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First ride


Catlord17

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Girlfriend found me the perfect place to practice.  It's relatively close, well lit at night, and has lots of space without much if any traffic.  It has fields, sidewalks and roads, too.  Tonight I did 1.2 km practicing there.  Goal was to manage to stay on the sidewalk and to cross a road off and then back onto the sidewalk without falling off.  Both goals were achieved, but I'm not yet happy with how well I do it.  So, will go back again tomorrow night.  The only reason I stopped was my feet were too sore to keep going.

Later tonight, if I am able to stay awake long enough, I will go for that 6 mile ride and see what I can do.

Amazed at the battery capacity on this wheel!  1600 mh is apparently pretty vast!

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14 hours ago, WARPed1701D said:

Congratulations. This weekend I'm trying out my commute for the first time. A trial run with less traffic so to speak. 5 miles each way. Its exciting to take the first big adventure. I've done 70km on my V8 now. I think 60 of them just in my apartment parking lot! :lol: The remaining 10 have been on streets right next to my home.

I think there comes a point where practicing in controlled environments reaches its limit of utility. Time to get out in the real world. Shame there a cars out there! :o

How did it go?  Personally, I nibbled away at my commute one bite at a time over several weeks before attempting to go the whole distance.  It's no big deal now, but back then it was pretty daunting.  

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On 8/5/2017 at 10:18 PM, Catlord17 said:

Girlfriend found me the perfect place to practice.  It's relatively close, well lit at night, and has lots of space without much if any traffic.  It has fields, sidewalks and roads, too.

I found a nice little park with fenced baseball fields and a walking path near my apartment. I rarely practice ('weather'), but since my last outing I think I'm ready to get serious and set a goal of riding my wheel to work this month; (It's only 1.25 mile/2km away). I didn't ride at all for over a month after an under-inflated tire caused a blowout. Now on my 4th day of practice, I can ride at least half the commute distance and straight-lines (e.g. sidewalks) are no problem. B)

A few hours of practice spread over several weekends and I'm feeling much better about this whole 'wheel' thing. (Made a video.)

 

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Nice video, RayRay! I wish I could turn that well and stay on sidewalks that far.  Dingfelder, I'm not entirely sure who you are referring to... could be three different people!

Tonight I went to the place my girlfriend found for me.  Goal was 2 km total, and at least 1 km in a single uninterrupted ride. Working on mounting and turning, also.

Tried to ride in figure 8's in the parking lot, around long rows of parking spaces to practice turning, and I did several passes successfully before falling off at a relatively high rate of speed (for me), probably 8-9 mph.  The fact that I was so off balance made it impossible for me to use the leash to keep the wheel under control, and it literally flipped out, spinning like mad and eventually somehow jumping up and bruising my left inner thigh and nailing me in the nuts.  Messed up the wheel body a bit too. Took about 10 minutes to walk that one off, but I kept going.

I did just over 2 km, and the last ride was recorded as 1,085 meters by the app for single time mileage.  So I achieved all goals by practicing mounting, turning, riding further than I have before in total and in a single session.

Now if only I could figure out how the hell to get my left foot to stop cramping... I only stop because of that at this point.

I'm not really very good at turning, or staying on sidewalks yet.  Feels like I'll never be able to get rid of the leash at this point, but I know that's coming sooner or later too.  Just have to be stubborn and keep practicing.

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5 hours ago, Catlord17 said:

Now if only I could figure out how the hell to get my left foot to stop cramping..

There are three things to watch out for:

  1. Most of us at rest tend to put more weight on one leg than the other without realising it. If you do that whilst riding the wheel you then end up trying to compensate for it to keep the wheel going straight, which can put a loading onto your muscles you do not realise you are doing until they hurt. Once you are comfortable to do so, find yourself a long straight section to ride on and try to continue going straight whilst taking some of the weight off of first one leg and then they other. You are not trying to ride on one leg (although, in the future you can extend this until you can!) you are just looking to lift a little of your weight. This may help identify if you are putting too much weight on one leg ( you will find it easier to lighten one leg than the other - the one carrying most weight) but, also if you do this at intervals whilst you are riding it will  ease your muscles a bit as well and stop them cramping.
  2. When you stand still on the ground with your feet comfortable (sort of Army "at ease" position) where do your feet point? If, as for many people, they point sort of at 10 to 2 (or 1:50) on a clock face. Then if you are riding the wheel with your feet both completely parallel it is a somewhat unnatural position for you and can again cause some muscle strain. It is perfectly OK to have your feet at more like a 10 to 2 position as long as your feet are comfortably on the peddles
  3. Finally, having your feet too far forward or too far back on the peddles such that you have your weight heavily on your heels or toes when cruising will also add to muscle strain. A good test is to accelerate gently up to a comfortable safe speed and then try to decelerate back to a stop at the same sort of rate as you accelerated. If the effort to do both feels similar your feet are more or less in the right place. If one feels harder than the other the the feet are too far forward or back (for example braking is easier than accelerating - your feet are too far back. If you have an open road ahead of you and are going to cruise for some distance with little danger of someone/something suddenly popping out in front of you, then you might try your feet a little further forward to ease the amount you need to consciously press down on the front of the peddles.

Of course, if all else fails, just stop and take a short rest or walk for a few yard as soon as the first sign of muscle pain starts, so as to ease the muscles and allow you to continue.

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In recent discussions of wheel wobble at speed it was suggested that foot placement with a lot of toe overhang and your heel level with the rear of the pedal would prevent wobble. I tried this and my foot ached like mad in a short space of time. I moved back to my usual position of about 2/3 toe overhang 1/3 heel overhang and it went away.

I also note what Keith said about foot angle. It felt highly uncomfortable for me to have both feet pointing straight forward. That actually caused knee discomfort which caused me to favor a foot which then caused foot ache. I'm getting used to it but may try the 10-2 position again that feels more natural.

Also, if like me you are still getting the hang of free-mounting the wheel you can find your foot does not end up ideally placed but keep riding anyway just because you finally mounted. I normally get ache when this happens and am working at slow speed repositioning of my foot while moving after the mount to get it in the right place for long distance riding. Are you doing this?

I say just keep playing around with foot position until you find what is comfortable for you body. Everyone is likely different.

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24 minutes ago, WARPed1701D said:

Also, if like me you are still getting the hang of free-mounting the wheel you can find your foot does not end up ideally placed but keep riding anyway just because you finally mounted. I normally get ache when this happens and am working at slow speed repositioning of my foot while moving after the mount to get it in the right place for long distance riding. Are you doing this?

@WARPed1701D, spot on, it is why I've said before that trying to free mount right at the beginning of learning is overrated - a bit like saying the best way to learn to swim is to be thrown in 50ft deep water!

I think two things are needed to be able to comfortably ride away in full control from free mounting on the wheel:

  1. good knowledge (ideally muscle memory) of where you actually want to place your feet and be comfortable.
  2. The ability to, if not ride with one leg, be able to at least lift enough weight off of either leg whilst moving so as to be able to change your foot position.

Both of these things come with practice and experience. So I honestly think it is better, early on, to use street furniture and get you feet comfortable, even if it means stopping at every lamppost or tree you pass to try slightly different positions. 

Once you've got the basics under your belt lifting your weight off of one or other legs, and free mounting etc. then need to be the next stages of your (self imposed) training.

 

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5 hours ago, WARPed1701D said:

Also, if like me you are still getting the hang of free-mounting the wheel you can find your foot does not end up ideally placed but keep riding anyway just because you finally mounted. I normally get ache when this happens and am working at slow speed repositioning of my foot while moving after the mount to get it in the right place for long distance riding. Are you doing this?

Definitely. Foot repositioning is a very useful skill, see also

 

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I just did my first ride on public roads, together with my 5 year old daughter on her bike. Was fun, but I had sore feet after a while. It seemed to be a lot less when I place my feet further forward, but then my shoes touch the ground when turning.

 

I can tell you one thing, you don't need a $300K Ferrari here to turn heads. This thing does more than its share :lol: People talking, waving, staring, giving thumbs up :D 

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Im on my phone, so i cant reply to everyone properly right now, but thank you all for the heafs up. That sounds like it will be very useful. I trypically ride at 12/12 instead of 2/10.

Just got done with an hour of practice at the park, did 5.6 km in one session. Pretty much can stay on for as long as i want now, but having trouble with turning and staying on narrow sidewalks still. Spent a lot of time practicing, getting better though. 

Most comfortable at 12-13 kmh so far. More later when I have a computer.

