By Guest Writer Aaron Knowles
Witz Wheels goes mobile, full time.
The first time that I heard of Ryan Hurewitz was right about the time that Bart Miller literally “crashed” into the scene. Witz seemed like the greatest hype man on the planet. Fully immersed immediately into the Onewheel community, and appreciated by all.
Later on, it would seem that you couldn’t hear from Witz without a loud and unavoidable “F&*K Future Motion” due to some bad experiences with their repair policy.
But then things changed. Witz, through his distaste for Onewheel’s repair policies, had an idea and a change of heart. He saw an opportunity that is already changing the Onewheel community for the better.
After two years of developing his idea, Ryan ‘Witz’ Hurewitz has officially launched the first full-time mobile repair facility ever titled Witz Wheels.
According to Witz, the Car selling business has been good to him over the past 20+ years, but after dealing with Future Motion and talking to his friends Cory Boehne, of Armor-Dilloz, and Matt Hoover, Land-Surf, he could not ignore his need to fill the gap that Future Motion had left in the community by way of repairs.
Witz tried for 18 months to do all three things that matter to him, be a single father, fix Onewheels and continue his career as a car salesmen. But according to Witz, three of four months ago, he was done with the struggle.
“Last month, I officially pulled the trigger, left my job and went full time into repairs,” said Witz.
“I do everything Onewheel,” said Witz. “I customize boards, fix boards and sell boards. I do all types of maintenance and repairs. I do it all.”
All of this was created when Witz had purchased a Onewheel for his daughter.
“My daughter’s board, a plus, had an issue with the bearing,” said Witz. “I didn’t like the responses that Future Motion was giving.”
According to Witz, Future Motion told him to send the board in, and they would not give him any information about the repair over the phone and also, he would not receive the repaired components when the board was returned. Witz told them he didn’t feel comfortable doing that and that he had mechanical experience and really just needed a motor that he could install himself.
Witz thought to himself, “This is a problem and this is not okay.”
And that is when the seed of an idea was planted.
How Witz Wheels Started
“Talking to Cory, I said why don’t I just go buy a Plus, take the motor out of that and I am sure there are people that would want a battery and a controller,” Witz said. “So that is what I did. I found people that needed parts and sold them the spare parts.”
Matt and Cory helped him get the idea off the ground and started financially. At first Witz just fixed a few boards here and there and then the idea just kind of exploded from there.
“It’s been pretty nuts lately with all of these custom builds and repairs. It has absolutely exploded.”
Witz has taken that explosive energy from the community and finally created the next evolution of his business.
“I recently started a mobile repair for Onewheels,” said Witz. “I have turned an enclosed trailer into a full-on Onewheel repair shop, which includes workbench, bearing press, tire racks. It even has a generator, lighting and air conditioning.”
Since starting his repair service, Witz has received boards from not only the U.S.A, but even other countries like New Zealand, Germany and Russia. Even riders in Israel are sending parts and boards to fix.
“Before this virus came out, I had a bunch of plans to travel the US and other countries, including New Zealand and Israel, to just work on and ride boards,” said Witz. “But that’s all been put on hold a bit, but for now, people have been sending me their boards and things are going well so far.”
Once things calm down and life starts to return to normal, Witz plans on hitching up the Witz Wheels trailer and hitting a bunch of cities with his mobile repair shop; Tampa, Miami, Dallas and so on.
“There are a lot of big Onewheel groups in need of repairs,” said Witz.
The plan will be to just roll in, do a ride on the weekend with everybody and then post-up and fix boards. He plans on setting up shop at events like our community driven Float Fest, as well as the Race for the Rail.
Witz also hopes that by attending R4TR, if Future Motion is in attendance, maybe they can have ‘that’ conversation.
“I would hope to work with them (FUTURE MOTION), but until that happens, I am fully prepared to keep doing what I am doing.”
Ryan Hurewitz
According to Witz, the main motivator behind this idea is to support the community with repairs, because Future Motion will not.
“Why am I doing this?” asks Witz. “This is their company, this is their board. Who knows if they will ever come around?”
“I just really want to say that I appreciate this community,” continued Witz. “I could not be doing what I am doing without their constant support and appreciation. I can’t explain how blessed and thankful I am to have all of this support. People are constantly tagging me in these Facebook posts and sending me their friends. I couldn’t turn this down. I just had to see where it would go.”
If you have a Onewheel that is need of maintenance or repairs, contact Ryan at Witz Wheels and tell him Jimmy and Aaron sent you.
Jimmy Chang’s Thoughts on Witz Wheels
I’d like to thank Aaron for submitting this article. Want to submit an article as a guest writer? Contact me.
This is a great example of: see a need, fill a need. Future Motion has a very good product but the internal workings and electronics are complicated and will wear down and fail over time.
There is a huge need for more regional maintenance and repairs of Onewheels and the community is stepping up to fill that need with the likes of Ryan Hurewitz and with another community based Onewheel repair option called Stoke Life Service. Neither service is certified by Future Motion as repair shops but both are operated by Onewheel enthusiasts who love the sport and hobby of Onewheel.
Onewheels are expensive. If Future Motion wants the public to start treating their product as a true stoke machine rather than a fun toy, then they need to get serious about supporting a means to repair and maintain the Onewheel.
Having a trusted way to repair and maintain boards is a huge need. Yet the only way to have diagnostics done and repairs or maintenance performed on the Onewheel is to send the board to California. That’s fine if you live in the US, but what about the folks that spent well over $2,000 on a new Onewheel in Europe or New Zealand?
I’ve had multiple people email me from overseas in dismay over a fairly new Onewheel that is having issues and Future Motion wants them to ship the board back to them. It is expensive and time consuming and the cost of repairs can often be outrageous. But without many other alternatives for repairs or maintenance, that leaves few options for fans of the Onewheel.
I even have a bricked Onewheel that has been sitting for months because I don’t want to spend a fortune mailing it to Future Motion, getting an estimate on repairs that I may or may not want to do, and then getting it fixed. I know what is broken. But I have no way to buy parts. In my case, I need someone like Ryan.
Ryan at Witz Wheels saw a need and now he is working to fill that need. If you have a Onewheel that is need of maintenance or repairs, contact Ryan at Witz Wheels and tell him Jimmy and Aaron sent you.
-Jimmy Chang
2 comments
This is Martin hurwitz Ryan’s father. I was a mechanic and worked in the car business for 40 years in one aspect or another. My father was a mechanic and owned service stations for many many years which is where I got it from.
I am real proud of my son for what he’s accomplished. Working with your hands and helping people is a very good combination to have for success.
My favorite dude to rep!
💯 the Best!