I bought my first XR in 2019. Within a few months of owning it, I started having issues where the XR would intermittently not turn on. I had a 4209 model and customer service had advised me to try it holding the power button to see if that would fix the issue. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. I figured as long as it kind of works I didn't need to send it in, oh boy was I wrong. I was out riding one day, not going fast, not doing anything extreme, just cruising and the board turned off. I've been riding for 3 years now, I know what pushback is and I know it a nose dive is that is not what I experienced, I was riding and my board just turned off. I sent the board back for warranty repairs. What I was informed is that my board had water damage. They told me that the battery, the battery harness, the battery box, the BMS, and the tail light were all water damaged and would need to be replaced. I hadn't ridden my onewheel in water at that time so I was confused where this damage came from. Customer service told me that this damage was not covered under warranty and they handed me a bill of about $800. $800 to repair something that I had paid $2,000 for just a few months earlier. I really didn't want to pay that so I started looking around on places like Facebook and Reddit to try and see if there were other options out there for repairing. Luckily there was a independent repair shop in my city who was willing to take a look at my board for me. They gave me a heads up going into it that like there's no guarantee that they're going to be able to fix it for less than future motion, but they would at least make a good effort toward it. So I refuse the repair from future motion and had them send my board back to me. The independent repair shop let me come in and watch as they disassembled my board and diagnosed it. When they got the battery box open I was shocked to see that there was absolutely no water damage. The battery and BMS and headlights were all in working order. The independent repair shop was able to demonstrate this to me by individually switching out the components in my battery box with known to be working components they had on hand. They identified the cause of the problem as being that the XT60 connecting my battery to my BMS had a broken locking tab and that the vibrations from riding had caused the XT60 to back itself out. The XT60 connector on the BMS had some burns on the plastic from where the connection had been arcing. They were able to desolder the existing XT60 connections and replace them with good ones. For the disassembly, diagnostic, repair, and reassembly of my board, they charged me a total of $80. This all happened in 2019, 3 years later that XR still works. In a time since then I have taken every opportunity to learn about repairing onewheels so that I don't have to deal with future motion's customer service. There are still things there above my skill set, but there are guys in the stoke life service network that are more educated, more talented than I that are always there to help. Last year I used that knowledge of Onewheel mechanics to put together a second board out of scrap parts. TFL growler rails, a converted pint motor, a controller from one board, and a BMS and battery from a different board.
Same thing happened to me. I was going 17.9 mph and the next thing I know I’m picking myself off the pavement. I assumed the board turned off because I pushed it too hard but I don’t remember ever getting the pushback. I was lucky I did not to have to go to the ER and was too terrified to push past 15mph from then on. Never thought it could be a loose connection.
@@baileyanderson2166 in the years since I have spoken with some people who did actually water log their battery, and they were handed a similarly steep bill. So, it's not like they came up with that number randomly. It's just that.. I don't know.. trying to put things in the best light, all I can think is that somebody saw the burn spot on the BMS and just assumed water damage. If one thing in the box is water damaged, then everything must be water damaged right? Or maybe there was a miscommunication somewhere from technician to customer service rep. Having that bad experience right off the bat really made me want to avoid doing further business with future motion. I have also heard numerous instances of a onewheel going in for services with aftermarket accessories, and coming back without those accessories. I've also heard of FM technicians refusing to do any work on boards that they suspected to be modified. Relentless shred shop recently had an issue of FM refusing service on a board that had an aftermarket tire, however, this is not even close to the first time I've heard of that happening. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in this awkward situation where I love the product, but I hate the company. I do feel the need to mention that while my experience is not an isolated event, it's also not the absolute rule. I had a guy that brought in a pint that was having an issue. Whenever it went into push back he wouldn't be able to decelerate and it would just keep accelerating until it wiped out. As far as I know, there's nothing that I or any other independent repairer can do to fix that problem, so I had him send it back to FM. In that case, future motion honored the warranty and fixed the firmware issue without cost. In general I feel that if I have other options available to me, I am going to pursue those other repair options first and only resort to FM repairs if I have no other options left.
@UCSSjB7yjylaFGAwSpHKIMFg ~ Good to know. I honestly can’t remember as I was in shock when it happened. Had a few people pull over and check on me it was so brutal. I remember power cycling it as I wanted to avoid any calibration problems from wiping out so I’m leaning towards it still being on when the nose dived. It’s worse when I think that the configs tell the balancer to just stop working mid ride.
Recommenting because I tried to edit my other comment to reflect where exactly you could find the original posting of the flow chart, apparently CZcams feels that violates their community guidelines and deleted my comment. If you search for Onewheel Nosedive Flow Chart, it should be in the images section.
Hey, been watching your channel for a few years now. Glad you have gone over FM and the shit they do. Hopefully they become less greedy and allow for the community to flourish.
11:05: "I get that they want to keep all the repair profits for themselves..." I called into FM to ask about the intentional bricking of the GT when the BMS is unplugged. They confirmed that this was the case, prompting me to cancel my order on the spot (right-to-repair is a deal breaker for me). During the conversation they also said they were actively pursuing other methods to prevent unauthorized repairs. When asking about motivation, I was ASSURED that "Future Motion makes absolutely no profit from any repairs." So add that to your list of things not to trust.
@@craigkovatch7564 Plenty of people want to see them go out of business. They don’t have a right to exist. If other companies can do it better, let them die.
They won't. But the community needs the truth, and even more potential customers need to know, that their components are paired and they can't repair them easy now
why dont you guys wear helmets when driving cars? driving a car is alot more dangerous than a bike or eskateboard. you preach wearing a helmet for everything else, so why arent You wearing a helmet while driving? you should for your own safety.
I’m currently in the same boat. Bought an XR a little over a year ago, and have had some problems since, like the gyro messing up, causing the boards nose to keep elevating until the back skids down. I’ve only had that happen twice. I have over 1k miles to-date, and I’ve fallen off many time, due to my OWN error. However, I recently had the board throw me off of it for the first time ever. People that ride their board enough know EXACTLY how it should feel and are very attune to any anomalies that may happen. This time, there was no warning or anything, the board abruptly stoped around 8-10mph causing me to be thrown off of it. Haven’t rode it since. Up until this point, I was an advocate for FM. I absolved the product and it was instant fun as soon as you got on. But in dealing with their customer service when I told them of the issue, all they kept saying was, “diagnostics look good.” Over-and-over. So why am I on the ground, bleeding?! I spoke to a few people there and got nowhere. They kept saying the same thing, “diagnostics look good.” I don’t even know, what the hell that means. So I had to basically threaten them with legal action and that’s where I’m at now. It’s unfortunate. I probably have indirectly sold FM about 20 boards myself. I was glad to have people try it and up-sell it because I loved it. But I’m dealing with FM now that I have an issue, I am absolutely appalled by how they handle their business practices. So instead of sharing thr “stoke” I’m advising as many people, not to get this. If my accident were to happen when I was beside a car, or, going downhill in San Francisco, I could’ve died. Very disappointed in this company’s ethics and business practices.
This is one area where there has to be more “push-back” from us. These issues don’t solve themselves. Without vocal collective opposition to these practices, they will continue. Just ask the auto repair industry. Thank you for your input, sir!
FM has never and will never touch any of my boards once they leave the factory. Not through spite or anything, it's just not necessary or cost effective for a lot of us. In the grand scheme of things they're simple electronics only made complicated by their efforts to stop us working on them. Living across an ocean makes it unfeasible for me to ship these things and pay through the nose to everyone in between. The qualified technician line burns me a bit with them. My XR is well and truly in capable hands for fixing which has needed numerous repairs some of which you've mentioned. My Pint was a total write-off that would have needed nearly everything replaced from rails to housings to the internals. It took months of DIY to restore because I can't get parts. I had to fabricate and make them through trial and error but it's back up and rolling instead of being in a landfill or parted out. I'm no qualified technician but my boards once I've worked on them are damn well less prone to failure than before and I imagine the same can be said for a lot of us that work on our own gear. I feel Louis didn't just bring awareness to our issues, but more importantly seemed to give us courage and a direction whereas before outside of complaining on reddit we didn't know what else to do. I want to like FM and for the most part still do in a limited capacity, they just make it so hard sometimes that even the good news has me cautious these days.
I'm with you, sending a whole board from the UK overseas I won't do, the world is dying. I'll repair my own and fcuk them. And open new controllers to swap cables and check the soldering. They just won't improve shit, they enjoy fukcng us over. No chance I give a company like them any money. Next board will be an efoil, I'm out, happy with my modded XRs. Shame but nah
That Jake put out THIS video, with THIS title, AFTER the TFL/FM one (and in the comments to that one, he said something like "perhaps this relationship is *repairable* after all")...well, it doesn't do good things for my "hopium", as you put it.