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Does owning and using a hoverboard/Segway before attempting to ride an EUC help? When we see videos of people first attempting hoverboards and Segways there is an initial back and forth motion while people learn to trust the board to keep their balance. Methinks having to learn both the self-balancing part and the "unicycle swivel" makes EUC's considerably harder.

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Now I am on a proper computer.

@Keith Thanks for the tips.  I think I have my feet properly on the pedals, except maybe they are too forward and not in a natural slant.  I'll try that.

@WARPed1701D I'm finding that what feels most natural and is most effective for me is to have my heel end at the back of the pedal and have the ball of my feet at the front, so my toes hang over.  But remember, we have different pedal sizes, since we have different machines.  Mine sounds like it's a larger pedal than yours, but I wear an 8.5 US men's shoe.

@Mono Thanks for the link, will read that.

@ir_fuel I had a number of people at the park today, and nobody so much as blinked an eye at my comings and goings.  You would have thought they saw this all the time.  But I'm glad they left me alone.

@LanghamP I can't go back in time and try to learn this with and without having mastered my hoverboard.  I can tell you that if it helps, it's still creating and using a hugely different set of neural pathways.  It is in some ways harder, and in some ways easier.  For example, it is easier in that you don't have to learn independent fine motor control of each foot independently.  It is harder because the axis of instability is reversed; on a hoverboard, you cannot fall sideways; on an EUC you cannot fall forward or backward.

In general, I am astonished at the amount of progress I am making with each practice session.  I am hoping to pull off that 6 mile round trip around my city megablock here in the next couple days, but that will depend on how tired I am, because it must be done when the traffic is at a minimum. But I can tell that very shortly, I will be using this thing for what I bought it for.

I can also tell that in the not too distant future, I will have to replace the pedals, side padding, and outer shell, if not also the trolley handle.  It's getting pretty beat up.  But today's ride showed me that I'm almost there.  Definitely feels awesome.

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I just went out again. It was awesome. I can just keep on riding now. Rode it in the grass (it's really stressing this 14" wheel, impossible to go above 8 km/h), and in the dirt without any problems. Rode around for minutes taking different kinds of holes without falling off. Foot placement also a lot better. No more pain under my feet. It seems the angle I place them is very important. A more 12 o clock position gives less pressure on the feet, in my case. I think it's time to park the small one and get the Inmotion V8 out tomorrow.

woot woot :thumbup::w00t2::clap3:

 

Next up I need to learn to drive on obstacles. That still stresses me out.

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3 minutes ago, ir_fuel said:

I just went out again. It was awesome. I can just keep on riding now. Rode it in the grass (it's really stressing this 14" wheel, impossible to go above 8 km/h), and in the dirt without any problems. Rode around for minutes taking different kinds of holes without falling off. Foot placement also a lot better. No more pain under my feet. It seems the angle I place them is very important. A more 12 o clock position gives less pressure on the feet, in my case. I think it's time to park the small one and get the Inmotion V8 out tomorrow.

woot woot :thumbup::w00t2::clap3:

 

Next up I need to learn to drive on obstacles. That still stresses me out.

I encountered a really interesting phenomenon while I was out earlier where I was having trouble balancing and turning and then I took a five minute rest and suddenly it was like it just clicked.  I was doing it much more easily and smoothly.  Not expertly by any means, but still, enough to surprise me.  Have you experienced this?

 

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Just now, Catlord17 said:

I encountered a really interesting phenomenon while I was out earlier where I was having trouble balancing and turning and then I took a five minute rest and suddenly it was like it just clicked.  I was doing it much more easily and smoothly.  Not expertly by any means, but still, enough to surprise me.  Have you experienced this?

I anticipated this.

I first got on my euc last week Thursday or Friday, and I only rode in 20 minute sessions. Sometimes only one a day, sometimes 2 - 3 a day. Never tried for more than half an hour. Your brain can't handle that much training and it will just get worse. Same when learning to play an instrument. You can only train a certain technique for X minutes until it becomes a waste of time. You need to give your brain the time to digest it and analyse the inputs.

It went pretty smoothly I must say, I never felt frustrated. I guess it's because I kept the training sessions short.

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Just now, ir_fuel said:

I anticipated this.

