[JPKab]

I'm a daily rider of a Onewheel XR. I've got a few thousand miles on mine, and I do a ton of trail riding here in Colorado. I'm pretty obsessed with these things.

All that aside, I would advise anyone who wants to try going this route to watch their ass.

A standard Future Motion developed Onewheel is an extremely dangerous device. I always, always wear a helmet on mine. If you wear a helmet, the device pretty much stops being fatally dangerous, and just becomes a source of rather mild injuries if/when you fall. I rarely fall on mine now, and when I do, I don't get injured due to standard skateboarding/mountain biking pads. All that being said, FM put a TON of energy and learning into their firmware. A onewheel that cruises on a smooth surface is relatively straightforward compared to one that can be reliably ridden in rough conditions, handle bumps/voltage sags/etc gracefully, and just be super durable as well.

I could definitely see an open source onewheel eventually becoming on par with FM's XR. But if you're an early adopter of this thing, be ready to fall, A LOT.

[seattle_spring]

I'm really surprised trails allow motorized conveyance anywhere in Colorado. Are you sticking to jeep trails or something?

[JPKab]

See my exchange in another thread. Depends on who manages the land the trails are on. National Forest doesn’t allow them, but rangers don’t enforce it. National Wildlife Refuge allows them. County open space where I ride only bans gas powered vehicles. Bans of “motorized” vehicles enacted decades ago were intended to keep loud, polluting, fast, and heavy dirt bikes off trails. Electric motors that top out at under 20mph have been swept into this. Eventually, like mountain bikes, people will realize the bans make no sense and allow them.

[seattle_spring]

Mountain bikes still severely fuck up trails, there's a reason lots of trails are for hikers only.