@@glyphnosis Agreed, wish things were more transparent so we'd have a chance at making firm judgements on these situations, my hopium is looking more like copium each new day. I'm unironically on the verge of cancelling my GT order for the meantime, keeping my money now it's needed more than ever and later buying local when I'm ready if I still want to after the dust has settled. I wanted an early unit so I could get to work making things to fit my needs and for others but now it's so much less appealing.
Thanks for sharing. I had the ferrite ring issue on my XR a few miles in; it was first run pre-order. Long story short - FM 'fixed' the issue over 8 times, under warranty. My board spent most of it's early life in transit or at FM. Same problem getting them to admit issue and actually provide a solution. After almost 2 years I got a tech's personal line. He was helpful, but I had to explain the fix; going as far as providing links to community solutions. I was assured the issue had been solved and acknowledged by FM. They hot glued & padded the ring... came loose within a month or so once again. Ended up causing catastrophic controller damage this time. Can't say the repair work from FM is good or even sufficient. More often it's sloppy unfortunately. There was also a problem with power buttons sticking on both my Plus & XR that they refused to accept. Hope someone there gets a clue. Soon.
You haven’t sent in a board in four years? That must have been four years of happiness once you realized that the last thing they care about is fixing our boards. Nevertheless, listening to this in my AirPods while riding was a great experience!
They really need to have qualified technicians around the country/world. It's bullshit that you have to send your board all the way to California, especially when it's a simple repair like a headlight cable. Hell, it's $80+ just for shipping.
Why do I have a feeling that - it’s not that they can’t fix the issue. It’s that they don’t want to. Because any problem that occur will make them more money 🤔 “Oh noooo don’t open up the controller box and figure out this problem that’s so easily fixable, because you’ll find out that we’re milking you for your money”
Regarding the ferrite bead. My first job out of college involved some RF testing of our equipment. To reduce emission on certain bands we stuffed those ferrite beads on just about every damn cable there was in our device. Wild that they did this so late in the game, and so poorly.
Thank you Jake for this honest video and your experience over the years! Here in Germany we have to deal from the beginning to repair our boards by ourselves. Shipping to CA is no option anyways. Some people had to pay taxes and duties for their old repaired boards when shipping back. Ridiculous. With all that said there is only one downfall - spare parts. Especially in Europe they are much harder to get. So you can imagine that a lot of people don’t want to try crazy tricks or big drops with the possibility to break there boards and possible waiting months to get it repaired. Anyway the VESC will give old OW Pluses and XR new life when you don’t have access to a e.g. replacement controller or BMS. We will see if someday there is a change in R2R. I was curious about the Picknick with FM too. Fingers crossed that this could be the start for FM to change their mind in this case. But could also be some PR from FM. We all hope for the best. Because we love this thing so much. /Andy
I’m also excited for VESC. As for the picnic, they are trying to improve but also, the FM marketing guys have always been super cool, but the lawyers / investors who run the company are not.
@@craigkovatch7564 Currently, EU contract laws give consumers a right to have faulty products repaired during the legal guarantee, while the new generation of ecodesign rules require the availability of spare parts for a certain time, at least for some products.
Great video! I applied for a FM dealership a year ago. During the process I mentioned that I'm an electronics tech and could also service the boards if I had a dealership/rental business and told them I'd done some upgrades to my Pint. Haha. I only said anything because they were portraying themselves as a hip company that was down with the community. Got a hard denial and the application was shutdown. Funny because I've got a great location and business history but in retrospect I think it was the mention of tech work that sunk the deal. Never heard from them again and I followed up a few times. If they aren't going to grant owners the ability to conduct repairs they should at least vet some repair facilities that aren't FM and come up with a process to onboard authorized repair shops. As an aside I'd love to see a rundown of your setup to get such great footage! Thanks!
1:50 The exact same thing happened to me and my wife. We pre-ordered the XR, which was our first Onewheel, and went to Vail for RFTR that same year. (Only a couple months after getting our boards) Needless to say we didn't ride very hard back then. At the time I was afraid to do curb drops, let alone nudges or hard trail riding. Yet both of our headlights went out, literally at the exact same moment, and FM told us it was from impact damage. I told them that was bullshit because we're noobs and got them to lower the bill. That was when I decided to make the first ever replacement headlight cable and started to repair my own boards as much as possible. I can't understand why they don't have certified technicians around the country. They could easily scab people that already repair boards via Stoke Life Service.
Around the country and around the world, you are not the only country in the world you know. And they sell worldwide. And every other companies (US & other) has the decency to open at least one repair shot per continent.
Had the exact same issue myself with the headlights. Thanks to you trailblazers I repaired it myself and replaced it with a shielded cable without issue. Faq FM and their repair center BS. These machines aren’t rocket engines. Most everything that needs fixing on them can be done from home with a good youtube video and the right parts.
I hope Future Motion starts listening to it's consumer base and makes the changes required to stay a FLOAT. I've only had my Pint X for 40 days now, and I love it. It sucks to hear about the issues with the GT and all these other bad PR stories about FM surfacing. It has me worried about trying to replace my own tire on the Pint X when the stock tire wears out. There are no service centers near me, and waiting for shipping would suck. Thanks for sharing!
For new people, they will not return your parts. Period. They always update the firmware. Jake is the man for me, taught me so much through his videos, and now i work on the boards for people as well. I own currently 4 XR's, ride a 4212 and a unicorn 4209 with Kush lo front and rear. Don't even get me started on what it takes to get your BMS repaired. The fact that we can only get parts from broken/used boards is straight up insane. Jake, thanks for pumping up the bollume on this, and being honest about it. I know Jeff and the boys have to keep their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks, but those of us who know, realize it's long term good for the sport. I think it might of been you, that pointed out that the people who design and produce Onewheels, are not Onewheel enthusiast. They ride them, but they also mountain bike, snow board, etc. whereas there are others like myself, who just flat out can't go without riding every single day. . . and yeah, i hope Louis gets a little more facts, but man do i love that guy~!~Keep it up Professor~!~Can't wait to meet you.
The Pint got the metall power button nut problem from the start and it was present for about 1.5 years until they changed it. No information to current customers about the problem. My nut was loose form day one, as I live in Sweden and there was no update at the time, I decided to fix it myself.
Thank you for this video! I love how this cause getting attention. I am an EU resident, sending back the board would be more expensive than buying a new one… kinda.. Also the repair time is horrendous, they would keep my board for months.. thats just doesnt work. I can do basic repair jobs on my onewheel, if they could source oem parts, everything would be much easier..
Thanks for sharing your experience. FM could so easily be the most loved company with the best product, worldwide. Has any other company so alienated it's core supporters. All the bully tactics against third party mods, apps etc, especially the FM lawsuit against JW, is very David vs Goliath.
not a one wheel guy but would like one. will not buy until they concede to right to repair and will continue to comment on videos about this topic until they do. This will help with the algorithms and others should comment for this reason too.
Great video. I have an OG Pint and want a bigger board but I’m holding out until the right to repair is sorted out. I can’t fathom spending thousands on something and then having to send it to California for any sort of service or repair, especially to a company that isn’t very transparent to its customers. They have an awesome product, but I feel they need to embrace the 3rd parties somehow.
We should make open wiki for all fixes and resources for opensource ways to maintain our products. I did reddit post about making front sensors out of carseat sensors, now i'm making a note how to fix charger cables and rear leds.
Pints have a similar issue where the plastic power button housing is secured to the controller box with a metal nut that tends to come off, sometimes cracking the power button housing. The nut will short stuff on the board like Bluetooth, although personally I had my board turn off mid ride cause of this. Obviously the solution would have just been to use a plastic nut instead so that nothing would happen even if it came loose, but as far as I know they haven't actually changed the design on the Pint X or GT Edit: looks like the Pint x and GT use a plastic nut, but it's still baffling that they thought a regular metal nut on a hollow plastic part without any sort of adhesive was a good idea in the first place.
Silicon Valley "doers" are great. Technicians, coders, hardware engineers, etc are awesome there. Unfortunately, the ecosystem of managerial class that surround them at their companies are just plain mediocre paper-pushers with deeply schedule driven goals. These goals (release by X date, NO MATTER WHAT) tend to come from the boardroom (remember, any VC backed company, even if it's private, has a board filled with the VCs and their buddies). They won't hesitate to ignore the protests of their engineers in pursuing these goals. Universally, these people have never been "doers" themselves. They view themselves as superior to these "worker bees", and ignore all of their comments/complaints, particularly any that conflict with their deadlines or VC driven goals. I've been tasked with evaluating companies for acquisition, had a team of engineers unanimously state (after evaluation) that the acquisition is a bad idea, and then had the managerial class override the decision and force us to buy the company. None of these acquisitions were ever remotely successful, and simply wasted capital. That's what the managerial class does in Silicon Valley: They think short term, don't care about a pissing customers off, because they prioritize the VCs over the customers. After all, that's where all of their operating capital comes from. When customers finally get angry enough to drive accountability, these paper-pushers are long-gone, on to their next short-term gig of extracting high salaries and stock options from the next company and it's unfortunate customers. This is what is happening at FM: "Ship it, no matter what" works a lot better with cloud software that can be updated with a single code commit than it does with heavy hardware with embedded firmware. The paper-pushers at FM don't care about that. They just care about PR that rises to a level that the non-riding, never used the product, never will use the product, golf playing board members will hear about.