I first got on my euc last week Thursday or Friday, and I only rode in 20 minute sessions. Sometimes only one a day, sometimes 2 - 3 a day. Never tried for more than half an hour. Your brain can't handle that much training and it will just get worse. Same when learning to play an instrument. You can only train a certain technique for X minutes until it becomes a waste of time. You need to give your brain the time to digest it and analyse the inputs.

It went pretty smoothly I must say, I never felt frustrated. I guess it's because I kept the training sessions short.

Yeah, been doing about 15 to 20 minutes per day.  Today was the first time I got more than that.  This happened about half way through an hour of training.

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12 hours ago, WARPed1701D said:

working at slow speed repositioning of my foot while moving after the mount to get it in the right place for long distance riding. Are you doing this?

 

Oh yes.  After mounting I almost always need to squirm my feet into a better position.  I never seem to land the mounting foot in the perfect spot, but that's okay, because it isn't all that hard to reposition the wayward foot once you are used to carrying most/all of the weight on the other foot.

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I started doing this tonight. Its helping, but I'm not sure yet what to do with my foot to make the pain stop. Im sure i will figure it out.

Tonight I tackled riding on cobblestone streets successfully.

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5 hours ago, Catlord17 said:

I started doing this tonight. Its helping, but I'm not sure yet what to do with my foot to make the pain stop. Im sure i will figure it out.

Tonight I tackled riding on cobblestone streets successfully.

Fixing foot pain and riding cobbled streets in the same sentence....hmmm. :lol:;)

I fear they could hinder each others progress! Let us know how you get on!

Historic St. Pete has a lot of brick streets that are in terrible condition. Several are on my normal route to work. I'm going to avoid them for now.

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4 hours ago, WARPed1701D said:

Fixing foot pain and riding cobbled streets in the same sentence....hmmm. :lol:;)

I fear they could hinder each others progress! Let us know how you get on!

Historic St. Pete has a lot of brick streets that are in terrible condition. Several are on my normal route to work. I'm going to avoid them for now.

The cobblestones here are used as decoration only.  Port Saint Lucie is big on "looking pretty".  So much so that I'm pissed at the city government for raising our taxes to onerous degrees and then spending the money to do stupid things like clear lots of wild trees so they can... plant trees and bushes, which then require perpetual maintenance to "keep Port Saint Lucie looking beautiful", because "we are the tree city".  Before that we were the bird sanctuary, but nobody cares about that anymore.  Meanwhile the wealthy sections of the city have freshly paved roads when they didn't need it, and the rest of us can just deal with patching potholes until the cows come home, when we need them re-paved.  Of course re-paving them incorrectly (as PSL loves to do) isn't going to help; roads should last more than 4-5 years between needing complete re-pavings.  The first roads only got re-paved after 20-some years, and then only because they were too rough.  There were no potholes.  Now we re-pave about every 6 years, and get potholes in 3. Idiots. /rant

But I digress.

In my case, I am quite aware that the foot pain has nothing to do with the cobblestones.  They made no negative impact, except providing me with a little bit of challenge for staying balanced.  It seems to be either how I am placing my feet, or some sort of effort to use my foot tensing to balance.  I'm working on adjusting my feet to relax the muscles in various ways while I ride without falling off.  Still figuring out what works.

The place I'm practicing is called City Center.  City Center is actually about as far from the center of the city as it could possibly get.  They decided we needed this to "be a real city".  City Center has paved roads "accented" with cobblestones, and cobblestone pavers next to the side walk.  So for example the area out front of the building is cobblestone pavers, and on at least one side of all the sidewalks is pavers, and the crosswalks are pavers, etc.  It turns out to be good practice for balance and small obstacles.

I have also concluded, by the way, that I strongly prefer Sport mode and 40 pounds of tire pressure was only enough for a short time. I think this time I'll inflate to closer to max pressure.

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Oh, forgot to mention... last night, I had a few seconds of unconscious competence poke their head through during my second practice session.  When I realized it, I almost fell off, but it was amazing.  Can't wait for that to become my norm all the time!

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I think once you practice the basics enough what happens is: you get tired of thinking about 'proper technique' and allow your mind to wander. Then, low and behold, the techniques you practiced start to kick-in automatically (but subconsciously). After this happened to me, I realized that all I needed to do to change direction was to envision myself 'going-in-that-direction'. Also, 'looking-in-that-direction' really helps with this vision. :efee8319ab:

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