Planemo

Ok...so has there been a nuclear fallout in Blackpool that I am not aware of? Where are the people?! What a great place to ride though when its that quiet! I noticed Rachael was doing exactly the same thing I was when I was learning right turns...my right arm looked like it was stirring porridge too!! Great vids Stephen! Wish my Mrs rode too. What a great thing that would be.

This is the wheel I bought a couple of weeks ago. The OP hasnt updated the thread. Sorry guys.

If it was in the shadow of a tree then chances are the hole isnt that bad. I can only go by your pics which suggest it isnt. Give yourself some credit - if it was an obvious hole I am sure you would have seen it. This is a screen grab from a video I will be putting up tomorrow. Yes, she weighs less than I do but I did the same bump at around 10mph and the wheel sailed over it. I would estimate that the gradient/height of this bump is no less than your pothole. When I did it, the wheel left contact with the road so it had quite an effect. Again though, the wheel was totally composed throughout.

After seeing the pics of the pothole I have no doubt whatsoever that my V5F would have sailed through it. That said, I would have seen it in advance and bent my legs in preparation. 30 years of riding motorbikes makes me scan the road like a hawk. Did you see it? I have yet to come across anything that has caused my wheel to cut out or protest in any way. I appreciate I am a new rider, but I have recently deliberately (in the woods) tried to make my wheel play up so I know it's limitations. It hasn't yet. Which is a pain in one way, but a show of its abilities in another.

I am not convinced this is a weight/wheelsize issue. My V5F has around 60 miles on it now, mostly off road and through wooded areas. I have also negotiated 'sleeping policeman' road bumps with a sharp rise to around 6cm high at the crest. I have had zero issues or protest from the wheel and I am 90kg/6'1". My wooded runs were done at 13mph (15mph max available for the wheel) over twigs, branches, tree roots, ruts and dips. Dont forget this is an 'old tech' wheel with a 500w motor and 320wh battery. Not a single issue shown in terms of lack of power. A total shutdown would suggest something more sinister. I am no expert, I can only report on what my wheel can (and does) do without any flailing whatsoever.

When my uses Z6 arrived the first thing I did was check the tyre pressure. It had 10psi so clearly the previous rider liked it at that. A quick ride showed it to be super comfy and turned fine at low speed (I never checked high speed) but out of curiosity I have put it up to 20psi (I am about 90kg) and will see what its like. The tubeless tyre is as tough as old boots so I am not too concerned with running such low pressures. Would never get away with 10psi in a tubed tyre with their skinny carcasses.

Granted, but its more to do with the fact that planes having 2 sets of wings would be totally impractical and horrendously inefficient. So the 'engineer the hell out of the wings' option is better. Heavy, and very time consuming in terms of R&D, but reliable and the only real solution. There is in fact a huge amount of redundancy built into aircraft, especially passenger commercials, and particularly around electronics..

I thought Hsiangs latest vid was quite good re the EUC patent!

Meep, yep her left turns are coming along nicely, her rights not so good. Same as me! We just need to keep riding and practising. The problem with her is that because lefts are comfortable for her, thats the side she always tends to go which isnt helping her rights at all. I feel that we need to keep pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone otherwise I can see problems down the line. Easier said than done though, I find I have to tell myself 'go right!' otherwise I could probably spend 80% going left! That said, she has just started slipping into carving (which she enjoys and doesnt consider as practice so its bonus wheel time!) so thats probably having a side effect of helping her rights. All good! Tenofnine, thanks for you comments. Yes the actual image quality isnt so bad out of the S9 but the camera angles and production leaves something to be desired! Still, its fun and Ashleigh loves seeing how she is doing from another perspective. As you say, its great fun for kids, I think some might not be so happy given the lack of effort compared to a bicycle, but I have to say that especially when learning, it certainly feels like it gives me a work out! My legs are a bit wobbly and my feet ache after a couple of miles! I need to relax more I think. As for accidents, I would feel really bad if she came off and scraped herself up. The problem with kids is that they just have a natural tendency to push the envelope. I may slide the limiter to 10mph until she is fully kitted up.