Love my XR, like my pint but I will never buy another FM product again. In my dealings with them it was obvious they are straight up liars that could care less about doing right by their customers. Waiting for someone else to come up with a comparable product. Great vid, it is great to get the truth out to the uninformed.
Thankfully, all models since the original Pint (including the GT) have integrated a headlight cable that consists simply of insulated wires. No more ferrite issue.
Just to let you and anyone else who's interested know, Jake, in regards to, "All the boards have this controller box design flaw, but very soon we will be rolling out a solution." I bought my XR brand new about a year after the first Pint was released. My headlight is out. I barely trail ride, and I've only had about 5 hard wipe outs. Doesn't seem like that hopeful comment ever made it to fruition. First run or almost-last run clearly doesn't matter I guess.
Ty Jake....I had a similar experience with the pintx. I shared it with Justin at Relentless. They told me the repair was covered under warranty then billed me 500 bucks. I have the email to prove it
So glad Louis found you guys, you seem like a really tight knit and resourceful community whose sole equipment supplier is a bit of an arsehole company. One of you needs to get him on a board at some point.
The definition of a lousy company. Things won’t change if you keep buying their products. Would you buy a car that the headlights continue to cut out randomly and the dealer won’t fix? They’re a company that’s outgrown their abilities.
@@bocain812 this 100% Bonus: none of the wheeled vehicles you mentioned suddenly throw you off at speed with no warning. One wheel is a shitty product from a shitty company
I totally agree with your sentiments! I live in Sweden and there is no way on Earth I shall be sending my Pint or GT(when it finally arrives) back to FM. If they die on me and I cannot repair them myself they will be the last FM products I buy!👍🏾🙏🏾
I agree, I'm also living in Sweden. I hade the nut problem from day one, as I did know that they didn't fix it at that time I decided to fix it myself.
@@oskarfallman I'm though with FM a long time ago. It's been very well documented from day one how bad they are so I'm surprised you didn't see about their refusal to allow right to repair in, whenever you joined floatlife. I'm buying an efoil next, then I'll perhaps build a vesc onewheel. US stuff has a huge tax and ship so ready to stop buying from US again anyway. No such thing as this great American customer service they tell us about either. #vesclife #ffm
@@redboyjan i didn't know at the time, I bought it without the knowledge. Bare in mind it's 2 years ago. I know that if it ever brakes I will VESC the board
Being a Onewheel stockist in the past Jake you will know the standards required that are set to be an official seller. If FM were to apply a similar model to the countless repair centres across the globe where they could supply parts to qualified repair centres it would help riders globally and at least be a small step in the right direction.
As a former FutureMotion employee in the CSR department, I can let you know that they are a JIT company with their parts. Since it doesn't qualify as a vehicle, they do not have to carry an overstock of parts for each model as you would with a car, a motorcycle, or the like. This also means that technically they do not make a profit off of their services due to the JIT manufacturing loop. All this means service centers are not going to happen merely because of the legal requirements (at this point) for the company to hold onto parts. Remember, they phased out support for three boards now, which means they don't have to hold onto parts either.
thankfully my GT is currently working fine but it is extremely unfortunate (see: fcked up) that Future Motion under the guise of "High Steaks" & "Safety" will engineer Our $$$$ purchase in a sneaky & hostile way that denies us the right to repair & yes even modify & personalize Our product yet when they want the board back for repair/tire replacement, will ask Us to (illegally) black out the hazardous material (battery) label on the shipping box, risking the literal lives of pilots & staff (UPS, FedEx, DHL) that just want to do an honest days work & go home to their friends & fam. Many Thanks for the Highlight, we def. have to push this issue as a unit. I'm down w/the FTC complaint direction (hope everyone of us are too) & great to see that y'all ain't scurred to keep it a buck 💯🤙🏾
“Future motion technicians are the only ones qualified to disassemble the boards.” They say forgetting that there are in fact other electrical engineers in the world.
The ferrite ring was probably needed to make the PCBs pass through the EMC/EMI (ElectroMagnetic Compliance/Interference) regulatory testings. These tests are meant to make sure that the device doesn't emit too much radiated or conducted radio frequency interference into the environment and possibly cause problems with other devices. Most likely the headlights and their wiring were acting like an antenna, which caused the radiated emissions to not pass the required levels, so the "ferrite ring of shame" was added to the wires going to the headlight module as an afterfix (and therefore not pre-planned by the engineers) and that allowed the board to pass the EMC testing.
Exactly my thoughts. I am from Europe and was thinking about all the support that only FM does, you want to change/fix something, send it to CA and we will fix it is just not an option. When you consider the time it would need to be done (months) and money spent, besides the post service also insurance and finally repair costs it would be easier to consider buying a new board. I am not a OW owner yet, but these things worry me in advance of buying it. Even though I am buying one soon (I am just so psyched about it, that I want it), but this is just sad. They should consider extending their support and technician training to other countries or OneWheel vendors.
I might have actually bought their claim that they're the only ones who can service it if they didn't stop the user from simply unplugging and plugging the battery back in. The fact that you can't even do that is proof that this is just about money and control
I'm not a one wheeler, but I'm glad to see that their anti-consumer practices are being exposed. Like John Deere and Apple and a lot of others. I'm on my last iphone and MacBook. I'm running a fully repairable/upgradeable Framework laptop as a DIY version running Linux, yes they encourage you to tinker! I have a low spec Teracube 2e smartphone (not my daily driver) but will use daily when they release a higher spec model. I also will not rent software or media (subscription) FM is going to get a lot of pushback when people abandon their product and move on to less costly repairable versions. Arrogance at it's finest.
Future Motion really said that they had a bad relationship with you like you guys were dating? That's not how all this works. This isn't about feelings, this is about business. We are the customers, either make us happy or go out of business. Welcome to capitalism future motion.
There is a common problem with the pint where the nut behind the power button comes unscrewed and then dangles on the cabling. It yanks on the cable until eventually it breaks the soldering and the board can’t turn on using that button. Sounds similar to the fare-rite ring you were talking about.
I had the same issue with the ferrite ring. I have a 4212 so clearly they never fixed it in future versions of the XR. I wasn't about to send that back to FM despite being within warranty. Took it to my local SLS shop and permanently fixed for $20. #FFM and shout out to Onewheel Tire Guru. Completely off topic but I love that helmet. I got mine about a month ago. It was pretty uncomfortable at first but I added some cheap foam pads to it from Amazon. Judging from your chin strap, you must have done the same thing. Front light isn't great but the rear lighting is bitchin. Very lightweight and keeps my head cool.
I’m glad I saw your comment, I’ve had a board for less than a year and I was wondering if this ferrite ring was going to be a problem for me as well, if there’s something that I should do ahead of time to fix it.
@@CrechurBoy If you ever see your headlights blinking, shut off your yours lights in the app immediately. You can continue riding. Continuing to use the lights after the problem occurs can fry your controller. Otherwise, don't worry about it much unless/until it happens. There's two things you can do about it when it happens: 1) Have FM replace the part and risk it happening again 2) Have a SLS shop fix it for you permanently but void your warranty.
I've had my Pint X for 3 months and suddenly this week it wouldn't switch on. Knowing how terrible FM's reputation is regarding repairs I've taken it apart myself and found the negative BMS cable has broken clean off due to bad design. I'd rather knowingly void my warranty than send it back and be at their mercy.
@@PR3M3 You can not unplug the BMS, on the GT which has a tendency to fail before the battery due to bad design, without it resulting in a board with no power and app message "corrupt data" until you send it to FM just so they can use their tool on it only they have access to. They're claiming its for safety when in reality its for them to maximize control over the board modders. For safety. But they have modded boards in their own recent youtube videos, and also ask people to black out "hazardous material" (due to the lithium) on internationally shipped boxes from Canada to allow it to bypass customs. The whole reason all the returns are needed often is related to the lack of third party repairability, which I have recently found out the extent to which FM goes to make sure there is little to no third party repair market. Hope this helps
@@AuRowe wow that's giving someone a gift but they only can use it when they are around the person that gifted it to them. WTF. I thought monopolies were illegal?
Great video! Definitely regret buying my GT now... should I open my XR to deal with the ferrite? I got the OEM Carbonfiber fender but I'd prefer a Craft&Ride Magnetic Carbon Fiber Fender like on my XR.
Ferrite is a compound containing iron oxide. It does have metals in it but it's more like a ceramic. You certainly don't want a loose ferrite floating around on your wires and them charging you to fix their design flaw when the warranty was applicable is a form of fraud. The correct solution would have been easy: silicone sealant or similar to glue the ring in place.
