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Sale volume and satistic of Electric Unicycle


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Hi everyone,

I am a student of RMIT University (Melbourne - Australia). Currently, I am writing a thesis about electric unicycle. In Melbourne and some parts of Australia, Electric Unicycles are considered as unable to satisfy with the Australia Safety Design Standard, thus not allowed to travel on public streets. This law has become a great barrier prevent the promotion of Electric Unicycle in Melbourne and some parts of Australia. The existing electric unicycle riders in Melbourne and some potential buyers that I know are really want some kind of academic research that can inform the policy makers and make them recognize the need of electric unicycle for future transportation.

Therefore, I would like to ask for the sale volume of electric unicycle in the world. Then, this statistic need to be breakdown by countries, gender, age, occupation, geographic location of the buyers. Furthermore, the date they buy their electric unicycle is also important to analyses the trend of consuming this product. If anyone can give me or tell me where to find these data, I am very appreciate your help. Your contribution is very significant for the future of electric unicycle in Melbourne as well as the potential to expand your product into Melbourne's market.

If you afraid of commercial sensitive, you can sent email to my personal email address <tranquoc.nguyen@yahoo.com> or <S3357878@student.rmit.edu.au>. As a social researcher, I have my obligation and responsibility to protect confidentiality of my research participants. Moreover, your sale volume will be combined with other government statistic for the process of quantitative data analysis, thus the readers of my research paper cannot track your sale volume.          

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Hi Quoc,   Hope someone can help you with your research information.

I am interested in your comment "Electric Unicycles are considered as unable to satisfy with the Australia Safety Design Standard, thus not allowed to travel on public streets."

Is this applicable Australia wide?

I ride in Perth - roads, footpaths etc - is this illegal?  So far - only 7 weeks - no one has questioned me!

Like to hear how you get on with your study.

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Dear AlanR,

This statement is correct for Victoria. I am living in Melbourne. This issue attract me when I read a newspaper article on Heraldsun <

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south/frankston-man-embraces-electric-unicycle-as-mode-of-transport/news-story/38344c750e0085f1b13ac24cb5133ea0

>

I already sent an email to VicRoad and they give me a straight answer that this vehicle is not satisfy with the Australia Design, thus it is not allow to travel on public road. But I also look up the rule of VicRoad, there are no definition of electric unicycle in their rule. That's why VicRoad cannot develop any penalty for electric unicycle riders. I also test this by riding my Inmotion V3S in front of polices in Melbourne and they still smile with me. I acknowledge that, New South Wales, and Queensland are already recognized electric unicycle in their law, and allowed them to travel on public streets, but not yet in Victoria. That's why we haven't have big outlet store of electric unicycle in Melbourne yet. Currently, I know 2 electric unicycle sellers in Melbourne, but their store located in China and they deliver to Australia for when has ordered.

So how about West Australia? I'm very curios about electric unicycle market in there? Do you have any big outlet store yet? Do you have rider community or any riding event? Does Western Australia law recognize electric unicycle like New South Wales and Queensland? For me, the policy makers won't change their mind unless there is a significant number of community who support for electric unicycle.

By the way, do you guys use electric unicycle for commuting? or just for recreation and sporting activity? When I visit many online store of electric unicycle such as AliExpress, Ebay, they categories electric unicycle under sport and recreation activity, while electric bicycle are classified as committing vehicle. So, I think that is why many general commuter afraid to buy it.

Unfortunately, I'm under the risk of canceling this topic, because my supervisor require me to show him all of the statistic about electric unicycle that has been used in other countries in the world compared to car and public transport. But, until now, I collect nothing about this statistic. I consider to access to Chinese Custom Department where all of their import and export data located. But I don't know Chinese.    

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Hi Alan R and Quoc, I too live in Melb CBD, roughly 500 mtrs from the new City West Police Station which I ride past quite often and have never had a problem.

I think Govt bodies if asked, WILL ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF CONSERVATISM, because these things are so new, and they arent seen everywhere. 

If all EUC riders ride cautiously when around others, obey road rules and are respectful then there wont be any problem here in Melbourne.

Its only when the units are catching the eye of the decision makers in a bad way that the focus will shift from acceptance to banning them......

just my 2c

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Anyone interested in forming some sort of victorian EUC lobby group? I was going to contact my MP about the article and statement. I have a few concerns, the information used to issue the warning does not appear factual. They have brakes, the motor converts forward momentum into heat when the brake is applied. I'm skeptical that more than 250 watts is actually ever constantly converted to forward motion, there's many situations where e-bikes could exceed their rated power but are rated on output under constant acceleration. The implication that a 250watt motor version would somehow be acceptable is a risk to the public if anyone was silly enough to build or sell it it would work on flat surfaces then promptly throw them face first into the ground when they hit a bump or incline.

Then there's the financial impact on the state and residents as it hurts potential local retail sales, development of local models, depriving the state of GST revenue and any Victorian access to any sort of mobility device market in the long term. While the city becomes less competitive if other cities are able to utilize these devices to improve efficiency of travel.

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On 12/1/2015, 4:25:41, Quốc Trấn Nguyễn said:

Hi everyone,

I am a student of RMIT University (Melbourne - Australia). Currently, I am writing a thesis about electric unicycle. 

Welcome Quoc! A thesis on Wheels, this is great! 

Can you convince your university to sponsor a one week trip to Shenzhen & Shanghai? When visiting the manufacturers, you'll be pleasantly surprised by how friendly & open they are, especially to an academic doing research about their technology. 

In respect to sales volumes, in my estimation the principle (not by innovation) vendors today are.

  • Ninebot
  • Airwheel
  • IPS
  • Inmotion
  • King Song
  • Gotway

Airwheel have not produced any new SBU Wheels in two years owing to the contentious state of the intellectual property ownership. I've have contacts with most of these that I can share with you & would be happy to offer the introductions.

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12 hours ago, Jason McNeil said:

Welcome Quoc! A thesis on Wheels, this is great! 

Can you convince your university to sponsor a one week trip to Shenzhen & Shanghai? When visiting the manufacturers, you'll be pleasantly surprised by how friendly & open they are, especially to an academic doing research about their technology. 

In respect to sales volumes, in my estimation the principle (not by innovation) vendors today are.

  • Ninebot
  • Airwheel
  • IPS
  • Inmotion
  • King Song
  • Gotway

Airwheel have not produced any new SBU Wheels in two years owing to the contentious state of the intellectual property ownership. I've have contacts with most of these that I can share with you & would be happy to offer the introductions.

Hi Jacson, thank you very much for your invitation to Shenzhen and Shanghai. I really one to travel to China to visit the manufactures. However, this is just a Bachelor Honour Thesis, and I have to do work placement, other subjects at the same time with the thesis as well. Therefore, I just unable to travel oversea during this final year of bachelor. Moreover, I study bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning, it belong to school of Social Study. Hence, the technology is beyond my capacity. However, I will introduce this topic to other students in the school of Science in my university. May be, it can motivate them to do a research about electric unicycle with technology focus. Then, I will introduce them to you.  

About the issue of Airwheel property ownership, I'm very appreciate your offered information. However, I just worry that it is just outside the scope of my research because I my research question is how efficient to integrate electric unicycle with public transport in Melbourne. So, my first step is to review in any other countries in the world, how many electric unicycle are using compared to cars, and public transport in that countries. But electric unicycles are not registered like cars, so I think the only way to know number of euc being use is asking the distributors. So if you can introduce me to euc distributor who can provide these statistic, I'm very appreciate your help.      

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