I'm tired of saying "no, not that kind of unicycle"

[soundkite]

Every person I tell about electric unicycling assumes it's a regular unicycle with a motor.  I think I'm going to go back to saying I ride a Solowheel just to ease the pain.  How do you all describe our hobby to strangers?  Monocycle, maybe?  

[Aneta]

Segwheel

[alcatraz]

Onewheel or just Wheel

[atdlzpae]

Just tell them a unicycle can ride up to 50km/h. And let them imagine whatever they want.

[Mortal Coil]

I did a couple of practice laps around my work the other day during my lunch break. I got back to my desk to find that one of my colleagues had emailed me this picture

[Denny Paul]

I share your pain but even still I just say the current google-able standard of electric unicycle, then fill in the blanks to those that are visibly baffled.

On the off chance the person who I was talking to wants to learn more, they will when they search online themselves. 
 

But on second thought now, saying Solowheel could achieve the same result, though less directly. And it has the benefit of not being associated immediately with a juggling street performer. I might start going with that actually. 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Denny Paul

[atdlzpae]

10 minutes ago, Denny Paul said:

I share your pain but even still I just say the current google-able standard of electric unicycle, then fill in the blanks to those that are visibly baffled.

@Aneta Yeah, that's an argument against "segwheel". Google images shows images of segways.

Edited January 3, 2020 by atdlzpae

[Mortal Coil]

-1 for “Segwheel”.

The Segway has a dorky image problem that EUCs don’t need to be saddled with.

I kinda like E-wheel. Goes with E-skateboards, E-bikes and E-scooters. An EUC rider can be an E-wheeler...

[Rehab1]

1 hour ago, Mortal Coil said:

I kinda like E-wheel.

@Jason McNeil is pretty fond of that name as well. Simple response:  “It’s an Ewheel from Ewheels.” 

 

[Mortal Coil]

1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

@Jason McNeil is pretty fond of that name as well. Simple response:  “It’s an Ewheel from Ewheels.” 

 

It wouldn’t be the first time a brand name has drifted into generic usage.

From what I read, Jason runs a good business. Maybe it deserves to become the Kleenex of Electric Unicycles? 

[RockyTop]

Me -  It is a mail order Chinese electric motor cycle. ...... I am still waiting for the rest of the parts. ...... I can still ride what I have so far, wanna see? 

Them-  

[travsformation]

45 minutes ago, RockyTop said:

Me -  It is a mail order Chinese electric motor cycle. ...... I am still waiting for the rest of the parts. ...... I can still ride what I have so far, wanna see? 

Them-  

Edited January 3, 2020 by travsformation

[Aneta]

When I ride, I often hear this question, already at my back as everything is happening so fast: "What IS IT?!" - and I only have one second to turn my head back and shout. I need to capture in one word the essence, the explanation of what it is. "Electric unicycle" is just too long and doesn't explain it. "E-wheel" doesn't explain anything. Yes, it is a wheel, they can see it. Yes, it's obviously electric. But it doesn't answer the burning question, "how does it work?!", which is what essentially they want to know when they ask what is it.

"Segwheel" is the answer that captures in one short word the essence of it - it is a self-balancing machine, just like a segway, but with one wheel.

Try it next time.

[ZenRyder]

11 minutes ago, Aneta said:

"E-wheel" doesn't explain anything. Yes, it is a wheel, they can see it. Yes, it's obviously electric. But it doesn't answer the burning question, "how does it work?!", "Segwheel" is the answer that captures in one short word the essence of it - it is a self-balancing machine, just like a segway, but with one wheel.

I think eWheel explains everything! 

It's electric and it's a single wheel (by definition a unicycle). The fact that there is gyroscopic self balancing in a single axis is too much information. Relating it to a segway creates more confusion (no steering handle) and has a negative connotation. I would much prefer associating the awkward EUC naming convention to a domestic re-seller brand (eWheels) than the over priced hoverboard with a turning handle that mall cops use (original Segway).

[mike_bike_kite]

There are far too many negatives associated with using the name segwheel and so it will never catch on. I'm not wildly keen on Electric unicycle either. My preference as far as names go is :

Ewheel > EUC > almost anything > segwheel

 

[Unventor]

I prefer to keep things as few letters as possible. EUC works just fine. Since this is new to most anyway it does require some explanations for people to get it anyway.

