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CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

cpsc.gov

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Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#41

Post by Shared404 »

bombcar wrote: post #20
FpUser wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"heartily recommend that other early adopters think about voluntarily seeking out additional training" Alternatively one can stop being an idiot and ride at safe speed. I bet that "additional training" would require at least this kind of sanity

People assume a "bike" is safe, and a "motorbike" can be dangerous, but there's no real difference between them. I've reached 35 MPH downhill under pedal power; if I had wiped out I would have been in a world of hurt, or dead, depending on how it had gone.

I was almost killed by a downhill max speed bike crash when I was ~12.

Wearing a properly fitted helmet, I was knocked unconscious and concussed quite badly by the hit to my head.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#42

Post by 0_____0 »

roughly wrote: post #22
1attice wrote: post #8

With thunderstorms, you count seconds 'twixt bolt and boom. With the current golden age of electrified last-mile transport, we're seeing the gap between innovation and regulation opening up wide -- now several years. Real-world impact: I routinely get up to speeds on my e-bike that are, quite simply, dangerous. It's not that I never hit 25 miles an hour on my old road bike, it's that I spend so much more time hanging…

I picked up an e-bike not too long ago and took a bit to decide between class 2 and class 3 - I didn’t have enough experience with a bike and a speedometer to gauge whether the 20mph limit on class 2 would be enough. Having ridden around for a while now, yeah, absolutely agree - anything over ~15-20mph is above my comfort zone for “able to adjust to sudden changes in the environment.” Folks who get the “class 4”s are…

A new e-bike rider who suddenly is capable of 20mph and has no experience to the contrary might assume (wrongly) that they can navigate safely at that speed.

Cyclists who can maintain 20+ mph on flat ground (not at all uncommon!) will have many more riding hours under their belts, and the commensurate handling skills and instincts.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#43

Post by dredmorbius »

bombcar wrote: post #20
FpUser wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"heartily recommend that other early adopters think about voluntarily seeking out additional training" Alternatively one can stop being an idiot and ride at safe speed. I bet that "additional training" would require at least this kind of sanity

People assume a "bike" is safe, and a "motorbike" can be dangerous, but there's no real difference between them. I've reached 35 MPH downhill under pedal power; if I had wiped out I would have been in a world of hurt, or dead, depending on how it had gone.

One of my own more indelible memories is of sprinting down a sizeable hill, out of the saddle and over the front wheel, handily pulling away from my buddy whose bike computer was reading 65 kph (40 mph), wearing shorts, cleats, gloves, and a shit-eating grin.

Two days later, tooling around on flat ground, my handlebars came apart in my hands, thanks to hidden long-developing stress fractures, a characteristic of aluminium alloys. (There'd been numerous previous falls.)

Speed is indeed fun. But its consequences can be extreme.

(I've hit 80+ kph / 50+ mph on other rides.)

Another factor is rider mass. An elite cyclist at 60--65 kg (135--145 lb) can brake far more effectively than a past-their-prime 115--135 kg (250--300 lb) rider, particularly, again, on a grade. Brakes have only so much stopping power.

E-bikes make higher-speeds for less-experienced and less-skilled riders far more attainable.

Typical recreational cyclists spend most of their time in the 20--30 kph (12--18 mph) speed range.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#44

Post by outworlder »

1attice wrote: post #8

With thunderstorms, you count seconds 'twixt bolt and boom. With the current golden age of electrified last-mile transport, we're seeing the gap between innovation and regulation opening up wide -- now several years. Real-world impact: I routinely get up to speeds on my e-bike that are, quite simply, dangerous. It's not that I never hit 25 miles an hour on my old road bike, it's that I spend so much more time hanging…

At least bicycles are stable. This onewheel thing cannot work without a computer balancing it (+ the rider). If it fails the rider falls on their face. It would be the equivalent of a bike fork breaking.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#45

