Catlord17

That is very interesting information about foot position, I will have to try that. Fortunately within the next 48 hours I'll be finished with my current project and free to take a few days off to rest, so I should have time to practice this new stuff you guys have been showing me.

I wouldn't exactly call it "unscathed" when I take my clothes off and my girlfriend reacts with shock and horror at how my injury looks. But compared to what I could have done, we'll say I was "lightly scathed".

I'm actually quite good at hard braking up to around 15 mph, and I agree with you as to how good the wheel is at braking hard, which may be why and how I overestimated my ability to brake hard at that speed; I had no idea I was going that fast. It's never happened before that I felt comfortable doing over 25 mph; I thought I was doing about 20-25, although even that wouldn't have been a fun crash. I definitely need more skill training. And more time in which to do it!

Normally I have my phone in my hand and I will occasionally glance at WheelLog. Normally I'm not going for speed, as I said, I go for what feels comfortable, which is usually between 12 and 25 mph, depending on where I am riding. Is Darknessbot only for Apple?

The "whatever punishment was coming my way" would have taken me into a busy intersection. I had a split second to assess the threat and I decided against going into a busy intersection, because the time to assess the situation was not there. So it might have been just me riding with traffic through an intersection, and it might have been me going splat. I try to avoid splatting on people's cars, so... I'm not familiar with different ways of braking. I just do it my way. I ride with my feet positioned to give me the best balance between braking and acceleration, with a little bit of bias towards braking, since that's more important than accelerating in 90% of cases. Tru dat! It is quite magical how well it calms me and brings me back to a state of emotionally healthy when I am angry, frustrated or just need to think. My wheel is perhaps the best "therapy" I have ever had. I have done a little bit of trying to ride seated (very little patience for being unable to so far) and to work towards that I have done some work riding with my legs progressively bent more and more. But not a tucked position. That sounds like it would be a worthy thing to explore. Thanks for the references. I'll do that. It is rather amusing that my example supports your statement that you always land where you don't have armor. Thanks for the brand suggestions. I have some gloves too, but usually I am trying to keep an eye on my speed and don't wear them; lately I haven't really cared what my speed is, since usually I don't go very fast, so I think I'll start wearing them. I'm not interested in armor to compensate for skill or bad decisions, but I do want it to protect me from the unexpected. Punctures to the sidewall, broken glass, oil spots I can't stop in time for, getting hit by a car out of control, various random strangeness. Better safe than sorry, I say. I ride on the hardest mode. Not yet. I haven't really had much time for riding at all, maybe 20-30 minutes once or twice a week at best, so I tend to ride for the joy of riding and the theraputic value of it, not try to learn new things while I am so strapped for time. But I am going to teach myself to learn to ride backwards when I have a little more time for riding. I tend to bring my weight back while standing fully upright, but at an angle relative to the wheel. I should probably learn to lower my center of gravity more while I am braking. These options you mention sound interesting to try.

Thank you for the compliment. When it comes to writing, I have done virtually everything there is to do, from writing stories to novels to advertising and instruction manuals, as well as editing. Thank you also for the information on helmets. I had no idea such cool options were available. HUD? Rear view camera? Be still my beating heart! The road I was on is relatively new pavement, so no issues. Although I should have been paying better attention sheerly for the possibility of glass, etc. in the bike lane, as well.

