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How the hell do you do this? [Day 2 learning to ride - Video]


Alex_from_NZ

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39 minutes ago, Thai-lad said:

 

For you experienced riders, does this bring back any memories?

It took weeks before I was halfway smooth, and three weeks before I could free mount. It took a very long time to get comfortable enough on an EUC to finally crash it at high speed.

For the longest time where I placed my feet is where they stuck, no ability to move them around at all. Now of course I can ride one leg, either leg, and even stand on the top of the EUC for short distances (big crash on that one). In my opinion just getting time, doing nothing fancy at all, is the best safest way to learn the EUC. Just get a ton of miles on them, hop of them a lot, and after a few hundred hours most of the EUC tricks fall into place. While you could bash at it like a skateboarder, you'll eventually get bit hard, and shins hit by footpads take forever to heal.

It's actually hard to ride an EUC in a straight line, as most EUC try to stand perpendicular to the pavement you are on. As most areas have a slight slope to them, you'll find yourself leaning off the wheel. However, making lazy and slight S figures lets you be symmetrical on your wheel.

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1 hour ago, LanghamP said:

It took weeks before I was halfway smooth, and three weeks before I could free mount. It took a very long time to get comfortable enough on an EUC to finally crash it at high speed.

For the longest time where I placed my feet is where they stuck, no ability to move them around at all. Now of course I can ride one leg, either leg, and even stand on the top of the EUC for short distances (big crash on that one). In my opinion just getting time, doing nothing fancy at all, is the best safest way to learn the EUC. Just get a ton of miles on them, hop of them a lot, and after a few hundred hours most of the EUC tricks fall into place. While you could bash at it like a skateboarder, you'll eventually get bit hard, and shins hit by footpads take forever to heal.

It's actually hard to ride an EUC in a straight line, as most EUC try to stand perpendicular to the pavement you are on. As most areas have a slight slope to them, you'll find yourself leaning off the wheel. However, making lazy and slight S figures lets you be symmetrical on your wheel.

One thing I wasn't expecting is what a workout hopping on and bailing off a wheel would be.  An hour is about all I can manage in this 90° heat.  Getting to 100 hrs will take a while at this rate.

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@Thai-lad

Thank you for your contribution. Your progress sounds similar to mine in a way.. I spent a day on the weekend going up and down the fence line until I could do it not grabbing for it.

Then I started turning away from the fence and going back towards it. 

Then I started at the fence and a loop around the car and back. Then the other way.  Over and over again. 

Then up the drive way, bumps and stuff. Then up the hill and back down. Hills and stuff. 

Then trying to get up a bit faster, and a bit faster. Then trying to brake. And trying to brake faster. 

Then corners at speed. Around and around an oval track. 

Now I am just trying to get comfortable.

I still get the shakes. I still get speed wobbles. I still can't reposition my feet without freaking out my balance. I still can't skateboard kick and hop on (mostly because of my left leg still not working) and I still have yet to hit my third alarm I set at 30kph.

I am finding my feet getting sore, but think that's down to injuries as well and am trying different shoes to lessen the ache.  And I have a feeling my left leg is causing me to get the shakes every now and then, hard to get comfortable and can't straighten it fully out so hard to relax and not be tense. 

Have now been told I've snapped my ACL and ruptured my PCL. Waiting for a surgical consultation and doing physio in the meantime. Lucky I've got a EUC for mobility huh? 🤣

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17 minutes ago, Alex_from_NZ said:

@Thai-lad

Thank you for your contribution. Your progress sounds similar to mine in a way.. I spent a day on the weekend going up and down the fence line until I could do it not grabbing for it.

Then I started turning away from the fence and going back towards it. 

Then I started at the fence and a loop around the car and back. Then the other way.  Over and over again. 

Then up the drive way, bumps and stuff. Then up the hill and back down. Hills and stuff. 

Then trying to get up a bit faster, and a bit faster. Then trying to brake. And trying to brake faster. 

Then corners at speed. Around and around an oval track. 

Now I am just trying to get comfortable.

I still get the shakes. I still get speed wobbles. I still can't reposition my feet without freaking out my balance. I still can't skateboard kick and hop on (mostly because of my left leg still not working) and I still have yet to hit my third alarm I set at 30kph.

