Rockwheel GT14 - detailed review

[Speedy]

So the time has come for the world to finally receive a proper review of the Rockwheel GT14, and it really does deserve a review!

First of all: This is currently NOT the wheel for someone who wants to unpack their new wheel and ride without any worries, however, it has a great value-for-money (may be the best) for those who know their way around a screwdriver and a solder iron 

First impression of product&company:

So I had not owned a Rockwheel, nor had I tried it before this one. Because of the problems with the geared versions, I was skeptical towards the brand, but the GT14 was supposed to be the debut to elbow its way into the international market. It was ordered straight from the factory, and Sunny was my contact person. It took 2,5 months from I paid it until I got it, so I was pretty angry in the end. The reason it took so long, was because of delivery delay from the factory in the first place, followed by an error made by the forwarding company. On top of this, follow-up was poor because Sunny had quit her job at Rockwheel and were sporadically following up old customers. Anyways, the wheel arrived yesterday in good condition.

When unpacking the GT14, it strikes me that it is much more attractive looking in real life than it is in the pictures. It is kind of a stealth look with that matte, wide, carbon fiber painted shell. I own a Ninebot One, and while that is a beautiful wheel, I never felt entirely comfortable with the looks of it. The MCM4 looks like a funny toilet seat with LEDs to me. This looks more rough, more towards my taste.

With the wheel came a fan-less charger. It is only rated 2 amps, so it is not as quick as the more noisy 5A chargers. The only other thing inside the box was a service record leaflet, no manual, so you have to figure out the rest by yourself.

A high quality CST tire is fitted, and the foot rests are wider than usual, making it more comfortable to ride @ high speed. There were also magnets to lock the foot rests in place (thank god).

One pedal was not aligned properly, so I had to take the shell off and fix this. Otherwise the unicycle was properly bolted together, and there was used silicone instead of glue on all connections which is a good thing.

Modification that MUST be done before even thinking about riding this unicycle:

First ride with the GT14 was with mixed feelings. I had been reading about people being face planted on this model, but I thought it might had been solved with the latest motherboard revision. WRONG!

After I rode up a steep hill, I got face planted @ moderate speed, and the wheel was dead afterwards. I immediately suspected the BMS, and I was right...Rockwheel engineers made one big mistake with this wheel, and that was using a cheap, under-rated BMS for this unicycle. The BMS board has 3 parallell under-voltage protection MOSFETs installed, but they just could not carry enough current to feed the motherboard/motor. Because of this, these components died, and 2 diodes in parallell with these also blew:

Make sure you do the shunting mod to this BMS before you ride. This will prevent the wheel from shutting down, and you getting face planted! I recommend running 2 or 3 wires when shunting, just to make sure you are getting enough current to the motor, better safe than sorry.

Ride quality:

At first I though the GT14 performed horribly. It was stuttering at low speed, the pedals were not aligned horizontally, and it was very hard to turn around tight bends at low speed. It could simply not be compared at all to the NB1. This was, however, until I got it set up properly. I tried the Rockwheel app which crashed every time, so I downloaded the Gotway app which connected to the wheel just fine. After an alignment calibration, the wheel felt much better instantly. I still did not like the extremely hard ride quality, so I changed the ride mode to "soft".

Now the wheel was actually performing very good. It is still not as refined and smooth like the NB1 by far, but it is just a different beast, a little more rough around the edges.

The tall body means that you will press it between your legs further up, which in turn gives you more control over acceleration and braking than lower body wheels.

Turning capabilities with this wheel at low speeds are not good. The pedals are spaced wide and low, which means that tight turns will make the pedals scrape against the ground. After a little practice, I actually learned to turn the wheel just fine, one just need a little different method. I think that Rockwheels intention was to make this a high speed commuter, and that is just what it is. The wide and low pedals make riding at high speed more stable, so it is not all negative. 

Overall I am very satisfied after setting up the wheel properly.

Speed, power and battery life:

The GT14 is a beast. The acceleration in this wheel is extreme, making the NB1 E+ feel like syrup in comparison. Uphill, the motor is also considerably stronger than the one in my NB1 E+. It has got the ability to run very fast, and although I have not tried yet, I have no doubts it can reach more than 35km/h on a flat surface.

The battery pack in mine is 355WH with LG cells. The milage is impressive. I have not tested it long enough yet, but the milage seems to be around 50% better than in my NB1 E+.

There is also additional space inside the housing to fit one more 32 cell battery pack, so you can upgrade this to more than 700wh capacity.

The battery is placed horizontally over the main board. This might be a smart solution, as heat from the electronics cavity may help to keep the battery tempered during running in cold weather.

Safety:

There is no doubt that there are safer wheels out there than this one. This is not an euc for beginners, but for the professional rider. It has a slight tiltback, and audible alarms, but it does not seem to have any hard overspeed tiltbacks at all.

However, with the BMS shunt mod, you should be safe as long as you run sensible.

I got my heart pumping yesterday when hitting a pothole at very high speed past critical speeding alarm. The wheel got tilted forward, so much I almost lost balance and fell off. Instead of turning off, the control board provided the motor with maximum current, and luckily I caught balance again 

Bottom line:

As mentioned earlier, this wheel is not for the beginner who wants to unpack their wheel and ride. If you know how to handle a solder iron and want to do the BMS shunt mod, this wheel is probably the best deal currently available, price vs. specs/features. It would fit best for the serious commuter, rather than those looking to play, jump and do tricks with their EUC.

At 150-180USD cheaper than MCM4, you even get 15wh more battery capacity. The carrying handle is a bit oddly shaped, so carrying it far is not comfortable. Weighed in at 11.6kg, it is not very heavy regarding the battery and motor size.

