@OneDan - I saw someone speculating somewhere that depending on certain factors a nosedive (without Fangs or something similar) at higher speeds on concrete might be more recoverable than one at slower speeds, since at higher speeds your front bumper might slide a little rather than immediately bite fast. My nosedive wasn't particularly fast, but the forward-motion-stop was immediate.

Anyway, I've got Fangs on both my boards now and while I haven't needed them yet, they saved my buddy from a situation very much like the last one you mention.

@owpete I was going straight forward on flat pavement in Mission on my +, not carving, and not going particularly fast yet - I had stopped to let pedestrians cross a crosswalk, and was starting up again from that stop. There was no bump or dip or gravel that I could see (I went back later to look).

I believe I overaccelerated carelessly; it's also possible my front foot had shifted a little farther forward than it should have been, I was coming to the end of a fast ride. I never noticed any pushback at all, and I had felt pushback at speed before and knew what that felt like.

I still had plenty of battery (around 40% IIRC); I do not believe the board was shut off after the nosedive, but frankly I do not remember whether I had to turn it on again or not. It happened in an an instant, I never saw it coming nor had any chance to react, and I had broken my arm and was in a lot of pain and trying to figure out how I was going to get myself and my stuff home in the dark alone, so I did not do a good postmortem at the time of the nosedive, which really would have been preferable to totally rule out equipment failure. Still, it's never happened again (yet) so I tend to think I probably screwed up and just got a little leadfooted.

My buddy's XR is being shipped back to him today. He had a controller module component failure, and they also replaced his Bluetooth chip since he was having the same connectivity problem as y'all.

Sounds to me like the Bluetooth chips are just bad, and there's no fix other than physically replacing that chip. Once he has his board back I will try to remember to post an update.

XRs seem to have some problems. Knock wood, so far I haven't had any issues with mine, though I don't try to connect to it while riding, only while stopped, so for all I know I have the same issue. The controller module is more worrisome, since that goes beyond "annoying" to "could wreck your shit while riding, or cause you to be unable to ride".

@tomfoolery I don't think looking at Fangs like "training wheels" is apt, at all. Under normal circumstances (unless you are using them for tricks or curb nudges) they should not contact the ground, and therefore do not change the ride at all, like training wheels do.

They are safety equipment to help minimize injury in the event of rider error or board failure (more like an airbag); and I have to tell you I'm less optimistic than I used to be regarding FM's manufacturing quality control on the XR's, due to reports in the OW fora and my buddy's experience.

On my nosedive (which, to be clear, I believe to have been my fault) I broke my humerus at the ball socket - I lost nearly six months' riding, and my shoulder may never be 100% again; if you are a pavement rider, I'd go with them. I wish I'd had them.

My buddy who's borrowing my old + while his XR is back at FM (luckily his board failed on him at startup, not in motion) actually told me the Fangs on my board saved him from one nosedive - the nose touched down, the Fangs rolled, and he recovered.

In his opinion, without the Fangs he'd have at minimum been cooling his heels that evening after landing on his face; instead, he was charging up the board for his second ride of the day.

That's not "training wheels". That's "fun insurance".

@Rado - I only learned this myself recently. I guess I never made the mistake before, but for some reason I was placing an index finger on the deck as I powered on with my thumb, then couldn't figure out why the hell my board wouldn't go. And this was after hundreds and hundreds of miles ridden. [shakes head].

@tomfoolery - Don't get me wrong, I would RATHER have something fancy with no cable, but the issue I see here is that a proximity RFID system is...a sensor. Like a footpad sensor. Meaning, it can fail to stop the board, if the sensor fails to sense what it should sense, or communicate that info to the control board, or the control board fails to heed the incoming sensor message.

An old-school key/deadman switch is a physical interruption of the electrical circuit - it introduces an actual gap to the flow of electrical current. It's primitive, but it's also nearly foolproof. Physically break the electrical circuit, OW no go.

But I suppose an RFID sensor PLUS the footpad sensor, is redundant enough that both systems failing at once would be very unlikely. So maybe this is the way to go.

Well, the El Cheapo phone won't work - none of the Android OW apps are compatible with it.

I knew the official FM one would be dicey because the Google Store didn't say what version of Android it needed to be running (it says "Varies By Device") but the OneWave third-party app says that Android 5.0 and up should work.

Even though the phone has Android 5.1, the Google Store says the device is not compatible with the app and won't let you install. And, the battery life is LUDICROUSLY bad, I don't think this would be practical even if I could get the apps installed and running.

Might have to spring for the Jelly.

@Ryusui better my leg, than some innocent bystander's. What's the impact force of (almost 30 pounds, multiplied by almost 30 miles an hour)?

The more I think about it, a waverunner-style deadman key/killswitch seems desirable. Replace the power button with a key ignition; the key is on a retracting or spring-coiled cable (so that once you are on the board it is as short as possible, to minimize the chance of it catching on something) that is attached to your leading-foot ankle.

You fall or jump off, the key comes out, the board's electrical power is physically killed (so it doesn't MATTER if the footpad sensor has malfunctioned; really, it becomes debatable if the footpad sensor is even necessary any longer).

Yes, there may be occasional issues with riders, especially off-road riders, accidentally catching their key cable on a bush/branch or something and wrecking themselves.

But that still seems better than wrecking some random bystander who didn't ask for the risk.

And, a physical key that is attached to your body increases security - the casual thief who wants to steal your board, would also need to steal your key.

@tomfoolery the Jelly has better reviews, and that case/arm band makes it a no-brainer to wear - but it's also (including the arm band) about twice as much. So I'm going to try the cheaper option first.

@tomfoolery - I haven't seen them do that, and my guess is that they would be very reluctant to publicly-acknowledge a problem like this, because that acknowledgment could be used against them legally and in the court of public opinion.

But past experience always shows it's not the crime, it's the coverup that does you in. So I hope to god that if they DO discover there is a problem, they do the right thing and issue some kind of product recall notice. If it's a software problem that can be fixed via remote update, that is an easy/cheap fix. If it's hardware, that's gonna cost them, but not as much as a class-action suit brought by bystanders crippled by runaway OWs.

Please understand, I am a huge fan of this product, even with its risks. I broke my arm on one, and bought a second one. I do not have a grudge against FM. I want FM to be around in 5 years, still making this product or even cooler ones.

But to do that, they need to be hyper-vigilant now about making the safest product possible, and acting quickly and transparently to address these sorts of issues.

I do note that the common thread between this and the other report in this forum of a runaway OW, is that the "jump-off" dismount method was used. Something may not be working right with that dismount method, and I would suggest people stop using it until we figure out what it is.

But that doesn't help if you didn't mean to dismount, you just fell off or bailed.