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Comment by sergeykish | Hacker News Reader

OneWheel looks like a fun way to kill yourself. Looking at their commercials even simple routes are extreme.

I've rode inline skates to work, ride kick scooter and bicycle. But it was Heelys stop from 5 km/s to 0 face down on asphalt that was the worst. Quick change of direction - from forward to into the ground. Too quick for brain but hands took part of the momentum. Palms heart, it would be unfortunate to be programmer with broken palms, I was lucky. Stay safe.

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I see people riding them frequently in SF. They seem to ride pretty normally and most people use bike lanes (sounds silly but they go fast enough). I have heard that the biggest problem is the automatic braking/throttling to limit top speed kicking in on downhills, triggering face plants. As long as you are good at maintaining balance on a board and stick to flattish bike lanes they seem pretty safe

Onewheel owner with about 100 miles ridden chiming in: I think it's a great way to have fun, love riding mine on trails and on short trips for takeout, feels so similar to snowboarding to me, but a terrible choice for commuting. Expensive, short-ranged and slow compared to say, an e-skateboard, e-scooter, or just a bike (electric or not).

I fully agree with whoever told you that the automatic braking is dangerous on downhills, that has been the source of all my scariest Onewheel moments and now I don't go above 10-12 mph when riding downhill, which of course is much slower than a safe downhill speed on a regular bike.

Mmm, I meant don't take it like electric scooter. I have not tried but failure mode compound with speed would kill. Official version advertises as casual [1], should be extreme [2]. At least wear palms protection - it is a weak point.

And for example kick scooter is not that safe. Inline skates on the same speed gives much more control. Bicycle is yet safer.

I like the idea - should be fun to ride, I do not like product placement.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqOU4jx62I

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys3ivCUxIvY

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