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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

#401

Post by zamalek »

rtkwe wrote: post #380
Auracle wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pushback is entirely inadequate as if you’re leaning forward enough you won’t have time to even feel it. It happened to me - I was using it to search for my dog that ran away for the first time ever. Because I was in a tizzy I wasn’t wearing my helmet, for the first time ever. Someone told me where she was - I floored it to get around a slow bicyclist. I nosedived. Luckily I had “fangs” on it that are a set of sm…

Isn't the way it keeps the nose up by speeding up though?

That's emergent behavior (and that emergent behavior is the principle by which all balancing devices work). All it tries to do is keep the board level. Below a certain torque (which is inversely correlated to available wattage and speed) the board loses the ability to stay level. If overcurrent protection kicks in then the motor will abruptly turn off, usually resulting in a nosedive (because your center of gravity will be towards the nose of the board while speeding up). There are experienced riders who can ride pretty far beyond safe limits by balancing themselves, but that's incredibly dangerous.

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

#402

Post by zdragnar »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #400
zdragnar wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that "nothing is safe" but rather nothing is "inherently" safe. I've crashed several times going roughly 12mph, with only a few scrapes and no broken bones- once because by brake line snapped, once because my tire got caught in a crack in the road I didn't see, and once because a car pulled in front of me. Any one of those could have ended in a broken neck if I'd landed wrong. Going slower might have prevent…

Well specifically I said "inherently unsafe" which does exist. But we can ignore the word inherently, because the post I replied to seemed to be objecting to 25mph in general, and I wanted to dive into that.

That's fair. I'd feel pretty uncomfortable on most bikes at 25mph, but I've happily gone 18 without stress on an empty road on a clear day. I think most people who don't have a lot of experience should stick to 10-12 and work their way up, much like learning to pilot anything.

Safe braking distance depends on how much you weigh, the quality of your gear, and the road. I'm 6'4" and weigh 50 more pounds than I did as a scraggly youth when I did faster speeds, so unless I'm on equipment I trust very well I wouldn't often go over 15, I think... for me, most bikes don't brake well enough, and some aren't balanced well for my height.

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

#403

Post by latchkey »

Zak wrote: post #379
latchkey wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is too easy to nosedive on these things at speed and go superman. Either a balance mistake or hardware failure. There are tons of videos of people nosediving. There are now third party companies making little wheels that sit on the end edge that are supposed to help protect you. IMHO, that is one advancement that the company should be making as part of the core product and not just outsourcing.

Safety wheels do seem like a good feature that should be standard on these. There's a speed over which they can no longer accelerate fast enough to self-balance, and braking to override the user's questionable decision to go faster would cause a nosedive. What I'm seeing from a quick search is that there's an audible warning upon exceeding the speed that's safe for self-balancing. Ignoring that is rider error.

.... beep ... superman!!!

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

#404

Post by MivLives »

aksss wrote: post #359
MivLives wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a better way to put it. I tend to phrase it like I do because ideally your natural reaction should always be to lean back on the one wheel which for me in position ends up feeling like I'm standing one footed and pushing down with the other. Steering with your backfoot takes some getting used to if you've never board sported before. I've not snowboarded but I've been told it's like that? Also skid plates are a…

That’s interesting. I’ve spent years snowboarding, used to skate as a kid, little bit of surfing, and they all have transferable skills. The thing that I found so different about the OW is the LACK of rear foot push since you only have a single contact point with the ground. Like other person said, I move hips to control speed, squat to turn heel-side, but I don’t feel like the foot control is anything like board spo…

Did you replace your rear pad and/or? I put one of those like... skateboard style ones on the back, might be changing what I'm doing to steer/the feel of it. Board control is for sure different. The only conscious change I made to my riding style was intentionally keeping my hips further back. It's also been about a year since I sold mine so I might be misremembering.

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

#405

Post by aksss »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #48
aksss wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 frie…

I have a broken nose and cracked ribs to show for years of snowboarding.