Post by 0_____0 »

frankus wrote: post #37
roughly wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I picked up an e-bike not too long ago and took a bit to decide between class 2 and class 3 - I didn’t have enough experience with a bike and a speedometer to gauge whether the 20mph limit on class 2 would be enough. Having ridden around for a while now, yeah, absolutely agree - anything over ~15-20mph is above my comfort zone for “able to adjust to sudden changes in the environment.” Folks who get the “class 4”s are…

It's a bit of a balance. It's great to be able to keep up with the 25 mph/40 kph traffic on city streets, but small bumps in the pavement are rough and of course there's quadratically more energy to manage in the event of a crash. I think we need to normalize the idea that riding a class 3 bike requires using at a minimum a full-face helmet, motorcycle gloves, and close-toed shoes. Personally I'll likely keep riding…

While quite reasonable, you'd be facing an uphill battle in many places.

In a lot of the United States, it's pretty common to see someone riding a 160hp 4-cyl sportbike in a t-shirt and flip-flops. Other riders call them 'squids.' EMTs call them 'road crayons.'

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#46

Post by themagician »

I can not believe it took this long.

After trying one for a bit I always wanted to get one, but never felt fully safe riding it. I even asked them repeatedly if they ever had a plan to introduce a board with some kind of additional set of wheels or bearings on the ends to let you "roll out" in the event of a power failure. The issues has always been that, in the event of a loss of power for any reason, because you are usually leaning forward, the board grinds to an almost immediate stop and you just go flying. Happened to me once in the sand and even that hurt. The board basically decelerates to zero instantly.

I thought long and hard about buying one and modifying the skid plates with a row of large ball bearings or maybe even small skateboard wheels. You just need something so that if the power fails you at least can attempt some kind of recovery. The way it is now, if the power fails, you are simply getting launched. I always wondered how they hadn't been sued into oblivion, always thinking to myself, "Someone must have died from this by now." I guess at least four people have… but somehow they've been able to produce and sell these for nearly a decade.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#47

Post by FpUser »

bombcar wrote: post #20
FpUser wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"heartily recommend that other early adopters think about voluntarily seeking out additional training" Alternatively one can stop being an idiot and ride at safe speed. I bet that "additional training" would require at least this kind of sanity

People assume a "bike" is safe, and a "motorbike" can be dangerous, but there's no real difference between them. I've reached 35 MPH downhill under pedal power; if I had wiped out I would have been in a world of hurt, or dead, depending on how it had gone.

>"People assume a "bike" is safe"

Bike is not safe. And it is not even about being hit by the car. Cyclists often fall and often it results in broken bones etc.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#48

Post by sillysaurusx »

aksss wrote: post #6
alden5 wrote: post #3

onewheels suffer from a problem known as nosediving in which the board shuts off when it can't supply enough power to support the rider, as the board is self balancing this is a problem intrinsic to the board's form factor. The board works in a similar fashion to balancing something like an umbrella on your hand, as the rider leans forward it creates an imbalance that requires the board to accelerate in order to keep…

Good summary. I would just add that "can't supply enough power" is a state the board can enter into either in lower battery levels or (more often) when a rider has put their center of mass too far forward, causing the board to work harder to stay under them, while also moving at a higher rate of speed or accelerating - the board can't give enough power to maintain this. Pushback is to be respected, but the user can a…

Those comments are nuts. https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ywkg0y/the_scorpion_...

They’re mostly all like “Yeah OneWheels are cool but my buddy leaned too far forward once and now his jaw’s wired shut for 6 weeks” https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ywkg0y/the_scorpion_...

Or “I saw a guy almost die on one of these” https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ywkg0y/the_scorpion_...

Or “Yeah a bunch of my friends have broken their bones at our weekly OneWheel meetup, and OneWheels are universally recognized as a wheeling death trap if you’re not careful. But it’s totally worth it because, like, it’s fun!” https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ywkg0y/the_scorpion_...

I think I’ll stick to quadcopters…

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#49

Post by julienb_sea »

This reminds me of the Juul ban, which flagrantly ignored the trivial availability of competing vape products.

Then again, the Onewheel system is rather unique. I would be curious to see a safety comparison of Onewheel versus the much more common self-balancing unicycles.

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