ACTON R8 RocketSkates - The World's First Smart Electric Skates (Silver)

Contrary to the company's marketing campaign where they portray potential users of the RocketSkates as skinny and athletic people, these RocketSkates would be the best for overweight, fat, obese people. Why? Because the act of balancing demands a lot of energy and burns a lot of calories. They are rated for people up to 275 pounds and they do look and feel durable.I am actually on the opposite side. I would prefer to accumulate some weight. As a result, I am looking for some kind of balance between a fun commuting option and saving energy without using a car.I see that many early adopters have complained about the steep learning curve with these skates. And I am not surprised. The company's videos show a person who is trying to learn how to ride these skates in an office hallways while holding on a window sill. In addition, that person (in the video) is not wearing any protective equipment, like a helmet, elbow and knee pads. :-( Please consider not to follow that video and that bad example. It may take you two weeks to learn how to ride these skates if you do. In addition, you may get frustrated and disappointed. The skates may end up gathering dust for several months or years and you may end up selling them for $20 at a garage sale.I am not telling you what to do here and I would like to state a disclaimer right away that the following information is not prescriptive and I am not responsible for any consequences, but after various personal experiments I've found the the following method is very effective, compresses the learning curve and lead to some fun. I call it "The Shopping Cart Method."Find an empty, forgotten, abandoned parking lot and bring and empty shopping cart to that lot. Put a helmet on. Put elbow pads on. Put knee pads on. Put some protection on your tailbone and butt on (consider some HIllBilly Impact Shorts, or some other impact shorts designed for snowboarding, etc.). At least attach a billow to your behind with scotch tape, etc. Set your RocketSkates to the "Beginner" level. I've seen somewhere information that at the Beginner level the speed is limited to 5 mph. You think that it sounds very slow. However, once you will be on the skates and they will be pulling you forward, even 1 mph will feel like 40 mph inside a car. You will be surprised that another person can just walk next to you while it feels like high speed pulling for you on the skates.Next, (assuming that you've followed the company's instructions about putting the skates on your feet) hold on a shopping cart with two hands and active the skates. If you in a parking lot that has a little bit of a slope (no more than 7-8 degrees), it will make sense to stand at the bottom of the slope so the skates would have to work harder in order to try to pull you up, so the speed would not feel as high and you would feel that you are in a good control.Once you've activated the skates and the started to pull you forward, since you will be holding onto a shopping cart with four wheels, you will feel more confident about the experience of the ride. And if the parking lot is big enough and empty, you can concentrate on balancing rather than being afraid of riding into a human being or a car, or some structure. Your brain needs time to adapt to the new situation and "The Shopping Cart Method" will give your brain enough time for that adaptation.Make several circles around that empty parking lot while holding on that cart. Since shopping carts are not that heavy and if you are not too heavy, then the four motors in the skates should be able to propel you forward. They did propel me forward and this method has worked for two other people.Next, AFTER you will become confident riding with the shopping cart with two hands, you will need to start experimenting riding while holding on the cart with only one hand. After making a few circles while holding with one hand, you can move to the next step. The next step is to hold on the card with two hands, but while riding push that card a little bit stronger and faster in front of you in order to release it for a second, and then catch it (the cart will be slowing down on asphalt faster than in a store). Then, after being comfortable with the previous exercise, push and release it for couple seconds. Then for push it even further and for more seconds. Personally I've noticed that I was able to push, while riding, couple parking spots away from me and the catch up with that and latch on that again, and then repeat.After mastering riding without the cart for a few seconds (preferably up a minor slope in order to slow down the motors), you should be able to feel confident to experiment going 2-3 parking places without the cart at all. Try not to rush going down even a minor slope because you will feel double acceleration. One from going down the slope and another one from inadvertently pressing not the leading skate (which unfortunately leads to acceleration in this model). While practicing riding without the cart, after just 10-15 minute I was able to improve from riding only 2-3 parking spots to 20 parking spots without touching the ground and without engaging the breaks.Well, individual learning curves can vary, of course. However, "The Shopping Cart Method" has helped me to progress from a complete fear (that I have developed from multiple unsuccessful attempts to learn while holding on the banister and the wall) to a level of comfort of riding them from an empty parking lot back home with the packaging box, while maintaining balance. And I've accomplished it in one evening on one battery charge.Now, more about he skates and the company. The manual states that one can expect 600 charge cycles before the batteries would need to be replaced. it's a good thing that the batteries are replaceable. Also, I am guessing that logically one will be able to use batteries designed for R10 in the R8 model. It's just a guess based on the logic that it is cheaper to manufacture the same base model and then charge extra for extra capacity batteries included. At least that happens often with digital cameras and cell phones.As I understand, there is a mini-motor inside each wheel. That is why they are not replaceable, but only the rubber tires are replaceable. I think it's a good idea. With the app you can make the leading skate to turn 360 degrees on one spot because each wheel can be controlled independently. It's fund to see the first time, but does not seem to be useful, unless people are going to have some remotely controlled RocketSkates wars.What I don't like is the fact that the company makes you put all sorts of personal information in just to try the app! I think that mentality is SO outdated! Even Apple (with all its leverage) does not make you put all sorts of personal information in, unless it is really necessary. Acton should make those questions OPTIONAL and state that they are interested in your Gender, Age, Weight, Height, etc. for marketing purposes and for improving products, etc. When Motorola did it for its cell phones, I immediately switched to another brand of cell phones. No wonder why Motorola cell phone department was losing money and was eventually divested! Any skates should be like they were in the past. If you own them -- you should not answer a dozen of nosy questions in order to use them. There are so many competing products on the market already and there are more coming up (just check the Kickstarter) every day.

I'm an electric skateboarder with 6 years of experience. I'm also a professional engineer. I saw these skates on shark tank and instantly knew that this produce is garbage.now my internet browser has targeted me for rocket skate adds for weeks!No interest. They said they raised 20 million via investors. They will lose their money.I feel strongly compelled to warn strangers not to waste their money on these dead end product.

Very tough to get acclimated to. Definitely a workout and not as easy as it is presented.