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The brand new InMotion X1 hasn't officially launched yet, but we got a private first look during the brand's ongoing Demo Days Tour, and our early verdict is that it could be one of the most exciting off-road electric unicycles the company has ever built. Jimmy and Andrew hit the trails with the InMotion crew and two championship-level racers to see how the pre-production wheel held up. Keep in mind that this is a first impression, not a full review (which will come later). Official specs are still under wraps for now, but how the wheel feels and performs on the trail and pavement isn't.
The Demo Days Tour
InMotion is taking the X1 on the road for its Demo Days Tour — 44 stops running September 12 through October 24 — so riders can get their hands on the wheel before the official launch. You can find the stop nearest you on InMotion's X1 Demo Tour page. Our day began with a tailgate reveal worthy of the occasion: a Cybertruck loaded with X1s, which Jimmy summed up as a glorious all-you-can-ride EUC buffet. Albert, who handles customer service at InMotion and also coaches the race team, hosted alongside racers Zac Darnell and Maxwell Berger. Jimmy cast himself as the SUV mom of the group (basically a pavement princess), and Andrew admitted he's no off-road specialist either, which made them ideal test pilots for one particular question: can an average rider keep up? Or rather, is this the right wheel for a EUC rider looking to get into off-roading?
Built by Riders, for Riders
Much of what sets the X1 apart traces back to Max, who moved to China to work on the wheel and then joined InMotion about six months ago. Max designed the seat, trolley handle, pedals, and power pads. Albert's assessment from working with him is that anything Max touches is built by riders for riders.
The removable seat is more cushioned than most, hooks onto the trolley handle, and clips on and off with one hand, so you can pop it into a backpack once the trail gets serious. The trolley handle locks up and down just as easily, and it remains usable with the seat attached. The pedals are narrow enough to avoid clipping obstacles while still offering plenty of grip across the knobs, and they adjust for both height and dihedral. As Max explains with his unique expertise and riding experience, dihedral is simply the angle the pedals sit at, set with four grub screws: more angle holds you in tighter when you're running pads, while newer riders can dial in less to make getting on and off easier.
Suspension and Off-Road Tuning
The X1's stock shock offers two ride positions: a tall stance for the trail and a lower one that drops the body for street duty. Compression damping is adjusted with a single knob, and rebound damping lives on a red knob accessed by reaching underneath the wheel. Both are easy to change on the fly, again pointing to a design made for riders by riders.
The InMotion team is blunt about who the X1 is for: hardcore off-road riders, with street riding as a bonus rather than the mission. What earns it that label is the suspension travel, the weight positioning, and firmware tuned to soak up bumps and climb steep hills with ease.
On the Trail: Torque, Balance, and Air Time
Low-speed torque was the star of the show. One crew member loved tiptoeing around mud puddles and easing up the hills at Moab the day before, and Andrew was amazed at how the X1 hauled itself up steep sections without a hint of creaking or moaning from the motor. Zac, who has raced for five years and usually podiums every time, called it the wheel he has been waiting for, praising its balance in the air and torque capacity to accelerate off the lip even when a jump arrives short on speed. Max, who helped build it, called it light and poppy.
The more revealing reactions came from riders who aren't racers. Andrew admits he was intimidated at first and fought the wheel, but once he relaxed and let the suspension and torque do the work, difficult terrain felt surprisingly manageable and made him feel like a better off-road rider. Trevon, a Denver local who weighs 240 to 260 pounds, has long struggled to trust wheels when jumping, yet he had no such doubts here: the X1 held steady in ruts, hopped on command, and felt like something he could wholly rely on.
Passing mountain bikers and ATV riders offered nods and thumbs-up, and Jimmy called out how refreshing it is to ride somewhere you don't feel like an outlaw. Range, the usual worry on a torque-happy wheel, wasn't a concern for the testers. Zac felt it has the perfect amount of range, mentioning that his own battery tends to run out before the wheel battery does.
Street Riding: A Lighter Take on the P6
When the group split into off-road and on-road teams, the scope of feedback continued to broaden. Andrew described the X1 as everything he loves about the P6 — InMotion's speed-focused wheel that the team has tested up to 93 mph — only smaller and lighter. The lower weight makes it zippy, the lean-in feel carries over, and the response is playful, with the wheel snapping into a lean like a rubber band and snapping back the moment you ease off. Another tester valued the weight savings even more, noting the agility it adds without costing power.
What Still Needs Work
Nothing about the X1 is final, and the InMotion team was able to share criticisms about where it can still improve. Height is the biggest complaint: with big suspension travel and tall pedals, mounting can be tiring, particularly on an uphill bank, and shorter riders feel it most. In this case, running the lowest pedal setting can sit a little high for the knees, and Trevon echoed that smaller riders will notice the mounting height more.
Leg contact came up as well. Andrew felt some irritation on the inside of his legs, though he suspects it had as much to do with his experience causing him to squeeze the wheel as with the design, and Jimmy felt pressure on his inner knee while trying to keep pace with the racers. One InMotion member noted that Jimmy's wheel was in the lowest pedal setting, which may have played a role.
The last item is firmware. Torque response and acceleration are excellent, but the BMS and turning behavior aren't quite there yet: when the wheel leans hard in a berm, it can start to flutter. The InMotion team says it's constantly refining the firmware, and because it's firmware, fixes can arrive in an update.
The Freshly Charged Verdict: Who the X1 Is For
After a day on the trails, the X1 looks built for hardcore off-road riders who want serious torque, adjustable suspension, and a balanced, playful feel in the air, and it won over testers ranging from our own pavement princesses to a heavyweight rider to professionals with lists of race wins as long as movie credits. As a bonus, it holds its own on pavement too. A few rough edges remain, mostly mounting height and firmware, and we'll have much more to say once we can spend time with the production version. For now, the X1 looks like it could be one of the most exciting off-road EUCs InMotion has built yet, and if a Demo Days Tour stop is near you, it's worth a ride before the tour wraps at the end of October.
Other EUC Content From Freshly Charged
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