Gadgetory

it all started with Back to the Future Part two Marty McFly travels to the Year 2015 and he ends up getting chased by futuristic bullies I need to worry hoverboard on hoverboards here when the film opened in 1989 the whole world decided that this was the future of course we'll be riding around on hoverboards someday well 2015 is right around the corner and we've seen at least one real working hoverboard but you need a huge copper floor to ride it and it only floats half an inch off the ground not exactly where we thought we'd be in 2015 according to the movie but we're getting maybe we don't need a pink board and moon shoes to make getting around a little more awesome in the past few years dozens of startup companies have slapped motors on just about anything that moves bikes individual wheels scooters unicycles rollerskates longboard skateboards and plenty of other weird things they last long enough through your daily commute and they're fast and easy ways to get from point A to point B and they're super fun to ride okay so I may not be floating six inches off the ground on my way to work anytime soon but the real dream of the hoverboard that effortless and cool personal transport might actually come true but what's it going to look like how will I be getting to work in the future Aaron aiders is the founder of a company called leaf technologies and he had his partner Dan Seagram created the Leaf skateboard it's a longboard with two additional wheels with motors that rotate individually allowing you to complete 180 degree turns without lifting off the ground it is insane so what is leaf so the leaf is a board that allows you to ride down the street like a snowboard so you can write it forwards backwards you can cruise sideways you can spend 360 down the streets just as you would as a snowboard and that was a regional dream we had we're a longtime snowboarders really passionate about the sport and just kills us during the summer with nowhere to ride so this was a childhood dream come true of being able to ride like a snowboard everywhere we go so this looks a lot like a traditional skateboard except for these two Frankenstein motors here yes so this is a six wheel system based on a framework of a piece called free board amazing device but you have to have a hill and if you don't live near Hills like we do in Manhattan we're out of luck so the drive wheels drive you forward if you could go sideways that's going to drive you this way you can even go backwards whichever way you point it's going to drive we have three tracks to send the AC signal to the motor we have brushes that connect the controller so the brushes are always touching the readings no matter what direction the motors are turning how fast can this thing go we've tested it and it's gone up to 20 miles per hour it's actually probably able to go a lot faster than that but we want to keep it you know safe when you first got on this thing did it take you a while to adjust and learn it's kind of like your first day snowboarding when you get on the wheeled version just to to get used to that but by the end of the day you'll be shredding I'll admit I've never snowboarded before so I don't know about shredding but I've been skateboarding for over a decade so I figured it couldn't be that difficult I slip my feet into the holsters hit the throttle on the Bluetooth remote control and I was off my back wheels immediately started to drift out because I was riding it like a skateboard with most of my weight with the front but then I shifted my weight instead to both of my heels and then to my toes and back to my heels something clicked and I started to get the hang of it this is what snowboarding on pavement is like after a while I even managed to revert or turn 180 degrees without lifting the wheels off the ground I was feeling pretty good about myself but then Aaron got on and I was blown away the leaf skateboard is insanely fun and surprisingly easy even though I've never snowboarded before I think I could get the hang of this and carve through the streets but for as cool as it is it's still very similar to a skateboard you can change bikes and skateboards all you want and make them electric and more powerful or you can do an inventive stuff and come up with completely new modes of transportation they've created some crazy writable x' like the solowheel hovertrax luna cycle and orbit wheels and they're doing it all from a small office and Camas Washington tell me about in ventus and what you guys do here we do everything no emissions efficient so far everything everything missions from me what is your favorite toy to ride around here last few months I've been writing the Howard Triton office I want to go to a different power building I can get there so quickly you know talk to someone and do right back do these work indoors only Earle source that's what the harbour trash actually was designed for indoor good we are so small so mainly I'm thinking like airports warehouse shopping or anything just conveniently going around ok you can almost like you're doing your walking yourself you can you can spin right quick spin is go somewhere turn around go back that kind of people and then do you ride the solowheel around here solar oil it's more transportation for outside you want to go from one place to another they call that our last mile yes yes so they can get out a train get a bus you like that to where we want to go up handle right it's kind of like briefcase those communities people are starting to see this now is not just a toy it is a fun thing to use but it's more than a toy it's transportation something you can travel miles on so where are these popular they're very popular in China very popular in France and the rest of Europe Germany so you sort of just like ride that from the house to the Train and we're trying to promote that in the u.s. too because obviously at places like New York or San Francisco Seattle that's something you can do so it sounds like it could be pretty convenient for commuting but how easy is it to ride how does the solowheel work it generally takes people 20 minutes to an hour to learn everybody we've ever taught has learned it so it works by you doing as little as possible and let it take over for you the whole concept is it's trying to balance you just like you would bounce stick on your hand so your hand is the sole away yeah the hand is the sole wheel and you're the stick up there if your stick up here is moving around and bending and moving like that it's going to be obviously harder for you to do it so the less you do on the solowheel easier it is okay can I see you write a thing so to get on it you basically just want to put your leg on pad then you put your other foot on there Wow and then just as I'm as I feel it falling over I can just twist it to keep upright okay okay so I think I get how this is supposed to work but let's see what happens when I get on these two companies are working on the bleeding edge inventing things no one has seen before but what if you want something more simple to say right to work on right now you've got a few really good options actually there's the Z board which is what I like to call the Hummer of electric long boards the deck is huge and so are the wheels and it works in an interesting way you lean forward on the front foot pad to accelerate and do the same on the back pad to slow down then there's the ego Cruiser it's a super simple electric longboard that's controlled with a handheld remote and as a top speed of 12 and 1/2 miles per hour the best thing about this forward it's only 700 bucks the boosted board cost $1,500 but I'd say it's justified it has two motors that allow the board to hit 20 miles an hour going uphill but it only has a range of six miles what's neat about this board is it's three settings beginner intermediate and expert each with a speed throttle and finally there's the self-balancing unicycle or SVU it's exactly that it's a unicycle that has a three axis gyro and a three axis accelerometer very similar to what you'd find in a Segway learning to ride it is pretty difficult but once you do you can cruise around town at 12 and 1/2 miles an hour while looking oh so cool and this is just the beginning as battery technology advances we're gonna see more efficient faster rideable it's great to see so many companies playing ball on the space and has me really excited about the future hey maybe someday I'll get my hoverboard you