Awaiting Delivery for V8

[MikeTheCreator]

Hey everyone, I am excited to be a new EUC owner. Here are some of my thoughts. I have never road a EUC but I have excellent balance longboarding/skating . I am 250 lbs and 5'11". I purchased an inmotion v8 from myinmotion and The package will be held at Fedex So I still have a chance to refuse delivery and get a refund . I was researching more during the wait and was wondering If I should cancel this order and get a kingsong 18l instead. What are some of your thoughts. I really dont want to be super limited in range because of my size and I understand that I am kind of heavy for this wheel. What do you all think?

[Aneta]

At 250lbs, you want an at least 2kW hoverwheel, not 800W.

Edited January 13, 2020 by Aneta

[meepmeepmayer]

Replace 18L in your consideration above with 18XL and you're golden! The 18L would be fine, though, just less financially efficient than the 18XL, and you might regret not getting an XL instead.

For your weight, the V8 is too weak (the smaller/weaker 2p battery is the main issue). Sure, you could ride it, but you'd always be at its limits and I probably wouldn't ride above 25kph at all then, and feel unsafe most of the time anyways. That's not worth the money. Even if you were lighter, you might want to upgrade very soon (2 weeks) if you're now already worried about the range. Add your weight into the consideration... don't keep the V8. You had the right hunch there.

What are your range expectations for the 18L? Don't believe advertised ranges. A simple rule of thumb would be 25Wh/km or 40+Wh/mile, maybe even a little more for your weight.

[MikeTheCreator]

oh no. So should I refuse delivery of the v8 and get my refund. then order the 18xl?

[MikeTheCreator]

Also how do things change id I lose weight and get to 220. Which I can get to that real soon.

[meepmeepmayer]

35 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

oh no. So should I refuse delivery of the v8 and get my refund. then order the 18xl?

If you ask me: yes

24 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

Also how do things change id I lose weight and get to 220. Which I can get to that real soon.

Nothing really changes. You're still borderline too heavy to be safely happy with the V8. You will still wish you had more range. Probably you will still want to upgrade soon. That's my guess.

Losing that weight and getting to 220 is an excellent idea to get more range from your future 18XL though! It really does make a difference.

-

My opinion: there are "general purpose" wheels that I can recommend to everybody, and there are "specialty wheels" that only make sense for special requirements. The V8 is a specialty wheel that makes sense for people who a) like or need the form factor, especially the lower weight of the wheel, or b) who don't have more money and want to get the best wheel the V8 price allows (which might be the V8 or a better used wheel for the same price). Also, it's quite slow already, and having to be extra careful as a heavier rider and riding even slower doesn't make things better.

You can buy a V8 and use it, in its limitations, and you'll like it. I still wouldn't recommend it to a normal weight rider looking for a general purpose wheel (instead of a specialty wheel), and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a heavier rider like you. I really don't think the money is worth it. Sure you can easily sell it later and not lose too much money, it's not like you jumped off a cliff, but why bother in the first place.

No need to rush things or worry You can think about what else to get instead (you certainly can't go wrong with an 18XL, but it doesn't have to be an 18XL). But I see no point in a V8 for you. At least  as far as I can see from behind my keyboard.

Edited January 13, 2020 by meepmeepmayer

[MikeTheCreator]

15 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

If you ask me: yes

Nothing really changes. You're still borderline too heavy to be safely happy with the V8. You will still wish you had more range. Probably you will still want to upgrade soon. That's my guess.

Losing that weight and getting to 220 is an excellent idea to get more range from your future 18XL though! It really does make a difference.

-

My opinion: there are "general purpose" wheels that I can recommend to everybody, and there are "specialty wheels" that only make sense for special requirements. The V8 is a specialty wheel that makes sense for people who a) like or need the form factor, especially the lower weight of the wheel, or b) who don't have more money and want to get the best wheel the V8 price allows (which might be the V8 or a better used wheel for the same price). Also, it's quite slow already, and having to be extra careful as a heavier rider and riding even slower doesn't make things better.

You can buy a V8 and use it, in its limitations, and you'll like it. I still wouldn't recommend it to a normal weight rider looking for a general purpose wheel (instead of a specialty wheel), and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a heavier rider like you. I really don't think the money is worth it. Sure you can easily sell it later and not lose too much money, it's not like you jumped off a cliff, but why bother in the first place.

No need to rush things or worry You can think about what else to get instead (you certainly can't go wrong with an 18XL, but it doesn't have to be an 18XL). But I see no point in a V8 for you. At least  as far as I can see from behind my keyboard.

You are so excellent and thorough. Thank you so much my friend!

