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Why Do You Only Ride EUCs?


Lillian

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After years of owning many PEVs, I learned the EUC well enough to enjoy and want to improve on it. Nothing else compared. 

However, my Onewheel Pint arrived and I was excited to have an alternative. Onewheelers insist it’s fun but I am leaning toward sticking to EUCs only.

Some of you have multiple EUCs in your signatures. So of all of the options out there in portable electric rideables, what drove you to stick with electric unicycles? 

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Mostly convenience, I like scooters too but they're too annoying for me to bring up to the apartment and lock/unlock, whereas for lots of places I can bring my EUC inside.

On the other hand, I really like the fact that cutting out on a scooter leads to... nothing.  If I had a house and garage then maybe I'd use the scooter more!

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3 minutes ago, Darrell Wesh said:

@houseofjob you ride eboards? Never knew... I’m scared to death of those things after having all the agility of an EUC

Heck no. 

Once upon a time I wanted to, but then I realized what I really was after was the sliding action of when I snowboard, which still doesn't properly exist for PEVs IMHO (LeifTech is one attempt, but a poorly designed one; OneWheel would be then the closest, but way too underpowered and flawed with the nose-dipping action).

And yeah, I've seen too many eboard guys here in NYC crash trying to cut like we can cut on turns through obstacles.

Edited by houseofjob
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I have electric scooters(Dualtrons) and e-bikes.

The ebikes are absolutely miserable, I have a rather expensive fat tire one with a throttle that goes 30mph but even that is extraordinarily boring. Its only redeeming feature is it can seat two people comfortably.  I had to buy it so other people (girls) could ride with me with something they’re familiar with and not intimidated by. I literally never use it though; other people have put more miles on it then I have. 

The Dualtrons are a blast, I’ve ridden to some far locations comfortably with friends on them. I don’t have to worry about putting gear on or anything, I can just cruise long ranges and have the speed to stay with traffic without sweating it. But e scooters are nothing new so you don’t get people who want to socialize like you can on the EUC’s. 

If I had to do a group ride I would choose everyone on scooters tbh. It’s just a lot less to worry about and you can cruise at 20+ mph all day without worrying about the terrain. And you can race each other without worrying about cutouts and you can bomb hills; they’re just a lot of fun in groups.

Edited by Darrell Wesh
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If I had to pick a PEV for commuting, NOTHING comes close to an EUC.  I'm someone who rides everything out there...I've had high powered E-scooters, I have onewheels, I have owned 10+ electric skateboards and will have the Lacroix Nazare soon.  But I 100% have to agree with houseofjob's post above.  

EUC is the most practical vehicle out there.  Is it the most fun?? That's debatable.  

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Best range... Enough (safe) speed... smallest / most convenient form factor... Most intuitive to control...

The only serious option is an EUC!

Edited by The Fat Unicyclist
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For the short to medium range trips, EUCs work very well, and they have much bigger batteries and power than anything comparability priced.

However, eBikes are the king of medium/long range trips, both in speed and safety, but they cost a lot more, and their motors are at least two generations behind (48 volts with ~500 wh, suuuure...). At least you can lock them up instead of trolling them around.

I've been riding the Bird scooters a lot lately, and I believe their tiny solid front tires makes them dangerous. Not to an EUC rider, of course, who will have his EUC skills translate well over to eScooters. I've seen a number of minor and more major crashes, and local hospitals report many crashes (but no fatalities).

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st-louis-emergency-room-doctors-raise-concerns-over-rising-rate-scooter-injuries

recorded an average of six or seven scooter-related injuries a week starting in August, up from just one or two per week in previous months. During a 10-week period between August and October, at least 67 patients came to the emergency department after electric-scooter crashes. Only one was wearing a helmet. Three people had brain hemorrhages, and 17 broke bones in their arms or legs.

However, that's just the rental scooters as I've also ridden the consumer scooters that were much safer.

I feel the OW is an example of advertising trumping form and functionality.

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6 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

and I believe their tiny solid front tires makes them dangerous

Not only that. The fact they are front wheel drive too. Imagine having RWD and the wheels starts slipping on some bad surface. What will happen? The rear will slide to the side, you will lose your balance and if it slides really far you will fall off, but there is quite a bit of margin before you will actually hit the ground.

Now do the same with the front wheel. The front will spin, step to the side and bingo, immediate faceplant, because the thing you are holding on to gets pulled from underneath you.

Similar to a motorbike. The rear slides, you can save it. The front slides? Unless you have #93 on your bike in the MotoGP championship you will crash.

And they slip/spin up really easily. Bumps in the road are enough for the front wheel to lose traction and start spinning in the air.

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38 minutes ago, ir_fuel said:

Not only that. The fact they are front wheel drive too. Imagine having RWD and the wheels starts slipping on some bad surface. What will happen? The rear will slide to the side, you will lose your balance and if it slides really far you will fall off, but there is quite a bit of margin before you will actually hit the ground.

