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Gotway Nikola: First impressions


Nils

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Yay! i love new wheel reviews 😊 Keep them coming ,also some pictures would be very nice pleeease😊 get the beast charged up fully , could you please measure the pedals as I'm interested in some for my msx, I'm sure they are the same fit? Thx 

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3 hours ago, houseofjob said:

@Nils congrats and good report!

FYI, the side LED light modes will cycle through the different patterns if you keep short pressing the power button, like with all Gotway LED wheels.

Also, you might want to pump more air into the tire for more quicker turning.

Thanks! You're right, it does. I actually tried that, but ended up thinking it only toggle the lights between on, off and strobe. Turns out it does that but also cycle through the patterns.

Yes, I'll experiment with the pressure - I'm going to slime it soon and will try out various levels after that.

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1 hour ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Congratulations. Did you buy right from GW?

The latest (social) Gotway app is on the Play Store/iOS App Store or you use the app from the download section here with exactly the same functionality. kebye.com is like 3 years outdated, the app version there is ancient.

I second that. Pictures of everything, please!;)

No, I got mine off Ali, Wheel tech store. Ah, didn't know that, well that makes sense then (I guess..). I hear you both, I was thinking there's already enough pictures of it, but more can't hurt I guess. I'll try to shoot some soon!

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3 hours ago, stephen said:

Yay! i love new wheel reviews 😊 Keep them coming ,also some pictures would be very nice pleeease😊 get the beast charged up fully , could you please measure the pedals as I'm interested in some for my msx, I'm sure they are the same fit? Thx 

I can't say that the fittings are exactly the same (can try to compare later on when I met a fellow rider with an MSX) but here's a picture with the overall dimensions, should be somewhat correct at any rate ;)

nikola-pedal.png

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3 minutes ago, Nils said:

I can't say that the fittings are exactly the same (can try to compare later on when I met a fellow rider with an MSX) but here's a picture with the overall dimensions, should be somewhat correct at any rate ;)

nikola-pedal.png

That's bloody fabulous thank you so much ,,, i do like the size😊😊 ,, is the tread grippy , i know you not been on it much but how's it feel

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2 minutes ago, stephen said:

That's bloody fabulous thank you so much ,,, i do like the size😊😊 ,, is the tread grippy , i know you not been on it much but how's it feel

Felt perfectly fine to me, I didn't have any issues with the grip at all during today' trip :)

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@Nils, thankyou for giving us your review and 1st impressions. I am quite surprised to hear that your V10F overheats alot when riding up very steep inclines, do you ride slowly going up the inclines? I have ridden up some very steep long inclines on mine, but I tend to fly up at great speed, I weigh 87kg. With the upgraded firmware I honestly believe that the V10f can conquer @Marty Backe overheat hill test without failing. I favour the power of the V10F over my 100V MSX when going up steep long inclines, the power delivery is much smoother. 

 Also, is there a delay in acceleration, just like in the V10F? Or is it immediate? Will it now be your go to wheel of choice, over the V10F?

Edited by ED209
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6 hours ago, Nils said:

Happy day yesterday as my Nikola arrived! I didn't have any time then but have now spent the morning acquainting myself with the wheel and trying out, so below follow some first impressions. Note that I've previously owned a KS16 and a V10F, so that's primarily what I'm comparing against, although I've done shorter test rides on other wheels as well. Notably, it's also my first Gotway.

So, first off, the box comes with the wheel, the charger, a brief safety pamphlet and two separate side pads. First thought after pulling the wheel out is, wow, that's huge! Much larger than the V10F for sure. I put them side to side just to get an understanding of the dimensions, and while the body of the Nikola is slightly higher it's really the width of the wheel I think that gives off the formidable impression. Speaking of width brings me to the Nikola's carrying grip. Since the entire handle is so wide no-one is going to close their hands around it. Instead you lift it with the fingers sunk into the recessed middle of the handle, where the lift sensor is. Works reasonably well, and is certainly not a problem for me at least. Moving on to the scorpion trolley handle: when raised it's a tad too low for me to be completely comfortable. The V10F's similar scorpion handle is better in this regard, but since it's longer it means that it always rests on top of the wheel while the Nikola's handle folds in completely, which arguably looks better. The trolley handle doesn't seem to lock when raised  which would have been preferable to me.

So, turned the wheel on, and thankfully it just starts up the way it should. I then spent some time wondering why I didn't see the voltage read-out. Turns out the voltage read-out is now sunk into the right side of the wheel, in contrast to the earlier prototypes which had it top/front. Looks good to me.

Onwards to the Gotway app. While I typically use wheellog I wanted to get the Gotway app going for full control of the settings (led pattern display, etc.). Downloaded the latest official android app from kebye.com, and.. it's a no-go. Won't even start up. Fruitlessly tried fiddling around with additional permissions for a while,  but then gave up and installed the older non-social version of the app uploaded by Marty on the forum. Crappy app as well, but it connects at least. Couldn't find anything in there to control the side lights though so it's disco mode all the way for now.