[gon2fast]

I am larger rider and I have a well used G3 that has had no mechanical issues after 1700 miles... except the time that i fried a board upgrading the tire, but that was user error which was warrantied. I am glad that I spent $750 on a learning wheel that I crashed several times, pushed weatherproofing limits on and still ride daily. Performance is great once you are proficient, but at least think about getting a used wheel to learn/train on in addition to your KS18.  

Plus, it always nice to have multiple wheels, lol.

[seage]

Im a heavier rider as well, just a bit lighter than you. I started out with the Kingsong 16S. It was a beast of a machine, never dropped me, but I knew I needed more power for my weight. My brother, who is like 150lbs of muscle, took my 16S and does things with it that would never work for me. He rides that thing hard. If i were to have pushed it there, it would have dropped me, and that was a 1200w motor if I remember correctly. The V8 seemed like a wheel for lighter riders. And the way it cuts out pretty easily under certain conditions for anyone toeing that line, im not sure I would risk it. If you still want a light(ish) wheel with a lot more power, but not as pricey as the XL, the 16S could be a real option for you. I grew out of it pretty fast, but I still love that wheel, even though last time I stood on it, i was scared I was gonna die, lmao. Its a bit of an older wheel now, but I think it still holds up quite well. Curious what the others think though as I only have 1 year into this hobby. But i rode over 6000km in said year. I might be a little addicted, lmao. 

[Meserias]

Dear initiator excuse me to be so blunt....
You just took a bad decision to get a V8 for your weight 113KG !

Get immediately another wheel !
(KS18XL, Nikola+)

Edited January 14, 2020 by Meserias

[MikeTheCreator]

9 hours ago, seage said:

Im a heavier rider as well, just a bit lighter than you. I started out with the Kingsong 16S. It was a beast of a machine, never dropped me, but I knew I needed more power for my weight. My brother, who is like 150lbs of muscle, took my 16S and does things with it that would never work for me. He rides that thing hard. If i were to have pushed it there, it would have dropped me, and that was a 1200w motor if I remember correctly. The V8 seemed like a wheel for lighter riders. And the way it cuts out pretty easily under certain conditions for anyone toeing that line, im not sure I would risk it. If you still want a light(ish) wheel with a lot more power, but not as pricey as the XL, the 16S could be a real option for you. I grew out of it pretty fast, but I still love that wheel, even though last time I stood on it, i was scared I was gonna die, lmao. Its a bit of an older wheel now, but I think it still holds up quite well. Curious what the others think though as I only have 1 year into this hobby. But i rode over 6000km in said year. I might be a little addicted, lmao. 

I am so glad I discovered these EUC's. I haven't even rode one yet but I can tell by the community that its going to be so worth it. This is why I did indeed cancel my v8 purchase and went for the 18xl. Go big or go home! Curious how you almost died please elaborate for me. Also I am curious if any of you ride motorcycles? I have one but feel I will love this more because 1. I dont need gas even though moto is cheap on gas. 2 Im on one freaking wheel lol

8 hours ago, Meserias said:

Dear initiator excuse me to be so blunt....
You just took a bad decision to get a V8 for your weight 113KG !

Get immediately another wheel !
(KS18XL, Nikola+)

I totally cancelled and got the 18xl!!!

[meepmeepmayer]

Cool! I don't think you will regret upgrading

Get the EUC Bodyguard for the 18XL (can be had on roll.nz and ewheels.com) or pad your wheel up very well before ever going outside (1st ride outdoors is always the worst for scratches!) and you don't have to worry about scratching or damaging your nice expensive new wheel in the learning phase. And wear the appropriate protective gear for such a powerful wheel. I don't think anything can go wrong other than damage to the wheel or you, and this is how you protect yourself against that.

Looking forward to hear what you think of the EUC once you have one!

[seage]

21 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

I am so glad I discovered these EUC's. I haven't even rode one yet but I can tell by the community that its going to be so worth it. This is why I did indeed cancel my v8 purchase and went for the 18xl. Go big or go home!

Likewise, haha. I was about to bite the bullet on a onewheel. But im pretty sure I wouldnt be riding right now, or extremely recreational (few weekends once in a while) as it wouldnt have covered all of my needs like my EUC does. Not only is it just a pleasure to ride, but its helpful and practical in everyday urban environments. From offroad to subburbs, to country roads to crazy inner city. The only thing we can't do is go on the highway. But i'm not sure why you'd want to, lmao. I've explored so much since I got my wheel. Mapped every single street and trail in my village. Found beautiful areas that I'd never have even tried to explore. Sorry, i went off!!! Congratulations on your 18XL!~ You're going to absolutely love it! There may be a moment where you're like "Oh no....this is impossible....oh no..my money!" But stick with it. It WILL click and you'll almost forget how it was you couldnt do this before. But you wont. Because you're going to film it and post it here for our enjoyment, LOL. 

