Which one?

[Epic53]

Iv’e been going through the forum and I love how much information you can get here. So here’s my dilemma:

 

I really want to get a unicycle for myself, I’ve never owned one before. After months of hard research I came down to two options - INMOTION V8 and the INMOTION V10f. I know they’re two very different unicycles but I’ve been paranoid about safety on these things in general. I really don’t want to face plant on one of these, which is why the V10f is the best choice. It’s built like a tank compared to the V8, but is still Soooo much heavier (49 pounds!!!) Learning on the V10f will be hard as a newbie, but it seems like a few people have done it. Money isn’t something I worried about. If it costs more to not faceplant I’ll buy the V10. I’m not saying that the v8 is dangerous, but I feel that it might cutout going up a hill or something.

 

I really fear a cutout on an EUC. I’ve read stories of people falling off out of nowhere, not because of overpowering, or anything rider related, it just simply stopped in the middle of riding on the road.

 

I feel like the V10f would virtually prevent this from happening due to its redundancy features built in. 

 

I do live in a city but I’ll be mainly riding on sidewalks and around 10 km a day average. I’m consider myself pretty athletic too and weigh 135 pounds. I also live in Canada so temperatures drop low during winter.

 

I’ll definitely be buying full protective gear, helmet, wrist guards, knee pads etc...

 

So basically, I have 2 more days left of Black Friday sales and I need to decide quickly. V8 or V10f, DONT try to convince me to buy any other EUC plz thanks

[houseofjob]

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

Learning on the V10f will be hard as a newbie, but it seems like a few people have done it.

I respectfully disagree.

One of the hardest things to learn as a newbie is the left-right balance on an EUC, so thicker tires (2.5" wide V10F vs 2.125" wide V8) will make it easier, as the tire has more distance to travel to fall completely over, giving you more time to right the ship.

 

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

It’s built like a tank compared to the V8, but is still Soooo much heavier (49 pounds!!!) 

You may not realize this, but a heavier EUC is also in your favor when learning how to EUC.

Heavier wheels take longer to fall over (slower to build momentum), which again, gives you more time to right the ship with the left-right balance thing.

The negatives we are usually referring to with a heavier EUC are more related to agility, which you won't have anyways when first learning, and portability when not riding, which is what it is.

 

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

I really don’t want to face plant on one of these, which is why the V10f is the best choice.

Money isn’t something I worried about. If it costs more to not faceplant I’ll buy the V10.

Just theoretically, a stronger motor is much harder to cutout on, so yes, it looks like you should go with the more powerful 2kW nom V10F over the 800W nom V8.

Also, the 2 parallel battery config was never the most ideal to sustain the 800W V8 motor, which should ideally have at least 3 parallel packs to spread out the power load IMHO. While the V8 is a very good wheel, when I still owned one, I would occasionally feel the weakening of the motor / gyro (motor stops balancing only for a micro-second, then re-engages) when hitting a divot at max speed.

With the V10F, I haven't experienced anything related to a cutout, but one time when I was being very over-aggressive with it up against the max / tiltback, I had it kind of go into a non-low-battery cripple mode, where I was forced to decelerate to a standstill, with the V10F locking into full tiltback.... pretty scary, but all due to riding it pretty hard.

 

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

I’m not saying that the v8 is dangerous, but I feel that it might cutout going up a hill or something.

Unless you're being really sudden and overpowering the EUC, this will be really hard to do, as there are overcharge / overpower warnings. (and as the V8 is not the most powerful motor, you won't be going that fast on uphills)

 

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

I really fear a cutout on an EUC. I’ve read stories of people falling off out of nowhere, not because of overpowering, or anything rider related, it just simply stopped in the middle of riding on the road.

I feel like the V10f would virtually prevent this from happening due to its redundancy features built in. 

This kind of cutout is super rare with wheels of this caliber.

IMHO probably 95-98% of cutouts are rider error related: overpower, unseen obstacles, etc.

The mystery cutout, "due-to-no-reason" stories with current model EUCs often come from newbies, who often blame the wheel and are not aware of things like overpower cutoff, etc.

Also, you should really consider where you are sourcing your EUC, as the problem wheels AFAICS seem to often come from sketchy eBay dealers, or questionable small mom&pop dealers, who could have had their stock sitting for months, unused, which is bad for any lithium battery-based device... or worse, are trying to pass off fixed, problematic return wheels as new.