Bottom line, I think it deserves a lot more attention than it has got. Rockwheel got very close on this one, but still so far away 

As long as you do the BMS shunt and alignment/settings tweak, it is a great wheel for the price in my opinion 

[Nekko]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your review. I just ordered one of these a few days ago, before I read your post, and I'm a complete beginner! Do you think you could post a few more details about your shunting mod and a picture of where you soldered the motherboard?

[Speedy]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for your review. I just ordered one of these a few days ago, before I read your post, and I'm a complete beginner! Do you think you could post a few more details about your shunting mod and a picture of where you soldered the motherboard?

Hi Nekko,

I did not solder anything on the motherboard. What you have to do is to take off the plastic cover on the side of the unicycle to reveal the motherboard and battery. Next, unplug the battery from the main motherboard connector and the charger connector, then remove the battery from the unicycle. Carefully cut through the shrink wrap around the battery. There are 2 layers of shrink-wrap around the battery, cut only one layer at a time. You can patch up the shrink wrap later with scotch tape or similar.

After removing the shrink-wrap, the battery cells and BMS ( battery management board) are protected by some kind of plastic/fibre plates which are taped in place. You only need to remove the plate which covers the exposed side of the BMS. Carefully cut this away, taking care not to short any components.

Now the BMS is revealed, and you will spot that there are a total of 4 big mosfets on the board. The one that is located apart from the other 3 is the over-charge protection, do not worry about that one.

Looking at the BMS, you can see that both the over-charge & under-voltage protection actually has one more empty spot each in which you can solder a transistor. The empty spot on the under-voltage section needs to be shunted the exact same way as the 3 mosfets, like this:

Solder a short wire like the red line shows. Make sure each is at least 1.5mm2 gauge...

 

Regarding the app to connect to the wheel, I recommend you use Gotway 3.4.53 which you can download directly to your android phone from HERE

I tried the Rockwheel app which you can download directly HERE, but I could not manage to connect. Please give some feedback if you manage to make it work 

 

[Nekko]

Many thanks again for your detailed explanations, much appreciated. I haven't received my Rockwheel yet, and I'll probably hesitate to open it at first, since i won't need to push the wheel for now. I will switch it to soft riding mode through the app for sure though. Will let everybody know how I like the wheel after I've had the chance to practice with it for a while, since I'm still in the throes of waiting for it from Aliexpress...

[Viktiga]

Nice review! Could you post a pic including the ninebot so we can see a size comparission? Thank you.

[Viktiga]

 

Bottom line, I think it deserves a lot more attention than it has got. Rockwheel got very close on this one, but still so far away 

This must be a huge problem for them. I mean there is just a handfull of guys that are willing to open up their BRAND NEW expensive EUC. Imagine receiving a broken Iphone or a laptop and then open it up and start fixing it instead of just sending it back

[Colestien]

Good review.  Thanks for taking the time.

[Wolrajj]

Hi.

Really good review. 

I also have a GT 14 and it is my first unicycle.

I like this a lot. But i cannot compare. I have met the same problems rurning Ith gt14. The pedals are touching the ground if you try to so short turns. 

For the problem of the app, i have the same problem. The app is shuting down every time i try to connect the bluetooth.

I tried the app given by speedy and it works perfectly.

But could you explain to me the differents modes?

 

I am french and my english is not perfect so sorry for the mistakes.

Moreover i have difficulties to understand what soldering i have to do to prevent fall down?

I also have done a little modification  because there is no pas on the side and it hurts mu legs. 

I have found a enpansed plastic pad that i put on the wheel with velcro strip. It allows me to put in and put out if i need to open the unicycle to see the inside.

I think i will soon add a lamp on the front with a battery "power bank " type with 3w usb light. Maybe i will show you once done.

@SpeedyCould you post a picture "before / after" in order to see the difference and to understand what you have done?

Another last question: 

What app are you using to control your speed during riding?

[1kw]

dont want to bash this review speedy, however i ordered the same unit a few months before he did. Comparing it to a KS800W, MCM4(minus the issues that will be fixed soon), its like day and night.  Heck even the KS500w is way better. Bluetooth connection problems, battery issues, old design. Pedal design is old also, I would recommend someone to spend $250 USD more for a 10x better current model. New riders with no electrical experience will get hurt on this, and this is documented on every case of this model .

[SlowMo]

9 minutes ago, 1kw said:

dont want to bash this review speedy, however i ordered the same unit a few months before he did. Comparing it to a KS800W, MCM4(minus the issues that will be fixed soon), its like day and night.  Heck even the KS500w is way better. Bluetooth connection problems, battery issues, old design. Pedal design is old also, I would recommend someone to spend $250 USD more for a 10x better current model. New riders with no electrical experience will get hurt on this, and this is documented on every case of this model .

Which KS model do you have?

[1kw]

ks800w 640wh and the older ks500w( same 500w motor as rockwheel) couple generics, everything but a msuper really lol

[SlowMo]

15 hours ago, 1kw said:

ks800w 640wh and the older ks500w( same 500w motor as rockwheel) couple generics, everything but a msuper really lol

Very nice! Will KS14 500w be sufficient for city/park playing?

[Nekko]

Hi,

Thanks again Speedy for the review. I received my wheel and am very happy with it, although of course I've never owned another model so I can't compare to other brands.
I find the construction very sturdy, and clearly the wheel packs a punch. I can't comment on maneuverability as I can't ride properly yet, lol.

Both apps provided by speedy connect to the wheel. The Gotway app seems to have more options as far as different modes go. Not sure about all the differences between all the different modes.

I asked a friend to solder the battery board for me as per Speedy's advice, but he found out that the board on my wheel is different from Speedy's and we ended up leaving the wheel as it is. Could be it's a new board designed to remedy the previous problems the wheel had?

Anyway, here goes :