Thinking of getting into EUCs

[KiwiMark]

Day 14:

 

And Day 15:

 

[KiwiMark]

Since my last post some time has gone by, I thought I might try a quick summary of what has been going on . . . 

I was riding a trail and got thrown off the wheel by severe speed wobbles.  I got some scrapes but was OK except that my confidence took a bit of a hit.

Since then I backed off my speed when I rode, riding more around 30kph rather than 40+kph, this helped avoid any repeat of the speed wobbles.

I wasn't riding nearly as often due to various factors.

I changed employers and started working in a larger city, same daily commute (by car) though.

I purchased an 11m (34ft) RV to live in full time and moved to the city in that RV so that I could live just 6 minutes walk from work.  I also purchased a horse float trailer and adapted it to be my garage holding my motorcycle and e-MTB (recent purchase) and e-scooter, the RS fitting in an external compartment on the RV itself.  I've sold my car as I didn't have much need for it.

Now living in the city instead of a small town, I've been using the EUC more (yay!). I've just been going riding without bothering with filming (sorry). With more practise my confidence has been growing and I've found that my speed has gone back up, now regularly riding at 40-50kph.  I've felt wobbles, but I've been able to keep them under control, as the amount of riding goes up the nervousness is going down.  With the increased riding I've chosen to splash out and order a Sherman-S, the paths & roads in this city are pretty shitty and nowhere near as smooth as they should be - suspension would definitely be good to have!  I've also ordered an Inmotion V12HT as a smaller lighter wheel to complement the Sherman-S.  I'm planning to sell my RS after the new wheels arrive.  If I use the new wheels almost all the time and find myself not using the scooter at all then I'll sell the Kaabo Mantis Pro as well.

My advice to anyone getting into EUCs would be to firstly learn to ride well enough to be able to get out and explore the world, then ride as much as possible to gain experience.  I would also advise any newer rider to do their best to quell any desire to go fast and just keep it to a moderate pace (maybe 20-30kph) for a reasonable while as you gain experience.  A fairly normal riding speed for someone on a bicycle is around 25kph (~15mph) and that sort of speed is just fine for newer riders on an EUC.

Currently I'm choosing to use my RS to go to the supermarket/laundromat/takeaway food/etc rather than the e-scooter or e-MTB to keep getting the practice in.  I just wear a backpack and head off to shops, buy what I need, put the stuff in the backpack and ride back - it works fine.  I'll get in some fun rides at some point, but it is easier to choose to ride when there is a useful purpose like when you want to go to the supermarket and back anyway so it might as well be on the EUC.  The RS has enough battery to handle the supermarket trip several times between charging.  All my charging has been from my LiFePO4 batteries that I put in the RV and those are charged from the solar panels on the roof, making my travelling around the city very green.

[KiwiMark]

I've been getting more practice in while the weather is nice (it is just the start of summer so there will be plenty of good weather over the next few months).  The more practice the better between now and when the Sherman-S arrives!

Coming home from the supermarket was fun, didn't take long and got a decent top speed at one point:

 

I decided to go on a longer ride across to the other side of the city & back:

 

Then I finished work at a decent time today and decided to ride even longer:

I think that might have been the fastest I've ever ridden on an EUC.  It could have been a bit quicker too, but the wheel tilted me back and really that is probably fast enough to be riding while standing on two pedals, I don't think I'll worry about increasing the tilt-back speed setting at this point.  One interesting thing is that earlier I would have had really sore feet and had to stop a few times, but now I'm standing on the wheel for almost 2 hours and it isn't a big deal.  I know that there are a lot of riders that have way more experience than me, some with tens of thousands of kilometres of EUC riding, but I am definitely feeling much less of a novice these days.  I like that I've been able to get more practice in recently, I'm definitely keen to get out riding more.  The more I ride the more comfortable I feel riding and the more comfortable I feel riding the more I want to ride, it is definitely a fun pastime that only gets better the more you do it!

[KiwiMark]

I decided to do some video recording after not having done so for quite some time:

I don't know if anyone can tell, but I felt very relaxed as I gently carved riding along at a relaxed pace (not a good idea to ride too fast on a shared path).  I had some music playing through the RS bluetooth, but on the video I replaced that with some copyright free music from youtube - what I was playing would have caused issues in more ways than one if I had left in on the video.  I often ride without music, but when I'm on shared paths and come up behind pedestrians, no one seems to hear me coming, add some music and they look behind them and step aside to let me ride past.

[KiwiMark]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:44 PM, KiwiMark said:

I think that might have been the fastest I've ever ridden on an EUC.

It is amazing what happens as you gain more experience riding these things!  With over 1,000km on the wheel and growing confidence I decided to increase my tilt-back speed from 50kph to 60kph so that I wouldn't keep getting tilted back.  The interesting thing is that I still keep getting tilted back.  The main change is that my fastest speed is now 64.2kph and that wasn't even on the downhill.  I could increase the tilt-back to 65kph, but I'll try to resist the urge to do that.

I've also removed my Clark pads and put Velcro on my RS.  I added Velcro to my Clark pads, but instead of putting them back on I'm trying out my Grizzla Flow Compact pads that will go on the V12HT once it arrives.  It was on my first decent ride after changing pads that I hit the 64.2kph speed, partly helped by having my feet further forward on the pedals which makes it easier to accelerate.  It was definitely a mistake to stick the Clark pads directly to the wheel, there is a big advantage to being able to adjust the position of the pads to account for knee guards or different footwear or to experiment with foot position.  Luckily it wasn't very hard to remove the pads and switch to Velcro.

