meepmeepmayer

The tire diameter of these 3'' wide tires is 17'' or 19'' if you actually measure. They're bigger. So that's the one thing they don't lie about. If the new KS16X gets a 3'' tire, it will be 17 inch too. But I don't believe they'll go over 2.5 like the V10.

Why not buy an MCM5? It's a work of beauty I don't think KS's next 14 incher will be able to compete on stats, whenever it comes out.

The only reason I'm not doing kill tests left and right is financial. It would be my personal hobby otherwise. I'm serious. Force a wheel up a crazy mountain, see what happens. Repeat until I'm happy or it dies. Any wheel. Because that's literally what I want from a EUC - ride up any mountain and either it works with no problems, or it doesn't work in a good manner (alarms). By proxy, this is how EUC electronics in general should always work. Not interested in "works in 99% of situations" wheels. Especially if you can't know beforehand that something does not work.. Really? Never realized/heard of that. That's amazing. Here it is. Cabling is quite thin, though. But big mosfets.

This sums up my view so well! EUCs are not something where you see with how little you can get away with using "smart" engineering. Give me ridiculously oversized electronic parts for ridiculous reliability in any conceivable edge case.

ms3 has 12, too, they're directly opposite on the other side of the board. Only the very early 67V GWs had 6 before they figured out it doesn't work with the weak ones they were using. History of GW mosfets is like this: shitty ones (ACM, ms3), decent ones (Tesla, Tesla-ized ACM2 and ms3 1900W) which are about the same quality as we have on any other brands, and then the big fat godlike TO-247s on the MSX/MCM5/100VMonster style boards. Nikola seems to be a regress to Tesla level mosfets, just with better cooling/positioning. Exactly! The TO-247s were a step in this direction. Beef up the wiring, and monitor the mosfet temperature as (incredibly strong) weak point. 99% done.

It's either this, or they are trying to save money/copy KingSong and the other manufacturers. My money is on the latter. What was wrong with the big mosfets? It's not like the required extreme stress currents get less because of some new motor control algorithm. Gotway always did overengineering vs. being "smart" like the other manufacturers, and I strongly prefer that overengineering. This seems to be their (first?) attempt at being "smart" and I don't like it (and don't trust them to do it competently). They went from being ahead of the curve (big mosfet boards) to "with this, I'd rather trust KingSong" for me. I'm not going to like those new boards until @EUC GUY does another car push test and it works at least as well. With the MSX style board, they literally eliminated the mosfets as weak point, the cabling had to melt for the wheel to fail! How amazing is that? Doesn't get better than this! (Well, except thicker cabling, but something has to give.) Will the new mosfets be as good? Can they? I'm worried this might be a regression or another "We didn't expect our wheels to be used like this" situation. If they want to do better engineering, they should do away with the electrically nonsensical 12 parallel mosfets and should do it however it's supposed to be done. But not try and skimp on parts. Their kind of design and overengineering was their big advantage, now they're budget KS technology with disabled speed limit in my eyes. In other words, with this new board, what are they doing better than KingSong, technology-wise? I have no answer. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy GW are experimenting like this instead of being slow as mollasses like everyone else. Just not sure I like this particular direction.

Thanks, man. I was thinking of something like this (a "cyclist's cap" as I call it). Also happily following your other wear suggestions in this thread, very helpful! Right now I'm too lazy (and the weather is mostly ugly), but that will hopefully change soon

2400Wh, pff. You could essentially do 2600Wh/3200Wh version (2 packs each side) with that space. And the board space, the only apt description is "board cave". First I was wondering if they planned a newer, physically bigger board, but that doesn't make too much sense. Must just be a noob designing the thing. I like me some overengineering, but not like this. If they at least had used all that space for cable channels instead of the usual tangled mess of wires. Oh well, it's shiny on the outside, works well enough like all the Gotways, is a dream for wheel modders who want to build whatever into their wheel, and of course will ride flawlessly like a Gotway does. Looking forward to your impressions. Still, with this, I feel like GW is falling behind KS, their advantage got smaller (I'm really salty about those new, smaller mosfets). On the other hand, the wheels are hardly comparable.

