Initial Ownership Experience

The initial order got held up at customs in Hong Kong. The vendor offered to ship me one from New Jersey, but I'd have to pick another color. They don't have it in white. Thought about it for 25 minutes and agreed to have them ship me a silver one. Due to the sketchiness and the legality of the product, I guessed there's a chance the one in HK may never get out of the port.

I was promised the NJ one would take 3-4 days to ship. More like 5 working days, but that included processing time and half days don't really count. I had my conversation with the vendor in China on 12/5/15 Pacific Time a Saturday late night and it arrived not that Monday, but the following one.

12/14/15:
The box arrived with "SMART BALANCE WHEEL" plastered on it. Not good! Glad I had this shipped to my parent's office and not left outside on a doorstep! They did end up requiring a signature despite what the vendor told me about it not needing one, so I suppose it wouldn't have gotten snatched from my house, but I was paranoid. I'd been waiting for this moment for 5 years and wasn't about to let some criminal rob me of my experience.

The thing is heavy. People say 25lbs. The manual says 20lbs, but it feels like 27lbs. I'll have to weigh it, but for now, this thing needs to be ridden. Ride now, weigh later.

Opened the cardboard box and inside was the manufacturer's box. I was happy to find that it looked unlike any other box I've seen online. All the boxes I've seen that aren't run by a US company are black with a maroon colored 1st generation hoverboard photo on it. Mine was white and blue with the actual photo of the 4th generation model on the side.

Starting to look more legit.

Opened the box one of the screws had come out from under the Hoverboard. Even today, I can't seem to get it back on. I mentioned it to the vendor but no response. No time to wait. Time to ride.

This time it took me about 10-12 times getting on and off to get very comfortable with it. Not much space in my tiny living room surrounded by rugs and other junk laying around. Yes, I went backwards and even spun around like a ballerina even with my hands in the air like a little girl. I couldn't help myself. Even though my wife was out and my kid was asleep, this is too much fun.

12/15/15:
I recalled this model has three modes: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. I rewatched the Miberitech Youtube video and learned how to toggle between the settings and found that out of the box, it came in the Beginner mode which was what I had been riding. I may not notice much of a difference with Intermediate, so I skipped straight to Advanced just to see what it's like.

And what a difference it was! It's much quicker. I can do 3x the number of ballerina turns on Advanced mode in the same time I can do 1. That' exaggerating, but it's seriously a very noticeable difference. I don't see myself using Advanced mode as my default setting for quite some time.

I've yet to take it outside. That should be a ton more fun. Day Light Savings time and the horrible weather isn't helping.