24 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

Curious how you almost died please elaborate for me.

Oh, yeah, the thing just felt like a toy compared to my larger wheel. It was super torquey and squirly and nimble. All stuff i was used to before. But the XL feels like a super stable Cadillac in comparison. Im guessing its like, the feeling of any wheel vs the monster, lmao. But yeah. I wouldnt go over 20 when I was riding it, and kept almost falling trying to go around corners because I couldnt lean it like i was used to. Honestly, just a little more time on it and I would have readjusted, but it was scary. Haha

[MikeTheCreator]

10 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Cool! I don't think you will regret upgrading

Get the EUC Bodyguard for the 18XL (can be had on roll.nz and ewheels.com) or pad your wheel up very well before ever going outside (1st ride outdoors is always the worst for scratches!) and you don't have to worry about scratching or damaging your nice expensive new wheel in the learning phase. And wear the appropriate protective gear for such a powerful wheel. I don't think anything can go wrong other than damage to the wheel or you, and this is how you protect yourself against that.

Looking forward to hear what you think of the EUC once you have one!

I ordered at just the right time because eWheels included that exact bodygaurd. They also included the larger pedals and the 2200 motor. Im so happy haha!!

[seage]

Just now, MikeTheCreator said:

I ordered at just the right time because eWheels included that exact bodygaurd. They also included the larger pedals and the 2200 motor. Im so happy haha!!

This guy.... I got none of that! Legacy motor, original motherboard, shell scratched to shit, I have wheel envy, lmao. 

Doesnt Jason include a free set of wristguards with his orders? I know he used to. When you're first learning, be sure to keep those wrist guards on, as much as I know people think they can just skip out. Low speed falls are the ones where your wrists are most at risk. Falling straight down, twisting, all that other good stuff. When you're going faster, you can slide, so theres less direct pressure on the wrist (although i still wear em every ride) but yeah, people make that mistake of "Well, im going slow, so" Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... no point in risking it XDD. 

[meepmeepmayer]

2 minutes ago, seage said:

I've explored so much since I got my wheel. Mapped every single street and trail in my village. Found beautiful areas that I'd never have even tried to explore.

That's exactly what is so wonderful about EUCs! Just so intuitive to ride, and so easy to use everywhere.

2 minutes ago, seage said:

"Oh no....this is impossible....oh no..my money!"

Haha, that's exactly what everyone thinks when they lift their first wheel out of the box and then try to stand on it.

1 minute ago, MikeTheCreator said:

I ordered at just the right time because eWheels included that exact bodygaurd. They also included the larger pedals and the 2200 motor. Im so happy haha!!

Nice!

Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but never ride without wrist guards; and a (full face) helmet and knee guards are pretty much the minimum gear for higher speed.

[MikeTheCreator]

18 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

That's exactly what is so wonderful about EUCs! Just so intuitive to ride, and so easy to use everywhere.

Haha, that's exactly what everyone thinks when they lift their first wheel out of the box and then try to stand on it.

Nice!

Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but never ride without wrist guards; and a (full face) helmet and knee guards are pretty much the minimum gear for higher speed.

Did you fall a lot at first? I just bought helmet and the wrist gaurd gloves. I have a motorcycle jacket that I can use but that seems extreme. Maybe I should order knee pads as well?

[mrelwood]

Knees are easy to take damage when falling, even at small speeds, so yes, I always protect the knees. I do use a motorcycle jacket because it’s an easy and fast way to put on a good amount of protection. When you get to taste higher speeds, I don’t think the abrasion resistance of a motorcycle jacket is an overkill.

[D3m0nzz]

1 hour ago, MikeTheCreator said:

I am so glad I discovered these EUC's. I haven't even rode one yet but I can tell by the community that its going to be so worth it. This is why I did indeed cancel my v8 purchase and went for the 18xl. Go big or go home! Curious how you almost died please elaborate for me. Also I am curious if any of you ride motorcycles? I have one but feel I will love this more because 1. I dont need gas even though moto is cheap on gas. 2 Im on one freaking wheel lol

I totally cancelled and got the 18xl!!!

I recently sold my motorcycles and am all-in on wheels now. I live in a major city though, so it makes sense for my use-case. 

 

[seage]

26 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

Did you fall a lot at first? I just bought helmet and the wrist gaurd gloves. I have a motorcycle jacket that I can use but that seems extreme. Maybe I should order knee pads as well?

This was my 3rd day out. I never had any BIG falls, like faceplanting or landing on my side. But i heard people have, so do be careful. For me it was more wobbling to oblivion and jumping off, then at the end slipping on wet grass, lmao. 

