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Terror


EVSteevie

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Hey guys, new rider. I have a couple questions maybe someone can answer. End of June I received an Mten3, the least expensive wheel I could get to try this thing out. 3 months later,I can ride it, free mount (sometimes) and stop and dismount safely (and even that varies day to day). The Mten3 is a very “twitchy” little wheel. Is a bigger (taller) wheel (v8f for example) more stable? Is a bigger wheel easier to mount and ride? Is a bigger wheel more stable? The terror mostly outweighs the fun. I don’t think it’s supposed to be a horrifying experience. The only riding I do is close to a fence at a tennis court, just in case. I occasionally get away from it. Next day I’m close to the fence again. I welcome any and all advise. Thanks. 

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As a general rule the bigger the more stable. The mten3 is a special wheel, closer to trick and fun than something to begin with.

Maybe you could find someone local who would swap for a bit so you can try.

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Bigger wheels are easier to mount and are more stable. But you certainly shouldn't feel "terror" with an mten3! It's supposed to be fun. Try to get used to the mten3 and enjoy it.

How fast are you going with the mten3? Because speed stabilizes you, and a mistake a lot of new riders do is to try and ride around walking speed which is way too slow. Don't be afraid of 10+mph. Think learning to ride a bicyle - go too slow and you'll never be stable and improve. You need a certain speed to be stable. Maybe that's it?

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Thanks for the reply. I struggle to accelerate sometimes. My main problem is mounting mostly. I need a fence for 30 minutes to re-a climate. My desire is to take out of the trunk and just ride it without feeling so freaked out most of the time. I’ll keep practicing. Maybe it will get better? I just feel every little thing on this wheel. Everyone I see on the net make it look effortless.

Edited by EVSteevie
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The mten3 certainly is a squirrely and super sensitive little wheel.

In terms of learning, if what you did didn't work too well so far, try this instead: go from easiest to hardest, in order. Free mounting and riding slow is hard, so delay that to later.

  • Easiest is going straight (no steering) and fast (speed stabilizes you, less side-to-side balancing needed which might lead to oversteering). So mount with the help of a wall/fence/post, find a comfortable relaxed stance on the wheel, and then just take a leap of faith and lean forward (maybe out of a pendulum movement), let go, and ride (reasonably) fast in a straight line towards something else you can "land" on (catch with your hands).
  • Braking is necessary, so it comes next, but it's easy. Do not brake slowly and meagerly, but in a quick and swift dynamic movement. The goal is to avoid being slow for a long enough time to lose balance (fast = good, slow = bad), so go from fast to stopped quickly enough.
    Braking is achieved by moving your center of gravity backwards. Either by arching your back, or (better) by giving a gentle push with your toes. A technique that always works is simply "sitting down" (good for emergency braking - "sit down" and let the wheel catch you, it will). You can try these moves on the ground (no EUC involved) to see how they work in shifting your weight backwards (you'll have to take a step back to not fall over because there is no EUC to catch you) and how gentle or swift they are.
  • Now you know you can ride (a bit) and brake, which should give you more confidence. If you need more help with uncertainty, at any point protective gear (wrist guards mostly) might help you be more relaxed.
  • Once going straight+fast works well enough, you can try steering (curves). Be careful not to be too slow or it will be harder, try to keep enough speed. Just transition from going fast+straight into fast+a little bit of a curve.
  • Then you can gradually lower your speed while doing the same excercises (and narrow your curves, do figure 8's, etc.) and see how slow you can get while keeping balance and control. If you get unstable at any point, speed up (this may be counterintuitive, but you know by now that faster is easier).
  • All the time till now, you always started with assisted mounting (with the help of a wall etc.). Why? Because free mounting is even harder than going slow.
  • So you can begin learning free mounting when you are comfortable enough with the stuff that came before.

This doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. Maybe the mten3 just isn't the ideal wheel for you and things would be different with a bigger wheel. Maybe not. I can't tell.

