Let's make EUC's popular.

[PLEASE_DELETE]

Deleted.

Edited March 18 by PLEASE_DELETE

[McKJim]

I live in Holland, Michigan. I have yet to meet ANYONE who has even heard of an EUC until I started riding mine last spring. I get stopped constantly by people asking about it, how it works,  "can I make a video?"

You have to be a bit of a pioneer to take on EUC riding at this time where I live. 

My story  is that I saw someone come up from the Metro in DC, set one down and take off down the sidewalk.  I was blown away.   Three years later I got my KS14D.  I had no instruction beyond YouTube and really struggled to learn to ride... then one day I was up and going zipping around the neighborhood,  going to the hardware store and just cruising every chance I got. It wasn't easy and I have scars and at least one bone chip in my elbow from various mishaps.

If I would have had hands on instruction and guidance it would have made the journey much easier.   

The lack of availability beyond mail-order and no local guidance makes the the bar for entry high at this point. Cost is also a huge factor. I paid $750 for something I was going to beat on and wasn't sure I could ride.  My 14D took some real hits right out of the box.

So now I have two wheels. I can use one to teach others. Maybe I can start a movement.  But there is the Who's using it factor.  I'm a standard issue, 54 yo white guy. In my head no one's cooler but I'm not necessarily the best influencer material 😀. The guys I work with in their 20s-40s love the concept but are raising kids and buying houses.  Dropping 2k on a personal vehicle isn't a priority. 

Perceived danger is also high.  They look far more dangerous than riding one feels.

The doofus factor:  Thanks Segway.  85° in stance makes a huge difference. One wheels are perceived as being cooler.  Surfing and skating have gotten us all used to this iconic stance.  Someone flying down the street facing forward is new and strange. I definitely did my part to damage the serious reputation of the community by riding around the neighborhood blasting marches from the KS wearing a rwb cowboy hat and waving at the kids.  COVID, there was no parade, I had to step up.

I'm now dying to spread the joy. The KS will make the tour to interested parties to get them hooked once the snow melts. My wife and daughter haven't said no.  If I can teach the three teen/pre-teen boys, their sister and father to ride and let them ride it to school I might make some headway. 

 

[Moto.Gringo]

3 hours ago, McKJim said:

I live in Holland, Michigan. I have yet to meet ANYONE who has even heard of an EUC until I started riding mine last spring. I get stopped constantly by people asking about it, how it works,  "can I make a video?"

I'm in Northern Indiana (Elkhart) and just got my first EUC after watching countless hours of Youtube videos.  I'm also waiting for the snow to melt so I can actually learn to ride it.  When I get it figured out, maybe we can meet up for a ride or start a Southern MI/Northern IN Riders Group ha!  I think you might be the closest rider I've heard of.  I've never seen one around here.  In fact, the only wheel I've seen in the wild was in Medellin Colombia back around Christmas time.

[Gene Martin]

@Moto.Gringo Angola is home for me. I would definitely be up for a group ride! Keep me in mind when it warms up.

Maybe we could get @Rehab1 to join us.

[McKJim]

Sounds good to me!  Let's talk some more when the smote melts! 

[littlelio]

I also kind of agree to keep EUC niche. It is great tool and lots of fun.... for me. To be honest I don't care what others are thinking if they start to use EUC - if they can't ride it, then don't. What's the point of pushing them to EUC? It is cool only me can use it right? 

All I hope is people accept EUC and do not give the community hard days. Of course, we should use it correctly.

Most of them have no idea what it is - people avoid anything they don't understand, which is good because they will not bother us, which is bad because they can say anything ridiculous about it.

 

Edited February 1, 2021 by littlelio

[PLEASE_DELETE]

Deleted.

