My Wife Wants To Learn!

[Rehab1]

Crongratulations @Marty Backe and best wishes! I tried teaching my wife but she was scared before my accident. Unfortunately there is zero chance now. 

It your wife is enthusiastic and catches on maybe we’ll see a photo of her wheel collection. 

 

[LanghamP]

1 hour ago, Marty Backe said:

There's no way in hell my wife is going to see this video 

It's amazing how much more dangerous these are relative to EUCs. At least with EUCs you mostly fall to the side or forward and can usually stumble forward. With the hoverboards everyone is landing on their back. I can imagine all the head injuries that have occurred.

It's kind of cool to realize that our wheels are probably the safest electric vehicle to be riding.

No no, the MiniPro (which I've ridden, albeit awkwardly) is a different beast entirely from my hooverboard, because in the MiniPro steering and acceleration is entirely separate. Hoverboards depend on you to modulate each pedal for both acceleration and steering which is why riding fast on a hoverboard is almost assures of a crash as even the slightest difference between pedals snap steers you.

The MiniPro won't throw your wife like that.

[See6]

Marty... watching your videos helped my wife decide she wanted to learn to ride EUCs.   She has no balance at all and this is way out of both our comfort zone.   I ride road and mountain bikes to the tune of 2500 miles a year...   this is very new experiences...  so, I just bought a ks18l for me, a Solowheel 3 for the wife and we are both learning together.   Looking back a more beginner bot may be better for both of us but these have both been great so far.  Learning to let the bot do the work is key.  Jason at eWheels told me about the shopping cart method.  After a couple days trying this method hidden in an empty parking lot next to a grocery store, the wife is not on her own yet but is learning the feel of motion.  And she loves it...  I can do brief bits on my own.   The small carts work the best, not the full sized grocery carts.

Thanks for all your videos!

Scott

 

[Marty Backe]

47 minutes ago, See6 said:

Marty... watching your videos helped my wife decide she wanted to learn to ride EUCs.   She has no balance at all and this is way out of both our comfort zone.   I ride road and mountain bikes to the tune of 2500 miles a year...   this is very new experiences...  so, I just bought a ks18l for me, a Solowheel 3 for the wife and we are both learning together.   Looking back a more beginner bot may be better for both of us but these have both been great so far.  Learning to let the bot do the work is key.  Jason at eWheels told me about the shopping cart method.  After a couple days trying this method hidden in an empty parking lot next to a grocery store, the wife is not on her own yet but is learning the feel of motion.  And she loves it...  I can do brief bits on my own.   The small carts work the best, not the full sized grocery carts.

Thanks for all your videos!

Scott

 

Very nice to hear, and thanks  Also thanks for the words of encouragement. And enjoy your learning together. You'll look back at these times with fond memories 

[Michael Vu]

Awesome to hear about your wife's interest Marty! The main reason why I love talking to interested people out in public about electric unicycles is for it to gain traction from the "average" person for recreation and ultimately as a legitimate form of transport. Hopefully as more of the general public sees the "average" person (soccer moms, kids, dads with beer bellies, grandparents, etc) riding EUCs with ease, that will just convince them to put in the time and effort to learn how to ride themselves.

[LanghamP]

Since @Marty BackeBacke has so many wheels, have you tried riding one on each foot? It looks insanely difficult but it is probably the easiest of all EUC tricks and seems much safer than any hooverboard and probably even the MiniPro.

[Marty Backe]

1 hour ago, LanghamP said:

Since @Marty BackeBacke has so many wheels, have you tried riding one on each foot? It looks insanely difficult but it is probably the easiest of all EUC tricks and seems much safer than any hooverboard and probably even the MiniPro.

With my luck, trying that would be the time that I fall in an odd way and break my arm.  I'll leave the trick riding to other folks..

[RockyTop]

3 hours ago, LanghamP said:

Since @Marty BackeBacke has so many wheels, have you tried riding one on each foot? It looks insanely difficult but it is probably the easiest of all EUC tricks and seems much safer than any hooverboard and probably even the MiniPro.

It is VERY easy at low speeds. Ks16s on one foot and MSuper on the other. At about 12mph things get really awkward. I about lost it. 

[LanghamP]

3 hours ago, RockyTop said:

It is VERY easy at low speeds. Ks16s on one foot and MSuper on the other. At about 12mph things get really awkward. I about lost it. 

That's my experience; I was in a bust-my-ass mood, mounted a 14 and 16 incher fully expecting to fall and...nothing. 

Like you say, it's VERY easy. I even turned both wheels so they are in line instead of parallel, and while there was an adjustment that was also pretty easy.

It does look insanely difficult.

@Marty Backe can do all that despite his misgivings.