Scars from wounds and stitches from years of MTB.

Nothing but a bit of bruising from the OW.

It probably helps that I’m middle aged, story would probably be very different if so had one in my teens or twenties.

Nothing I’ve possessed before the OW has instilled the kind of giddy joy reminiscent of being ten years old that it brings. It’s insanely fun and delightful!

That said, yes, half the posts on the OW sub and discord are people showing off injuries. The other half are older people admonishing everyone to pad up. I wear knees, elbows, wrists, and padded shorts, typically long clothes, either a skating helmet or full face depending on my plans. I practice running out, falling, hopping obstacles on the OW. Practice means pain, so it’s hard to convince yourself to do it, but it’s totally worth it. I’ve done some impressive subconscious recoveries.

What everyone is saying here about shifting weight with hips rather than upper body, learning how to grind the nose and tail, keeping feet oriented to run, are all parts of good riding technique.

There definitely is a learning curve to riding safely. I don’t think that warrants a recall though, or threats of one. Would have preferred the agency to voice it differently - warning about risks of injury to beginners - rather than the fear-mongering about phantom death traps.

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

#406

Post by aksss »

MivLives wrote: post #404
aksss wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s interesting. I’ve spent years snowboarding, used to skate as a kid, little bit of surfing, and they all have transferable skills. The thing that I found so different about the OW is the LACK of rear foot push since you only have a single contact point with the ground. Like other person said, I move hips to control speed, squat to turn heel-side, but I don’t feel like the foot control is anything like board spo…

Did you replace your rear pad and/or? I put one of those like... skateboard style ones on the back, might be changing what I'm doing to steer/the feel of it. Board control is for sure different. The only conscious change I made to my riding style was intentionally keeping my hips further back. It's also been about a year since I sold mine so I might be misremembering.

No, I haven’t changed my footpads, haven’t even sent out for my GT recall pad, yet, which I need to do. Do you like the new pad in terms of control? Got link?

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

#407

Post by kube-system »

jeffbee wrote: post #389
kube-system wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they do it for exactly that reason -- but not all do. Some even go with smaller tires to be convenient in a folding form factor, etc. And then you're got things like e-scooters which will launch a person at the mere thought of uneven pavement. I don't understand how people will ride those things and then call a motorcycle dangerous.

There’s a guy in my neighborhood who rides an electric stand-up scooter, who wears an aerostitch and a full-face motorcycle helmet while doing so.

He’s smart. It is not very common that people fall off of a two wheeled vehicle and hit the direct top of their head. You’re most likely to hit your face and extremities.

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

#408

Post by 1attice »

FpUser wrote: post #399
1attice wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of "idiocy" as the lack of intelligence, rather than a separate entity of its own, similarly to how high-school physics (and therefore, contemporary common sense!) understands cold as the absence of heat. This means that you can get rid of idiocy by adding intelligence to a system, in the same way that you can warm up a room with a space heater. But how do you build up intelligence? Put it this way. Your onboar…

>"Now, you can train you, but of course, you'll never know if the training was complete." Deliberate practice I understand. The proposed "formal training" for this specific case however would not know "if the training is complete" either. They'll just be taking your money.

Well, they're welcome to it -- at least once a week, I use dodge-skid-stop, a specific skill I formally acquired by trying to do it and dropping the training bike a bunch while a grouchy 65yo biker glowered at my incompetence until it evaporated. Take my money

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

#409

Post by tanseydavid »

Thorrez wrote: post #341
atomicUpdate wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the person failed pretty hard How did they “fail” when you plowed right into them?

I'm pretty sure anon334455 meant "fell" not "failed".

Fell is just a particular "failure state". ;)

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

#410

Post by frankus »

becho wrote: post #397
dghlsakjg wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An 80db piezo buzzer is $.13 and can operate on logic levels. No need to get fancy

Deaf people exist.

It can also be hard to hear through e.g. a full-face helmet, or if you're (perhaps unwisely) wearing headphones.
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