I looked at the Grizzla Flow Large pads that I have for my Sherman S and I don't see them easily fitting the RS.  The Compact pads fit nicely.  When I have the Sherman S and the V12HT I'll be looking to sell my Kaabo Mantis Pro scooter and my RS, I'll put the Clark pads back on the RS and with the Velcro a buyer will have an easy way to ride adjust their position to suit them - or ride for a while without the pads and then fit them when desired.

[Milordas]

After looking for some bad reviews for V12, decided to go for KS 16s as my first wheel, then will go straight to Sherman

[KiwiMark]

I'm liking my V12HT so far, but still have to get used to it.  Did a 15km ride the day before yesterday (after fitting my NyloNove Pedals and Grizzla Flow Compact pads).  Then yesterday I did 33km, it was getting easier so I might go for a longer ride today (65+ km).  I'm finding it more comfortable on the sides of my legs than the RS, between the height of the body of the EUC and the padded top part - Inmotion impresses me, so far.  I haven't seen much in the way of bad reviews of the V12HT, but plenty of good reviews.

For a first wheel there are definitely advantages of the KS 16S though.  For a start it isn't much more than half the weight of the Inmotion V12HT, I think that would make it a bit easier to handle for a newbie.

[KiwiMark]

Now I have ~370km on my V12HT and I really like riding it.  I find that it rides well and easily gets up to 50kph, which is a pretty good speed to be riding at on a non-suspension wheel.  I'll save faster riding for my Sherman S, hopefully it turns up next week.

[KiwiMark]

I'm pretty sure my Sherman S will arrive early next week, tracking shows that it has now cleared customs.  It could be as early as Monday.

My V12HT has 490km on it now.  I've had it for 2 weeks and have managed to go out riding on 10 days during those 2 weeks.  It felt a little wobbly at first compared to the RS, but now it is good and I really like the feel of it.  I'm much less scared of going through puddles, thanks to the better weather resistance compared to my RS. My experience on my first EUC definitely made learning a new EUC so much quicker & easier - it still takes a bit to get used to a new wheel, but nothing like when you are completely new to riding EUCs.

I'll be looking forward to running up some decent distance on my Sherman S as soon as I can, just need the wheel to arrive and then for the weather to co-operate - it has been a wet summer compared to pretty much any summer I can remember.

[KiwiMark]

23 hours ago, KiwiMark said:

I'm pretty sure my Sherman S will arrive early next week, tracking shows that it has now cleared customs.  It could be as early as Monday.

Damn, just remembered that Monday is a public holiday, I guess my Sherman S could arrive as early as Tuesday.  I hate waiting, but at least my new wheel is almost here!

[Hellkitten]

@KiwiMark seems like the title of this thread should be updated to to something like “I came to dip my toe in the EUC pool, but ended up diving headfirst into the deep end!”         🤣🤣🤣👍👍

[Clem604]

23 minutes ago, KiwiMark said:

Damn, just remembered that Monday is a public holiday, I guess my Sherman S could arrive as early as Tuesday.  I hate waiting, but at least my new wheel is almost here!

You've waited this long, what another couple of days 😜. 

[KiwiMark]

19 minutes ago, Hellkitten said:

@KiwiMark seems like the title of this thread should be updated to to something like “I came to dip my toe in the EUC pool, but ended up diving headfirst into the deep end!”         🤣🤣🤣👍👍

Check this thread to see my journey! I was thinking of getting into EUCs - and boy, did I ever!

It all started with wanting to have some fun on an electric scooter, during research on scooters I kept coming across videos on EUCs.  Then I bought one.  Next week I'll have 3 and be looking at selling the oldest one.  These are like potato chips, you can't stop at just one!  The scooter zips along and would make a decent commuter, but EUCs pack a lot more fun IMO. Now that I've moved to the city I'm loving how great the EUC is for getting around.

When I started this thread because I wanted to have a go at these things, I never thought I'd get a new EUC and run up 490km within 2 weeks - that is way more into it then I thought I could ever get.

[Hellkitten]

@KiwiMark I’m just poking your buttons. I’ve followed this thread, that’s why I thought it was so funny that you’ve got three wheels already! Looking forward to your updates on Tuesday. 

[KiwiMark]

13 minutes ago, Hellkitten said:

Looking forward to your updates on Tuesday. 

It might end up something like "received wheel, added Velcro & pads, can't ride - raining.  But then again, the weather in NZ is notoriously hard to predict - by Tuesday it could have completely changed.  I'm not working on Wednesday, so that would be a really good day for it to be unexpectedly fine - I might go for a nice 70km ride if it does end up being a fine day. Then Thursday I'm working, but will be finished by 10am, so I could go for a ride if the weather clears.  Friday will be a long day, likely to not finish work until ~1pm, still enough time for a shorter ride though.  Saturday - I finished work today at 12pm, so likely to be similar.

It's hard to believe we have had a drought just about every summer for the last few years, now they have announced a civil defence emergency in Auckland due to severe flooding and slips. We have had so much rain from mid-winter, all the way through spring and throughout this summer - I can't remember this much rain this time of the year ever in my life.

[Hellkitten]

Yeah, rumour has it to avoid Auckland airport…..

Edited January 28, 2023 by Hellkitten

[KiwiMark]

New wheel picked up today, about 25km riding done, decent speed reached:

\

Riding tomorrow is unlikely, the following day I'm hoping for a break in the weather, the first completely fine day I'll see if I can put in a good 70+ km of riding.