 

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

I do live in a city but I’ll be mainly riding on sidewalks and around 10 km a day average.

FYI, when you start reaching 40kph / 25mph and above, like the V10F does, it's mighty hard to be neutered to sidewalk pedestrian speeds.

 

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

I’m consider myself pretty athletic too and weigh 135 pounds.

FYI, it's even harder for lightweight riders to cutout a wheel.

 

3 hours ago, Epic53 said:

I also live in Canada so temperatures drop low during winter.

I'd say minimize your ride time / exposure to the cold where possible (short trips). 

 

 

All the best with your first EUC buy! And personally, I think you're overthinking the cutout thing, just buy from a reputable source who sells a lot of wheels, thus high stock turnover, no chance for an new old stock wheel.

 

[Epic53]

Thank You so much @houseofjob. I'm apologize for the huge text, I thought it would fix itself after posting. Wow! You answered everything perfectly for me. You got me hooked on to the V10f. 

One more thing (you know I'm a huge freak when it comes to safety already) but honestly, this thing will definitely attract a lot of attention for sure. What's stopping some big guy from coming up to me, and asking me to step off the wheel to mug me . I am only still a teen (16) so...yea.

Are there any good strategies to protect myself from theives when I'm out and about (maybe self defence) ideas? I was thinking of a GPS tracker in the worst case, even sound grenades exist to create a lot of noise (idk anymore *sigh*). I was thinking of nighttime riding as part of my commute, but I guess that's the riskiest.

I'm not trying to overthink all the safety aspects of EUC's, but I can't help it really haha thanks again 

[meepmeepmayer]

Great to see younger people riding EUCs!

If you choose between a V8 and V10 (or V10F) because of the prices and because there's currently a sale, that's fine. Btw. definitely get the V10(F), the unsafest feature on any brand wheel, before motor power, build quality, or anything else, is a "small" (2p) battery. Because it is easier to overpower than even a weak motor. And the V8 battery is "small". So get the V10F, it's a much nicer wheel anyways (unless you go for low weight specifically).

But I want to vehemently object to the notion that Inmotions are safer or other (brand) wheels are less safe. That's just not true. Build quality and safety are two different things. There are no more sudden faceplants on other brands than on Inmotions. Actually, there are none of the sudden-hardware-failure faceplants you seem to be worried about on any current wheel, Inmotion or not. It's an ultra tiny, residual, mostly theoretical risk (that you can account for with a full face helmet and the usual gear). Rider fault (or other motorists) is a million times higher risk.

The V10(F) has no redundancy features, by the way, it's just like with any other wheel (IPS S5 possible exception still pending). Fact, everything else is simply marketing. If you wanted to know which mainstream wheel is the safest, I'd say that is the msuper X simply because of the superior electronics and a zero reported failure rate. No matter what people say about Gotway build quality or whatever. But the V10(F) is going to be fine as well

It's nice that you consider safety in advance, but one can worry too much as well. Protective gear is great and you mentioned all the right stuff. About fear of other people, I suggest the first thing to change is your attitude. If you ride around afraid of people, they will notice. Unless your part of Toronto is a crime-infested hellhole or you have pertinent bad experiences, don't worry about "crime". You don't need self-defense, and you deal with potential wheel thieves by taking the wheel with you inside (which you would do anyways) instead of locking it up somewhere like a bike. Also, it makes more sense to ride on bike paths or the road, so that would reduce the risk as well as you're away from evil walkers

[eddiemoy]

14 hours ago, Epic53 said:

Iv’e been going through the forum and I love how much information you can get here. So here’s my dilemma:

 

I really want to get a unicycle for myself, I’ve never owned one before. After months of hard research I came down to two options - INMOTION V8 and the INMOTION V10f. I know they’re two very different unicycles but I’ve been paranoid about safety on these things in general. I really don’t want to face plant on one of these, which is why the V10f is the best choice. It’s built like a tank compared to the V8, but is still Soooo much heavier (49 pounds!!!) Learning on the V10f will be hard as a newbie, but it seems like a few people have done it. Money isn’t something I worried about. If it costs more to not faceplant I’ll buy the V10. I’m not saying that the v8 is dangerous, but I feel that it might cutout going up a hill or something.

