@midlifecrisis said in Snowboarder in (late) midlife crisis - is learning to ride One Wheel the answer?:

I'm a 57 year old snowboarder (I love cruising and carving the pistes, but not into parks or anything radical) and I really like the look of OneWheel.

I'm also retired, a bit bored (especially during this coronavirus lock down we're in), and thinking this might be the answer to a bit of fun and excitement for cruising in our parks and streets.

My question is how easy is it to learn to ride competently, and what are the risks of serious injury?

I'm hoping that a competent and fairly fit snowboarder could learn to ride this pretty quickly? And I'm also hoping that it's stable enough and controllable enough to avoid accidents and injury....at 57 I'm more interested in cruising for enjoyment rather than pushing it to its limits and risking injury.

Oh, and is the Pint better than XR for cruising around local neighbourhood and park?

Any advice for me would be much appreciated. Easy to learn? Hard to injure yourself?

Cheers.

I'm a balanced challenged, overweight non snowboarder who thought the Onewheel looked cool. I'm 52, and have health conditions and heal slowly.

I watched a lot of video's read everything I could while waiting for my pint to arrive. I set what I thought would be realistic goals. I've blown past every goal I've set (well except one -- conquering my nemesis at the park . . . but I will get it). Each person will go at their own pace in learning. Me? Took me months to be able to go longer than a quarter mile. I know my limits, and I know the board limits. I have an app on a phone that sets off an alarm when I go over a certain speed. If something looks questionable that I can ride over it, I get off and walk around or over it, then mount up and take off again. In two months I've explored more of the local towns/cities than I have in 20 years of living here.

Now I'm out doing things like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OazpyVYiD4

@isforshooting said in A PSA to the greater OW community during the COVID-19 Pandemic:

@a_onekatie just chill please. People make mistakes and people need to be responsible for their own safety. The onewheel is not a “safe” thing to ride no matter how much protective gear you have on. If you think everyone should be responsible and as safe as possible then no one would go outside... and even then they would be at risk.

It’s good to set an example for others, but we can’t be held responsible for others irresponsible decisions.

144 miles -- I've only had three crashes -- no broken bones. They CAN be ridden safely. Just many people choose not to. Know the board, respect the board. Know the boards limitations, respect the limitations. Know your skill level, respect your skill level. Know your limitations, respect your limitations.

Part of my doing that, I've downloaded an app to an old cell phone, that's goes in a joggers pouch on my arm. Has a customization "max" speed alarm that I've set at 10 MPH. Anything in my path that looks questionable for my skill level -- I stop and walk the board across if I can't go around it.

@gasbreakdipper said in Shoddy quality of overpriced accessories:

My fender broke on the first wipe out i had screws on. Thats $80 down the drain even though that thing costs $3 to make.

2 severed cables one that erupted i flames and could have real hurt me or worst. There was a short, lucky i was there.

Lower the damn prices on this garbage plastic or make good products, please...

What the hell? What kind of wipe out did you have. I've had several on the Pint and it hasn't so much as scratched my fender let along "severed Wires" that erupted in flames.

@SixFootFiveGuy said in Start @ 60 - What could possibly happen??:

This... this is pretty brilliant... what app is this? I'll look for one that does the same! I really like the idea!
@UTrider
(/post/57889):

I'm not speed demon (have a disabled cell phone with a GPS speedometer app that has an alarm that goes off when I go over 10 mph).

I have an android phone. In the google play store search speedometer and look for this icon.

You can set what speed you want the alarm to go off at. I use a joggers cell phone holder that straps on my arm. (you can see it in this pic)

@Sponge315 said in A PSA to the greater OW community during the COVID-19 Pandemic:

