great Outdoors
  • Videos

Salomon Running TV Episode 7: The Bob Graham

  • July 13, 2016
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
You May Also Like
Mountain-Life-Blue-Mountains-stack-winter-2023
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Trips & Expeditions

ML Blue Mountains Winter-Spring ’23 Issue Out Now

  • Ned Morgan
  • January 6, 2023
Golden-BC-mountain-biking
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail

Shifting Gears

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 18, 2022
Nicholas-Spooner-moose-skier-touring-Quebec
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Photography
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Trips & Expeditions

Vie en montagne Winter-Spring ’22-’23 Out Now

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 12, 2022
View Post
  • Food & Drink
  • On The Trail
  • Travel

Under the Influence: Oregon (part 2)

  • Editor
  • December 7, 2022
AleTrailsPenticton_TinWhistleBrewing_BenHaggarPhoto
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail

Ale Trails: Penticton

  • Mountain Life Media
  • October 25, 2022
Action-Takers-Mountain-Life-Ontario
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario
  • Paddling
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

The Action-Takers

  • Mountain Life Media
  • October 20, 2022
bubblenet feeding on herring in the Great Bear Rainforest, B.C.
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • On The Trail

Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World

  • Mountain Life Media
  • October 17, 2022
Mountain-Life-Blue-Mountains-cover-Jenna-Kitchings-Collingwood-surf-crop
View Post
  • In This Issue
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario
  • Paddling

ML Blue Mountains Fall ’22 Issue Out Now

  • Mountain Life Media
  • October 6, 2022
Featured Posts
  • Fjallraven-Nuuk-Parka-daniel-blom-photo_jacket 1
    Gear Shed: Multisport Winter Roundup
    • January 26, 2023
  • Brian-Hockenstein-surfing-Iceland-water-and-ice-ML 2
    In the Land of Water & Ice
    • January 24, 2023
  • Marie-Pier-Desharnais-A-Womans-Experience-on-K2-flag-crop 3
    Marie-Pier Desharnais: A Woman’s Experience on K2
    • January 23, 2023
  • Paul-Manning-Hunter-Kananaskis-River-surf 4
    Behind the Photo: Rockies Edition
    • January 19, 2023
  • knorthphotography.Beverly-Glenn Copeland-crop 5
    Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Finding the Universal Broadcast
    • January 17, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • Wachs_Fairly-Mellow
    Friday Flick: “Fairly Mellow” at Fairy Meadow Hut
    • January 20, 2023
  • Season-Pass-Skis-and-Splitboard-both
    Gear Shed: New Season Pass Skis + Splitboard Exclusive to evo
    • January 15, 2023
  • Vincent-Colliart-Caroline-Cote-antarctica-sunset
    Canadian Explorer Caroline Côté Reaches South Pole in Record 34 Days
    • January 13, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
ML staff and gear partners highlight the latest jackets, boards, crampons, hoodies, insoles and bindings in alpha order. #Linkinbio to learn more!
Adventures like this one require an inspiring team. @timemmett is a longtime friend, adventure partner and extraordinary human; an explorer, pro climber, surfer, freediver—you name it. @luca.freediver is an incredibly talented freediver, fresh off breaking the Canadian national freediving record (85 metres). The fourth man on the team, @brianhockenstein, is a filmmaker and multi-talented snowboarder always ready to jump into the fray and capture the magic. - words Jimmy Martinello. #Linkinbio to learn more!
We came in search of the connection of the human spirit to both art and adventure, whether climbing from the depths of moulins and ice caves, breaking through ice while paddleboarding fjords, climbing icebergs, freediving between tectonic plates or surfing cold waves.
A thousand and one things could have gone wrong, but she made it to the top:  @mariepier.desharnais is the first Quebecois woman to climb K2.
Mountain Life is a proud member of the @printreleaf_ community. So far we've offset our print by having 1,737 trees reforested since joining in 2019! 🌲
GUESS WHAT! It's FRIDAY! Here's a flick to kick off the weekend for all you warriors.
Behind the scenes of three action photos from ML’s Rocky Mountains edition.
The @banffmountainfestival 2023 Signature Image Search is on🚨
In 1986 @beverlyglenncopeland recorded Keyboard Fantasies using an Atari computer, a keyboard and a drum machine. After releasing it on cassette and selling maybe 50 copies, he went back to writing for Sesame Street and making the odd guest appearance on Mr. Dressup. In 2015, a cassette made its way to Japanese collector Ryota Masuko, a record store owner with a big online presence, who quickly bought, and then sold, all the Keyboard Fantasies cassettes he could find. Record labels worldwide lined up to reissue the hidden gem on vinyl.
MUSIC SERIES TICKET SALE IS NOW LIVE 🗣️
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

ML staff and gear partners highlight the latest jackets, boards, crampons, hoodies, insoles and bindings in alpha order. #Linkinbio to learn more!
Adventures like this one require an inspiring team. @timemmett is a longtime friend, adventure partner and extraordinary human; an explorer, pro climber, surfer, freediver—you name it. @luca.freediver is an incredibly talented freediver, fresh off breaking the Canadian national freediving record (85 metres). The fourth man on the team, @brianhockenstein, is a filmmaker and multi-talented snowboarder always ready to jump into the fray and capture the magic. - words Jimmy Martinello. #Linkinbio to learn more!
We came in search of the connection of the human spirit to both art and adventure, whether climbing from the depths of moulins and ice caves, breaking through ice while paddleboarding fjords, climbing icebergs, freediving between tectonic plates or surfing cold waves.
A thousand and one things could have gone wrong, but she made it to the top:  @mariepier.desharnais is the first Quebecois woman to climb K2.
Mountain Life is a proud member of the @printreleaf_ community. So far we've offset our print by having 1,737 trees reforested since joining in 2019! 🌲
GUESS WHAT! It's FRIDAY! Here's a flick to kick off the weekend for all you warriors.
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.