This is merely something you can try and see if it helps you:) Because hard or not, learning should be fun, not an ordeal.

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6 minutes ago, EVSteevie said:

it’s probably me. I’ll keep on practicing. Thanks for your help.

Perhaps, perhaps not.

IMHO the MTen3 stock tire is unrideable, pulls artificially, the non-symettrical tread is not meant to be ridden as a single tire (it borrows from a Segway Mini Tire) this topic has been well covered (can't find my original post), so switching to a "Type II" tire option eliminates the pull.

Also, I dunno how guys can still ride on the comically small stock MTen3 pedals, but if you haven't already, I would swap to Nikola style pedals, as all Gotway pedals fit across the line. Shorter pedals means you're torque lever arm for accel is shortened, which might explain your difficulty in accelerating.

For mounting, yes, the wheel siders slope at an angle more than any other wheel, so when I had my MTen3, I would mount it a little more away from my body than I do with other wheels.

FWIW, the stability of the wheel should be no different than other similar width tires (Monster is same width), so I really think the tire and pedals might be the culprit, as I would never ride the MTen3 fully stock.

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If you got it from ewheels recently it should have come with the larger pedals already. Mine did. 

I was in the same boat as you when I first started learning on the mten3. Even a few weeks into it, I was having fun but was still tense and fearful which kept me from completely enjoying it. I kept practicing and then suddenly it clicked and the fear was gone. 

Besides practicing a couple other things helped. One was to be completely padded up, more than necessary for the speeds I was going. After falling once when I was padded, I realized it’s not going to be that big a deal if I fall. The other thing I did sometimes was to have a beer before going out and it really helped to remove the tension. I think after one hour long session where I did a lot of carving and a long stretch on open road the fear was gone. 

Just keeping it up is the most important thing, and go out well padded to reduce your fear of falling. 

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Hey Stevie,

Some good advice posted. I actually took advantage of the one beer tip when I was learning to ride my Kingsong 16s, it helped with the wobbles. Someone had posted on a different thread that if you can get your hands on a shopping cart it will give you something to hang on to and add some stability, I wished I had tried it when I was learning. The right tire and pressure makes a big difference. Keep at it and it will get easier.

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Mounting the Mten was tricky for me, if you crank your mounted knee towards the unmounted one, it stables the wheel for much easier mounting.

Do figure 8's and maybe get some pilons or similar and set them up in a line weaving in and out.

Try not to always be looking straight down in front of you.

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Nobody recommended me the MTen3. :P  I chose it (84V, 512Wh) based on that I expected to get the most usage out of.  I did have a few hours on a little IPS I borrowed before I ordered the MTen3, so it wasn't the first EUC I rode.  Once I got comfortable on it, I was on it constantly.  Shopping, going out to eat, walking the dog, commute.  I even got a backpack it fit in so I could take it with me on my motorcycle.  Couldn't really do group rides on it, though.

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Atlas, I would agree with you 100% but  It was my choice, not based on any recommendations. 
I did advance today, so thanks to all who shared your knowledge. 

Gurnee rider (don’t see your name?) I would probably dump your V10, but I would love to try it. I don’t see a contact link anywhere.My access may be limited as a new user? I do appreciate the offer. 

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no wheel can do it all - for range, power and stability u gotta sacrifice agility/portability and vice versa. as such we allneed at least 3 wheels:

mten for tricking & running errands/shopping 

mid range 16" (v8f/ks16)for general purpose casual rides and teaching others

beast machine (ks18xl, msp,etc) for off roading, aggressive or long range rides... 

Or maybe 3 is still too few :-)

 

 

 

 

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I learned on a pretty generic 350W, 67V, 14 inch wheel and then switched to a V10F and I can say that mounting and riding the V10F is way easier than with the smaller wheel.

I have never ridden the MTen3 but I cant imagine riding it is any easier than my 14'' wheel. I have no idea why people keep recommending it for newbies.

Edited by mhpr262
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