meepmeepmayer

The tire movement from the video looks completely normal (for today's EUCs) but if you notice any unevenness while riding (like riding over equidistant bumps, you feel a small bump regularly, and they come quicker if you go faster), then by definition there's a problem (oherwise, if you don't notice anything during riding, everything is as perfect as it can be). In addition to reseating your tire so it's on the rim nicely and evenly (and if that didn't help), check if your metal tire rim is bent. This can be very hard to see, but if you check it everywhere closely (also by feeling the width with your fingers or maybe a cardboard shape), maybe there's an irregularity (rim bent outwards or inwards in a spot) you can find. Such an irregularity could also be felt as regular small bumps/jolts while riding that come faster with speed (once per tire rotation). Most likely you just need to reseat your tire.

Yes it's ok. A lot of people use slime as it might prevent an annoying and laborious tube change in the case of a small puncture. Other's don't care (like me) because punctures are quite rare (just like for bicycles) if your tire pressure isn't too low. But you do not need slime for safety reasons. A tire popping mid-ride is surprisingly a complete non-event. It happened to me - the tube instantly deflated with a loud bang (I first thought some heavy metal piece had fallen over nearby, or a firecracker had gone off) and on later inspection the tube had an inch+ long gash (which must have happened instantly). While riding, I merely thought a twig had gotten into the wheel well and stopped due to the strong rubbing sound. Only then did I realize it was the completely empty tire rubbing against itself making the sound. But as long as the motor/tire isn't blocked (not the case if a tube pops) and the wheel is strong enough to deal with the extra deflated tire resistance (your V10F certainly is), the self-balancing magic deals with everything else. I had no instability or wobbling or jolt or anything that might cause a crash. You could barely notice any difference in riding. The wheel just kept going, albeit with the rubbing sound. It might be different if the tube pops in a curve and you lose directional stability, but if you're just going straight, essentially nothing happens. You just brake and get off (because you notice something unusual) and then realize "oh it was the tube!". So no need to worry about the safety implications of a popping tube. There barely seem to be any. And it's very rare anyways I believe the Inmotion app has an extra calibration function for this specific case where the sensor drifts and causes dipping. See here under "turning and forward adjustment": https://www.myinmotion.com/blogs/news/inmotion-app-update-3-interesting-new-features (I never had an Inmotion so maybe someone else knows better) Pedal dipping seems to be caused by a badly calibrated sensor. When the wheel tilts sideways in curves, it loses what is level in the driving direction, that's why dipping happens in curves. A good calibration does two things: Important: the wheel is NOT tilted sideways (left/right) during the entire calibration. If you calibrate with a sideways tilt, this is what seems to cause bad calibrations that stop working properly if the wheel is tilted sideways when riding (like in curves). Also keep the wheel completely still during the entire calibration. Lean it against something hard, don't just hold it. I believe the Inmotion calibrations happen by sitting the wheel on its bumper, so this is mostly moot, but the sideways thing is still important. The sensors in all wheels just aren't very good (smartphone level stuff) and so an unlucky calibration can throw them off and cause dipping. Dipping is simply a bug, not a feature. Ideally you get rid of it completely (may depend on how lucky you are with your specific sensor in your board).

In the end, the manufacturer decides how much power the wheel is allowed to draw for accelerations. There's no real natural state or upper limit, so it's a balancing act between instant torque/zippyness and (too) quick battery depletion. Maybe it's too early to tell, but could it be the Nikola simply draws more power by design so it rides more dynamically? As opposed to a more delayed and sedate behavior that a factually 18 incher like it would have (how much bigger is a 18x2.5 tire diameter really)? Marty (or anybody else), can you tell if this might be the case? Is the nice Nikola ride simply due to more instant oomph like a smaller wheel (but with the advantages of the bigger tire as well)? Did they just brute force in more power compared to wheels till now? I wonder how the reportedly more torque-y 16X will do it. Will it also have less range than expected? Will they have limiters that make the wheel feel weaker as soon as a high power draw doesn't go away immediately?

@Marty Backe No fan, no test! They should rename the Nikola to Gotway Odyssey The 100V Nikola was going to have a bigger mosfet board from the start, presumably this one. It is also very similar to the MSX board (at least on first look). Someone mentioned it also doesn't look too complex compared to the KS boards (which also manage the batteries in some way). So Gotway can probably pump out "new" boards very fast by just changing the firmware and maybe doing some simple hardware change (if at all). They're very iterative there. I wouldn't see this quick change as a bad sign *knock on wood*. I'd bet it's just a 100V Nikola board with different firmware.