 

I really fear a cutout on an EUC. I’ve read stories of people falling off out of nowhere, not because of overpowering, or anything rider related, it just simply stopped in the middle of riding on the road.

 

I feel like the V10f would virtually prevent this from happening due to its redundancy features built in. 

 

I do live in a city but I’ll be mainly riding on sidewalks and around 10 km a day average. I’m consider myself pretty athletic too and weigh 135 pounds. I also live in Canada so temperatures drop low during winter.

 

I’ll definitely be buying full protective gear, helmet, wrist guards, knee pads etc...

 

So basically, I have 2 more days left of Black Friday sales and I need to decide quickly. V8 or V10f, DONT try to convince me to buy any other EUC plz thanks

For shorter rides or last mile, I still prefer my KS16 over the V10F.  The KS16 would be similar to the V8.  The V10F is in a strange place in my stable of wheels where it is in the middle, not good at anything.  For higher speed rides, the speed throttling on the V10F really kills the wheel.  It also behaves more like a 18” wheel than a 16” wheel.  It hesitates from a stop.  It resist Turning sometimes like a Z10 or MSX would.  I never get this weird feeling from the KS18S/L.  

These guys still prefer the V8 because it is more responsive.  You will probably like that more too because you said your will be riding on the sidewalk and in the city which these guys mention is why they prefer the V8.  When you outgrow the V8, then you can look at some of the bigger wheels like KS18XL, MSX, Z10, etc...  I wouldn’t go for the V10F because there are better wheels. At least for my type of riding, the V10F is never picked.  That is why I’m selling mine.  Too heavy to keep in my car for last mile, too slow to ride at higher speeds, no seat for the longer rides.  Glide 3 is the V8.  No wheel is bulletproof.  Just gear up and enjoy your wheel.

 

[Epic53]

Could someone please explain this. It's a comment on one of the Youtube Videos. I feel like this guy wouldn't be just making this up... 

From his story, there seems to be no possible explanation. His story is one of the reasons why I get worried, I was originally going for the V8 but after seeing this in the comments... I found a good reason to choose on the V10f over the V8. At the same time, others are saying that the V8 is absolutely amazing.  

P.S. There is no protective cover available for the v10f which really sucks, especially since I'm a newbie 

[meepmeepmayer]

If you want absolute certainty, get an ebike or something else that doesn't fall over without working electronics. Otherwise, the residual risk is about the same that you fly in a plane and a wing breaks off. Or that you ride a bike and the spokes pierce the wheel and the tire breaks mid-ride. Can happen, did at some time happen, but won't happen to you.

It's good that you immediately understand EUCs and their "weakness", unlike other people who think it's a good idea to test the top speed and ignore warnings or whatever. You can do two things: understand the possibility and act accordingly (wear gear), and then don't worry about it. If that's too much for you, EUCs are not for you.

That being said, don't put too much weight on some horror story. Was he really going 15mph, or the 18mph top speed (it's not like you have a speed gauge in sight when riding), and didn't hear the beeps? Does he weight 80kg, or 150kg and grossly overstressed the wheel? Uphill? Weak battery from some seller with old stock? Maybe it was a real hardware failure, maybe it wasn't.

Either way, it is not representative of any brand wheel. Not from the forum here, or any other place I know of. Current brand wheels, especially the ones with bigger batteries, don't just cut out without a good explanation (=something you did, no hardware failure on its own). In my opinion, the biggest technical safety risk is smaller batteries (like on the V8) that can be overpowered too easily (mostly by heavier riders, so not exactly your problem).

Get the V10F and enjoy it

[FreeRide]

What's there to explain?  Electronics, high power batteries, software, imperfect riders, imperfect terrain.  You're not exactly getting into a capsule on top of a rocket, but in the same way, all systems have to function to keep you safe.  Your safety gear is your backup, but it won't help you if you're thrown into traffic, over a bridge, or decide not to wear it. 

As for the skateboard, well people have been killed on those, even without power. The powered ones... well if the electronics fail you might be able to stay on it, but if one of those small wheels hits something you didn't see or failed to avoid, well... there was a nice example of a rider coming off some sort of boosted board a week or two ago... he was quite lucky... a little different timing and he would not be smiling, as it is he had on full safety gear, which may have been the only smart-thing he had done on that ride. 