Now do the same with the front wheel. The front will spin, step to the side and bingo, immediate faceplant, because the thing you are holding on to gets pulled from underneath you.

Similar to a motorbike. The rear slides, you can save it. The front slides? Unless you have #93 on your bike in the MotoGP championship you will crash.

And they slip/spin up really easily. Bumps in the road are enough for the front wheel to lose traction and start spinning in the air.

I didn't know they were front wheel drive, but that would explain lot of the minor crashes I've seen whereby the rider seems to instantly tip over going up the bumpy handicapped ramps at every street corner.

I think the rental scooter design is a terrible design, and that it takes great skill to ride them.

Back to the subject; I admit I have a hoverboard that I never use. What can I use it for? It's impossible to ride it on anything but a smooth dance floor.

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Thanks for all of the responses. I don't see the point t for me in owning something that has thrown me off of it multiple times in 

5 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

Back to the subject; I admit I have a hoverboard that I never use. What can I use it for? It's impossible to ride it on anything but a smooth dance floor.

I saw a young girl take a tumble on that recently in NY. 

I used to have the Segway Drift W1s. They were advertised in the pre-order video as useful for riding around town to "meet friends". The actors hired looked wobbly and scared as heck on them. $500 later, I realized that they were really for indoor or smooth pavements. 

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3 hours ago, ir_fuel said:

Not only that. The fact they are front wheel drive too. Imagine having RWD and the wheels starts slipping on some bad surface. What will happen? The rear will slide to the side, you will lose your balance and if it slides really far you will fall off, but there is quite a bit of margin before you will actually hit the ground.

Now do the same with the front wheel. The front will spin, step to the side and bingo, immediate faceplant, because the thing you are holding on to gets pulled from underneath you.

Similar to a motorbike. The rear slides, you can save it. The front slides? Unless you have #93 on your bike in the MotoGP championship you will crash.

And they slip/spin up really easily. Bumps in the road are enough for the front wheel to lose traction and start spinning in the air.

 

3 hours ago, LanghamP said:

However, eBikes are the king of medium/long range trips, both in speed and safety, but they cost a lot more, and their motors are at least two generations behind (48 volts with ~500 wh, suuuure...). At least you can lock them up instead of trolling them around.

I've been riding the Bird scooters a lot lately, and I believe their tiny solid front tires makes them dangerous. Not to an EUC rider, of course, who will have his EUC skills translate well over to eScooters. I've seen a number of minor and more major crashes, and local hospitals report many crashes (but no fatalities).

I highly disagree. I’ve seen a lot of minor and major crashes on bicycles as well; you’re just being bias because a scooter crash is much more focused on/attention worthy. Not to mention you’re comparing an ebike to a  cheap 5inch tire FWD rental scooters.

As long as you are a healthy, active individual with no balance issues and are not new to riding scooters, Bikes will always be more dangerous than scooters simply due to the fact that you are sitting down vs standing up. 

Standing up allows you a chance to run off  at a moments notice if you detect an instability or see impending danger. Or if you crash, you have a chance to run it off. 

Sitting down you can do none of those things. You have no chance of running away from danger if you see a car barreling towards; you’re literally glued to the seat because all your muscles are relaxed.

On a scooter you have bent knees, a natural upright posture, and are pre tensed, able to react and jump away from danger at a moments notice. 

Let’s not forget that in a crash you are more likely to hit your head on a bike simply due to the fact that you are closer to the ground sitting and won’t be able to take a step to slow down a descent because you’re sitting. I’ve seen plenty of scooter fails where the rider has time to get their hands in front of them or to the side of them to break their fall, while bicyclists almost never can. 

 

Once we step up to the real scooters like the Speedways and Dualtrons; ebikes don’t even compete anymore.

If you don’t have a throttle on your ebike you’re sacrificing safety. Most ebikes only have pedal assist and not throttle. Throttle can get you out of danger a lot quicker than awkwardly starting the pedaling motion. 

Bikes are simply more dangerous also due to the fact that you aren’t very visible sitting down. My friend just the other week was riding near a parking lot on the road and almost got ran over because a car was coming out of the lot and didnt see her. If she had been on a scooter standing it would have not been an issue as she would have not only been visible, taller than the cars, but also SHE would have more visibility to see what’s up ahead. 

Case closed. You guys are trying to compare noobs on rental scooters that aren’t even theirs that they’ve probably trying for the first time against bicyclists who have ridden their whole life. 

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- Compact, small, and fits in my car and garage easily 

- steep learnig curve; I wanted to learn something new.

- something different than what most people were riding

- long range

- free hands, not having to hold anything like a scooter 

- fun, fun!!! I got bored with my scooter so quick. 

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Darrell Wesh said:

Not to mention you’re comparing an ebike to a  cheap 5inch tire FWD rental scooters.

I already mentioned this. Please read my text instead of skimming, then quoting me entirely out of context the opposite of what I was saying. That's what we call academic dishonesty.

