Comment by arachnid92 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by arachnid92 | Hacker News Reader

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A couple of years ago I used to mountainbike quite seriously and commute 14km round-trip to university. I have since then switched first to commuting on a scooter, then to a OneWheel, and most recently to an electric longboard. I would never go back to a bike for commuting for a number of reasons:

1. I cannot bring the bike in to many places such as the office or the gym, it must be parked outside exposed to the elements. On the other hand, scooter, wheel, and longboard can all easily be picked up and carried indoors basically everywhere, including public transit, shops, gym, and office.

2. The bike requires physical effort, which is great if you're biking for fitness, but when I'm commuting somewhere I don't like to have to shower as soon as I get there.

3. Onewheels and skateboards in particular are so much more fun to ride than bikes on regular roads. (Bikes are still way superior on trails and mountains though).

While I understand "board" vs "bike", I don't actually understand the "onewheel" vs "skateboard" thing.

An electric skateboard or scooter just seems completely superior on almost all axes.

I'm part of an electric riding group in my city. We've had several members switch from electric skateboards and scooters to EUC without looking back. Two critical differences that make electric skateboards much worse than onewheels or electric unicycles: control mechanism and wheel diameter.

Electric skateboards and scooters have tiny wheel diameters. Especially with esk8, it's very difficult to go on any rough terrain: pebbled asphalt, cobblestone, grassy park, gravel, sand, dirt road, up or downhill. Scooter wheel diameters are also a safety issue due to that combination of easy brainless riding and small wheel diameter.

Electric skateboards and scooters interface with your hand, but EUC and OneWheels interface with your balance - your whole body. There's an intuitive sense of where you're going, and you have many degrees of freedom along your entire body that you can leverage to maneuver for incredibly fine tuned and synchronized control of your acceleration to the point where it feels like flying. The fact that acceleration and balance are intimately tied together without your hands interfacing eliminates a huge category of problems from accelerating or braking too hard vs. your centre of gravity. When you're riding in any situation where hand dexterity is compromised (i.e. wrist guards, considering none of these vehicles are any safer for your wrists should you fall), this is an amazing preventative safety element.

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