Had my pint for less than a year when it failed to turn on one day. App connected when plugged into the board and showed the battery was fully charged and ok. I figured it was still under warranty since it was fairly new and they had me ship it out for repair. Told me the battery was bad and wasn’t covered under warranty. Charged me for a battery and ridiculous shipping from the east coast. Few hundred dollars later and left a salty feeling toward them.
It wasn’t even the battery if was the BMS. Same thing happened to me so I put the battery in another board and charged over night to level the cells and the battery was fine.
Same experience with both of the pints that my sons bought. Really soured us on FM and we haven't bought anything from them since. I've had battery powered lawn care tools for years and never had any problems with the batteries, even leaving them fully charged for months at a time. Really hard to believe that we somehow "abused" the batteries in those pints to the point that they failed after only a year. More likely shit parts or shit design.
This is so sad to hear about as I currently deal with GT ghosting issues/talking to FM. First time it ghosted, I sent it back to them. It made its round trip to CA, then ghosted again on the first ride after coming back to me. Now they’re sending me a new footpad and I’m in this exchange with their CS where they’re winding up to blame it on me and “quick stops.” I asked how it could possibly ghost for longer than a few seconds-worth of wheel slippage if the “dead man’s switch” is functioning correctly, even in the event of a poorly-executed quick stop… we’ll see what they say to that, but the vibes are not good. :( Really sucks because when I’m on it, I actually love the GT. Game-changer for me as a somewhat heavier rider, but all this really dampens my “stoke”… Anyway, thanks for your content, as always. You pretty much taught me and plenty of others how to ride. 🤙
Jeez. I have noticed the GT stays activated for like, half a second longer than the XR and it’s pretty lame that they’re trying to conflate this with the board straight up ghosting…
@@JakeLeary Yep, exactly. I've noticed the same thing, and I definitely think I'm going to work on getting better/smoother at the proper heel lift stop now even when this all gets sorted. Between the extra torque trying hard to keep you up and that extra wheelslip time, quick-stops just feel a little sketchier/less reliable (to me, I'd say an intermediate rider) on the GT overall. BUT... I know what I saw, and it should not have happened. The first time the thing took off backward, full-tilt for a good several yards before finally veering off the trail, down a ravine, and into a blackberry bramble, where the motor stayed engaged for a few seconds after the wheel no longer had any surface contact. Second time after its round trip to FM, I was sort of on high alert so I was able to dive after it quicker, but it was clearly the same type of deal - continued to spin even well after I had knocked it fully on its side, having been off the board completely for... I dunno... maybe 4 whole seconds? No way that should be happening with front foot fully removed for that long, no matter how clumsy the dismount... right? Anyway, sure hoping FM agrees with that argument... eventually... 😕
@@inactive67 Well, I've got both of those and will be riding my XR at least until the replacement foot pad comes and I can get that on there. Thought about a refund... still considering pursuing it... but, like... it really is awesome! Haha. I hate that the company treats people this way, and stopping will probably terrify me for a while as I'm still testing the waters. But overall it's still really, really fun, and a big upgrade even from the XR for the type of rider I am and what I like to do (go for long cruises on bike trails, emphasis on long). It seems to be a dilemma Onewheel riders have been facing for years... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I notice you’re wearing barefoot shoes! Do you prefer these for riding in general? I like wearing my barefoot sandals but worry about ankle support in a fall
This was actually my first time riding them in trails. I like the way the handle because they lower your center of gravity but if I was doing any type of riding where I was worried about a fall or a runout I’d wear shoes with a lot more protection
I ride OWs and EUCs and I'd say we would all be better off if we all did our own repairs, posted info and helped each other. We can do it. It will cost more at first, but the industry will respond if we stick to our guns.
The XR also had another common issue on the controller, today i repaired a XR controller for a friend and I noticed the Mosfet in the middle upper arm have cold solder joint under it, it was barely makeing contact with the pcb and causing it to create arcs under the mosfet and ultimately damaged the silicon pad of the mosfet, the board would not turn on after 400 miles of gentle use because the mosfet is shoot, replaced the mosfet and notice during the manual SMT of that mosfet it was very hard to get the solder pad to melt due to its design flaw, the middle upper mosfet has a significant larger heat dissipate area causing that mosfet to be poorly soldered on during smt. I recomand if your XR shuts off immediately after boot up, it might be a shorted out middle upper arm mosfet.
Hey dude, I've got a controller with Error 10 blink code that died a couple days after going through rain and some nasty puddles. Have you ever fixed an error 10 or water damaged controllers?
@@JakeLeary 🤯🤯 What!! Damn That’s amazing Thanks so much for the reply. Especially at the end; it’s like you have some high end sound equipment. Really impressive. skills👌🏼💯
I had two issues with a board that I had to send back. They blamed me both times. I assumed they were telling the truth. Now I wonder if I should have accepted their claim as fact.
I don't believe a thing those too close to FM say either. Like the riders who tried GT before launch and made those awkward videos talking about the board. Yeah. Money talks I guess. Big names that lose their appeal imo
I had an issue with FM customer service as well back when I got my plus. It would shut off on me while I was riding so I sent them my board and about a month later they sent it back to me. I get on my board for a ride and within 3 blocks the board shuts off on me again!! I also forgot to mention that I had a battery pack that I could charge and ride but when they sent it back to me they switched out the controller and I couldn’t charge n ride anymore. Luckily I had some friends that bypass it so it was back to normal again. It was a total pain in the ass dealing with their customer service.
I had to replace a controller box too .. Unfortunately for me.. I got my Pint used on ebay and the seller sent me his Pint in really shitty packing or should I say - Lack there of. So I had to send it into FM for a replacement and it cost me $265. Huge bummer but totally worth it because It works like a charm now
I bought my first XR in 2019. Within a few months of owning it, I started having issues where the XR would intermittently not turn on. I had a 4209 model and customer service had advised me to try it holding the power button to see if that would fix the issue. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. I figured as long as it kind of works I didn't need to send it in, oh boy was I wrong. I was out riding one day, not going fast, not doing anything extreme, just cruising and the board turned off. I've been riding for 3 years now, I know what pushback is and I know it a nose dive is that is not what I experienced, I was riding and my board just turned off.
I sent the board back for warranty repairs. What I was informed is that my board had water damage. They told me that the battery, the battery harness, the battery box, the BMS, and the tail light were all water damaged and would need to be replaced. I hadn't ridden my onewheel in water at that time so I was confused where this damage came from. Customer service told me that this damage was not covered under warranty and they handed me a bill of about $800. $800 to repair something that I had paid $2,000 for just a few months earlier. I really didn't want to pay that so I started looking around on places like Facebook and Reddit to try and see if there were other options out there for repairing. Luckily there was a independent repair shop in my city who was willing to take a look at my board for me. They gave me a heads up going into it that like there's no guarantee that they're going to be able to fix it for less than future motion, but they would at least make a good effort toward it. So I refuse the repair from future motion and had them send my board back to me. The independent repair shop let me come in and watch as they disassembled my board and diagnosed it. When they got the battery box open I was shocked to see that there was absolutely no water damage. The battery and BMS and headlights were all in working order. The independent repair shop was able to demonstrate this to me by individually switching out the components in my battery box with known to be working components they had on hand. They identified the cause of the problem as being that the XT60 connecting my battery to my BMS had a broken locking tab and that the vibrations from riding had caused the XT60 to back itself out. The XT60 connector on the BMS had some burns on the plastic from where the connection had been arcing. They were able to desolder the existing XT60 connections and replace them with good ones. For the disassembly, diagnostic, repair, and reassembly of my board, they charged me a total of $80.
This all happened in 2019, 3 years later that XR still works. In a time since then I have taken every opportunity to learn about repairing onewheels so that I don't have to deal with future motion's customer service. There are still things there above my skill set, but there are guys in the stoke life service network that are more educated, more talented than I that are always there to help.
Last year I used that knowledge of Onewheel mechanics to put together a second board out of scrap parts. TFL growler rails, a converted pint motor, a controller from one board, and a BMS and battery from a different board.
This…
Same thing happened to me. I was going 17.9 mph and the next thing I know I’m picking myself off the pavement. I assumed the board turned off because I pushed it too hard but I don’t remember ever getting the pushback. I was lucky I did not to have to go to the ER and was too terrified to push past 15mph from then on. Never thought it could be a loose connection.
@@baileyanderson2166 in the years since I have spoken with some people who did actually water log their battery, and they were handed a similarly steep bill. So, it's not like they came up with that number randomly. It's just that.. I don't know.. trying to put things in the best light, all I can think is that somebody saw the burn spot on the BMS and just assumed water damage. If one thing in the box is water damaged, then everything must be water damaged right? Or maybe there was a miscommunication somewhere from technician to customer service rep.
Having that bad experience right off the bat really made me want to avoid doing further business with future motion. I have also heard numerous instances of a onewheel going in for services with aftermarket accessories, and coming back without those accessories. I've also heard of FM technicians refusing to do any work on boards that they suspected to be modified. Relentless shred shop recently had an issue of FM refusing service on a board that had an aftermarket tire, however, this is not even close to the first time I've heard of that happening. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in this awkward situation where I love the product, but I hate the company.