Edited March 18 by PLEASE_DELETE

[EUC Sharkman]

I’m big on PEVs, started with electric scooters, moved onto a OneWheel, and starting on the EUC path. Now that I feel comfortable riding one, I feel like the doors are open, Honestly, I think they’re the next evolution for motorbikes, and are evolving pretty rapidly. It’s like that Geico commercial where the guy is a like a centaur except being half human half horse, he’s half human half motorcycle. It’s silly, but there’s something fantastic about it. EUC is the next closest step to that so far. Just you, a motor, and a wheel.

I’m glad with the Sherman and other newer wheels that they are going more metal and less plastic, taking out the LED light rings and making them look more like vehicles, and some motorbike-like styling. The S18 would look great in a hot rod red or something. The way to take down the “dorky” factor is to make them look like the more powerful, stylish, relatively expensive PEVs that they are. Maybe next year, we’ll see more of this trend so that folks aren’t dropping a couple grand on something encased in plastic that looks like it’ll shatter in the first wreck. EUCs are evolving so quickly, it is glorious. What will the wheels look like 2-3 years from now at this rate!

 

Side note, does everyone call them EE YOU SEEs? Does anyone call these something different like Motorwheels or I dunno...Yukes? Too much like Ukes / Ukeleles? Ha!

[Tawpie]

I call mine “Nellie the blue horse” but refer to them as “wheel” and “electric unicycle”. I use TLAs too much in the day job so this is my bold rebellion. Yeah. I’m waaaay out there. Mind yourself.

I’m with you on making them less toy looking, the power and capabilities allow them to be dangerous when misused, they needn’t look like my-first-unicycle anymore.

On the other hand, if they don’t look dangerous maybe they’ll stay under the regulatory radar?

Edited February 2, 2021 by Tawpie

[Jimmy Chang]

How to make EUCs popular? Here's a list of random thoughts. Please feel free to add:

• Don't ride like idiots. Getting banned is the opposite of becoming popular.
• Be respectful when you ride.
• Engage with interested people. Answer their questions. Show and tell them how cool these things can be.
• Treat the hobby of EUC as if it were something like Crossfit or being a Vegan... insist on telling everyone you know and don't know that you ride an EUC and that you are awesome for doing so.
• Offer to teach people if they are interested.

I try to do all those things. I've offered to teach many people to ride and I've taught a good number to do so.  The biggest hurdle is ease of entry into the hobby. I take a van full of EUCs, Escooters, & Onewheels to the park to let family and friends try and the EUCs are always left to languish because beginners can't just hop on and go like they can with the escooters or Onewheels.

We are an instant gratification society. EUCs take time and effort to learn and adopt. In a way, I'm okay with that. I like having a unique skill and being able to do something that very few in the world can. But I do enjoy sharing the awesomeness of EUCs through YouTube and other social media.

[Unipilot69]

10 minutes ago, Jimmy Chang said:

We are an instant gratification society.

I'm trying to get my kids involved in unicycling and just being outside. All they want to do is play games and other screen activities. Drives me nuts. I'm totally opposite. I don't like being inside and looking at screens all the time. My youngest is riding the mten3 and onewheel pint. My oldest reluctantly rides the onewheel pint. It's like pulling teeth to get him out of the house. I've been riding regular unicycles for 40 years. My youngest tried a few times but fell off backward and now is a little scared. I wish he would finish leaning to ride.

[.....]

34 minutes ago, Unipilot69 said:

I'm trying to get my kids involved in unicycling and just being outside. All they want to do is play games and other screen activities. Drives me nuts. I'm totally opposite. I don't like being inside and looking at screens all the time. My youngest is riding the mten3 and onewheel pint. My oldest reluctantly rides the onewheel pint. It's like pulling teeth to get him out of the house. I've been riding regular unicycles for 40 years. My youngest tried a few times but fell off backward and now is a little scared. I wish he would finish leaning to ride.

Easy enough. Toss em out, lock em out, tell em to come back when the street lights come on. Worked for me and my friends, ALL thru the 80's . Try falling off the back of a bicycle doing max speed wheelies in the street with blue jeans and a tee-shirt. You know, back when your friends wouldnt let you be a pu*sy, and you learned to climb back on.