The wheel came with a 90% charge, so all ready to go. First impression of the handling is that wheel really wants to be upright, which I'd attribute to the wide wheel. In comparison to the V10F for instance where I easily can maintain a slight turning angle, with the Nikola it's more like you either really turn and mean it or you don't. As soon as you let up pressure the wheel will right itself. This is not a bad thing in any way, but a noticeable difference from my previous wheels. I guess it's a much less extreme version of what people have reported for the Z10 with it's even wider tire. I experimented briefly with the riding modes, and settled with the intermediate mode for the time being.

On the road the wheel handles very well, very stable. I'm not a speed demon, so I didn't push it more than slightly above 40km/h during my ride. I bought the Nikola for the additional range and power, and while the conditions today weren't particularly challenging (18C/64F) I did push it up some inclines without any issues. I'm eagerly anticipating @Marty Backe's overheat hill test, but I certainly don't expect any issues for me (in contrast to the V10F which has overheated for me multiple times). I'm happy with the pedals. I was a little concerned at first coming from the V10F's large comfortable pedals, but the Nikola's pedals seems pretty much the same to me. The angle is nice, and the height as well, with tight turns working out well. Noise-wise it's good, there's some whining going when idling, but the wheel is quiet during rides. Got some comforting content rumbling from the wheel at other times. The wheel build quality (body) seems pretty solid. I managed to get shell to creak when pushing hard against the side, e.g. one-legged riding. Only heard that when pushing against the right side FWIW. I believe I saw someone posting something about Gotway changing some type of foam for the upcoming builds to address this, but I can't remember where I read it.

Ended up doing a 29 km ride on some varying surfaces, and came home with 49% battery remaining (starting from 90% earlier). FWIW, I noted that voltage reported by wheellog was lower than the one reported by the voltage read-out on the wheel, whatever the reason for that is.

All in all, very happy with the purchase, summer's looking good :thumbup:

Fantastic "first impressions". I'm envious that you get to enjoy it :cheers:

Hopefully the app problem can be worked out. On the other Gotway wheels you can cycle through the different LED Ring Light modes by momentarily pushing the power button:

  • Push once to turn main light on
  • Push again to turn main light to flash mode
  • Push again to turn the main light off  - when the light goes off the Ring Light will cycle to the next mode. Keep repeating this cycle to go through all the modes.

Does this work with the Nikola?

Have you tried the speakers yet? Are they loud like everyone says?

Edited by Marty Backe
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1 hour ago, Marty Backe said:

Fantastic "first impressions". I'm envious that you get to enjoy it :cheers:

Hopefully the app problem can be worked out. On the other Gotway wheels you can cycle through the different LED Ring Light modes by momentarily pushing the power button:

  • Push once to turn main light on
  • Push again to turn main light to flash mode
  • Push again to turn the main light off  - when the light goes off the Ring Light will cycle to the next mode. Keep repeating this cycle to go through all the modes.

Does this work with the Nikola?

Have you tried the speakers yet? Are they loud like everyone says?

Thanks! Like I'm said I'm still eagerly awaiting seeing it on your overheat hill though, you're getting it in the eWheel test round sometime in the near future I hope? :) I expect it will be perfectly fine for my usage regardless of that particular result, but it will be interesting to see how the new motherboard with the smaller mosfets combined with the supposedly more efficient firmware holds up.

Yes, the cycling did work like that. It's not easily discoverable unless you know it - at least I ended up focusing on the bright light changing. Now the wheel's led pattern is a more sober blue, much more elegant!

No, I didn't test the speakers yet - I haven't really used the speakers much on any wheel, so it's not really my forte. I can try them and compare them with the V10F's later though.

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6 minutes ago, Nils said:

Normally I'd just write that off as a spelling error, but with you I'm not sure. Weeks, wheels, perhaps they're the same unit? ;)

Ug. I'm always speed typing, and I do tend to have the word "wheels" always in my mind :)

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Just now, meepmeepmayer said:

Not the first time Marty wrote "wheels" instead of "weeks":D

Can you see what the tire markings say? Is the tire 16x3 or 17x3?

I'll bet dollars to donuts that it's a 16x3 tire, just like the MSX is a 18x3 tire (yet Gotway promotes it as a 19-inch wheel).

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But the MSX tire has a bigger outer diameter than the 18XL tire, right? I just want to know if it's the same situation with the Nikola vs. 16X (two different "16 inch" tires), or if they have the same exact tire size. Guess we'll have to wait for the 16X to compare anyways.

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Wider tires are always taller as well, since the tire profile is round. So the 18x3.0” on the MSX is a bit taller than the 18x2.5” that’s on the 18(X)L. The difference should be 0.5” or likely a bit less.

16X and Nikola both have a 16x3.0” tire, so the difference in diameter will be very small, depending on the specific tire model used.

Great review, thanks!

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