I do feel the need to mention that while my experience is not an isolated event, it's also not the absolute rule. I had a guy that brought in a pint that was having an issue. Whenever it went into push back he wouldn't be able to decelerate and it would just keep accelerating until it wiped out. As far as I know, there's nothing that I or any other independent repairer can do to fix that problem, so I had him send it back to FM. In that case, future motion honored the warranty and fixed the firmware issue without cost.
In general I feel that if I have other options available to me, I am going to pursue those other repair options first and only resort to FM repairs if I have no other options left.
@UCSSjB7yjylaFGAwSpHKIMFg ~ Good to know. I honestly can’t remember as I was in shock when it happened. Had a few people pull over and check on me it was so brutal. I remember power cycling it as I wanted to avoid any calibration problems from wiping out so I’m leaning towards it still being on when the nose dived.
It’s worse when I think that the configs tell the balancer to just stop working mid ride.
Recommenting because I tried to edit my other comment to reflect where exactly you could find the original posting of the flow chart, apparently CZcams feels that violates their community guidelines and deleted my comment. If you search for Onewheel Nosedive Flow Chart, it should be in the images section.
Good presentation! 0:40 hits the nail on the head
The man himself! Thank you for bringing FM into the spotlight
Hey, been watching your channel for a few years now. Glad you have gone over FM and the shit they do. Hopefully they become less greedy and allow for the community to flourish.
11:05: "I get that they want to keep all the repair profits for themselves..."
I called into FM to ask about the intentional bricking of the GT when the BMS is unplugged. They confirmed that this was the case, prompting me to cancel my order on the spot (right-to-repair is a deal breaker for me). During the conversation they also said they were actively pursuing other methods to prevent unauthorized repairs. When asking about motivation, I was ASSURED that "Future Motion makes absolutely no profit from any repairs." So add that to your list of things not to trust.
wow thats some fucked up shit
Lol. $200 to replace the computer and no profit? Sure.
Rossmann sent me. Thank you for talking about this. This NEEDS to be mainstream so FM corrects their mistakes if not, go out of business.
Rossmann is the man.
Nobody wants them to go out of business. We all LOVE this hobby. But they do need to CORRECT their business and adopt a customer focus.
@@craigkovatch7564 Plenty of people want to see them go out of business. They don’t have a right to exist. If other companies can do it better, let them die.
@@Puggy42069 What companies do it better?
@@eretemio Companies in general or something specific?
The irony of getting a FM ad on this video....
Hahahaha
Absolutely excellent video. Thank you for sharing your experiences, Jake! 🙏
Great to hear your story. Even better to see you wearing a helmet. Hopefully as the community speaks out, FM will see the need to do better.
They won't. But the community needs the truth, and even more potential customers need to know, that their components are paired and they can't repair them easy now
helmets for life!
@@duster8373 #helmetsarecool RIP Uncle Jimmy
why dont you guys wear helmets when driving cars? driving a car is alot more dangerous than a bike or eskateboard. you preach wearing a helmet for everything else, so why arent You wearing a helmet while driving? you should for your own safety.
kinda pointless if it's tied loosely like that
wow, Louis Rossmann just posted a video about onewheels an hour ago. What great timing.
Shoutout to Louis Rossman
I’m currently in the same boat. Bought an XR a little over a year ago, and have had some problems since, like the gyro messing up, causing the boards nose to keep elevating until the back skids down. I’ve only had that happen twice. I have over 1k miles to-date, and I’ve fallen off many time, due to my OWN error.
However, I recently had the board throw me off of it for the first time ever. People that ride their board enough know EXACTLY how it should feel and are very attune to any anomalies that may happen. This time, there was no warning or anything, the board abruptly stoped around 8-10mph causing me to be thrown off of it. Haven’t rode it since.
Up until this point, I was an advocate for FM. I absolved the product and it was instant fun as soon as you got on. But in dealing with their customer service when I told them of the issue, all they kept saying was, “diagnostics look good.” Over-and-over. So why am I on the ground, bleeding?! I spoke to a few people there and got nowhere. They kept saying the same thing, “diagnostics look good.” I don’t even know, what the hell that means. So I had to basically threaten them with legal action and that’s where I’m at now.
It’s unfortunate. I probably have indirectly sold FM about 20 boards myself. I was glad to have people try it and up-sell it because I loved it. But I’m dealing with FM now that I have an issue, I am absolutely appalled by how they handle their business practices. So instead of sharing thr “stoke” I’m advising as many people, not to get this. If my accident were to happen when I was beside a car, or, going downhill in San Francisco, I could’ve died. Very disappointed in this company’s ethics and business practices.
People have died on Onewheels from similar malfunctions
@@Phuskooz I think all reported deaths have been from normal motor overload nosedives. I'm sure there's some serious injuries from malfunctions though
This is one area where there has to be more “push-back” from us. These issues don’t solve themselves. Without vocal collective opposition to these practices, they will continue. Just ask the auto repair industry. Thank you for your input, sir!
indeed! I think us continuing to file complaints w/the FTC is a most effective direction! 🤙🏾
FM has never and will never touch any of my boards once they leave the factory. Not through spite or anything, it's just not necessary or cost effective for a lot of us. In the grand scheme of things they're simple electronics only made complicated by their efforts to stop us working on them. Living across an ocean makes it unfeasible for me to ship these things and pay through the nose to everyone in between.
The qualified technician line burns me a bit with them. My XR is well and truly in capable hands for fixing which has needed numerous repairs some of which you've mentioned. My Pint was a total write-off that would have needed nearly everything replaced from rails to housings to the internals. It took months of DIY to restore because I can't get parts. I had to fabricate and make them through trial and error but it's back up and rolling instead of being in a landfill or parted out. I'm no qualified technician but my boards once I've worked on them are damn well less prone to failure than before and I imagine the same can be said for a lot of us that work on our own gear.
I feel Louis didn't just bring awareness to our issues, but more importantly seemed to give us courage and a direction whereas before outside of complaining on reddit we didn't know what else to do. I want to like FM and for the most part still do in a limited capacity, they just make it so hard sometimes that even the good news has me cautious these days.
I'm with you, sending a whole board from the UK overseas I won't do, the world is dying. I'll repair my own and fcuk them. And open new controllers to swap cables and check the soldering. They just won't improve shit, they enjoy fukcng us over. No chance I give a company like them any money. Next board will be an efoil, I'm out, happy with my modded XRs. Shame but nah
That Jake put out THIS video, with THIS title, AFTER the TFL/FM one (and in the comments to that one, he said something like "perhaps this relationship is *repairable* after all")...well, it doesn't do good things for my "hopium", as you put it.
@@glyphnosis Agreed, wish things were more transparent so we'd have a chance at making firm judgements on these situations, my hopium is looking more like copium each new day.
I'm unironically on the verge of cancelling my GT order for the meantime, keeping my money now it's needed more than ever and later buying local when I'm ready if I still want to after the dust has settled. I wanted an early unit so I could get to work making things to fit my needs and for others but now it's so much less appealing.
@@LiaIsTheCutestKitten never too late, but it ain't happening unless someone buys em out
Thanks for sharing. I had the ferrite ring issue on my XR a few miles in; it was first run pre-order. Long story short - FM 'fixed' the issue over 8 times, under warranty. My board spent most of it's early life in transit or at FM. Same problem getting them to admit issue and actually provide a solution. After almost 2 years I got a tech's personal line. He was helpful, but I had to explain the fix; going as far as providing links to community solutions. I was assured the issue had been solved and acknowledged by FM. They hot glued & padded the ring... came loose within a month or so once again. Ended up causing catastrophic controller damage this time. Can't say the repair work from FM is good or even sufficient. More often it's sloppy unfortunately. There was also a problem with power buttons sticking on both my Plus & XR that they refused to accept. Hope someone there gets a clue. Soon.
I saw you were not at the FM picnic either :)
Thank you so much for doing this… it’s great to see someone with this much cred calling FM out for being so shitty to their customers.
You haven’t sent in a board in four years? That must have been four years of happiness once you realized that the last thing they care about is fixing our boards. Nevertheless, listening to this in my AirPods while riding was a great experience!
They really need to have qualified technicians around the country/world. It's bullshit that you have to send your board all the way to California, especially when it's a simple repair like a headlight cable. Hell, it's $80+ just for shipping.
Why do I have a feeling that - it’s not that they can’t fix the issue. It’s that they don’t want to. Because any problem that occur will make them more money 🤔
“Oh noooo don’t open up the controller box and figure out this problem that’s so easily fixable, because you’ll find out that we’re milking you for your money”
💯
Wow. Dropping knowledge! Thank you Jake.
Really appreciate you sharing all of your insights.
Regarding the ferrite bead. My first job out of college involved some RF testing of our equipment. To reduce emission on certain bands we stuffed those ferrite beads on just about every damn cable there was in our device. Wild that they did this so late in the game, and so poorly.