[meepmeepmayer]

51 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

Did you fall a lot at first?

No. But I didn't wear any gear at first (dumb/stubborn/thoughtless), and any gear I added was because of a fall where I realized I really should have had that piece of gear. First minor very low speed fall ruined my cloth winter gloves. Without gloves (in summer), my hands might have been a bit torn on the gravelly ground. Then I realized wrist guards are a good idea. Never again rode without them.

Next fall was a bit worse (luckily also in winter the year after, so I only lost all of my clothing instead of a lot of skin) and I realized I needed knee guards (and upgraded my wrist guards, though the cheap ones worked super well, you could literally feel them cushioning the blow, and my palms would have been majorly f**ked up without them, maybe permanently).

Then I figured I should add a full face helmet before I have a fall that would convince me I needed a helmet (which might end not so harmlessly).

I was pretty lucky, could have gone worse.

Once you're used to the gear, you'll feel naked and unsafe without it. That's a positive.

51 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

I just bought helmet and the wrist gaurd gloves.

The important thing a about wrist protection for EUC riding is that the wrist guards must slide along on the ground unimpeded if you have a fall. As soon as you land on your hands, they are supposed to slip forward and barely catch your weight. So if your "gloves" don't slide and don't have plastic slide plates, I would not recommend them. That's something to be aware of for EUC hand protectors of any kind: they must easily slide on the ground (plastic slide plates).

Wrist protection is not about protecting your wrist from bending and breaking. You don't fall like this in a EUC crash (unlike in snowboarding, for example). EUC crashes are mostly doing a superman forward onto the ground.

For EUCs, wrist protection is about two things. Impact protection, to prevent the impact shock from travelling along your arm into your shoulder and break/hurt your delicate shoulder (the by far worst consequences of pretty much every major crash reported on this forum were nasty shoulder injuries!) or arm. That's why they need to slide instead of rapidly stop and ram your arm into your body, which would be seriously counter productive at 20+ mph.

The other thing is abrasion (do not underestimate abrasion). After the impact, the wrist guards need to prevent your palms from being grated off by the ground. Cloth would still work, but doesn't slide.

Impact and abrasion are the two factors for every piece of EUC protective gear you consider. It matters differently for different pieces. Helmet is mostly about impact (head and face must hit helmet, not ground). Knee guards are mostly about abrasion (which here means: they must not slide off your knee while you still slide along on the ground!). Etc.

51 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

I have a motorcycle jacket that I can use but that seems extreme.

You don't have to use one, but it would be a very sensible choice to wear it, and not extreme at all. Not necessarily during learning (you can get away with nothing or wrist guards only), but later.

51 minutes ago, MikeTheCreator said:

Maybe I should order knee pads as well?

This is my all time favorite EUC video ever. It is a fantastic example of proper knee guards working well (and great crash technique from a pro rider), and you can gleam any information you need about knee protection from 10 seconds of video (simply imagine what would have happened without). Maybe it convinces you that knee guards are indeed a good idea (they are!). About 10 seconds into the video...

Please don't be scared off by these descriptions. It is entirely possible you will never have a fall that is worse than you running off the wheel. But you can't be 100% sure and don't control the circumstances 100%, which is what protective gear is for. Contingency planning, nothing more. But it is unintuitive and very hard without experience to judge the possible dangers of a EUC crash, so plan as much as you like (= no such thing as too much gear).

Edited January 14, 2020 by meepmeepmayer

[mrelwood]

Wrist guard gloves like the Gyroriderz or Hillbillys are exactly that, they have an exposed slide plate at the palm, and a splint at the opposite side. And usually made of leather for good abrasion resistance.

@seage, your learning video is a perfect example why I don’t recommend anyone to use a strap to catch the wheel when having to jump off. This clip shows perfectly why both hands should be free!

Edited January 14, 2020 by mrelwood

[meepmeepmayer]

Just now, mrelwood said:

Wrist guard gloves like the Gyroriderz or Hillbillys are exactly that, they have an exposed slide plate at the palm, and a splint at the opposite side. And usually made of leather for good abrasion resistance.

Yes I know. I just get worried every time I hear "gloves" so better to be overly clear about this

[winterwheel]

With respect, all of you screaming that he is too heavy for the V8 are full of it.

I weigh that and happily rode my V8 for three months, only upgrading because I wanted more speed.

I still ride it now and then.

I also rode V5F at that weight (my first wheel) and play on a 14D every week.

[winterwheel]

I should mention that on a short but extremely steep hill on my daily commute the V5F would actually yell at me to "Get Off!". When I chose a different route it was fine.