Yes, thank you! When did you order the wheel? If the board is that old (April 13th), I wonder how soon we can buy safe Nikolas from Ali. Maybe waiting for 4-6 weeks might be a good idea, at least unless the seller really confirms it has a new and good board.

Brand new wheel, right? Makes sense at this time. Could you post a picture of the other side of the board or just give the serial number on the sticker on the board (it contains the production date in the first 8 digits) please?

Here's the video by @Afeez Kay where the pictures are from:

24, not 22 Otherwise I totally agree. Imbalanced weight sucks and makes the wheel veer off course (like the Monster). I hope there won't be imbalanced weight on the 2100Wh Nikola (which I'm eyeing).

The glue definitely was the problem. You show the symptoms of every other case: the glued mosfets are the ones that died. The TO-220 boards alone are perfectly fine on their own. They are still equal or better than the earlier Tesla or even ACM/msuper V3 ones. No reason to assume there is a problem there. The new control board (as sent to Marty) has bigger mosfets/packages and is (essentially) the awesome MSX/Monster board. They already used that one on the 100V Nikola from the start. They also changed to adhesive heat transfer pads so no worker is tempted to use glue to keep them from falling off during assembly. The Tesla board is at most as good as the TO-220 board. I don't know what mosfets/package they use on the Tesla board, but it is no bigger than the TO-220 (or even smaller), you can see that. - But you're absolutely right: Any Nikola that isn't confirmed glue-free is a ticking time bomb and should not be ridden. Which is every Nikola with a board assembled before someone told Gotway to stop the glue crap (last week of June, the date can be seen on the sticker on the board). As your example shows, no high stresses are needed for a failure, just bad luck (or simply enough time?). There is no excuse for Gotway to do nothing and keep saying "but only so few cases...", it's only a matter of time before the others fail. They need to do a board recall. I really wonder now if any other non-Nikola boards have glue. It could still be that some have but didn't die due to the bigger TO-247 board (on the MSX or Monster). Thanks for your warning and another report about the glue problem.

Wow, you went to Poland just to check this out? Awesome, thank you! Looks like Gotway made an irregularly shaped 24s4p pack. The main part seems to be 48 cells plus 12 (same 60 cells as in the 84V pack, which fills out the designed battery space exactly, just like this), and the extra bit has the other 36 (12+24) cells, all connected to one BMS in the main part. Pretty clever solution, and fits the space exactly. No extra cramped conditions on the board side, everything standard there. Correction The board side pack is also bigger than normal (I confused it with the 84V one) so I guess it's two 24s3p packs and the extra unit has 24 cells, 12 on one BMS and 12 on the BMS of the opposite side (board side) pack, and each pack in the designed space has the other 12 cells extra. Makes more sense and explains the cable going through the trolley handle, presumably to the other side of the wheel. Btw higher voltages aren't more efficient, I believe that only applies to power lines e.g. where you have resistance losses with lower voltage. Not a problem in wheels.

When I heard of your coming retirement (and your cross country idea), my first thoughts were "How much even more will he ride then?" followed by "His wife isn't going to see him much anymore, is she?". You leaving at dawn and coming home late at night will be the new normal for her, a ghost husband, only flitting by in the wee night hours . Occasionally she'll be picking you up somewhere when you have a crash or overestimate your range in your riding exhilaration, that will be as good as it gets for her. Your scarce common time you will be fawning over the latest wheels and your recent rides. Once in a while you'll accidentally be calling her "Gotway" instead of "honey" without you even noticing (but she will). Just being realistic

FTFY

You will learn. 5 hours is nothing. Rule #1: Don't be afraid. If you are afraid, you'll be unrelaxed and ride badly. Do whatever it takes so you're relatively fear-free (protective gear, pad your wheel well so you're not worried about dropping it, right place, attitude, ...). And don't be afraid of speed as a beginner. You're probably too slow if you can ride rounds in the parking lot but feel wonky. As soon as you can start riding (usually while holding on to something to start), speed up. Speed stabilizes you. Don't be afraid to ride a bit faster (15-20kph) as a beginner. Ride a bit more dynamic. Do not try slow (like walking speed) maneuvers, those are much harder.