We using armoured shields in electronics industry for decades, but FM use 20th century components still. Embarrassing
Another great video Jake! I do hope FM can change course & learn from their obvious mistakes. One can hope FM takes a step back & makes a compromise.🤞
Thank you Jake for this honest video and your experience over the years! Here in Germany we have to deal from the beginning to repair our boards by ourselves. Shipping to CA is no option anyways. Some people had to pay taxes and duties for their old repaired boards when shipping back. Ridiculous. With all that said there is only one downfall - spare parts. Especially in Europe they are much harder to get. So you can imagine that a lot of people don’t want to try crazy tricks or big drops with the possibility to break there boards and possible waiting months to get it repaired. Anyway the VESC will give old OW Pluses and XR new life when you don’t have access to a e.g. replacement controller or BMS. We will see if someday there is a change in R2R. I was curious about the Picknick with FM too. Fingers crossed that this could be the start for FM to change their mind in this case. But could also be some PR from FM. We all hope for the best. Because we love this thing so much. /Andy
I’m also excited for VESC. As for the picnic, they are trying to improve but also, the FM marketing guys have always been super cool, but the lawyers / investors who run the company are not.
I thought this was illegal for products sold in Europe? Does EU not have legal right-to-repair already?
@@craigkovatch7564 Currently, EU contract laws give consumers a right to have faulty products repaired during the legal guarantee, while the new generation of ecodesign rules require the availability of spare parts for a certain time, at least for some products.
In the EUC world some people will buy 2 of any wheel they purchase just to have spare parts! lol.
Great video! I applied for a FM dealership a year ago. During the process I mentioned that I'm an electronics tech and could also service the boards if I had a dealership/rental business and told them I'd done some upgrades to my Pint. Haha. I only said anything because they were portraying themselves as a hip company that was down with the community. Got a hard denial and the application was shutdown. Funny because I've got a great location and business history but in retrospect I think it was the mention of tech work that sunk the deal. Never heard from them again and I followed up a few times. If they aren't going to grant owners the ability to conduct repairs they should at least vet some repair facilities that aren't FM and come up with a process to onboard authorized repair shops.
As an aside I'd love to see a rundown of your setup to get such great footage! Thanks!
1:50 The exact same thing happened to me and my wife. We pre-ordered the XR, which was our first Onewheel, and went to Vail for RFTR that same year. (Only a couple months after getting our boards)
Needless to say we didn't ride very hard back then. At the time I was afraid to do curb drops, let alone nudges or hard trail riding. Yet both of our headlights went out, literally at the exact same moment, and FM told us it was from impact damage. I told them that was bullshit because we're noobs and got them to lower the bill. That was when I decided to make the first ever replacement headlight cable and started to repair my own boards as much as possible.
I can't understand why they don't have certified technicians around the country. They could easily scab people that already repair boards via Stoke Life Service.
Around the country and around the world, you are not the only country in the world you know. And they sell worldwide. And every other companies (US & other) has the decency to open at least one repair shot per continent.
I love Jake riding with a grass between front footpad and sidekick :D
Had the exact same issue myself with the headlights. Thanks to you trailblazers I repaired it myself and replaced it with a shielded cable without issue. Faq FM and their repair center BS. These machines aren’t rocket engines. Most everything that needs fixing on them can be done from home with a good youtube video and the right parts.
Serve the community and they will serve you in return. How does FM not know this?
I hope Future Motion starts listening to it's consumer base and makes the changes required to stay a FLOAT. I've only had my Pint X for 40 days now, and I love it. It sucks to hear about the issues with the GT and all these other bad PR stories about FM surfacing. It has me worried about trying to replace my own tire on the Pint X when the stock tire wears out. There are no service centers near me, and waiting for shipping would suck. Thanks for sharing!
I'm in exactly the same position in AU!
For new people, they will not return your parts. Period. They always update the firmware.
Jake is the man for me, taught me so much through his videos, and now i work on the boards for people as well. I own currently 4 XR's, ride a 4212 and a unicorn 4209 with Kush lo front and rear. Don't even get me started on what it takes to get your BMS repaired. The fact that we can only get parts from broken/used boards is straight up insane.
Jake, thanks for pumping up the bollume on this, and being honest about it. I know Jeff and the boys have to keep their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks, but those of us who know, realize it's long term good for the sport. I think it might of been you, that pointed out that the people who design and produce Onewheels, are not Onewheel enthusiast. They ride them, but they also mountain bike, snow board, etc. whereas there are others like myself, who just flat out can't go without riding every single day. . . and yeah, i hope Louis gets a little more facts, but man do i love that guy~!~Keep it up Professor~!~Can't wait to meet you.
The Pint got the metall power button nut problem from the start and it was present for about 1.5 years until they changed it. No information to current customers about the problem.
My nut was loose form day one, as I live in Sweden and there was no update at the time, I decided to fix it myself.
Thank you for this video! I love how this cause getting attention.
I am an EU resident, sending back the board would be more expensive than buying a new one… kinda..
Also the repair time is horrendous, they would keep my board for months.. thats just doesnt work.
I can do basic repair jobs on my onewheel, if they could source oem parts, everything would be much easier..
Thanks for sharing your experience. FM could so easily be the most loved company with the best product, worldwide. Has any other company so alienated it's core supporters. All the bully tactics against third party mods, apps etc, especially the FM lawsuit against JW, is very David vs Goliath.
I’m glad you’re raising awareness for this so I didn’t have to go through it myself
Thanks for sharing your experience. Right to repair ❤️
not a one wheel guy but would like one. will not buy until they concede to right to repair and will continue to comment on videos about this topic until they do. This will help with the algorithms and others should comment for this reason too.
I haven't been to Sutter Landing in ages - looks nice and green right now!
Great video. I have an OG Pint and want a bigger board but I’m holding out until the right to repair is sorted out. I can’t fathom spending thousands on something and then having to send it to California for any sort of service or repair, especially to a company that isn’t very transparent to its customers. They have an awesome product, but I feel they need to embrace the 3rd parties somehow.
The plague of the ferrite ring. 😭
We should make open wiki for all fixes and resources for opensource ways to maintain our products. I did reddit post about making front sensors out of carseat sensors, now i'm making a note how to fix charger cables and rear leds.
Interesting story, mesmerizing background. Thank you.
These videos are the only thing keeping me from getting my first onewheel
Hmmm my other videos should be stokingggg you on getting a onewheel
@@JakeLeary Well I tried one today and I think I might get one
It's amazing how now with the GT recall we're all of a sudden qualifies to fix the board.
Pints have a similar issue where the plastic power button housing is secured to the controller box with a metal nut that tends to come off, sometimes cracking the power button housing. The nut will short stuff on the board like Bluetooth, although personally I had my board turn off mid ride cause of this.
Obviously the solution would have just been to use a plastic nut instead so that nothing would happen even if it came loose, but as far as I know they haven't actually changed the design on the Pint X or GT
Edit: looks like the Pint x and GT use a plastic nut, but it's still baffling that they thought a regular metal nut on a hollow plastic part without any sort of adhesive was a good idea in the first place.
They fixed for the pint after a really long time
@@oskarfallmanmust have taken a long time, I bought mine in late 2020
exactly my experience. & many other OWheelers I'm sure
I truly question Adam Savages honesty when he did all the sponsored videos for FM.
What do you expect from someone with communist sympathies
Rich hipster...
Silicon Valley "doers" are great. Technicians, coders, hardware engineers, etc are awesome there.
Unfortunately, the ecosystem of managerial class that surround them at their companies are just plain mediocre paper-pushers with deeply schedule driven goals. These goals (release by X date, NO MATTER WHAT) tend to come from the boardroom (remember, any VC backed company, even if it's private, has a board filled with the VCs and their buddies). They won't hesitate to ignore the protests of their engineers in pursuing these goals. Universally, these people have never been "doers" themselves. They view themselves as superior to these "worker bees", and ignore all of their comments/complaints, particularly any that conflict with their deadlines or VC driven goals. I've been tasked with evaluating companies for acquisition, had a team of engineers unanimously state (after evaluation) that the acquisition is a bad idea, and then had the managerial class override the decision and force us to buy the company. None of these acquisitions were ever remotely successful, and simply wasted capital. That's what the managerial class does in Silicon Valley: They think short term, don't care about a pissing customers off, because they prioritize the VCs over the customers. After all, that's where all of their operating capital comes from. When customers finally get angry enough to drive accountability, these paper-pushers are long-gone, on to their next short-term gig of extracting high salaries and stock options from the next company and it's unfortunate customers.
This is what is happening at FM: "Ship it, no matter what" works a lot better with cloud software that can be updated with a single code commit than it does with heavy hardware with embedded firmware. The paper-pushers at FM don't care about that. They just care about PR that rises to a level that the non-riding, never used the product, never will use the product, golf playing board members will hear about.
Thanks for posting. Onewheel is such a good idea too.. sad situation.
