Popular Post Mimetic Polyalloy Posted January 3, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) I know those questions from puzzled faces are getting boring after some time... My preferred answer now is it's "half a segway". Most stunned faces light up a bit afterwards. Our neighbors from France (living there most time of the year) were familiar with the expression "Gyroroue". I'm not good at it but maybe there might be some equivalent term in English? Edited January 3, 2020 by Mimetic Polyalloy 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mortal Coil Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 8 minutes ago, Mimetic Polyalloy said: Our neighbors from France (living there most time of the year) were familiar with the expression "Gyroroue". I'm not good at it but maybe there might be some equivalent term in English? Literally “Gyro Wheel” in English. Not bad, though it probably sounds better in French. Most things do. I thought the adjective always came after the noun in Romance languages? Eg ‘red pencil’ is ‘crayon rouge’. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aneta Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) Gyrowheel, I think, brings up an association with a real gyroscope - a massive disk spinning at very high RPM that maintains its orientation in space and is used in spacecraft, aviation, missiles, ships, theodolites, some gimbals, etc. We don't have a real gyro, only a MEMS gyro sensor the size of a rice grain. Edited January 3, 2020 by Aneta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aneta Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) It's just dawned on me that we can also call our wheels "hoverwheel"! Everyone knows what hoverboard is, so hoverwheel is a natural extension. Same principle, just one self-balancing wheel, not two. BTW, there's a product called hoverwheel (hoverwheel.com), and it's like "EUC shoes": But who cares! Even if this name is trademarked (I didn't check), it's not like a trademark police will chase you in a black helicopter if you call your wheel hoverwheel. I think, I changed my mind re: segwheel - I instantly fell in love with "hoverwheel" and will use it from now on! Edited January 3, 2020 by Aneta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimetic Polyalloy Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) 49 minutes ago, Mortal Coil said: Literally “Gyro Wheel” in English. Not bad, though it probably sounds better in French. Most things do. I thought the adjective always came after the noun in Romance languages? Eg ‘red pencil’ is ‘crayon rouge’. You are definitely right. I remember it from the foggy depth of my less successful french lessons a long time ago. Still interesting but a little OT: An article in French wikipedia https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroroue uses the same expression (i.e. the wrong way round) and indicates that the hoverwheel (following @Aneta ) was even invented by 2 frenchmen ... I don't know if that's true at all, but that would ennoble the term somewhat. Edited January 3, 2020 by Mimetic Polyalloy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mortal Coil Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Speaking of Wikipedia the Electric Unicycle page is pretty dated. Definitely needs an update to reflect the state of the art. Anyone here a Wiki editor? When I first saw an EUC it was within the confines of a car and I could not yell ‘What the hell is that?’ to the rider. I observed that it had one wheel and assumed that it was electric powered, so ‘electric unicycle’ was actually the first search term I punched into google and the Wikipedia page was the first thing I read. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travsformation Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, Aneta said: 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. You're taking all the fun out of it by giving them an answer. Let them wonder... But if you do want a specific term, electric unicycle is a perfectly accurate description for these contraptions we ride. Trying to find another term that's specific enough to convey the essence of an EUC to someone who knows nothing about them comes through to me as an attempt to linguistically reinvent the wheel (pun intended). I initially felt compelled to explain it to every passerby who asked, but it eventually wore off, as I realized that regardless of whether you call it an electric unicycle, an ewheel, a segwheel, a self-balancing electric wheel or a one-wheeled hoverboard, whatever you manage to utter in one second, as you zoom past them, will be insufficient. The impression caused by seeing an EUC for the first time is what sticks in people's mind, and intuition guides the way to forming a vague opinion of "what the hell that is". After that, it's up to them. After all, interest is in the eye of the beholder, and it carries much more weight than any term you might choose to use, regardless of how well you feel it describes what an EUC is. When a lengthy conversation isn't an option, electric unicycle is what will yield the most accurate and useful results if they Google it: give them that and curiosity will do the rest. Edited January 4, 2020 by travsformation 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aneta Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Google results are not the driving force, WE are the driving force, Google just follows. If we start using "hoverwheel" widely, eventually Google will catch up and "electric unicycle" will become an ancient term. There's nothing "unicycle" about our contraptions - no pedals to turn, no maintaining balance by turning pedals. You just stand on it and hover above earth. A wheel that hovers. Hoverwheel. I'm very happy today, because I found the perfect word for it, and can't believe how it was escaping me for months. It was hiding in