What is the best learner wheel? Not "beginner", but learning only wheel?

[chrisjunlee]

After weeks of riding around work, people have been courageous enough to say hi and express their interest in learning. Oh how delighted I am! 😍

To that effort, I've been spending hours after work, lending out my mten3 and MCM5 as learners, but they have their own challenges.

With that said, if I were to pick up a wheel for the sole purpose of getting completely new riders up on their feet with the least possible friction, what would it be?

[Declan acoustic-unicyclist]

Having ridden a bunch of wheels in a bunch of sizes, I have to say that the mten3 is the best beginner wheel in my experience of teaching people.

The instant torque is nice for getting a feel for accelerating without having to press to hard. The light weight means that it is forgiving if it leans to one side.

 

The downsize is the small size makes it very quick to turn, but this is easily adjusted with a lower tire pressure (~mid 20s PSI for beginner)

 

I have taught beginners how to ride on the 18XL but it is just so darn heavy that they tend just to drop it a bunch

[UniVehje]

V8 is also a good combination of light weight and steadiness. The high body gives good support. 
@Kuji Rolls has a good video of someone learning on it. 
 

 

[Benphysics]

Actually, I also want to get a Beginner's wheel to teach others to ride. I had an Ninebot One E+ on which I learned on, but its axle broke. I have machined a stronger axle with larger motor bearings, but when I connected it to the control board, without battery, the wheel did not turn freely. I then disconnected the wheel cable, and tried to connect the battery to the board; the connectors sparked violently. The cb had 4 shorted output transistors. So I replaced them. Unfortunately, there is something else that keeps the pre-drivers full on. So I'm looking for another Ninebot One E+ (used or refurbished) or another Beginner wheel; used or not.

You can reach me at: upt5ed@gmail.com

Thanks, Ben

[ir_fuel]

Inmotion V5F

[Ben Kim]

On 8/7/2019 at 12:17 PM, chrisjunlee said:

After weeks of riding around work, people have been courageous enough to say hi and express their interest in learning. Oh how delighted I am! 😍

To that effort, I've been spending hours after work, lending out my mten3 and MCM5 as learners, but they have their own challenges.

With that said, if I were to pick up a wheel for the sole purpose of getting completely new riders up on their feet with the least possible friction, what would it be?

Why let others learn on your resale value?  I'm sure those wheels are taking some serious abuse being dropped.  If you must be a mama hen and teach others, get a cheapo china uni for like $200 on Aliexpress, or designate one (not all) of your wheels for this purpose and reshell it when it inevitably looks like swiss cheese.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Ben Kim

[Arnold Pamplona]

I just bought an MCM5 and will be using my old V8 to teach people how to ride (I really want my friends to get into EUC riding).  I think it's the perfect wheel to learn on, and with the protective cover, I'm not worried about scratches.

[chrisjunlee]

28 minutes ago, Arnold Pamplona said:

I just bought an MCM5 and will be using my old V8 to teach people how to ride (I really want my friends to get into EUC riding).  I think it's the perfect wheel to learn on, and with the protective cover, I'm not worried about scratches.

Gave you your first react! Welcome to the forums!

[Arnold Pamplona]

3 hours ago, chrisjunlee said:

Gave you your first react! Welcome to the forums!

Thanks!  Looking forward to contributing and learning.  

[Rywokast]

regardless of how old and outdated it is, and useless for pretty much anything else i believe the best training wheel is actually the ninebot one c or e variants for several reasons.. is has low pedals which are very easy to hop on and off of, it is extremely well balanced and because of its age its acceleration and torque are much softer than anything recent which is good if its your first time hopping on one, and also the shell is literally bulletproof so you can drop it a million times without it cracking or falling apart.. i hesitate to recommend the v5f because it is so thin and zippy it has instantaneous torque and is much more nimble with very tall and angled pedals making it much more difficult for a beginner to hop on and off of and control in the beginning.. you also dont want someone learning on a large and heavy wheel as they will have a much higher chance of dropping it and because its so heavy it will have a bigger chance of breaking something, yes 18" wheels are a bit easier to learn on due to the fact that they are more grounded and keep themselves upright easier, there is a lot less side to side balance required from you, but a noob may not be able to hold it up with one foot or will likely drop it instead of being able to catch it if they have to abandon it, so i would never let someone try one of my heavier wheels.. for context i have trained several people to ride on my ninebot one, two of them who wanted to try something else were able to easily switch to my ks16s as they are very similar form factors but neither could initially get on the v5f and once they could were very uneasy on it.. modern 14" wheels are too small and zippy to be good training wheels generally, 16" wheels are a good spot, 18" is better but not if it is yours that youre loaning them haha.. also yes the mten would be great for anyone to be able to initially stand on and try out because its literally the easiest thing in the world you can basically stand still on it, but it would be somewhat useless for when they wanted to get on something else as imo it doesnt translate well to other wheels, it is very unique in the way it operates and how you control/mount it

 

edit: btw you can find a really cheap ninebot C+ here, or alternatively it should be fairly easy to find a cheap used one.. i would also not recommend something like a garbage airwheel off ebay or something because they are so uncomfortable to the point of being a total turn off, not to mention severely underpowered to the point of being dangerous to some.. you might save 100 bucks but i literally would not pick one up off the side of the road, im not kidding my very first wheel was the airwheel in my sig, it hurt so bad and i hated it so much that literally that night i bought a ninebot one and left the airwheel on the curb, learning on the ninebot one

Edited August 18, 2019 by Rywokast

[Leucistic]

I went with KS-16s. After month of learning would say little too pricy to start with. Padded it up but still broke the shell allready. Very good wheel and it was easy to learn.