Love my XR, like my pint but I will never buy another FM product again. In my dealings with them it was obvious they are straight up liars that could care less about doing right by their customers. Waiting for someone else to come up with a comparable product. Great vid, it is great to get the truth out to the uninformed.
Great video. Thanks Jake!
Thankfully, all models since the original Pint (including the GT) have integrated a headlight cable that consists simply of insulated wires. No more ferrite issue.
Doesnt Pint have lock ring around power button which is metal ? Heard stories about that, pretty much same issue, different place.
Just to let you and anyone else who's interested know, Jake, in regards to, "All the boards have this controller box design flaw, but very soon we will be rolling out a solution."
I bought my XR brand new about a year after the first Pint was released. My headlight is out. I barely trail ride, and I've only had about 5 hard wipe outs.
Doesn't seem like that hopeful comment ever made it to fruition.
First run or almost-last run clearly doesn't matter I guess.
Ty Jake....I had a similar experience with the pintx. I shared it with Justin at Relentless. They told me the repair was covered under warranty then billed me 500 bucks. I have the email to prove it
OMG they already make shit tons of money just selling it, why do they even try to profit on the repairs.
I'm glad I'm seeing all this controversy before I got a one wheel, I was tempted.
So glad Louis found you guys, you seem like a really tight knit and resourceful community whose sole equipment supplier is a bit of an arsehole company.
One of you needs to get him on a board at some point.
The definition of a lousy company. Things won’t change if you keep buying their products. Would you buy a car that the headlights continue to cut out randomly and the dealer won’t fix? They’re a company that’s outgrown their abilities.
Yeah but here’s the problem: there is NO other alternative to their product. Currently we’re stuck with them.
@@mwiz100 Yep. Hope my current boards last til 2035, at least... Not lookin' good, though...
@@mwiz100 feet? Bike? Skateboard? Scooter? I'll walk over supporting a criminal company. It's called integrity.
@@bocain812 this 100% Bonus: none of the wheeled vehicles you mentioned suddenly throw you off at speed with no warning. One wheel is a shitty product from a shitty company
I totally agree with your sentiments! I live in Sweden and there is no way on Earth I shall be sending my Pint or GT(when it finally arrives) back to FM. If they die on me and I cannot repair them myself they will be the last FM products I buy!👍🏾🙏🏾
UK here, no chance I'll give FM another penny. I buy user stuff that I acn repair. Since 4210 you can't. #Vesclife #ffm #seeya #weirdosanyway
I agree, I'm also living in Sweden. I hade the nut problem from day one, as I did know that they didn't fix it at that time I decided to fix it myself.
@@oskarfallman I'm though with FM a long time ago. It's been very well documented from day one how bad they are so I'm surprised you didn't see about their refusal to allow right to repair in, whenever you joined floatlife. I'm buying an efoil next, then I'll perhaps build a vesc onewheel. US stuff has a huge tax and ship so ready to stop buying from US again anyway. No such thing as this great American customer service they tell us about either. #vesclife #ffm
@@redboyjan i didn't know at the time, I bought it without the knowledge. Bare in mind it's 2 years ago. I know that if it ever brakes I will VESC the board
Def won't be even thinking about buying one with scam company like this.
Great Video Jake. Love your stuff. Keep it coming. Both my XR have broken headlights for the same issue
No FM lunch run for you. Haha. Thanks for you commentary.
Being a Onewheel stockist in the past Jake you will know the standards required that are set to be an official seller. If FM were to apply a similar model to the countless repair centres across the globe where they could supply parts to qualified repair centres it would help riders globally and at least be a small step in the right direction.
As a former FutureMotion employee in the CSR department, I can let you know that they are a JIT company with their parts. Since it doesn't qualify as a vehicle, they do not have to carry an overstock of parts for each model as you would with a car, a motorcycle, or the like. This also means that technically they do not make a profit off of their services due to the JIT manufacturing loop. All this means service centers are not going to happen merely because of the legal requirements (at this point) for the company to hold onto parts. Remember, they phased out support for three boards now, which means they don't have to hold onto parts either.
@@MatthewEaton this is terrifying.
Thank you, Jake!
thankfully my GT is currently working fine but it is extremely unfortunate (see: fcked up) that Future Motion under the guise of "High Steaks" & "Safety" will engineer Our $$$$ purchase in a sneaky & hostile way that denies us the right to repair & yes even modify & personalize Our product yet when they want the board back for repair/tire replacement, will ask Us to (illegally) black out the hazardous material (battery) label on the shipping box, risking the literal lives of pilots & staff (UPS, FedEx, DHL) that just want to do an honest days work & go home to their friends & fam.
Many Thanks for the Highlight, we def. have to push this issue as a unit. I'm down w/the FTC complaint direction (hope everyone of us are too) & great to see that y'all ain't scurred to keep it a buck 💯🤙🏾
Morally and ethically bankrupt.
“Future motion technicians are the only ones qualified to disassemble the boards.” They say forgetting that there are in fact other electrical engineers in the world.
The ferrite ring was probably needed to make the PCBs pass through the EMC/EMI (ElectroMagnetic Compliance/Interference) regulatory testings.
These tests are meant to make sure that the device doesn't emit too much radiated or conducted radio frequency interference into the environment and possibly cause problems with other devices. Most likely the headlights and their wiring were acting like an antenna, which caused the radiated emissions to not pass the required levels, so the "ferrite ring of shame" was added to the wires going to the headlight module as an afterfix (and therefore not pre-planned by the engineers) and that allowed the board to pass the EMC testing.
Exactly my thoughts. I am from Europe and was thinking about all the support that only FM does, you want to change/fix something, send it to CA and we will fix it is just not an option. When you consider the time it would need to be done (months) and money spent, besides the post service also insurance and finally repair costs it would be easier to consider buying a new board. I am not a OW owner yet, but these things worry me in advance of buying it. Even though I am buying one soon (I am just so psyched about it, that I want it), but this is just sad. They should consider extending their support and technician training to other countries or OneWheel vendors.
They are content robbing their customers
I might have actually bought their claim that they're the only ones who can service it if they didn't stop the user from simply unplugging and plugging the battery back in. The fact that you can't even do that is proof that this is just about money and control
I'm not a one wheeler, but I'm glad to see that their anti-consumer practices are being exposed. Like John Deere and Apple and a lot of others. I'm on my last iphone and MacBook. I'm running a fully repairable/upgradeable Framework laptop as a DIY version running Linux, yes they encourage you to tinker! I have a low spec Teracube 2e smartphone (not my daily driver) but will use daily when they release a higher spec model. I also will not rent software or media (subscription) FM is going to get a lot of pushback when people abandon their product and move on to less costly repairable versions. Arrogance at it's finest.
Future Motion really said that they had a bad relationship with you like you guys were dating? That's not how all this works. This isn't about feelings, this is about business. We are the customers, either make us happy or go out of business. Welcome to capitalism future motion.
Some company really needs to come out with a competition to the onewheel to put FM out of business.
There is a common problem with the pint where the nut behind the power button comes unscrewed and then dangles on the cabling. It yanks on the cable until eventually it breaks the soldering and the board can’t turn on using that button. Sounds similar to the fare-rite ring you were talking about.
yep. same issue
I had the same issue with the ferrite ring. I have a 4212 so clearly they never fixed it in future versions of the XR. I wasn't about to send that back to FM despite being within warranty. Took it to my local SLS shop and permanently fixed for $20. #FFM and shout out to Onewheel Tire Guru.
Completely off topic but I love that helmet. I got mine about a month ago. It was pretty uncomfortable at first but I added some cheap foam pads to it from Amazon. Judging from your chin strap, you must have done the same thing. Front light isn't great but the rear lighting is bitchin. Very lightweight and keeps my head cool.
I’m glad I saw your comment, I’ve had a board for less than a year and I was wondering if this ferrite ring was going to be a problem for me as well, if there’s something that I should do ahead of time to fix it.
@@CrechurBoy If you ever see your headlights blinking, shut off your yours lights in the app immediately. You can continue riding. Continuing to use the lights after the problem occurs can fry your controller. Otherwise, don't worry about it much unless/until it happens. There's two things you can do about it when it happens: 1) Have FM replace the part and risk it happening again 2) Have a SLS shop fix it for you permanently but void your warranty.
I've had my Pint X for 3 months and suddenly this week it wouldn't switch on. Knowing how terrible FM's reputation is regarding repairs I've taken it apart myself and found the negative BMS cable has broken clean off due to bad design. I'd rather knowingly void my warranty than send it back and be at their mercy.
On the GT they'd auto brick you for doing it yourself
@@AuRowe wait are you saying that if you tried doing a repair yourself on the GT, there's some kind of software in place that auto bricks the bored.
@@PR3M3 You can not unplug the BMS, on the GT which has a tendency to fail before the battery due to bad design, without it resulting in a board with no power and app message "corrupt data" until you send it to FM just so they can use their tool on it only they have access to.