I am finding my feet getting sore, but think that's down to injuries as well and am trying different shoes to lessen the ache.  And I have a feeling my left leg is causing me to get the shakes every now and then, hard to get comfortable and can't straighten it fully out so hard to relax and not be tense. 

Have now been told I've snapped my ACL and ruptured my PCL. Waiting for a surgical consultation and doing physio in the meantime. Lucky I've got a EUC for mobility huh? 🤣

A lot of progress for 3 weeks with an injured knee!  At my age those kind of injuries take forever to heal, so I'm not going to try and push it too hard.  But maybe I'll find a cyclist to ride with me and use them for balance soon.  I'd try a shopping cart but the nearest one is a 20 minute drive away.

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1 hour ago, Thai-lad said:

A lot of progress for 3 weeks with an injured knee!  At my age those kind of injuries take forever to heal, so I'm not going to try and push it too hard.  But maybe I'll find a cyclist to ride with me and use them for balance soon.  I'd try a shopping cart but the nearest one is a 20 minute drive away.

Thanks man. I was really worried after I hurt myself I had made a mistake with this pursuit, and after two weeks of it festering in my head and against my wife's wishes, stubborn determination got the better of me. 

The first day back on I was still using a crutch to walk. Getting on and off was the hardest part. I would spend about 30 mins going up and down the fence line before taking a break for 30 mins, then back at it again. I did about 7 or 8 of these sessions before starting to move away from the fence and back to it, allowing me to practise turning both ways. 

I'm on my 5th day now and can go up the road and back pretty comfortably. I switched up my shoes to hiking boots tonight and my foot pain disappeared, as well as some of the speed wobbles. Although they didn't provide the same grip on the pedals it was a much nicer ride overall. 

It's been a ton of fun learning, although wish I didn't damage myself on day one as I feel it's really hampering my stop starts which I need to nail down before trying to venture to work with it. 

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58 minutes ago, Alex_from_NZ said:

Thanks man. I was really worried after I hurt myself I had made a mistake with this pursuit, and after two weeks of it festering in my head and against my wife's wishes, stubborn determination got the better of me. 

The first day back on I was still using a crutch to walk. Getting on and off was the hardest part. I would spend about 30 mins going up and down the fence line before taking a break for 30 mins, then back at it again. I did about 7 or 8 of these sessions before starting to move away from the fence and back to it, allowing me to practise turning both ways. 

I'm on my 5th day now and can go up the road and back pretty comfortably. I switched up my shoes to hiking boots tonight and my foot pain disappeared, as well as some of the speed wobbles. Although they didn't provide the same grip on the pedals it was a much nicer ride overall. 

It's been a ton of fun learning, although wish I didn't damage myself on day one as I feel it's really hampering my stop starts which I need to nail down before trying to venture to work with it. 

In my case I had a hard time staying close enough to the fence for it to be useful.  Today I used the wall of a small cabin located on my land to lean against when starting, but moved away from it while trying to ride on the surrounding cement apron.  Reaching out to the wall (or the tennis court fence the first day) would throw off my balance.  After an hour I'm too hot and tired to continue, as riding while tired will lead to accidents I fear.  Tomorrow I hope to progress from one legged skipping/hopping along to moving the free foot onto a pedal before hopping off again.

I jammed my knee a little bit stepping off too stiffly once on the second day, but nothing painful by the following day.  Just sore muscles.  I'm using short leather hiking boots to protect my ankles.  I don't expect to try riding along the road to commute till January at the earliest.

Hope you don't make things worse for yourself by riding while injured.  It would be a shame if you totally incapacitated yourself in a second fall.

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On 12/3/2018 at 3:00 AM, Alex_from_NZ said:

It's been a ton of fun learning, although wish I didn't damage myself on day one as I feel it's really hampering my stop starts which I need to nail down before trying to venture to work with it. 

Unfortunately, since crashing EUCs is especially common in the first year or so of ownership, it follows learning to bail while crashing is a learned skill. In other words, you'll have to practice bailing even when you're balanced on your wheel, so that when you're actually unbalanced you'll know what to do without thought. Even more unfortunately you will develop that skill one way or the other.

I believe crashes on wheels fall into the category of predictaments instead of problems. Problems have solutions but predictaments only have outcomes.

Problem: wheel keeps crashing.

Solution: stop wheel from crashing (not possible).

Versus

Predictament: wheel keeps crashing.

Outcomes: depends on how you hit the ground...

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