You're not wrong But I lack clothing, and somehow since getting a helmet, I don't want to ride without one, which I'd have to do if I want to keep my head warm. The hat doesn't work under my very airy helmet. I'm already thinking about what to do, so there may still be hope

Fantastic articles, thank you! - Overall, I'm disappointed by the interior. New design, old questionable quality. Smaller mosfets. No water-proofing to be seen, though it may not be needed to too much. Board better get attached properly in the production wheel. No cable channels. Huge shell with badly used and usable space. OK engineering but nothing exciting. Mix of screws. Could need another iteration (or 2 or 5) before production. Summary: it's a Gotway

Eww the boards now have smaller mosfets!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO. The one thing they got so right... they got wrong again.

Reading... well, it's a Gotway. Overall nice and clean (and so much wasted space), but it's hard not to laugh or cry sometimes Quote: "To prevent the controller from dangling in the bay, Gotway came up with this solution:" lol

Fantastico! We don't even have to use Google Translate now. (edit: Non Google Translate English link https://ecodrift.ru/2018/12/29/gotway-nikola-disassembling-english-version/) Nikola disassembly article by EcoDrift!! https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fecodrift.ru%2F2018%2F12%2F29%2Fgotway-nikola-razbiraem-chast-3%2F

A knobby tire like this worked pretty well for me in wet grass, mud, snow slush, etc. There was definitely an improvement compared to the stock tire on my ACM (which has a similar profile to the MSX standard tire). You'd have to find one in MSX size. The bigger the knobs, the better. It's quite loud, bunch of angry hornets style, on pavement. Also, mine died after a season (rubber is thin aside from the knobs), so it might not hold too long. Make sure you have an extra tube, I suspect my tire killed my tube, something that never happened before or after but with this tire. But it certainly offers grip when those knobs can dig into whatever soft ground you have. Definitely better than a thick rubber tire with some kind of profile.

Damn, Winter Madness is real I wasn't on the wheel for 2 weeks now. I didn't ride since October, but do some balcony riding for a minute or two here and there. But I didn't even do that for two weeks (gone for work for a week, Xmas chaos, etc.). Well, yesterday I spent a minute on my balcony again. Just so I don't forget how it feels to stand on the wheel. Short and sweet. Result: a very vivid, very specific dream about riding my ACM. You have to know I barely dream in a way I know it happened after waking up. And if I dream and know it, something I don't immediately forget after waking up is once in a decade or even more rare. The dream: So I was in Tokyo with my ACM. It was all very specific, not just a wheel, but my ACM, in its shape and weight (that you have to carry when not riding, as does a traveller on other transportation). I was at a small train or bus station in the middle of the road between narrow lanes, free for the first time, having just arrived in Japan from whatever fixed, determined route came before. The building was also a small shopping mall. Very old and run down, white stainy tiles everywhere, small shops, a bit dirty, etc. For some reason, it was dripping heavily through the roof despite no rain outside, just cold-ish but dry, overcast, low-contrast nondescript autumn weather. The entire affair was in a low buildings (2 stories), older, secondary Japanese residential area, nothing special or glitzy or shiny or neon-y, just a forgotten neighborhood with little people to be seen. Anyways, I had to get somewhere but didn't know what direction to take. I wanted to take a bus or subway to get to my destination as I didn't know where I'd ride with my ACM and how long it would take, how feasible it would be. Navigation (Google Maps, I said it was very specific) told me it was 3 hours and a few minutes to wheel to my destination to the southeast (very specific, shape of route and alternative routes and all). I was wondering if my battery was enough for that. But there were no buses coming and to be expected, no other option, the situation had unreliable phone reception, not sure. Anyways, so I stepped on my ACM on the narrow, paved lane in front of the mall and began towards the general direction wobbly-ly, going through the residential streets, trying to keep left instead of right, as they drive in Japan. Everything was a bit uncertain, but the general direction was right, and I was going, barely seeing anyone else. Some time later, still no exact route, but I had gained some confidence and was going a bit faster. Still through the typical residential streets. I remember a roundabout I took the wrong (counter-clockwise) way, but nobody was there anyways. Traffic was very light to nonexistent, everything seemed off the beaten track and nearly abandoned since I arrived at the station/mall which had a handful of people at least. A bit later, I was going fast on a straight street, on the right side as I'm used to. A group of a dozen fast Japanese road bike riders (the spandex type) sped towards me in the opposite direction. They were in the middle of the road, but one guy was on the left (my right) and I was in his rightful way. I attempted to change sides but abandoned it with a quick turn to my right as I would have hit the big group, not enough space or time before we would meet. The single rider gave way to me towards the center of the street, with a little raised eyebrow, but they weren't more mad than that, more surprised of the unexpected visitor on the road. From pulling over quickly to the right after aborting crossing to the other side, I hit the bevelled granite curb (again, very specific) with my right pedal and almost fell, but could ride out the wobble due to reflexes. My ACM's behavior in this was so vivid and realistic, it woke me up. - All that from a minute on the wheel again the evening before. The brain is an interesting thing I think I need to speed up getting winter riding clothing, of which I have none, before more stuff happens. So much for this story, for your enjoyment