Edited February 2, 2021 by ShanesPlanet

[Unipilot69]

In the 40 years of riding regular unicycles I've only fallen off the back only once. That's was 9 years ago when I first installed clipless pedals. I couldn't release and went over backwards and shattered my hillbilly wrist guards. Yeah I know, clipless pedals on unicycles are crazy. I have shitty knees. When I built my geared 36 inch unicycle I have a hard time keeping control of the shifts and keeping my feet planted on the pedals without being clipped in. I always wear knee, elbow, and wrist protection. After shattering the hillbilly gloves I switched to the flexmeter wrist protection. I use the double. I'm on my fourth set. I still crash quite often.

[Tawpie]

9 minutes ago, ShanesPlanet said:

Toss em out, lock em out, tell em to come back when the street lights come on.

Jeepers, blast from the past. That was nearly exactly my mom’s speech word for word—except if we weren’t home when the street lights came on... well, let’s just say you only made that mistake one time. Had child protective services been called they would have told us to shut your mouth and listen to your mama and do like she said. While holding us by an ear. Those were the days.

It’s a real good thing times have changed.

But we did learn to entertain ourselves out of doors and nobody got killed. Very badly anyways.

Maybe that explains why I took up this wacky pastime... it’s my mom’s fault! Yeah. I’m going with that.

[Unipilot69]

25 minutes ago, ShanesPlanet said:

You know, back when your friends wouldnt let you be a pussy, and you learned to climb back on.

That was with everything we did. I would return around 10 PM. My mother was working two jobs and getting a master's degree. I had one older and one younger brother. We fought like cats. I would stay gone until 10PM. Mom was always worried until I returned. I'm sure when the phone would ring she would expect either the police or the hospital was calling.

[Unipilot69]

The wife gets on my case for wanting to throw the kids out during the day. This stay at home school is a real pain in the ass as well. I have to be teacher as well as babysitter. It's never bothered me to help with homework or assist with learning material but if I wanted to home school the kids I would have started years ago.

 

 

[.....]

1 hour ago, Unipilot69 said:

In the 40 years of riding regular unicycles I've only fallen off the back only once. That's was 9 years ago when I first installed clipless pedals. I couldn't release and went over backwards and shattered my hillbilly wrist guards. Yeah I know, clipless pedals on unicycles are crazy. I have shitty knees. When I built my geared 36 inch unicycle I have a hard time keeping control of the shifts and keeping my feet planted on the pedals without being clipped in. I always wear knee, elbow, and wrist protection. After shattering the hillbilly gloves I switched to the flexmeter wrist protection. I use the double. I'm on my fourth set. I still crash quite often.

Too funny. I borrowed my rich friend's unicycle for about 3 weeks. I recall it was misery on the old taint. Sand was a REAL pain in the ass too. However, that was about 30+ yrs ago. You know what... unicycles still aint for the cool kids and never became popular. I was a dork back then, still am now. I've been blessed with NO kids, as I'm fairly certain my parenting style would be considered criminal by today's overbearing standards.  Catch 22 is... "come home 'before' the street lights come on". How in the hell you do that, when they come on at different times across the city. As if ANY of us wore a watch, and it was LONG before the evil cellphone appeared... Rock fight anyone? Perhaps some railroad track exploration? Maybe climb some trees? Ah, the good life!

@Tawpie "It’s a real good thing times have changed. "   surely you're being sarcastic...

Thread derail complete!

Edited February 2, 2021 by ShanesPlanet

[Unipilot69]

6 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said:

I recall it was misery on the old taint.

The seats have improved over the years but I have developed an iron taint. Padded bike shorts help some. Riding regular unicycles for so long probably explains why I just jumped on the mten3 and the RS the first try and rode around like it was natural. If I recall it only took me about an hour to figure out the regular unicycle. I was totally on my own with that process. I'm 40 years older than my kids but I can still wear them out.