Don't get rid of the Onewheel prematurely. It might need some time getting used to. Just going by EUC experience. On the other hand, if it really is unsafe (unpredictable cut-outs), away with it quickly! Does it really do that (unlike EUCs that don't just cut out)?

I think they know. They're not stupid, just trying to coast by without what they should do (recall of the first batch or sending out replacement boards). The fact that @Jason McNeil got them to ship him replacement boards for all his Nikolas alone should have alerted them. Also that Jason hasn't given an update here yet makes me believe the situation is still developing. I wonder what the French dealers are doing. What I would do is wait if I wanted a Nikola. All boards from now on (maybe production date 20190627... and later?) should be good and glue-free. Waiting should also give a better TO-247 board on the 84V Nikola, I hope they will have those on all new Nikolas from now on, not just Jasons. So I'd just wait long enough until one gets such a wheel (also with the all-black new Plus design). Of course if you buy from a source you know will have an eye on this issue, you can buy right now. So @NYC_Frutips if you buy from ewheels right now you're guaranteed to be good. Jason won't ship out Nikolas with bad boards anyways.

Hi. All EUCs are badly built (in terms of build quality) from a Western standard. This particular issue is an extremely rare occasion where safety is actually affected. There's maybe one issue like this per year in the entire market (on average). I'm thinking of stuff like this glue disaster, the Inmotion V10F fires, or the Gotway oscillation problem back in 2017. Naturally they tend to crop up in the first batch of a new wheel and only affect a small number of units and get quickly fixed due to their obvious impact. Just like this issue. But modern/current EUCs are extremely safe in terms of the electronics suddenly failing. That virtually never happens. Do not confuse safety (very good) with build quality (which is questionable). Firmware bugs, app bugs, freezing wheels, shoddy or messy build where you're wondering how some quite obvious possible failures (like water ingress) don't happen more often (but they don't!), etc. all are not safety-relevant. If they were, the manufacturers had to fix them, no way around it, exactly because a self-balancing vehicle has to work reliably all the time. By the way, wheels are getting better in the build quality department very fast, these examples are from the past already (but they still have quite some way to go). So don't worry about unexpected (as in: one could not have expected it in a particular situation) faceplants, these simply don't happen. The Nikola is a very fine wheel (and a sweet choice for a forever wheel!), as soon as it has a safe board. Judging from the MSX board and barring something completely unexpected, with the bigger mosfet Nikola board (essentially the same as the MSX board) that Jason will apparently ship out to all his Nikola customers and the huge heatsink and board space, you will have the new best/strongest board in existence (it will be matched by the upcoming 16X board). No worries

That was the legendary Ugo Bibron. Unfortunately no new videos from him lately.

Sorry I meant those mica insulators, not actual thermal pads. How exactly is that mica stuff called?

Wow the thermal paste made a huge difference! I'm tempted to do that to any wheel by default now. Guess that makes sense (in hindsight) with how thick the standard thermal pad is, but I wouldn't have expected such a massive improvement. How exactly are those insulating plastic pads called? Thank you for a very good video!

Not my video. I guess any publicity is good publicity. 3 guys have never seen a EUC before and try to ride it. Goes as well as you expect, and they give up after less than a minute each. Still funny to watch. "The major takeaway here, don't buy a Solowheel [EUC]".

No point in mentioning something that he will have to take care of for his Nikolas anyways. That would just put potential buyers off long after the problem is over. So I understand if he rather downplays the issue in a public video and the comments. But ideally he must check or replace all boards, not sure what exactly he plans to do there. I think the situation is still developing (aka dealers must slowly massage a reluctant Gotway into just sending them new boards). Ian also knows if something happens later, he will have to deal with it anyways. So I wouldn't condemn him just quite yet But you're right, the potential for ignoring the problem is there. "Our Nikola worked fine so far" is NO good reply to a potentially widespread and dangerous manufacturing error.

Depends on what one means by offroading. If we're talking loose sand or gravel, the Onewheel might be able to ride places a EUC will slip (except maybe the Z10). If we're simply talking uneven terrain, the bigger EUC tires are far superior. So yea, EUCs are better, you don't have to tell me The V8 also isn't a wheel that screams offroading until you try it and notice it works surprisingly well. So maybe that's the reason for his opinion.

Speedy Feet review video for the Nikola

Not my video. Another convinced soul He even has a chart up how EUCS beat other PEVs in price for what you get. Speedy Feet Nikola review

@winterwheel Hats off to you! Fantastic!