It might be hard to say which fails more, the safety systems or the riders, but rest assured you need to be prepared for a failure. That's pretty much the way it is in life, EUC or not.  

[meepmeepmayer]

13 minutes ago, FreeRide said:

Your safety gear is your backup

That is extremely true!

Though the backup is 99.99% for rider error (you fall because sometimes that happens) and other people's errors (think a car hitting a rider) and only 0.01% (or so) for actual hardware failure crashes.

14 minutes ago, FreeRide said:

It might be hard to say which fails more, the safety systems or the riders

No, that is extremely easy to say. The riders

Every crash reported on this forum was rider error (in the widest sense, including bad luck and whatnot) and not hardware failure. I can't recall a single unexplicable hardware-caused cut-out on a big battery wheel posted here. Sure, you may be able to kill certain wheels if you know how and go for it, but it was never "just riding" where a crash just happened.

[RockyTop]

I know that I am 1,000 times more likely than my EUC to cause a crash.  

After riding 500 miles with bicycles last summer I can record 4 crashes:

1 crash on an EUC without injury.  

3 crashes on bikes (all three crashes with injury). 

      Two banged up knees and one banged up hip. ( discomfort walking for a week) 

When it comes to danger, I think that crashing on an EUC is over rated and falling in the bathroom is under rated. 

 

[LanghamP]

I believe the biggest danger to riding an EUC is getting rammed by a driver. At the higher speeds protection such as helmets and other armor will not help you against internal injuries.

In particular, note how dangerous two situations are.

1. The intersection crosswalk.

2. The "stroad" which describes a fast road with a yield crosswalk.

While I agree the type of wheel you get is important, I also believe that if you take a survey of the riders here you'll find a lot (including me several times) have been hit by drivers even while walking their wheel across a crosswalk with a pedestrian light.

I notice I haven't crashed on any of my EUCs when I don't go looking for trouble, that is, if you ride between 6 to 10 mph in familiar area where there's no cars, your crash rate is so close to zero as to be effectively zero; however should you ride that way on the sidewalk then you will almost be guaranteed to be hit by a car because all sidewalks have driveways that cars use as @Marty Backe discovered once on a mild run. I've actually had my KS16S run over by a texting driver coming quite fast out of a driveway.

[houseofjob]

5 hours ago, Epic53 said:

Could someone please explain this. It's a comment on one of the Youtube Videos. I feel like this guy wouldn't be just making this up... 

From his story, there seems to be no possible explanation. His story is one of the reasons why I get worried, I was originally going for the V8 but after seeing this in the comments... I found a good reason to choose on the V10f over the V8. At the same time, others are saying that the V8 is absolutely amazing.  

2 hours ago, meepmeepmayer said:

That being said, don't put too much weight on some horror story. Was he really going 15mph, or the 18mph top speed (it's not like you have a speed gauge in sight when riding), and didn't hear the beeps? Does he weight 80kg, or 150kg and grossly overstressed the wheel? Uphill? Weak battery from some seller with old stock? Maybe it was a real hardware failure, maybe it wasn't.

Either way, it is not representative of any brand wheel. Not from the forum here, or any other place I know of. Current brand wheels, especially the ones with bigger batteries, don't just cut out without a good explanation (=something you did, no hardware failure on its own). In my opinion, the biggest technical safety risk is smaller batteries (like on the V8) that can be overpowered too easily (mostly by heavier riders, so not exactly your problem).

Too many unknown variables in this YouTube comment here. Where is he sourcing his Glide 3 / V8 from? Is it a used and/or abused problem wheel someone sold him? Was the V8 exposed to extensive rain? Was the wheel powered on after the fall? .....

This YouTube comment is lacking a ton of details to gather any grand-sweeping conclusions from.

 

5 hours ago, Epic53 said:

P.S. There is no protective cover available for the v10f which really sucks, especially since I'm a newbie 

That's news to me! AFAIK, everyone who ordered the first eWheels & MyInMotion batch V10F's received some version of this protective V10F cover. I'd ask the dealer if your purchase will come with one.

[Glitched]

There IS a protective cover for the V10F. I received one with my order, so it exists. Ask for it maybe through their customer service. It's $60 through InMotion. That AlliExpress one has a different graphic design on it but probably all the same otherwise.