My Wheel Collection is Shrinking and ...

[Marty Backe]

I'm down from 12 to 10 wheels now (sold the 14S a couple of days ago) and I'm beginning to feel slightly nervous when I scope out my wheels for a ride. So far I've managed to quell the onset of any anxiety attacks, but sometimes I worry, "what if?"

I really don't think I can ever let myself get below four 1600wh wheels. I mean, WHAT IF???? 

I tend not think of any of my sub-1600wh wheels as real wheels because you can't do any serious riding with them 

You silent wheel collectors out there know what I'm talking about   And you guys that only have a few wheels, trust me, as your collection grows you too will someday come to the conclusion that 10-wheels really is not that many 

[Graniteone]

Lol! I can pretty much understand the logic. I have 8 motorcycles at my disposal and a collection of various vehicles and worry that if I get rid of any of them I ll miss it’s true special purpose and it is always good to have a backup.  I ve only been riding EUC’s for two months and I just pulled the trigger on my third wheel but I did sell off my OneWheel.  

[Marty Backe]

42 minutes ago, Graniteone said:

Lol! I can pretty much understand the logic. I have 8 motorcycles at my disposal and a collection of various vehicles and worry that if I get rid of any of them I ll miss it’s true special purpose and it is always good to have a backup.  I ve only been riding EUC’s for two months and I just pulled the trigger on my third wheel but I did sell off my OneWheel.  

8 motorcycles! At least my collection doesn't consume too much real estate, but yours 

Edited August 6, 2019 by Marty Backe

[Kens]

I know they grow so fast..

Here some tips for coping from Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/empty-nest-syndrome/art-20047165

Just change any word child to wheel 

[atdlzpae]

10 wheels... 8 motorcycles... Filthy millionaires. ;-)

Edited August 6, 2019 by atdlzpae

[RoCan]

4 hours ago, Graniteone said:

Lol! I can pretty much understand the logic. I have 8 motorcycles at my disposal and a collection of various vehicles and worry that if I get rid of any of them I ll miss it’s true special purpose and it is always good to have a backup.  I ve only been riding EUC’s for two months and I just pulled the trigger on my third wheel but I did sell off my OneWheel.  

LOL!

I’ve used this line in response to my wife nagging me to clear out boxes in the loft. She’s in the “if you don’t use it, get rid!” camp.

I really lost the debate when I heard this line in one of those TV docs on hoarders.  No coming back from that one.

3 wheels today, 10 wheels tomorrow, can’t open the bathroom door due to all the empty GotWay boxes next week. I think it will bring us closer together, breaking down boundaries... who needs doors! 

[Biped Phil]

How do multiple-unicycle households juggle the strategy of recharging batteries?  Keep all wheels plugged in all the time? 

[Arbolest]

I personally just plug in whichever ones I intend to use the next day before I go to sleep. I tend to use my original slow chargers for this because I know I'll be sleeping for a goodly number of hours and want my wheels to be well rested as well .   

When I get back from a ride, I just don't charge them unless the battery is suuuuper low (<20%) I know that I will use them in the next couple days, but I don't want them sitting at 100% for very long.

Basically, I only charge when I need to and can plan for it. And If I find out I want to/need to/must/absolutely will be going on a ride on short notice, I have my 5-amp fast charger to top off whichever wheel I fancy for my "emergency outing" 

[ir_fuel]

2 hours ago, Arbolest said:

I personally just plug in whichever ones I intend to use the next day before I go to sleep. I tend to use my original slow chargers for this because I know I'll be sleeping for a goodly number of hours and want my wheels to be well rested as well .   

When I get back from a ride, I just don't charge them unless the battery is suuuuper low (<20%) I know that I will use them in the next couple days, but I don't want them sitting at 100% for very long.

Basically, I only charge when I need to and can plan for it. And If I find out I want to/need to/must/absolutely will be going on a ride on short notice, I have my 5-amp fast charger to top off whichever wheel I fancy for my "emergency outing" 

This. But I don't have a fast charger.

Would be nice to have a charge doctor whereby I could charge them all to 75%. No stress for the batteries in leaving them in that state, and plenty of juice for most of the small trips I do (i consider 50% to be the absolute lower limit, except on my Mten3), and charging them all the way to 100% won't take 12 hours.

It's pretty annoying charging a wheel to 100%, realising you can't go ride for some reason and having no way of easily draining the battery. How many hours idling with the torch on would it take to drain 20% of a 1600Wh euc  

[ir_fuel]

10 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

I really don't think I can ever let myself get below four 1600wh wheels. I mean, WHAT IF???? 

What if what exactly?

[LanghamP]

1 hour ago, ir_fuel said:

pretty annoying charging a wheel to 100%, realising you can't go ride for some reason and having no way of easily draining the battery. How many hours idling with the torch on would it take to drain 20% of a 1600Wh euc

I just use a timer, and estimate the hours it takes to charge to about 80%.

BN-LINK Smart Digital Countdown Timer with Repeat Function Accurate Heavy Duty Small Size for Charger Vacation Security, 3 Prong Outlet, 15A/1875W ½ HP ETL Listed https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D3QEK4E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zdzsDbM89EVW4

It also has the advantage that you can plug both ends, and then press the button without popping or arcing something, which has already smoked (literally) two or three chargers.

[ir_fuel]

6 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

It also has the advantage that you can plug both ends, and then press the button without popping or arcing something, which has already smoked (literally) two or three chargers.

Yeah, depending on the wheel you either need to connect the charger to the power outlet before connecting, or after connecting  

[Marty Backe]

6 hours ago, Biped Phil said:

How do multiple-unicycle households juggle the strategy of recharging batteries?  Keep all wheels plugged in all the time? 

When I get back from a ride I plug the charger in. Sometime the next day I remember and disconnect the battery. So yes, all my wheels are always sitting at 100-percent. I've never noticed a degradation in battery capacity and I have a few wheels that I've been doing this to for over 2-years.

Maybe I would discover that this strategy isn't good after a couple hundred charge cycles. But when you have ~10 wheels you may only charge each wheel 10 to 20 times per year. Clearly I'll never charge any of my wheels more than a couple hundred times.

In my opinion, battery management is not important once you have a handful of wheels in your rotation. Another reason to collect wheels 

[LanghamP]

1 hour ago, ir_fuel said:

Yeah, depending on the wheel you either need to connect the charger to the power outlet before connecting, or after connecting  

I was plugging them in one way, smoked a charger, started doing it the other way, smoked another charger, and for good measure smoked a third charger, all with exactly that pop sound.

I haven't smoked a charger in over a year using the timer, so I'm suspicious of that arc/pop sound. I don't think it's good for electronics.

Hmm, I'm only counting two chargers left with the Gotway doing double duty with a KS output, with different voltage wheels, so I might have smoked four chargers.

[ir_fuel]

Yeah you're right. If you don't connect your GW charger to the power outlet first it will pull current from the wheel. And there is always the spark when connecting when there is 84V on one side.

Don't have this with the Z10 or the KS wheel though.