[Thai-lad]

On 9/23/2018 at 3:58 AM, Marty Backe said:

 She says she'll never do the kind of riding that I do, but likes the idea of doing little rides together, maybe at some local parks. 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

[eddiemoy]

On 9/22/2018 at 5:50 PM, Marty Backe said:

You're such a cheerful fellow 

Marty, I also want to see you try to validate @LanghamP's teaching method.  He mentioned 40-120 seconds before, now it is 2-5 minutes.  I did try a few minutes on one person this weekend who's been trying to learn for the last 2 months.  No luck. But I do think there is something to method as it maximizes the amount of info you are feeding to the brain continuously.  The brain is amazing and if you can feed it enough data, it will eventually figure it out like we all have learned.  But I'm not sure about 40-120 seconds.  

Also you have to be very careful riding next to her because she will try to drag you down and with your Gotway collection, if she steps off the wrong way, you will both might be hurt pretty badly.  Maybe run beside her instead?  I do agree that you have to go slightly faster than walking for the gyro of the wheel to kick in as going slow would be difficult to stay up.

Would love a progress report and for anyone else to try to validate this teaching method.  I'm love for this to be true because if we can figure out a quick way to teach instead of the hours it took me to teach my kids, then I think we can get this to be adopted more.

 

[eddiemoy]

As for my suggestion, I feel an adult, learning on a 16" would be best.  The Msuper is a little too heavy for a beginner to control.  14" is a little too squirrelly.  I would suggest a KS16S LOL, but you only have the one token 14" from king song.  V8 would be great too.

[Marty Backe]

4 minutes ago, eddiemoy said:

Marty, I also want to see you try to validate @LanghamP's teaching method.  He mentioned 40-120 seconds before, now it is 2-5 minutes.  I did try a few minutes on one person this weekend who's been trying to learn for the last 2 months.  No luck. But I do think there is something to method as it maximizes the amount of info you are feeding to the brain continuously.  The brain is amazing and if you can feed it enough data, it will eventually figure it out like we all have learned.  But I'm not sure about 40-120 seconds.  

Also you have to be very careful riding next to her because she will try to drag you down and with your Gotway collection, if she steps off the wrong way, you will both might be hurt pretty badly.  Maybe run beside her instead?  I do agree that you have to go slightly faster than walking for the gyro of the wheel to kick in as going slow would be difficult to stay up.

Would love a progress report and for anyone else to try to validate this teaching method.  I'm love for this to be true because if we can figure out a quick way to teach instead of the hours it took me to teach my kids, then I think we can get this to be adopted more.

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to ride next to her. My situation is not the best test case, IMO. My wife is not athletic and is 65. I'm taking a more cautious approach, but I will try and capture any lessons learned. I'll film what I can but I'm not sure if she'll want any of it published - you know women 

[LanghamP]

16 minutes ago, eddiemoy said:

Marty, I also want to 

Also you have to be very careful riding next to her because she will try to drag you down and with your Gotway collection, if she steps off the wrong way, you will both might be hurt pretty badly.  Maybe run beside her instead?  I do agree that you have to go slightly faster than walking for the gyro of the wheel to kick in as going slow would be difficult to stay up.

 

I taught some drunk guy on Sunday to ride within two minutes but he had it within seconds, he just didn't have the confidence to keep leaning forward initially. Absolutely within two minutes for most people, and five minutes is feels entirely too gay for holding another man's hand that long.

Having the new rider drag you down is the whole point of this not so mysterious technique, because when your rider gets unbalanced you then correct for them. If you're not bashing and locking pedals together and having moments then you're not doing your duty of keeping the person upright. They start falling and you wobble getting them straightened.

It makes no difference what wheel, except the wheel should never be the   S1 due to crunching their ankle bone when getting on.

[eddiemoy]

2 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

I taught some drunk guy on Sunday to ride within two minutes but he had it within seconds, he just didn't have the confidence to keep leaning forward initially. Absolutely within two minutes for most people, and five minutes is feels entirely too gay for holding another man's hand that long.

Having the new rider drag you down is the whole point of this not so mysterious technique, because when your rider gets unbalanced you then correct for them. If you're not bashing and locking pedals together and having moments then you're not doing your duty of keeping the person upright. They start falling and you wobble getting them straightened.

It makes no difference what wheel, except the wheel should never be the   S1 due to crunching their ankle bone when getting on.

I'll definitely continue to try this method when I can.  Like I mention before I'm very interested to see this validated.  Wish others would try as well and report back.  

[Mono]

On 9/22/2018 at 10:58 PM, Marty Backe said:

She says she'll never do the kind of riding that I do

yeah, that's what she's saying now...

On 9/22/2018 at 10:58 PM, Marty Backe said:

Now I'm debating what wheel.