They're claiming its for safety when in reality its for them to maximize control over the board modders. For safety. But they have modded boards in their own recent youtube videos, and also ask people to black out "hazardous material" (due to the lithium) on internationally shipped boxes from Canada to allow it to bypass customs.
The whole reason all the returns are needed often is related to the lack of third party repairability, which I have recently found out the extent to which FM goes to make sure there is little to no third party repair market. Hope this helps
@@AuRowe wow that's giving someone a gift but they only can use it when they are around the person that gifted it to them. WTF. I thought monopolies were illegal?
@@AuRowe yeah I know, that’s why I’ve just bought a brand new 2021 XR instead of waiting for the GT.
my XR headlights have been on the blink since 2019. im currently waiting to hear back about the bricked GT i had to send back.
"After going over enough bu-"
*HUEH!*
"After going over enough bumps"
The ring prevents electrostatic noise and interference to other devices.
This sounds like a class action suite 🤔..... Also.. came here through mr rossmannnnnnn
FM: fix this in the AM.
Great video! Definitely regret buying my GT now... should I open my XR to deal with the ferrite? I got the OEM Carbonfiber fender but I'd prefer a Craft&Ride Magnetic Carbon Fiber Fender like on my XR.
Hilarious that they would throw out third party accessories. There are so many TFL products that should be the stock parts in the first place.
☝🏽 that part. & let's not forget what FM aped from the aftermarket community like concave footpads etc for the GT
This is so disheartening... y’all are correct tho. I’m nervous for my GT delivery. FM be trippin...
As a technician that sends cargo and crew to space: I dare you to tell me I'm not qualified, but they chose other methods to avoid my warranty.
wtf is "space" ?
@@eugeniustheodidactus8890 as in exactly what is sounds like: orbit around planet earth and sometimes the moon
@@Tubajock2 Lol. You fkn guys are hilarious.
Thank you for keeping them honest, or at least trying to! Btw, how is your video so stable? Stabilizer?? Been thinking about riding with a camera
Helmet looks good 👍
Ferrite is a compound containing iron oxide. It does have metals in it but it's more like a ceramic. You certainly don't want a loose ferrite floating around on your wires and them charging you to fix their design flaw when the warranty was applicable is a form of fraud.
The correct solution would have been easy: silicone sealant or similar to glue the ring in place.
exactly. that is what One Stop Board Shop did to remedy my Pint's shit-uation
Had my pint for less than a year when it failed to turn on one day. App connected when plugged into the board and showed the battery was fully charged and ok. I figured it was still under warranty since it was fairly new and they had me ship it out for repair. Told me the battery was bad and wasn’t covered under warranty. Charged me for a battery and ridiculous shipping from the east coast. Few hundred dollars later and left a salty feeling toward them.
It wasn’t even the battery if was the BMS. Same thing happened to me so I put the battery in another board and charged over night to level the cells and the battery was fine.
Same experience with both of the pints that my sons bought. Really soured us on FM and we haven't bought anything from them since. I've had battery powered lawn care tools for years and never had any problems with the batteries, even leaving them fully charged for months at a time. Really hard to believe that we somehow "abused" the batteries in those pints to the point that they failed after only a year. More likely shit parts or shit design.
FYI a ferrite bead is a ceramic shroud to disrupt inter ruption between the magnetic fields of the four leads entering the LED
That’s what is happening to my board. Iam going to take that ring off thanks man
My OG pint had loose battery button washer.
This is so sad to hear about as I currently deal with GT ghosting issues/talking to FM. First time it ghosted, I sent it back to them. It made its round trip to CA, then ghosted again on the first ride after coming back to me.
Now they’re sending me a new footpad and I’m in this exchange with their CS where they’re winding up to blame it on me and “quick stops.” I asked how it could possibly ghost for longer than a few seconds-worth of wheel slippage if the “dead man’s switch” is functioning correctly, even in the event of a poorly-executed quick stop… we’ll see what they say to that, but the vibes are not good. :(
Really sucks because when I’m on it, I actually love the GT. Game-changer for me as a somewhat heavier rider, but all this really dampens my “stoke”…
Anyway, thanks for your content, as always. You pretty much taught me and plenty of others how to ride. 🤙
that fckin sucks bruvz
Jeez. I have noticed the GT stays activated for like, half a second longer than the XR and it’s pretty lame that they’re trying to conflate this with the board straight up ghosting…
@@JakeLeary Yep, exactly. I've noticed the same thing, and I definitely think I'm going to work on getting better/smoother at the proper heel lift stop now even when this all gets sorted. Between the extra torque trying hard to keep you up and that extra wheelslip time, quick-stops just feel a little sketchier/less reliable (to me, I'd say an intermediate rider) on the GT overall.
BUT... I know what I saw, and it should not have happened. The first time the thing took off backward, full-tilt for a good several yards before finally veering off the trail, down a ravine, and into a blackberry bramble, where the motor stayed engaged for a few seconds after the wheel no longer had any surface contact. Second time after its round trip to FM, I was sort of on high alert so I was able to dive after it quicker, but it was clearly the same type of deal - continued to spin even well after I had knocked it fully on its side, having been off the board completely for... I dunno... maybe 4 whole seconds?
No way that should be happening with front foot fully removed for that long, no matter how clumsy the dismount... right?
Anyway, sure hoping FM agrees with that argument... eventually... 😕
You need to get a refund and either wait for them to figure it out or ride an XR or Pint. That is total BS
@@inactive67 Well, I've got both of those and will be riding my XR at least until the replacement foot pad comes and I can get that on there. Thought about a refund... still considering pursuing it... but, like... it really is awesome! Haha. I hate that the company treats people this way, and stopping will probably terrify me for a while as I'm still testing the waters. But overall it's still really, really fun, and a big upgrade even from the XR for the type of rider I am and what I like to do (go for long cruises on bike trails, emphasis on long).
It seems to be a dilemma Onewheel riders have been facing for years... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
FM is the new Boeing lol
When it works it is great. When it doesn't they will deny and put the blame on you until that is no longer feasible.
Yes to everything in this video.
I notice you’re wearing barefoot shoes! Do you prefer these for riding in general? I like wearing my barefoot sandals but worry about ankle support in a fall
This was actually my first time riding them in trails. I like the way the handle because they lower your center of gravity but if I was doing any type of riding where I was worried about a fall or a runout I’d wear shoes with a lot more protection
I ride OWs and EUCs and I'd say we would all be better off if we all did our own repairs, posted info and helped each other. We can do it. It will cost more at first, but the industry will respond if we stick to our guns.
The XR also had another common issue on the controller, today i repaired a XR controller for a friend and I noticed the Mosfet in the middle upper arm have cold solder joint under it, it was barely makeing contact with the pcb and causing it to create arcs under the mosfet and ultimately damaged the silicon pad of the mosfet, the board would not turn on after 400 miles of gentle use because the mosfet is shoot, replaced the mosfet and notice during the manual SMT of that mosfet it was very hard to get the solder pad to melt due to its design flaw, the middle upper mosfet has a significant larger heat dissipate area causing that mosfet to be poorly soldered on during smt. I recomand if your XR shuts off immediately after boot up, it might be a shorted out middle upper arm mosfet.
Hey dude, I've got a controller with Error 10 blink code that died a couple days after going through rain and some nasty puddles. Have you ever fixed an error 10 or water damaged controllers?
@@getaflattyinya nope, try take it apart and find out the issue.
Thank you
Hey Jake, your audio is really good. What did you use to record this?
Thanks
This is a straight up iPhone 12 Pro with no audio filters or after effects
@@JakeLeary 🤯🤯 What!! Damn That’s amazing
Thanks so much for the reply.
Especially at the end; it’s like you have some high end sound equipment. Really impressive.
skills👌🏼💯
@@skyking9248 the caveat is that I need to find a quiet place to record because the iPhone mic picks up EVERYTHING
I had two issues with a board that I had to send back. They blamed me both times. I assumed they were telling the truth. Now I wonder if I should have accepted their claim as fact.
Lots of these stories, customer refused the work, got it back, proven by the community service network they lied
I don't believe a thing those too close to FM say either. Like the riders who tried GT before launch and made those awkward videos talking about the board. Yeah. Money talks I guess. Big names that lose their appeal imo
Future Motion’s silence on this issue speaks volumes.
I had an issue with FM customer service as well back when I got my plus. It would shut off on me while I was riding so I sent them my board and about a month later they sent it back to me. I get on my board for a ride and within 3 blocks the board shuts off on me again!! I also forgot to mention that I had a battery pack that I could charge and ride but when they sent it back to me they switched out the controller and I couldn’t charge n ride anymore. Luckily I had some friends that bypass it so it was back to normal again. It was a total pain in the ass dealing with their customer service.
I had to replace a controller box too .. Unfortunately for me.. I got my Pint used on ebay and the seller sent me his Pint in really shitty packing or should I say - Lack there of. So I had to send it into FM for a replacement and it cost me $265. Huge bummer but totally worth it because It works like a charm now