@Telomere Your name suggests a certain knowledge of microbiology. The data you have provided is also excellent. As a teacher and microbiologist I have presented the same info to my students. But you have left a few key statistics out that need to mentioned.
Like Influenza Covid is primary a respiratory virus. Meaning that they damage the lungs but generally not enough to kill you. But this damage makes you vulnerable to secondary infection, mostly pneumonia.
The data that you haven't mentioned is fatality rates. This is tricky since obviously that majority of people who get the flu don't run to the doctor and get tested. So we do a lot of mathematical modeling to come up with the data you have provided. To compare COVID to the flu we need data. China would be the best source, but, its China and they don't have much of a track record for tell the truth. So lets look at areas that have a better history there.
As you mentioned the level of testing will skew the data heavily.
Agressive testing and isolation of infected As of 6 April 2020
South Korea: 186/10284 x 100 = 1.8%
Germany: 1590/100186 x100 = 1.5%

For a comparison
less aggressive testing but similar in geography and time:
France: 8093/93780 x 100 = 8.6%
Italy: 15887/128948 x 100 = 12.3%

Based on your data the fatality rate for influenza is
61,000/45,000,000 x 100 = 0.13%

While there is still much we don't know about Covid-19, you can't ignore that the fatality rate is at least 10x
This is also what the best current mathematical models are also showing.
For lots of data on this: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

So with no intervention (based on your data) we have a virus that 2x as infective (R=2-3.11 vs R=1.3) with a 10x fatality rate.
9,300,000 - 45,000,000 x2 = 18,600,000 - 90,000,000 cases x 0.01 = 186,000 to 900,000 fatalities.

(The USA is about 2 weeks behind the curve of Europe, but I have no interest in a political debate. Just the data for me thanks)

One thing to keep in mind. The only limited test for antibodies that I'm aware of was in New York. They tested 15,000 random people at grocery stores. 12% tested positive for antibodies. So take that to a national scale 300 million x 12% would mean that on average 34 million people so far have had Corona. 10% death rate would be 3.4 million. 1% rate would be 340 million. Number of deaths right now . . . round to 75k. Lets assume that everyone tested so far falls into that 34 million -- death rate is .2%. So if we double it to 150k deaths to account for suspected of covid . . . that's still only .4%

Find some volunteer groups in your community. You can also do a "pay it forward". Go to the drive through at a fast food joint. Ask what the bill is for the car behind you -- if it's within what you can spend, pay for it and tell the clerk to let them know you are paying it forward.

You get to work at home -- I have to trudge into the office each and very work day. What I do is very essential -- to the point they had/have plans to bring in cots and turn part of the building into living quarters and we would be quarantined at work.

@Vapco I'm 52, have 130 miles on mine (started in late September when the weather was bad. I'm not speed demon (have a disabled cell phone with a GPS speedometer app that has an alarm that goes off when I go over 10 mph). I ride streets and bike paths. When I started I set what I thought were realistic goals and baby steps. I've reached where I thought I would be by the end of the summer.

This is my kind of riding . . . (It was a short ride, the bike path is a little over a mile long total.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VSFV7d_brg&t=

@gasbreakdipper

I'm not exactly sure why you thought the Onewheel was waterproof -- When I started looking at them around the first of August I read on the web page they are not water proof, and are only mildly water resistant (as in a little water every now and then shouldn't cause any real issues.)

Web page (and manual once it arrived) made it clear enough to me -- water damage not covered under warranty. Because of that I only ride dry roads, if there is even the smallest puddle (or water in a gutter I have to go through) I slow to where the water won't splash around.

Hose down a onewheel?????? My motorcycle is more water resistant than the onewheel and I don't even hose down the MC -- it get's cleaned in a way that it won't damage any of the components.

Now opening up the onewheel to see what's inside. That in an of itself (regardless of stickers) doesn't break the waranty.

@danbetcher
I'm 5'8 and 230 pounds with a size 12 shoe. Only issue I have (and it might just be me) is the heal lift. I can't seem to get my big foot up on toe enough to deactivate the sensor. So (and I'll take the hate for it) I use simple stop. I've got a little under 3 mile round trip to work (essential employee and all) and have started riding to work. Furthest I've gone is 5 miles -- and still had over 40% charge left (I do paved/cement and not a lot of carving).

I'm no Slydogstroh -- but this is what my commute to and from work looks like. A lot of people will call it boring -- but I get fresh air, and a little leg work out on my way to work and the way home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDZ7k7Q1w-k