Currently in the Netherlands, didnt have enough room to bring my Z6 but got the V5 for Ashleigh. Her riding is coming along nicely. This is the first time she has been on a 'road', out in the public away from a big grassy field. Poor video taken from my mobile whilst I was on my bike, I do keep on at her to bend her legs more but we know what kids are like eh! Also this was about as fast as I was comfortable with 9mph) with her not wearing a full face helmet but she enjoyed it immensely. So sad I couldnt ride with her on my wheel. Still, at least it has cemented our feelings that in the future we will forfeit some other luggage to make room for wheels!

Take a look at this Ninebot plate, taken off my Z6 but I believe the E is the same. Note the amount of ribbing coming off the hinge area, specifically it is all running in the correct plane of stress. This looks to be a pretty good design imo. Has there been any reports of NB plates breaking?

Yes I hadn't really been looking to get another wheel so quickly, but I couldn't pass up on the price. Plus theres not an awful lot of Z's here in the UK, and importing one carries the usual battery sleep issues, not to mention another long wait. They are still expensive new as well. I did see some Z6's on Gearbest a few weeks back for $695 which was a good price but it's disappeared now, they are back to £945!!! Yes UK sterling not USD either! Having a (small) ride on the Z has really shown me how powerful the V5F actually is (at least up to it's relatively low top speed). I was quite surprised, I imagined the Z would be as peppy but it's definitely not. The V5 is also as responsive in terms of tilt input as well. All in all, it has reassured me that the V5 is actually a very good, well built and designed wheel. For £350 new I really don't think there is a better option out there. I kind of get what you are saying re the V5 feeling like a part of you, but my initial impressions are that the Z is actually better on that front. The Z feels far more planted, and although it doesn't respond to inputs like the V5, I always feel like the V5 is jumping itself around under me (at least on grass) whereas the Z just tanks through with far less drama. Because of that, I sorta feel the Z is more a part of me than the skittish V5 which does it's own thing when faced with surface irregularities. If that makes sense!

I have to agree with Langham - my kids and I learnt to ride in a grassy, lumpy back garden. We continue to practise figures 8's there until the cows come home. Until we can do them 100%, we will continue doing so. For info, the space we have to do 8's is about 25' x 12'. Not a lot. We went to the park recently and all of us were riding around very well. further, the short distance we did on the pavement coming back from the park was a doddle. Despite the frustrations and steep learning curve of practising in an enclosed, lumpy space, I believe it really helps when you come to expanding your horizons. If you can do tight figure 8's on a poor surface at a very low speed on a V5 (or similar) you have pretty much cracked it IMO. It's only the higher speed stuff that I am anticipating will require a whole new skillset. When we get back to a bigger space, we will be increasing speed very slowly, 1mph at a time.

Wow that's a really heart warming story Lutalo. Great read, and a real nice gesture loaning out your wheel. Although a newbie, I am the sort of person that will happily stop, chat and advise people if I get anyone interested in my wheels whilst I am out. Unfortunately the only people I have helped to ride so far are my two kids, but I hope to expand on that in the future. I will likely keep my V5 forever, and have pretty much relegated it to a learner wheel so that is what I will offer out to anyone who shows an interest (despite it not being an easy wheel to learn on!)

Well the kids and I never got to the park last weekend as rain stopped play (boos from all) but the good news is that I have a new wheel! Dont shoot me as its only a lowly Z6 instead of the 10 but it was all I could stretch to. This is actually Ju Readers old wheel which was sold to Dane for a good price (less than advertised) a few months ago with around 300 miles on it. Dane put about 40 miles on it but needed some money and he agreed an excellent price with me. Dane lost quite a bit of money unfortunately but I got a result. Many thanks Dane! So I finally ended up with a Z like I always wanted So now I can ride with the kids and it will be much better for us to swop around on two wheels rather than one. Very happy chappy! I will be wrapping the wheel in 3M carbon, not only because the Z6 has flat black side panels (unlike the Z10's carbon), but it will also cover the blemishes/scratches. I may do the pedals as well despite them being likely to scratch up again. We will see. Observations on first 10 mins of getting on the Z.. has much less torque off the line than the V5F. However, far more stable at low speed on bumpy grass, I can be stable on it with the wheel barely moving! Very different to the V5. Impressed with the overall comfort of the Z, the whole experience just seems a bit more relaxed. Footplates are more comfortable too. Low speed turning no problem. I have yet to experience the high speed 'hang off it knee down' method..