The Onewheel GT is fast, crushes hills, has nice concave front and rear footpads, better grip, and feels stable cruising at 17-19 mph. Pushback is real, and makes going over 20 mph a chore. The GT evokes the flow state we all know and love.
My first day on the Onewheel GT
The torque feels great and and it can crush hills. The skrrrttt sound of the tire burning out when you land a bonk is so satisfying. Yes, it’s more powerful than a CBXR/JWXR if you’ve been wondering.
Taking it on a familiar trail it was noticeably easier to power through certain sections – in particular anything with some elevation gain.
The tire (treaded for me) takes some getting used to, it’s a tougher compound, a bit slippery when new, not the most forgiving on rough terrain.
The rounded profile does make it lean more towards the carvier end of the spectrum like a Pint vs the XR’s Vega. However, when you couple that with the larger rim size and subsequently lower sidewalls you don’t have much edge to work with…big rim/small rubber setup also makes it tougher to lower PSI too far without risking damaging your rim (I gotta experiment more with this as I usually ride around 12 PSI on my current tire).
Speaking of PSI, check yours upon arrival, we had one at 15 and one at 20 PSI from the factory.
Between the tire’s shape and the larger/heavier board, carving feels more snowboard-like to me…both in feel and in terms of how you initiate turns. Once I got a few miles in, I was digging it, different but flowy.
I’ve only tried a couple riding modes so far, primarily Highline.
Flow felt a little looser and had pushback creep in around 16-17mph. I did not feel pushback at those speeds in Highline. Will need to mess around with higher speeds some more, only hit a little over 20 today but I can say for certain that it feels more stable and comfortable at 18+ than the XR.
Racing season will be interesting as we learn how it operates at speeds beyond pushback.
Grip tape is much improved from the XR. Front footpad concave is nice. I do worry about durability of plastic footpads and bumpers with heavy trail use.
All in all, it’s a whole new beast but one I think many will love once you get a chance to get used to it.
Come check it out for yourself at ShredFest 2 by SEEK N SHRED this June and see how it does on our race course custom-built for Onewheel 
Early Onewheel GT Deep Dive
Weight
Yes, the board is heavier and you’ll notice that as soon as you pick up your box. But regardless I still get more pop, distance and height when bonking which is fun.
When you press the nose to compress as your tire hits your bonking object of choice (root, rock, Electric Stoke bonk rock, squirrel, etc) you get that much more power with the GT to get a little added bounce in your bollie.
Pushback
It’s real once you try to get over 20 mph. In Highline or Apex it starts to push back around the high 18s and once you start to approach 20 mph it makes it uncomfortable to go faster.
It’s very effective at keeping you to the advertised max speed of 20mph. The pushback is more apparent than XR and it can surprise you when it comes in during turns, uphills or downhills.
Cruising at 17-19 feels comfy and stable, but when you want to go faster it kinda smacks you across the face and tells you to calm yourself down.
Range
Got home at 32% battery after 13.1 miles. Terrain was a mix of techy trail, fire road, bike path, with about 900 ft of elevation gain. I was cruising at 17-20 mph for a lot of it to test pushback. Turns out, I was at around 11 psi so YMMV but this tire felt a lot better on trails at 11 than at 16-17 mph.
Rims
We will definitely need some rim protection asap. Couple dings on one board within the first 30 miles. See pic.
Riding Modes
On the Onewheel XR, Mission ride mode is like looser skateboard trucks and Delirium mode is like tighter trucks.
On the Onewheel GT Highline and Apex modes feel similar but Apex feels even stiffer to me than Delirium. I rode half my ride in each and so far prefer the flowy-er Highline setting.
About the author, Manuel Soto
A little background, I’m Manuel Soto and I’m around 10k miles into my Onewheel love affair, primarily ride trails, and have been riding CBXRs since October 2020 with lots of VnR experience before that so I’m used to running extended range.
I ride my Onewheels in California and anywhere else life’s adventures take me. I describe myself as aTrail-loving, music-playing, plant-based Onewheel rider and I’m the co-founder of @seeknshred
Be sure to check out seeknshred.com for ShredFest 2, coming up a June 2-5 in Wilseyville.
IGs are @stokespreader and @seeknshred