I guess you could call it electric  mono wheel (emw)  to get a more stating name or electric one wheel (eow) . 

-or well just stick with EUC....

[Aneta]

The question "What is it?!" when asked by stunned bystanders has only one meaning: "How the heck are you balancing on just one wheel?! Are you a circus artist? What's the secret to this magic?" "E-wheel" doesn't capture that, "segwheel" does, because everyone in the world knows what segway is and that it self-balances using gyroscope. E-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards are good terms because they are just electrified mechanical bikes, kickscooters, and skateboards - there's no magic in them; but e-wheel just doesn't cut it. Segwheel does.

[mike_bike_kite]

Self image:

Segwheel image:

It's a lost cause.

[ZenRyder]

1 minute ago, mike_bike_kite said:

It's a lost cause.

Wow, so well said!!!

A picture is worth a million words!

[Aneta]

No, this image better conveys what segwheel is: it's so awesome that it's worth 24k gold-plating it!

[RockyTop]

Ok ... So I have no idea what just pasted me. They said it was it was a “Segwheel.”  I looked it up on YouTube are found a bunch of two wheeled Segways........  and some gold plated thing.  

If you look up EUC. You find our friends on EUCs. 

 

[houseofjob]

19 hours ago, soundkite said:

Every person I tell about electric unicycling assumes it's a regular unicycle with a motor.  I think I'm going to go back to saying I ride a Solowheel just to ease the pain.  How do you all describe our hobby to strangers?  Monocycle, maybe?  

My first & 2nd year of riding, I would get into the whole EUC shpiel.

But after 5 years of getting barraged with the same damn questions, it's as short an answer while-I-am-trying-to-run/ride-away from them as I can get away with.... if they wanna believe it's a vacuum, or a manual unicycle, so be it: even better because I can just say "Yes!"

[Aneta]

People don't start googling when you say something to them, they try to digest the word itself. "Segwheel" is self-explanatory. "Electric unicycle" brings up the image of a circus artist posted above. "E-wheel" isn't self-explanatory.

[ZenRyder]

Search for "EUC" and you just get a bunch of weird definitions related to End User Computing and eBay's "Excellent Used Condition". It's just not helpful (for our sport). Even Wikipedia gives a laundry list of possibilities:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EUC

Erasmus University College, in Rotterdam, Netherlands
EUC Nord, a school system in Denmark
European University Centre, of Nancy 2 University
European University Cyprus, in Nicosia, Cyprus

Other uses
Electrolytes, urea, creatinine, a blood test
Emergency Unemployment Compensation
End-user certificate
End-user computing
Eravur Urban Council, a local authority in Sri Lanka
Eucla Airport, in Western Australia
European Union Committee, of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
European Universities Championships
Extended Unix Code, a character encoding
Equipment under control in the IEC 61508 standard
Electric unicycle, see Self-balancing unicycle

But at the very bottom of the list, there we are!

I like your consistency @Aneta, keep beating that drum. The rest of us need to find a better name to call it. I'm still favoring eWheel, but I'm open to "other" suggestions.

 

[Aneta]

"E-wheel" is more like a generic term for any PEV; it's no coincidence that ewheels.com also sells electric scooters - they're also e-wheels! Apple, orange, banana - they're all fruits; if you're eating some exotic tropical fruit and somebody asks "what is it?", you don't want to answer "It's a fruit!", you want to be specific, like "carambola", "pitaya", etc. "E-wheel" is too generic and doesn't capture the magic of a self-balancing wheel. "Segwheel" does.

By the way, this is the first time I hear about segways being dorky. It must be a byproduct of that TV show "Mall cop"? I don't watch TV, I don't even own one. The only times I watch TV is when I'm travelling and staying in hotels and have nothing to do; I turn it on and confirm it's the same BS over and over; nothing's changing. I've never heard anyone IRL treating segways as dorky. I saw security on segway in LAX terminals and thought it was cool; and saw the same reception in other people's faces - "wow, it's cool!" As for "dorky", almost anything when applied to police using unusual means of transportation - bicycles, horses, segways - can be viewed as dorky. I guess this is just the way the comedy works - it's easy to ridicule the police, remember "Police Academy" series of movies? I personally always thought of segways as cool, but very impractical because of high cost (you can buy a used car in decent condition for that kind of money) and too bulky/heavy.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Aneta