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How to perform emergency break?


Serdar Baş

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I've become really good at riding my ninebot as if I'm riding a bike. But I still lack some skills and breaking is the most important one as ninebot goes FAST.

- Tilting back with my foot actually causes me to lose balance and makes the things more dangerous.

- Swinging my ass with a slight crouching motion (Like segway emergency break) to shift the center of mass backwards works some how but It is slowing down not breaking!

What do you think most efficient ways to hard break on fast speeds? Any tips or advice?

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Dear Serdar, you should never ever go fast on your unicycle in an environment where an emergency brake might be necessary (sidewalks with pedestrians, parks with dogs, playgrounds with children a.s.o.). You should at all times ride in a manner that slowing down by leaning back is safe (besides it’s elegant and cool). That’s my experience. I fell three times off my unicycle and that was not while learning. It happened when I felt too secure and didn’t watch carefully enough what was lying ahead of me on the ground ... 

Have fun! :)

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Move your feet and (necessarily) wheel in front of you. Consequently you will brake somewhat by "stemming your heals against the ground/wheel in front of you". While moving the wheel in front of you, don't change the position of the hip and upper body, in particular stay upright and don't lean forward. EDIT: bending the knees and lowering the entire upper body (in upright position) supports the movement. 

Technically this means you will tilt forward to begin with. This is the same principle as the so-called countersteering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersteering, but this is probably not the best image to have in the head to learn the movement.

And yes, one should definitely know how to and train emergency braking, just as one should avoid by all means situations where it will become necessary.

BTW: the technique of displacing the wheel/feet relative to the rest of the body works for accelerating just as well.

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@Tom yes it can, I got a BMS cutoff while braking hard going downhill once. However, I ran that one off and didn't even fall. I think it's easier to bail off the wheel while breaking because of your body position, I have never fallen backwards. 

As far as doing a fast stop, I've fortunately never needed to do one from high speed. If I am around a lot of people or in low visibility (like coming to a blind corner) I am going slow. Even when I cross streets, if there is a big truck I slow down and look to make sure a car on the other side of the truck sees me.

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....... I think it's easier to bail off the wheel while breaking because of your body position, I have never fallen backwards. .....

I find this surprising, when I've done controlled fast braking the only thing I could think was "I would be so fucked if my wheel cut out now," since I've got the center of gravity way back behind the wheel with my legs in front, seems like the wheel would just zoom forwards from under me.

In pedestrian areas I follow the same rules, not only for my own sake, but it's irresponsible to speed around knowing the number of things that can go wrong on the EUC it isn't fair to let some random stranger to take the hit. I feel the need to mention my version of 'fast' is only whatever my generic can take me (12km/h) ^_^

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Once while flying around town on the MSuper HS, I was strolling at a pretty high speed on the sidewalks when I came across the entrance of a fast food joint. There was a truck that was moving to the entrance to leave and turn onto the street. We locked eyes and he clearly saw me speeding and in relation to how fast we were both going and proximity to the crossing, I had the right of way. He was going slower than I was, having just emerged from his parking spot and I was closer to the crossing than he was. Instead, he picked up speed so he wouldn't have to "wait" for me to cross. At this moment, I had to utilize an "emergency break" which was what one of the posts above said, essentially kick my legs (and wheel) in front of me and do a hard lean on my heels. Thankfully I didn't die or get hurt and was able to slow fast enough to avoid going splat on his broad side. You can imagine how fast my heart was beating at that moment. I also wished I had a sniper rifle to shoot the trucks tires out

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Hi @Serdar Baş, I'm with you: I consider proper emergency breaking THE most important skill to train on an EUC. So far, I got best results with the technique described by fellow wheelies above: pretty violently kicking the wheel in front of you while keeping your body in a straight line. I found, that you can keep this back leaning position almost to a complete stop and just release it to turn upright again as you come to a halt (as I didn't learn to ride backwards yet, I sure don't want to stay leaned back until the wheel reverses).

What limits your options to stop in the shortest distance:

  1. Just like with any other wheeled vehicle, you need grip between the tire and the surface you're riding on. On normal roads, that shouldn't be a factor, but muddy or sandy stretches may just let your wheel slip away when you brake to hard. My seasonal favorite: layers of wet leafs on the ground rival soft soap when it comes to slipperiness.
  2. Unlike any vehicle with mechanical brakes, the max. power your motor (& battery & MOSFETs) can bring to the road also limits the force available for braking. Obviously, you have to lean back in a very swift motion and stay at an optimum angle all the way, to stop in the shortest possible distance. Yet, nobody tells you, what that angle is, dammit. Your only way to find out: lean further and further until the wheel fails you and you end up enjoying the rest of you braking experience on your bum. Thanks, but no thanks - I'm not the one trying that at 30km/h.

