Last-mile transportation, such as portable bikes and boards, frees commuters from the tyranny of gas-guzzlers and crowded subway cars. They are also luring recreational users seeking an electric boost in outdoor sports like mountain biking.

“I talk with a fair amount of people in the bike industry, and my understanding is that lots of the growth in mountain biking is coming from the e-bike,” said Orion O’Neill (pictured), sales manager at Future Motion Inc.

The powerful motors and electric sensor technology on e-bikes allows ordinary riders to conquer terrain they couldn’t manage otherwise. The lowered barriers to entry are bringing lots of consumers to e-bikes and to mountain biking, O’Neill pointed out. Future Motion’s Onewheel line of three single-wheeled electric-powered skateboards are also suitable for exploring outdoor terrain. Call it mountain boarding.

O’Neill spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the InterBike Marketweek event in Reno, Nevada. They discussed how e-bikes (and e-boards) lower the barrier to mountain biking and trends toward the regulation of last-mile transportation. 

Onewheel is better than four in the woods

Onewheel boards basically look like skateboards with a single large wheel in the center. Their versatility lends itself to both urban commuters and outdoors exploration — on trails, sand, grass, gravel, etc. The line includes the original Onewheel, the Onewheel+, and the Onewheel+XR.

The company is growing steadily and is available at 400 retailers worldwide, according to O’Neill. The board’s programming and firmware tells the motor how to respond to inputs. That helps it provide a smooth ride over rough terrain.

One interesting bonus is that the big wheel serves incidentally as a trail repairer, O’Neill explained. “The cool thing about Onewheel on trail that lots of people don’t know is, the big tire actually packs the trails, so it actually can repair some of the ruts that bikes put in,” he said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the InterBike Marketweek event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE