Kyle Robinson is a 39-year-old Onewheel racer from Hamilton, New Jersey who won the Clydesdales (215 lbs+) Enduro at Wheel Life Rally on August 8, 2026, crossing in 05:41.100 to beat Vincent Cotineau by half a second. He races under USA FLT, the national sanctioning body for Onewheel racing, and rides a Future Motion GTS with a five-inch hub and a BTG Pioneer tire. He founded a statewide race league in New Jersey off a Strava account and a spreadsheet. He is also a classically trained bass baritone who has sung with three opera companies.
Robinson brings a scale to races. He weighs in the morning of, and if he is under the class floor, he eats.
I'll make sure that I'm good in weight before the morning even gets started, and if I'm not, it's time to eat
Who Is Kyle Robinson, the Onewheel Racer?
Kyle Robinson competing at Wheel Life Rally 2026. Photo by Seth Johnson (USA FLT).
Robinson is a Clydesdale-class racer, a race league founder, and a professional opera singer. He works for an industrial supply company by day, went to college for music, and has sung with the Northern Lights Opera Company in Minnesota, Boheme Opera in New Jersey, and the Philly Opera, competing in vocal competitions through the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Asked about his athletic background, he ran through track and field and then landed somewhere else entirely: "I'm actually a professional, I'm a classically trained opera singer."
Robinson is a classically trained opera singer, this is him performing. Photo provided by Robinson.
Before Onewheels he was a motorcycle stunt rider for about three years. That ended the day the boards showed up. But "I haven't ridden a motorcycle since I started riding Onewheels" he said.
Robinson stunt riding his motorcycle, before discovering Onewheel. Photo provided by Robinson.
How Did He Get Into Onewheel Racing?
Robinson bought his first Onewheel in 2021, an XR, after a friend got one as a gift. He did not know a community existed until he went looking for parts and ended up in a Facebook group. Seeing riders in other states racing trail segments, he decided New Jersey needed the same thing and built it himself.
He and his girlfriend set the league up on Strava, with Excel spreadsheets doing the time calculations by hand every week. That ran about two and a half seasons before purpose-built timing software existed. Growing it became his training plan: he went hunting for trails across the state, from Cape May up to Old Bridge, looking for terrain he could turn into segments that did not cross busy foot traffic. Soon after he created SARL (The Savage Amateur Racing League) located in New Jersey.
The early prizes came from a local shop, One Stop Workshop, whose owner backed the idea at a store opening before there was anything to back.
Robinson with is local Onewheel group. Photo provided by Robinson.
What Board Does Kyle Ride?
Robinson races a Future Motion GTS, not the higher-capacity XL, running a five-inch hub with a BTG Pioneer tire, dovetail rails, Overlander footholds, and sticky grip tape. He also owns a VESC board he is still tuning. His race setup carries no remote.
The interesting part is the tune. Rather than chase maximum output, he pulls the power settings down on purpose and keeps the headroom in reserve.
I specifically call it a dumbed down Apex, because I literally pull everything back
It is, he said, "the least amount of power I can get in that ride mode." At Wheel Life Rally he estimated he was racing boards running 124 to 130-plus volts at roughly 220 pounds, and still finishing within 10 to 30 seconds of riders far lighter than him.
Safety gear does not change between disciplines: Demon United padded pants and upper body, a Fox hardshell over the top, G-Form elbow pads, shin guards, ankle braces, and wrist guards. He runs a half shell rather than a full face, having never found a full face that fits his hair.
How Does He Train for Race Day?
Robinson is in the gym at least four days a week and has been for over a year straight, and his on-board training is built entirely around outlasting people. His theory from the start was that he would not beat lighter riders in a short race, so he trained for the long ones.
I'll get on the board and I don't get off it until it's dead
Then he swaps batteries, takes five or ten minutes, and does it again. He has also hiked into trailheads with the board on his shoulder, two miles in before starting a ride, on the theory that a race can put you at the bottom of something you have to climb out of carrying it: "I doubt anybody's even hiking with a board."