I believe, we owe it to the novelty of EUCs, that manufacturers get away with leaving us alone with this dilemma. I don't know of a single one providing any form of helpful feedback to the rider. And I can't understand their priorities. They give us fairy lights, boom boxes and gadget chargers, but none feels responsible to help me avoiding injury by effective stopping. What's next? Cup holders?

The wheels I know, already internally monitor power used versus power available. They give me an audible warning when I am accelerating close to the limits, but they seem to stay completely silent when I do the same braking. Why??? Please tell me there is a viable technical reason instead of just negligence. 

However, to me that's one of the most important shortcomings for manufacturers to solve. Many of us are way beyond using their EUCs as toys or acrobatic play things but ride it for serious transport. High time for the makers to catch up - and a great chance to win well deserved market share for the first who will. 

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I noticed that my Airwheel X8 always stopped more quickly than my Ninebot One E+.  Why?  I have no idea.  Why do I feel compelled to say so on this thread?  Again, I have no idea.  Just something I noticed. 

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My first few falls/run offs were due to over braking on the 17° hill that passes my driveway and my 18° driveway, it was the act of slowing down to make the transition from going down one to going up the other. Only actually landed on my backside once but fairly painful so I prefer to stay at speeds appropriate for my environment now.

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I think it is a skill you need to train, but hopefully never use. I did some hard acceleration followed by hard braking training while I was learning to ride to get a feel what happens when I need to do it.

There is a difference you feel when you are using recuperation (slowing down or keeping speed downhill) or braking (the electro-engine switches direction and is actually working against the driving direction) Braking makes the wheel wobble a bit and you need to be able to stay on it until it fully stops.

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But if you are going down a steep hill as I did you will find it is much easier to get the dreaded "click" whilst braking than it is during acceleration.

Every time in my case the wheels, and I tried several different models including the high torque M18, just went into freewheel mode and shot off ahead of me.

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9 hours ago, DiasDePlaya said:

For experts: Probably yo can stop very fast if you do a maneuver like skiers, crossing the wheel in front of you. Probably I'm too older to try, but young people can try this.

Dont cross the wheel in front of you, how can you do that?? The skier do that because the skiis will skid a little along the snow and the skier can control the amount of skidding vs the resistance of the ski edge. 

The wheel cannot do that, it will not skid if its turned perpendicular to the travel path. You will just faceplant...

 

i dont recommend rolling your feet forward as an emergency braking technique either.  The best way is to lean back and squat a bit at the same time. Just need to practice to learn the braking pattern of your wheel to achieve the perfect amount of lean back as to balance in between falling backwards and too long of a break path.

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21 hours ago, Cloud said:

Dont cross the wheel in front of you, how can you do that?? The skier do that because the skiis will skid a little along the snow and the skier can control the amount of skidding vs the resistance of the ski edge. 

The wheel cannot do that, it will not skid if its turned perpendicular to the travel path. You will just faceplant...

 

i dont recommend rolling your feet forward as an emergency braking technique either.  The best way is to lean back and squat a bit at the same time. Just need to practice to learn the braking pattern of your wheel to achieve the perfect amount of lean back as to balance in between falling backwards and too long of a break path.

I did it many times riding my bicycle when kid without using the brakes, I did the same on the skateboard many times. Probably is not as difficult as you think if you are young enough.

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On a bike your back wheel tends to skid sideways and "burn" off your momentum but your front wheel doesn't skid and maintains your control and balance.

As we have no front wheel I see no way that this could work without the rider ending up sprawled out on the ground.

If you are able to demonstrate on video you may be able to persuade me that it's possible. :)

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I have been a skier for about 25 years now. I started when I was 10. I do black diamond and double black diamonds on vermonts biggest mountain and to stop I do turn both skies sideays and cut through a layer of snow. I hope that were not understanding what your saying Dias but If were not then that was the craziest thing I've heard on these forums;) I myself don't recommend anybody do this and if for some reason you do try it Yoiutube is your best friend and I can see that video getting a good amount of views.

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