I haven't been around for a while because I've been very busy working my butt off for the majority of this year, but occasionally I find time to ride my MSX for relaxation. It has less than 150 miles on it and I have had it since early this year. How sad. Anyway, yesterday I was frustrated and couldn't focus well enough to work because of it, so I decided that my fastest path back to working state was to go ride my EUC and relax myself that way. (I am self employed and work from home.) I'm in Florida and lately we have temperatures from 90F to 100F every day, but I geared up with everything I had anyway, as I always do, because I don't feel like superman. Right now my gear is wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads and a neon yellow bicycle helmet. Looks dorky as hell, but I get SEEN, and that probably saved my life yesterday. I was riding on the sidewalk with no pedestrians or other traffic, and maintaining a sane speed for a sidewalk of about 10 to 12 mph. But, unlike most days, where I am happy cruising long distances at relatively low speeds, on this day I wanted SPEED to vent my aggression and frustrations. So when I came to an area where I could ride in the bike lane on the road, I got in the bike lane and took off. This area is a straightaway for about 2 miles, and I got in the bike lane where I had about 1.5 miles left. There was no sense of lack of control or stability. I heard no 80% alarm (the only one I have turned on) and I didn't get tiltback (I have my wheel set to the highest tiltback speed possible [30 mph?], but it is set to limit me with tiltback). I was pushing harder and harder as I explored this wheel's real ability for the first time (I normally never go above 25 mph, quite naturally), and it felt very stable. I wasn't watching my speed though, as my phone was in my pocket. When I saw that I had to turn or ride through an intersection, I decided to turn. I had two options, slow down immediately and get back on the sidewalk, or slow down gently and turn at the intersection instead. There is no bike lane on the intersecting road, so I immediately tried to decelerate and get on the sidewalk. But going as fast as I was, I ran out of space unexpectedly quickly, and this forced me to try a harder deceleration than I have ever attempted before. Which immediately led me to the Wobble of Death, and high speed involuntary backward dismount. According to my WheelLog record, I was doing 29.4 mph when I came off the wheel. By piecing together the evidence (I don't fully remember how this happened as a result of my surge of fear), I concluded that I landed on my palms and right elbow, my weight forcing my back to hit the ground on the left side, and the majority of my impact (and where I impacted hardest) was my left gluteus maximus. I skidded for several feet before coming to a stop, but my wheel went off into the wild blue yonder, as these wheels do when they're given their head, and came to rest (thank God) in the grass on the side of the road. I remember saying something (but not what) and then "F*ck!". I do remember the pain in my butt was quite amazing. I immediately got myself out of the road (I landed in the middle of the road onto which I was trying to turn) and assessed the situation. I saw that my wheel was safely off the road, so I limped myself over to it. When I got to it, I wasn't sure if it would work again, but the moment I picked it up, it happily re-balanced and beeped at me, ready to go. There are some serious scrapes on it now, apparently it went airborne and landed on the handle at high speed before rolling into the grass. The side pads have plenty of dirt and grass under them, too. At first I had a very pronounced limp, and the pain of walking was quite a surprise. But I realized that I was miles from home, and I had the option of walking it home or riding it home. Given where I landed, I decided to ride. To it's credit, the wheel performed as if nothing had happened. When I got home and took off my shirt and jeans, I saw that somehow my shirt had managed to remain entirely unscathed, but my jeans were shredded beyond the point of wearability; they sacrificed themselves for my betterment, and will receive a discharge from service with full honors. They saved me from a much worse fate, but I still have serious road rash and tiger stripe bruises on my butt. If I had landed slightly differently, I could very easily have broken my coccyx bone and/or hip, and landed in the hospital. Immense gratitude for that not happening! Unfortunately, I had no choice and had only about 5 minutes to disinfect the road rash before I had to return to work, both frustrated and in pain, sitting for several hours before I was finished. Surprisingly, I didn't have too much difficulty with being necessarily productive, in spite of the initial frustration and discomfort. That night, I was able to drive to dinner with my girlfriend, and then we went to the beach and ended up walking 4 miles before going home. It wasn't uncomfortable, which is amazing. Today I feel better still, no limp today or last night. I am amazingly fortunate. Anyway, here's what I learned from this experience. Don't do that. Pay better attention to your surroundings. Plan your route better. Keep to speeds you are familiar and confident with if you ride with traffic of any kind. Slow down at a speed you are familiar with unless you're practicing high speed braking in a safe place. Keep wearing all safety gear, no matter how dorky it looks or what anyone else says or does. Get and wear a full face helmet. Get motorcycle full body armor, top and bottom. (I apparently don't have buns of steel.) Find ways to vent frustration that offer less chance for an ass-kicking. THINK, dumbass! Did I miss anything? So now I am a member of the "high speed wipe-out club". I think I'll try to pass on a repeat. Can anyone suggest any armor/helmet options that I should specifically avoid? Some of it is pretty cheap price-wise, but has relatively good ratings. What's a good price range to aim for if I want good armor? Anything in particular I should or should not go for in armor and/or helmet? It looks like I could spend between ~$150 and $700+ on fully armoring up. And finally... the death wobbles... is it the wheel, or is my level of skill too low? Thanks guys. I appreciate your time and any responses.

That was a lot of fun to watch, Carlos, thanks for taking the time to document that, edit it and share it.

As I read current Florida Statutes, EUCs do not meet the definition you say they do. There does not, in fact, seem to be any current classification that fits them. I've talked to several police officers, and a couple have told me that since it has a motor, it is technically supposed to be in the bike lane, but some of what I have read statutes wise seemed to contradict that and said it should be in the sidewalk. But no specific category of vehicle fully describes an EUC according to current Florida Law, unless maybe I missed something.

Aha, that looks like a very probable solution! Thanks, Marty, that is much appreciated. Yeah, the plastic cap worked for the KS-14b, but not the MSuper. I shall take your advice and get that and try again.

Thanks for the video, Marty! I successfully slimed my KS-14b, but my MSuper V3s+, to slime it would require a complete shell removal to make the valve accessible enough! No matter what I do shy of that, it remains several degrees off from where I can access and remove/reinstall the valve core, even completely deflated and using a lever to force it away from the body/rim. Since I'm not exactly comfortable trying to remove the entire shell right now, and this is the wheel I will be using for long distance and high speed runs, this has me more than a little irritated. Or am I in possession of one with an unusually bad valve placement, and nobody else has this issue for their V3s+? EDIT: I see at least Marty has slimed his... I love the MSuper, but I just can't get over how stupidly the valve placement and shell placement was set up on this thing! It's almost a miracle that I can even inflate the damned thing on mine.