Back in November, 2021, I sold my Fuji camera setup and made enough to grab something I have wanted for a long time. No not another camera ?…
A Onewheel!!! I ordered a new Pint x and waited patiently for it to arrive.
In comes Vintage Iron Cycles in Calgary where the pre-order was done. I was ready to float as soon as I could so I dropped the cash and Vintage Iron Cycles was on it. About 3 weeks later, my new Pint x was left by FedX on my front porch.
From the day I go it, I was, over the moon, excited and could not wait to try it out. My chance came a couple of days later.
The weather had cleared and snow melted. I grabbed the Pint x and headed to an area clear of people and most of the left over ice.
I road around and lost my balance a few times, hitting the ground made me realize that I am 49 years young. ? I got up and kept going for a few more minutes. I then started trying to dismount and this is where I learned that there is a curve to learn here. Simple stop, no problem! Holding on to my truck, I backed up and dropped the tail with no issue. I tried letting go of the truck and that worked too. So I rode in a circle and tried it with nothing to grab and could not get it to back up and drop. I started to lose balance and decided I could try the jump-off bail with both feet at the same time. BAM! landed it. I didn’t realize I was half on some ice so when I turned to go grab the Pint x, I slipped and did a nice sideways split. All I heard was pop pop and down I went. My wife was sure I was gonna get hurt and I did, but mostly my pride. I was laid up for about 4 weeks, not able to ride or walk for a while or sit for that matter, but that was some of the most fun I have had in 0.01km.
I was not discouraged. After that 4 weeks, I decided, since the pain and bruising mostly gone, to jump back on and just practice along the fence line on my parking pad.
This went well and it was warm for about 3 days so I was out there everyday going back 20ft and forth 20ft. On the third day, I was trying out the Simple stop again and went out into the alley so I had to get back on the parking pad. The is a small rise at the end of my parking pad and I figured it might not be the best idea to hit that kind of bump this soon so I stopped and tried a simple stop.
Well, the same thing happened but this time I was not able to jump with both feet and my front foot stayed on the board. Pressing down the Pint x started forward and I was falling forward and splitting at the same time. Somehow I managed to roll and stopped my second split before I hurt my leg again. I landed on my hands first. I was wearing wrist guards so that saved me too.
I got back up and continued with the back and forth. I kept going for about 30 minutes and ended up putting 1.9km on the board before stopping for the day.
I later decided (the next day) that I was giving up on the Onewheel. I told my wife and she chuckled and said she was relieved.
Now, how do I sell this thing??? In comes Vintage Iron Cycles in Calgary again. I emailed them and explained my plan and asked if I could exchange it for a Synergy Sport dual 800 Scooter and they said no problem. I didn’t have to sell it and I could get a big e-scooter instead.
Off to Calgary, this weekend, I went. I dropped off the Onewheel Pint x and picked up the 2022 Synergy Sport DUAL 800W Scooter and drove back to Lethbridge happy and I only lost a little in the difference so that was great.
While I was there, I grabbed some 360 images of the inside of the story for them since they don’t have any on Google Street View.
Here is one of them and you can see them in place on GSV as well.
Here is the Beautiful machine! After some small tasks to set it up, I took it for a spin as it had a bit of a charge on it.
This thing is quite a bit higher than my Apollo City so it felt a bit slow at first. Then I realized I was going pretty fast after a glance at my speed. 30kph pretty quick. I didn’t go much faster and kept it at 20-25kph after that. The big 10 inch tires and big shocks made it feel like I was floating on the tire noise. I hit a rock and didn’t even know until I heard the sound of it breaking (the rock) which made me turn around to see what it was. I did some curb jumps without leaving the ground HEHE. I felt like I was standing on a tank.
All in all, from the first ride, 6km in, I know this is gonna be fun.
I hope the weather is good tomorrow so I can go for a longer ride. This thing says it can get between 30-40kms in range so I will try it out when I can, but just a ride around the hood is good for now.
The reason I wanted to post and tell this story was to bring up the Onewheel hype and great customer service at Vintage Iron Cycles in Calgary.
Log and short… Onewheel is a really cool EUC but not for everyone. I wanted one for so long that it took me getting one to realize this. I am sure I would have gotten better at it but I don’t think I would have had much fun worrying about it.
I love my Apollo City so I went with what I knew and upgraded. I can ride the heck out of an e-scooter so I am glad it ended up working out.
Go see Kyle at Vintage Iron Cycles in Calgary. He was pretty awesome to work with on this purchase and saved me from more pain.