Cruising with the Gyrocopters 8FINITI All-Terrain Hoverboard

Today I review the new Gyrocopters 8FINITI All-Terrain Hoverboard. This compact board features Auto Balancing (utilizing No-Fall Technology), “all-terrain” wheels, a built-in Bluetooth speaker, and UL2272 Certification. It’s also portable and relatively easy to use. I found this out recently when I got the chance to test one of these boards for myself, and in today’s blog I’m going to let you know all about the results of that testing. If you’ve been thinking of picking up your very own hoverboard to cruise the mean streets on, just keep on reading for all the nitty gritty on my recent riding experience.

Gyrocopters 8FINITI Key Features and Specs

The Gyrocopters 8FINITI is a slick looking hoverboard featuring numerous LED lights (offering the full spectrum of colour) and a built-in Bluetooth speaker that allows you to cruise to your favourite tunes streamed directly from your smart phone (or any other Bluetooth enabled device you may have). But not only is this hoverboard cool because of its unique features; it also has impressive specs. For example, with a maximum carrying capacity of 120 Kgs (that’s over 260 pounds) and a top cruising speed of 10 Km/h, this board can handle both kids and adults alike, and that’s cool!

Riding the Gyrocopters 8FINITI

When I took the Gyrocopters 8FINITI out to my local tennis courts to see how it would perform, I was pretty confident that it would be fun and easy to use, and for the most part I was right. Most of my confidence came from having recently had some experience on a similar hoverboard that proved to me that even I, with my absolutely horrible balance, was fully capable of riding one of these boards. I wouldn’t say I can do it with any level of expertise, and I did have a number of stumbles, but I always landed on my feet and never had anything close to a real incident.

I’d have to say that this “success” was mostly due to the board’s Auto Balancing feature. This no-fall system is extremely helpful to riders. It almost seems to lock the board in place in a perfectly balanced (level) position such that the board itself actually does all of the heavy lifting for you. In other words, you don’t need a core like Arnold Schwarzenegger to stay evenly balanced on this thing (at least for the most part).

Getting onto the board is probably the most difficult part of riding it, but once you’ve managed to successfully climb aboard, the 8FINITI stiffens and levels itself out, and as long as you can lean just a little bit forward, you’ll soon be off and moving. To steer, simply lean a bit heavier on one side or the other. This speeds up the wheel on the side you’re applying pressure to, thus causing that side of the board to go a little bit faster than the other side. It’s kind of like the gas pedal on a car—pressing it forward speeds the car up. In this way, you can turn left by applying a bit of pressure to the right hand side of the board, and vice versa.

The deep-treaded tires on this board are also quite impressive. It’s these hefty tires that give the Gyrocopters 8FINITI its all-terrain reputation. Of course, I have seen bigger tires on other hoverboards before, so I don’t consider this one to be as “all-terrain” as it could be. In fact, I had a pretty difficult time with it when I wasn’t sticking strictly to my local tennis courts. The board simply couldn’t handle the bumps and rocks of loose gravel, and it pretty much bucked me off every time I hit even the slightest crack in the pavement (even on the tennis courts). There was one fairly large bump on the courts that I could just never get over at all without being bucked off, so I’m pretty satisfied that this board is more of a smooth surface board than an all-terrain model, even in spite of its chunky tires. Of course, it’s always possible that someone who’s a much better rider (or maybe just a much lighter rider) than I am could take it off road with greater success. As for myself, I was quite content to glide along the smoothest parts of the tennis courts with it and enjoy the slight breeze created by my movement.

I’m also quite convinced that most people could fairly easily get the hang of riding a hoverboard like this one (i.e., one that utilizes Auto Balancing technology). The Auto Balancing feature makes this board far more accessible to the balance challenged user, like me.

There’s no doubt that the Gyrocopters 8FINITI is a worthy piece of equipment. It’s a cool looking hoverboard that’s feature rich (see it’s LED lighting, Bluetooth speaker, etc.), relatively easy to use, and a whole lot of fun to ride (provided you choose an appropriate surface to ride on).

Examining the Video Evidence

If you’d like to see what the Gyrocopters 8FINITI looks like in action, I shot this brief video overview of the board showing some of my riding experience as well as an up-close look at the board itself. Please take a look and try not to laugh too hard at my expert riding:

Final Thoughts

While I don’t necessarily think that hoverboards will ever catch on with large swarths of the population in quite the same way that bicycles have, I do think that they (and this one in particular) are great devices for their target audience. I suspect that this is largely made up of kids and early teens (the board has a recommended age range of 7 years old and up) with energy to burn and a desire to engage in exciting activities. Before ever testing any hoverboards, I probably would have said dangerous activities, but that hardly seems reasonable now as I have found these boards to be way easier to use than traditional skateboards. Still, I don’t want to be flippant about these devices; it is possible to get hurt if you’re not being careful, so always wear protective gear, pay attention to where you’re going, and avoid doing anything reckless.

If you (or your child) are looking for a hoverboard to cruise around and have fun on, I do think that you’ll enjoy this model, but maybe not quite as much if you get your expectations too high. This thing is pretty standard fare, and while it’s billed as an all-terrain board, I don’t really feel like it is. I definitely find that it works best on a smooth, flat, paved (or otherwise very hard) surface, and if that’s the kind of thing you have in mind for this, you’re much more likely to have fun with it.

It should also be noted that hoverboards are not necessarily great as modes of transportation, and that is mostly owing to the fact that so many places that you might want to ride them in are likely to be off limits (i.e., I can’t imagine many malls, schools, or other public buildings allowing kids to zip around on these things). However, if fun is what you’re after (and you’ve got a decent place to ride), you’ll likely find what you’re looking for with the Gyrocopters 8FINITI All Terrain Hoverboard. Have fun!

Get your own Gyrocopters 8FINITI or other Hoverboards, Skateboards, & Accessories at Best Buy Canada today!