4 hours ago, LanghamP said:

However, that's just the rental scooters as I've also ridden the consumer scooters that were much safer.

And here's one study looking at severity of injuries, which seems far worse than bicyclists (but perhaps due to not wearing a helmet suggest the study). I think the study is wrong, because while a bicyclist usually crashes sideways a scooter rider much more often does a front flip.

As for how often eScooters crash compared to bicyclists, well, this study has a bunch of contradictions so far, which is just a factor of how granular you want to look at the data (the contradictions resolve when looking very closely at the data).

Get a $5,000 e mountain bike, then see how well your POS eScooter does with those tiny wheels...

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19 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

Get a $5,000 e mountain bike, then see how well your POS eScooter does with those tiny wheels...

I think my Dualtron Thunder will outperform the higher priced $5,000 ebike just fine thank you 😁!

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20 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

I already mentioned this. Please read my text instead of skimming, then quoting me entirely out of context the opposite of what I was saying. That's what we call academic dishonesty.

“And here's one study looking at severity of injuries, which seems far worse than bicyclists (but perhaps due to not wearing a helmet suggest the study). I think the study is wrong, because while a bicyclist usually crashes sideways a scooter rider much more often does a front flip.”

How hypocritical. Please read my post instead of just skimming. I already mentioned why any study would be completely bias and incorrect when evaluating electric scooter vs bicycle injuries.

You have noobs on electric scooters, using something new for the first time, and even bigger noobs using something new for the first time whose manual counterpart(the kick razor scooter) they’ve never even used. And then you wonder why people are crashing more on the new vehicle?

How about we get a study on injuries for first time bicyclist and see how that fares against first time scooter riders? I think scooter would come out way ahead considering you can’t even ride a bike on day 1. 

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15 minutes ago, Darrell Wesh said:

How hypocritical. Please read my post instead of just skimming. I already mentioned why any study would be completely bias and incorrect when evaluating electric scooter vs bicycle injuries.

Again, you're quoting me out of context, because I express skepticism about this study due to the reasons you gave.

I need to use super simple sentences, no paragraphs, numbered points, and so on.

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1 hour ago, LanghamP said:

Get a $5,000 e mountain bike, then see how well your POS eScooter does with those tiny wheels...

 

5 hours ago, LanghamP said:

However, eBikes are the king of medium/long range trips, both in speed and safety,

Okay, you’re just confusing everyone with your stance. First you belittle scooters and complain about how dangerous they are and how bikes are king of safety (which I refute). 

Then 

50 minutes ago, Darrell Wesh said:

I think the study is wrong, because while a bicyclist usually crashes sideways a scooter rider much more often does a front flip.”

You post an ambiguous response that no one really knows your stance on. Are you arguing that a sideways crash is less safe than a full on front flip or vice versa? What about the study is wrong? And why did you mention how people crash when that’s not even in the study?

Then

28 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

Again, you're quoting me out of context, because I express skepticism about this study due to the reasons you gave.

You seem to be siding with me in that scooters are safer than bikes and against the study.

You can’t expect a clear debate when your details are scattered all over the place and not concise. It seems like you’re just cherry picking whatever part of your convoluted argument seems conducive at the time to winning since you don’t have a clear stance. 

Edited by Darrell Wesh
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I stay with riding EUC because: 

- It’s the most maneuverable PEV. Agile.

- It’s the most portable PEV. Small.

- Very high distance range. 

- Fast enough for road with cars, yet can also slow down enough to ride on sidewalk at walking speed.

- Can ride on any terrain type, on or off-road. 

- It is very fun! The thrill sensation is great. Perhaps because it’s the most complex to learn PEV. Or perhaps because it’s great agility. Sorta like a super agile motorcycle but with a skying downhill sensation.

 

Edited by edwin_rm
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3 hours ago, UniVehje said:

All of the above plus both hands free riding. :clap3:

Indeed! EUC is the only PEV that realistically allows for Dual Wielding using two weapons, one in each hand, while still maintaining full control of all aspects of your ride (such as speed changes and directional changes) for the entire duration of your ride. Would make for a great action movie scene! Agent 007 would be thrilled I'm sure.  

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8 hours ago, Darrell Wesh said:

You can’t expect a clear debate when your details are scattered all over the place and not concise. It seems like you’re just cherry picking whatever part of your convoluted argument seems conducive at the time to winning since you don’t have a clear stance

eScooters are more dangerous than bicycles, because more people crash them per trip.

That was easy.

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why would i want to ever ride anything else? i have both hands free, i can maneuver better than on anything else, it is more portable and easier to take around than anything else, and i can get more range than anything else.. why the hell would i want to downgrade to any other PEV? if somebody GAVE me something else i would ride it around for fun, but would never ever choose anything over EUC.. scooters are boring, bikes are boring, boards are not anywhere even close to as versatile or maneuverable or as fast and cant go anywhere near as far, though they are probably fun to ride in their own way

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