EUC Rules to Live By for High-Speed Riding

[andrew900nyc]

Now that I’ve finally had a chance to take my wheel out for a few longer distance rides (including a nice ride on a bike path around a lake), I’ve realized that my MSX instills a ridiculous amount of confidence at high speeds. Whereas, I start to feel uneasy on my MTen3 above 30 kph, my MSX keeps calling me to go faster and faster! I swear I can hear my wheel telling me, “Feels nice, doesn’t it? You know you want more! Just keep leaning forward.” I have complied up to 48 kph, but I’ve restricted myself to not going faster until I better understand the limitations of my wheel.  

I notice the significant drops in my battery when I’m riding. I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m asking my battery for more juice than it can provide, resulting in a cut-out induced face plant. So if I were to limit my high-speed riding to only those situations where I have no less than 50% battery level, do you think that would be sufficient to avoid a not-enough-juice induced cut-out face plant?

I would be most interested to hear from members who like to ride at high speeds regarding the ways they minimize the risk and try to stay safe, so please add any other “Rules to Live By” for high-speed riding to this thread that you think would be helpful.

[The Fat Unicyclist]

1. Always wear full body armour
2. Never do it around pedestrians (or anyone else who might be injured)
3. Always wear full body armour
4. Don't try riding backward at high speed
5. Always wear full body armour

 

[AtlasP]

The obvious first rule is appropriate safety gear (in rough order): full-face helmet, wrist-guards, knee-pads, elbow-pads, other body/shoulder/hip body-armor. Although since that subject has been beaten to death, I might suggest people steer the present thread towards methodological rules for fast-riding versus how to gear/what to wear.

I think one of my personal rules is to adjust my speed based on my familiarity with the particular route I'm on. I would rarely push my highest speeds on a road I've never traveled before, whereas I'm much more likely to do so on roads I travel all the time and where I know every dip/bump/pothole/etc.

Edited July 17, 2019 by AtlasP

[andrew900nyc]

1 hour ago, AtlasP said:

Although since that subject has been beaten to death, I might suggest people steer the present thread towards methodological rules for fast-riding versus how to gear/what to wear.

I agree. That's what I had in mind. 

My personal 50% of battery (or more) for high-speed riding rule is kind of arbitrary. I haven't seen a drop of more than 30%, so I figured 50% should be fairly conservative since it's close to twice the maximum drop I've observed. Perhaps it's overkill and 40% minimum would do the trick? However, with the possible ramifications of making the wrong choice, I'd prefer to be overly conservative than experience a cut-out induced face plant.

Being familiar with the terrain/road surface is definitely a good one. It will be interesting to see what else people add.

[MadInMad]

If you drive on country roads then avoid speeding at dusk; this is when most wild animals are moving.

 

[andrew900nyc]

Based on recent posts I've read, I'd like to add:

DON’T OVER LEAN OR ACCELERATE EXTREMELY RAPIDLY

 

I didn’t realize that these wheels could be over-leaned without tremendous difficulty. I have accelerated fairly aggressively on my MTen3 and my MSX and have never had a problem, but I have now adjusted my riding style to avoid sudden, hard accelerations in order to minimize my chances of experiencing a cut-out induced face-plant.

 

Here’s some information on the subject from other riders:

Marty Backe

"After learning from the school of hard knocks, I never hard lean into my wheel, either from a dead start or while already moving. If you monitored your currents you would realize the amazing amount of load that you place on the "system" when hard accelerating."

Jerome

"Keep in mind I am using speed settings but actually it's all about the load on the battery-motor-controller. Also remember over leaning and extremely rapid acceleration draws amazing peak current requirements if only for seconds or fractions of a second. No matter how slow you're going, if you lean to far forward or sideways such that the the system is not able to correct, the cut-off circuit may beat the warning circuits. Gotways are more tolerant on this than King Song, but it can happen to them and all other brands."