The internet is full of talented engineers and designers building all kinds of weird and wonderful vehicles that, quite frankly, look absolutely terrifying to climb aboard. Like The Q’s self-balancing skateboard, reminiscent of the Onewheel, but built around a beefy Formula 1 wheel.
The Onewheel skateboard, so named because it rides along on a single wheel in the middle of the deck that’s assisted by a self-balancing electric motor, has recently been in the news, but not for reasons its creators would like. Earlier this month, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission urged riders to stop using all of Future Motion’s Onewheel electric skateboard models after four reported deaths over the past three years, as well as several serious injuries.
Future Motion has called the CPSC’s statements, “unjustified and alarmist,” while forums across the internet are filled with users both defending the Onewheel skateboards as being safe when used properly, and sharing stories of the serious injuries they’ve sustained while riding them. If there’s one thing that everyone can agree on, it’s that this custom Formula 1 self-balancing skateboard should probably never be made available to consumers.
That’s not to say this isn’t an impressive build. Although The Q, a YouTube channel that has been making custom creations for years (everything from a cardboard soda vending machine to a bicycle with a split rear wheel) never explains in detail how it builds its creations, it looks like this time they salvaged the electric motor and self-balancing mechanism from a two-wheeled hoverboard.
That explains why this custom self-balancing skateboard rolls along at such a leisurely pace, at least compared to some of the official Onewheel devices, which can hit a top speed of almost 31 km per hour. It’s a little under-powered, but given the size of that wheel and how awkward this contraption looks to ride, slow and steady is probably the safest approach here.