I'd tend to say from my experience the lighter the better, if the pedals fit to the foot size.

 

[who_the]

Nice one Marty! How nice of you for letting her use one of your wheels!

My wife learned two years ago on an IPS Zero. She now rides a Tesla after about a year on an Inmotion V8/Glide 3. She still insists on calling herself a beginner despite about 5,000 total miles ridden!

My favorite teaching method: Use a broomstick or curtain rod.

First, teach the learner to stand with one foot on the wheel and the other on the ground. Even the clumsiest of individuals can do this. Then, hold the broomstick and stand in front of the learner. Have the learner grab the stick with both hands (you too), then support their weight as they step up onto the other pedal. Let them rock back and forth a few times to feel how the wheel moves. Then, instruct the rider to keep their body straight and lean/fall towards you, while both of you hold the stick, and you slowly walk backward. Do this for at least a few stops and starts. Once the rider starts to feel the relationship between their leaning and the wheel moving, you can reposition yourself to be alongside them, still holding the broomstick in front of them so they can maintain their balance. Now have the learner lean again, this time, walk/jog alongside them, helping them maintain their balance as they roll. Do this long enough and you will feel as their balance improves. Before too long you can let go of the stick and they are riding themselves!

[Marty Backe]

20 minutes ago, who_the said:

Nice one Marty! How nice of you for letting her use one of your wheels!

My wife learned two years ago on an IPS Zero. She now rides a Tesla after about a year on an Inmotion V8/Glide 3. She still insists on calling herself a beginner despite about 5,000 total miles ridden!

My favorite teaching method: Use a broomstick or curtain rod.

First, teach the learner to stand with one foot on the wheel and the other on the ground. Even the clumsiest of individuals can do this. Then, hold the broomstick and stand in front of the learner. Have the learner grab the stick with both hands (you too), then support their weight as they step up onto the other pedal. Let them rock back and forth a few times to feel how the wheel moves. Then, instruct the rider to keep their body straight and lean/fall towards you, while both of you hold the stick, and you slowly walk backward. Do this for at least a few stops and starts. Once the rider starts to feel the relationship between their leaning and the wheel moving, you can reposition yourself to be alongside them, still holding the broomstick in front of them so they can maintain their balance. Now have the learner lean again, this time, walk/jog alongside them, helping them maintain their balance as they roll. Do this long enough and you will feel as their balance improves. Before too long you can let go of the stick and they are riding themselves!

Another good technique that I'll explore.

Having ridden with Miles, she's no beginner that's for sure 

[yourtoys7]

@Marty Backe got for you/ her, If she catches on (im sure she will), I just can't imagine the wheel selection you both could have . Seriously, Im sure you will really enjoy riding with her, my wife sorta said she wouldn't mind to try. MSX and MCM5..... perfect.

[Nic]

I can see it now ... Pink EUCs ... 

[Unventor]

On 9/22/2018 at 11:26 PM, Marty Backe said:

In hindsight, maybe it is a good idea that KingSong and Ninebot allow you to lock your wheels. Unfortunately most of my wheels are Gotway so they'll be no way to keep her off my wheels 

Only one real fix for this...buy more wheels...Kingsong Or Ninebot ?

[Unventor]

On 9/27/2018 at 12:24 PM, Nic said:

I can see it now ... Pink EUCs ... 

This was posted at Kingsong app social part a few months back.

Looks white that have been painted.

[Marcglider]

1 hour ago, Unventor said:

Only one real fix for this...buy more wheels...Kingsong Or Ninebot ?

hope she doesn't want a new ACMv2... @JES bought the last one from Jason and he is not selling them anymore...

[meepmeepmayer]

37 minutes ago, Marcglider said:

hope she doesn't want a new ACMv2... @JES bought the last one from Jason and he is not selling them anymore...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That can only mean one thing: new Gotway 16 incher incoming! Finally!Or GW stopped producing ACMs without a replacement.

[Marcglider]

1 minute ago, meepmeepmayer said:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That can only mean one thing: new Gotway 16 incher incoming! Finally!Or GW stopped producing ACMs without a replacement.

If I were to guess, this is my observation... Jason got a good deal on a large order, he was selling them $103 below list... now with the tariff, the price of one will be probably around $1800, the Teslas will be $1600 when he gets the next shipment... He has plenty of 16S's in stock at $1299 with silvers coming in in Nov... his relationship with KS is much better than GW... at the price he would need to sell the  ACM at, it is close to the 18L which he has in stock as well and they are coming out with a bigger battery... SO, I may be wrong but this is my opinion on Why... maybe he will chime in but it who knows... I think it is a great wheel but also it will be close in price to a Z10 which is just one more reason, and I think he has 100 of those on order...