plain sight! HOVERWHEEL it is!!! Yehaaaaaaa! From now on, I'm going to say "Hoverwheel!" to every bystander who looks at me with a puzzled face - I will be proactive and not wait if somebody asks what is it. And I invite everybody do the same IRL and in the forum. In a year, we'll make "electric unicycle, EUC" term go obsolete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retrovertigo Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Every single person I have mentioned my Z10 to has assumed it was a regular unicycle with a motor and then asked how the hell that would work. One guy I know, I bumped into at a supermarket and described it in fine detail (I didn't have my phone with me to show him a pic) and he was really impressed and said it sounded so cool. Next time I saw him, he says "I googled electric unicycle, it isn't anything like a unicycle" - despite the fact he had heard me tell him it was nothing like one :/ I am not quite sure hoverwheel would help with the people I know. Back To The Future is the first thing they will picture 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchet Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 After several years riding, I prefer: "It's a wheel....with a motor, ok?" "Huh? Sorry I gotta make this light." "Can't hear you sorry!" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travsformation Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) 8 hours ago, Aneta said: There's nothing "unicycle" about our contraptions - no pedals to turn, no maintaining balance by turning pedals. "uni" = one, + a Latinized form of Greek kyklos "circle, wheel". The term unicycle literally means one wheel (just like bicycle means two wheels). The definition mentions nothing about pedals, balance, etc. Electric unicycle, therefore, means electric wheel. I don't think you can get much more specific than that... If people are unable to update the concept in their mind and quit associating it with a traditional unicycle, that's their problem; not liking the fact that people may associate you with a juggling circus uni-cyclist is a different story altogether... I still stand by my point that perception is in the eyes of the beholder. Whether they consider you cool, dorky or a circus runaway is up to them, regardless of what you call your wheel. 8 hours ago, Aneta said: Google results are not the driving force, WE are the driving force, Google just follows. If we start using "hoverwheel" widely, eventually Google will catch up and "electric unicycle" will become an ancient term. Since people shape language and there's already an established term (electric unicycle) used by an established community (electricunicycle.org), I'm personally inclined to follow the path of least resistance. I call it a wheel when talking to other riders, an electric unicycle when talking to strangers, a self-balancing electric wheel if I have more time to spare...Hell, my mother calls it "your electric unicorn", which I think is hilarious Nothing's fixed in stone, call it whatever you want. I enjoy the creativity that arises in the terminological debates that resurface from time to time, and have to admit, hoverwheel does sound cool and captures the feeling quite well. But from a pragmatic point of view, bear in mind that if a stranger looks up "hoverwheel", the search engine will most likely yield results on "hoverskates". That's an objective fact. If you fancy embarking on a personal crusade to convince everyone on the forum to switch to hoverwheel, you're more than free to do so. There have been similar initiatives in the past, trying to change "pedals" to "platforms" and the like, and they all lost steam pretty quickly. I'm not trying to discourage you, just bear in mind that most people don't fancy swimming upstream when they've already settled for a specific term. Edited January 4, 2020 by travsformation 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockyTop Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 19 hours ago, Aneta said: 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. (2015) I was walking down the sidewalk when a guy on ... something with one wheel flew by on the next street over. I wanted one!! It passed by so quick I did not get to see it very well. It looked homemade. I Googled everything I could think of. All I could find was the OneWheel. I gave up until two years later when I saw a video on YouTube. A cyclist was complaining about these F$&%#ing idiots on “new annoying electronic devices.” ( 2017) I then googled motorized unicycle and found Duf. I would have got a wheel two years sooner if I just had something to Google. ( less info to find in 2015) What is That?!! It is a Gotway!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aneta Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Hoverwheel does sound cool and captures the feeling quite well. It just flies off your tongue, you can't resist saying "hoverwheel" many times a day. I'm even singing hoverwheel to the Jingle Bells tune! Hoverwheel, hoverwheel Hover all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride on a one-wheel open sleigh Compared to the cool hoverwheel name, electric unicycle sounds like a term used by a 80-year old who is stuck in the past, pedantically repeating the legacy term. 2020, the year electric unicycle became hoverwheel! Happy New Hoverwheel Year, everyone! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_bike_kite Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Thankfully pretty much everyone in London knows what they are so you don't need to explain things too often but yesterday I was walking the wheel through an old Victorian cemetery when one of the grave diggers called me over. Instead of asking what the wheel was, he told me he already had an esk8 but was actually thinking of switching to an wheel! It felt like a weird conversation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scubadragonsan Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) This really befuddles people when I tell them my KS18L is a senior mobile assistant (SMA). BTW I and my wife are both in our 60s. We've benn able to ride in places like Angel Island which ban any kind of EUCs. Since we are in our 60s, seniors mind you! We do have some limited medical conditions that limit us from long walks. So we are able to ride our EUC in banned places under ADA Title 3. The ironic thing is that people know we are seniors, yet we are able to ride these wheels with easy though they appear to be a challenging endeavor for seniors. Calling our wheels senior mobile assistants tends to make people more acceptable to our presence. These wheels definitely is a senior advantage! Edited January 4, 2020 by scubadragosan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aneta Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 We need to unite and use the word "hoverwheel" more often to firmly establish what it is, because like that Inventist guy who called hovershoes hoverwheel, there are many wrong usages. I searched youtube for hoverwheel and this was on the first page: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_bike_kite Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 I think we should have more informative videos like that. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travsformation Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 53 minutes ago, Aneta said: We need to unite and use the word "hoverwheel" more often to firmly establish what it is, because like that Inventist guy who called hovershoes hoverwheel, there are many wrong usages. I searched youtube for hoverwheel and this was on the first page: I have no doubt that the tech and the terminology are what people will remember from that video... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fat Unicyclist Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 20 minutes ago, travsformation said: I have no doubt that the tech and the terminology are what people will remember from that video... Wait, that video had tech and terminology??? I must have missed it the first 10 times I watched it... I guess I'll just have to watch it again... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR BRAD Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Motorcycle cops call their rides “motors” (and also self reference the same way, though that doesn’t do much for my point, but I think it’s pretty cool!). My EUC (never!!!! ever!!!! a Segwheel!, sorry @Aneta) is a “wheel” in that same vein. Of course I understand that is about as minimally descriptive as one could be with reference to our EUC-solowheel-monowheel-electric unicycle-ankle biting-unicorn devices... I’m just way too cool to call my wheel anything with a moniker that implies otherwise. Really. Just ask me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aneta Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Of course, between us our hoverwheels are just "wheels". But hoverwheel is now an official term, starting from 2020. I traveled back to the future and confirmed by foogling (that's the future term for searching the Internet) that hoverwheel moniker became widely adopted in 2020, by the relentless efforts of this term's advocate Aneta. We're making history right now, folks! We need to find Julia and ask her to redo the video with the correct hoverwheel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atdlzpae Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Aneta said: But hoverwheel is now an official term, starting from 2020. "Electric unicycle" is an official term since 2015. And that's what I'm gonna use with bystanders. Every time the topic is brought up, either: - I'm riding one, so imagination is not required - I can pull up the phone and show a video Edited January 5, 2020 by atdlzpae 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unventor Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 1 hour ago, MR BRAD said: Motorcycle cops call their rides “motors” (and also self reference the same way, though that doesn’t do much for my point, but I think it’s pretty cool!). My EUC (never!!!! ever!!!! a Segwheel!, sorry @Aneta) is a “wheel” in that same vein. Of course I understand that is about as minimally descriptive as one could be with reference to our EUC-solowheel-monowheel-electric unicycle-ankle biting-unicorn devices... I’m just way too cool to call my wheel anything with a moniker that implies otherwise. Really. Just ask me. Ahh i have not seen you so much lately. How are your riding getting on....ohh at to keep it in topic, do you have a name tag on your whee..ehhh Mohawk ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 We have a bit the same problem in France, the half official word has become « gyroroue » (gyrowheel) but it is not very elegant so there isn’t much enthusiasm around it. Among each other it’s just a wheel (roue) but to bystanders we lack a nice handle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 I just show them a 5 second Youtube video of a EUC rider if I'm not standing on the wheel anyways. "Electric unicycle" also works in other languages than English because you can translate it. And I can always say to people who ask what that thing is called: "electric unicycle is easy to remember, one wheel and it's electric" (works better in German because the literal translation of EUC is "electric one-wheel"). Then they can google the rest if they care. People overwhelmingly seem to get that it's self-balancing like a Segway when they see it. I appreciate that "segwheel" or "hoverwheel" are smart in their own way, but I won't use them. Electric unicycle it is. Maybe I'm just too old for change 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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