@readysetawesome After I jacked my shoulder, I went and checked out motorcycle jackets - even the lightest "summer" models with the mesh venting are just too heavy for where I live (at least, any of the jackets in my price range; it's possible something high-end would have been better). They might be OK while moving, but the minute you stopped at a light you'd want to die. That's going to push you to take risks so you can keep moving and never stop; run stop signs or stoplights without checking to REALLY make sure the coast is clear.

And if you don't want to wear your safety gear, you either won't wear it and then get hurt, or you just won't ride.

So what I made for myself feels like a reasonable compromise - light enough that I don't look at it and go "oh jeez I'm gonna sweat to death", easy to put on, and cheap. I pop it on with the rest of my kit and go.

Yeah, I already had elbow pads, knee pads, wristguards, and even padded snowboarding shorts that I wear under my shorts, to protect the tailbone (and of course a helmet). The shoulder is the one thing that doesn't seem to have readily-available lightweight protection options.

If I lived somewhere cooler, I'd def. go with a moto jacket because that's a nice quick one-step thing, but there's just no way here. I'd get heatstroke, or I wouldn't wear it, or I wouldn't ride, or I'd ride and take risks to never ever stop for anything.

@tomfoolery Heh. I think so too.

GOTTA GET THE GASSSSS

@hilby No worries - I agree that for someone who's primarily off-pavement, dive wheels would be worse than useless: they could be an actual danger-increaser, by reducing clearance and catching on things.

On my nosedive - flat concrete, not particularly fast - I believe they would have allowed me to possibly recover, or at least elongated my transition from "in motion" to "stopped" by a few feet (from "instantly stopped and flung to ground") - and THAT would have bought me some reaction time to run out or tuck and roll, as well as reduced the impact force if/when I hit ground.

Also, if anyone's interested, I made a custom shoulder pad, since your leading shoulder is a likely point of contact, and there are no pads on the market for that. A motorcycle jacket is a good solution (and in fact mine uses a motorcycle jacket armor pad), but if you live somewhere hot, a jacket is not an option.

Basically, get these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GUFZ5G8/ref=dp_prsubs_3

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073CV1NKG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Put the shoulder armor in the shoulder brace pocket where the icepack would go. If you can sew, sew it up. If you can't, use industrial velcro like I did. You could probably also use adhesive. It would probably stay in place anyway even if you didn't do any of these things, but the velcro option is cheap and easy and makes me feel secure that the armor won't have shifted out of position just when I need it most.

It looks like this when you are done - it's comfortable and easy to get on/off, and you can wear it under your shirt if you want.

I am now 11 months out from a broken-shoulder injury that may never fully heal, due to a nosedive on my + for the first and only time, 250 miles in. It was my fault - I was tired at the end of a long ride and not paying attention and I overaccelerated from a dead stop.

It was a dumb error.

It was an error many people have made or will make.

This did not stop me from OneWheeling - I now also have an XR, and convinced my friend to get one, and we are working on another friend.

Dive wheels, are not "training wheels". They do not (or should not) affect the quality of the ride, or learning to ride. That you should learn how to ride, and respect the board and its limits, is so basic and obvious an idea as to be useless.

Dive wheels are strictly an optional piece of safety equipment that may, in some circumstances, minimize the damage that you do when you inevitably make an error (you will!), or in those rare circumstances the board experiences a software or hardware failure, something that is statistically going to happen to some number of boards (in fact my friend is going to have to send his nearly-new board in for service - luckily it failed on him at startup, and not in motion).

Calling dive wheels "training wheels" is like calling the airbag in your car "training wheels". That's not what they are, or do.
They are strictly there to help save your ass (or minimize the damage to your ass) in unexpected events.

For those of us who ride primarily on pavement (and if you live in a city, that may be pretty much your only option), they are a "hope I never need them, but if I do I'll be glad of them" thing, and if they work even once, they will justify their inexpensive presence.

I sure wish I'd had them, instead of a shoulder that may give me trouble the rest of my life.

I'm not trying to talk anyone into getting them - if your off-road terrain or riding style means they'd do you more harm than good, don't get them!

But trying to talk people who ride different terrain or styles than you do out of getting them - or talking down to them, by calling them "training wheels" or saying they are "doing it wrong" - is not helpful either. Everyone should make the choices that make the most sense for them.

@eckit - this appears to be the bearing he used - with the way he mounted them, the housing is mostly inside the OW bumper AND angled, so the housing getting hit looks fairly unlikely to me.

The two main questions are how easy would this install be for the average bear (I don't own a drill press), and will that tiny little bearing actually keep rolling, once it's gotten scuffed on concrete and gotten grit and gravel up inside the housing? We don't use these on tennis courts, we use them on streets and sidewalks and driveways, and those are rarely 100% smooth and clean.

https://us.misumi-ec.com/vona2/detail/221000714119/?HissuCode=C-5S

@eckit - found a reddit post where a guy did something very similar to yours - he mounted to the outside, which doesn't block his lights. But his bearings look smaller too, so they might be even more susceptible to damage/deformation causing the bearing not to roll than yours are:

https://www.reddit.com/r/onewheel/comments/9kwr7m/the_guy_had_a_pretty_good_idea_wondering_how_it/

I have the Fangs - even though I haven't actually needed them yet, in my one bad nosedive (before Fangs existed) I believe they would have helped me either recover, or bought me precious fractions of a second to react and either run it out or tuck and roll, instead of slamming down to pavement on my shoulder and busting it.

Your idea, that the wheel should roll omnidirectionally, seems like a good one - if there was a way to incorporate it into a Fangs-like build (which are v. easy to install and fairly unobtrusive, aesthetically), that could be good.

As a follow-on to this, I got my new helmet today, and comparing it to the old one, it looks like the EPS foam WAS compressed in it, it was just hard to tell if you couldn't compare it to a helmet that's never taken a hard hit.

@SkydiveJesus yeah but if you die you just come back in three days, it's not so easy for the rest of us

@eckit Ya know, I wasn't gonna get a new helmet - mine really does look fine (no cracks in shell nor EPS foam; EPS foam does not appear compressed at all), and skate helmets, unlike bike helmets, aren't meant to be strictly single-use, they are meant to take a few "minor" impacts (of course, we'd need to debate what is "minor" vs. "major") - but screw it, there's a MIPS version available for the one that I have, so I'm upgrading.

I can always keep this one on hand as a spare, or for a friend - even if it's no longer 100% as effective as it was, it's def. better than nothing.

@jonas - I thought about RFID/proximity type stuff (like a keyfob, for newer cars with pushbutton ignition) - it's just that I'm not sure I trust that to always interact immediately the way it should (or, not to ever accidentally lose connection when you are in motion), when an old-school physical interruption of the electrical circuit is basically foolproof.

Think about the deadman switch on a lawnmower - never fails, that thing shuts off immediately if you don't hold it.

Think about connecting a speaker to your phone with a cable, vs. Bluetooth - Bluetooth is better than it was, and it usually works the first or second time now, but a hard-cable connection ALWAYS works, every time, immediately, the first time, and never drops out.