A light makes it hard for your eyes to find its position or movement. Like for a deer in the headlight. Meanwhile, a big area, highly visible, moving 3-dimensional shape - that's what your eyes are built to pick up and assess. I learned of these all reflective jackets last year, and they are great. Hard to not be seen.

Good idea with the dots (or any other shape). Measure the distortion and you get a rough idea how the plane of riding is tilted. It could be very rudimentary, it doesn't have to do much, after all. Pothole detector makes less sense, though, you'd need a much much much more sensitive and far ahead looking system. Also, what is it supposed to do when it sees (or rather, some quality GW or KS algorithm thinks it sees) a pothole? It can't brake/tiltback or it would drive every rider crazy. Maybe shine some marking red lasers at it! Would look cool, a wheel scanning/buzzing/zapping all the potholes while driving by -- In theory, a good enough acceleration sensor should be all that is needed. The wheel would know what direction it is moving, inertial navigation style, and if that direction has a steady upward or downward component, simply adjust the lights. Basically it would always point the lights where it is going if you extrapolate the current path. Could also be used for curve lights like cars have (shine to the side if you turn the steering wheel).

They could not have expected this type of use. But they certainly should have designed for this type of use - strong enough. And if proper lights aren't a low-hanging fruit, I don't know what could be even lower Oh well, as long as they're getting there eventually... still, some more competent and responsive company could pretty much wipe the floor with all of them. Please someone give me the millions to start a EUC manufacturer.

Agreed! But too bad they don't think in the first place what the point of lights is, and add fully traffic-capable bright front and back lights right away. I never understood this (and so many other idiosyncrasies), it's like they build devices for space aliens and get the general idea what the point is, but never really understand exactly what they are doing. Do they not have cars and motor scooters in China at which they can have a look to see what lights are supposed to be?

How about a small infrared laser scanning the terrain ahead, estimating the slope? Or some kind of low-res photosensor checking the light's shape on the ground and adjusting. Or some machine learning algorithm following the power/speed/current/etc numbers and guessing at the slope. Or just a light on your helmet. Might work, but it's too easy

Is it me, or does this armor somehow make Marty look like a woman?

I don't think it's confusing. You approximately know how fast you ride, so it's clear if it is a speed alarm or 80% warning. You don't have to miss speed alarms if you want them.

Great video, thanks! Wheel looking nice. Starting to remind me of the ACM more, with the closed shell. With non-transparent, rubberized shell parts this wheel might be very robust and not flimsy at all. Those white highlights look great. Who are those boring people who want an all-black, boring wheel?

Sweet MCM5... this video sums up my feelings about the wheel There's 3 alarms. 2 beeps (first speed alarm), 3 beeps (second speed alarm), 5 beeps (80% alarm, never ignore this). But the alarm can be aborted midway, so you might not hear all beeps. For example, if the first speed alarm (2 beeps) is at 30km/h, and you hit 30 for a moment, you might hear the first beep, but not the second beep because then you have slowed down to 29 already. So maybe you did hear the beginnings of the 80% alarm, but you didn't hear all 5 beeps because it was aborted midway, so maybe you heard only 3 or 4 of the 5 beeps. You can always do a lift test. Lift your wheel and look at the app to see the speed and you can test the different alarms as they appear.

Great! Very interested how the insides and build look!