Nutrition is weight management. Robinson races Clydesdales, the 215 lbs+ class, and he wants to be as close to the floor of it as he can get, which he explains through a sport that has thought about this longer than Onewheel racing has: "in wrestling you wanna be the biggest in your weight class, but wrestle the lightest." He weighed 223 and change before leaving for Wheel Life Rally and figured to race at around 218 after the heat took its cut.
How Did Kyle Robinson Win Clydesdales at Wheel Life Rally?
Kyle Robinson (on the left) competing at Wheel Life Rally 2026. Photo by Seth Johnson (USA FLT).
Robinson won the Clydesdales Enduro in 05:41.100, half a second ahead of Cotineau at 05:41.600, and took the Clydesdales mass starts on both the Flat Track and the Obstacle Track. He finished second to Cotineau on the Woods Track after his heat was voided and re-run as a proper mass start, and he came off his board in the do-over.
He describes the Enduro as a problem he solved rather than a race he rode. Trading positions with Cotineau on a course where the other rider had the more powerful board, his answer was course knowledge.
I need to figure out ways to get past these advantages
From the left, Kyle Robinson, Josh Ledford, Vincent Cotineau at Wheel Life Rally 2026. Photo by Seth Johnson (USA FLT).
He says he has a photographic memory and can recall where individual rocks sit after two laps. He used it on a rutted section near the finish, taking a wide right line he knew let him hop the rut, cut back inside, and come out ahead. In his telling the whole thing was decided before it happened: "at that point it's just like see it, execute."
He is also unusually enthusiastic about a thing many Onewheel riders complain about: sharing courses with EUCs and inheriting the lines they leave behind.
I love the EUCs on the course
That is consistent with what he likes about the venue. The tracks at The Wick 338 get cut in but not packed smooth, so the racing line is created by riders over the course of the day rather than built by machine. "Like nothing is groomed. It's literally ridden to create," he said, and his first lap of the weekend was a blank sheet: "there's no line on where to go."
What Advice Does Kyle for Heavier Onewheel Riders?
Get a board with real power, then learn exactly where it stops. Robinson is the rider in his circle who takes a new board out and finds its ceiling, including the time he chased a downhill top speed on a GTS at 60 percent battery and nosedived at 35 mph. What it cost him in skin it gave back in data about what the board would do at full charge on flat ground.
get to know the board is the number one thing. Know the board and find its limits
The rest is climbing and gravity. He tells heavier riders to learn how much pressure a board will take going up, and to stop fighting the way down: "Downhill, gravity is your friend, so just get used to being the boulder rolling down the hill." And against lighter riders over a long day, "stamina's always gonna be your friend."
Why Is Independent Onewheel Race Sanctioning Important?
Robinson says the existence of a sanctioned record has changed how he approaches the season. He came away from creating his USA FLT rider profile focused less on any single event result than on what accumulates behind his name.
You literally have the control to create and become your own playing card
His view is that a sport recording only its championship loses most of its history, and that riders who will never win the biggest race still have careers worth writing down. Asked what he is chasing, he put it as a question: "what kind of legacy can I leave behind?" The appeal is permanence: "you can't take that away from me, and that's gonna be in the books."
He also rides an EUC now, a V14 he bought in April, though he draws a clear line between the two. He races Onewheels. The EUC is for 50-mile days in the woods, and he treats it with the wariness he learned on motorcycles:
When you ride a motorcycle, you gotta respect the vehicle. If you don't respect the vehicle, it will jack you up.
Next on his list is getting to Bentonville, Arkansas, which he has never ridden and hopes to reach next year.
Robinson's sponsors are Sticky Feet, who supplies his grip tape, and One Stop Workshop. He has never chased sponsorship for himself and says he has more support for his league than for his own racing: "I feel like they should be earned."
Results from official USA FLT timing at Wheel Life Rally, The Wick 338, Southwick, Massachusetts, August 8, 2026. Full standings at usaflt.com/standings.
