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reason not to integrate a trolley handle


mark321

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I have a kingsong 14" with the bolt-on trolley handle, and I love how much easier everything is with the handle. The handle makes the wheel much easier to mount/dismount, and also makes it easy to roll around when not riding.  It makes such a dramatic difference in usability that I can hardly believe any electric unicycles are sold without trolley handles included.

But today I discovered why the handles need to be bolt-on accessories and not integrated like the new kingsong 16" apparently is. Today I stepped off a curb with too lose a grip on the handle and it slipped out of my hand. As the wheel tipped over it went into a very high speed spin that tore the trolley handle to pieces. And there's nothing wrong with the trolley handle's construction; it's as heavy duty as it needs to be. The kingsong has a lot of power, and no trolley handle of any construction would have survived that spin.

With a bolt-on handle, it'll be no big deal to get a replacement. If it had been integrated, then a big feature of the wheel would have been destroyed and most likely unfixable.

Mark

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I have had a couple of falls in the woods where the EU went into the Tasmanian Devil cyclone spin and I've kept my distance so no body parts get sucked into the housing by the wheel. There is supposed to be a cutoff beyond too steep of a lateral tip over angle, but I think that perhaps chaotic motion can make that measurement a little cloudy or delayed. I do worry that an uncontrolled wheel in the road could be a real danger to other road uses and even cause an accident. As fun as the EU is, I try never to lose the serious attitude about keeping it controlled.

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Does the kingsong have 14C have a riding mode for trolley? It is my understanding that those with integrated trolleys change driving mode to slow speed and slower response, like the inmotion one which is limited to 5 km/h when the trolley is up.. Also when falling in the woods an integrated handle should take less damage than an external one since it is folded in the construction rather than sticking out.. Just my 2 cents 

Sounds worrying that the kingsong uunicycles end up in uncontrollable spins rather than stopping when tilted! Dangerous for city use with people and cars around... 

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I don't think handles are generally meant to be used while driving. IMHO any remotely decent construction of an integrated handle would allow for its replacement by design. I don't know or assume that EUCs with integrated handle are constructed this way, but I am convinced they could and should.

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Thanks for that info about a special riding mode when the trolley handle is out. I hadn't heard about that, and I think that would be a good solution that would indeed fix my objection to the integrated handle. It wouldn't allow for my preferred riding mode where I always leave the handle up for easier mount/dismount, but I guess I'm in the minority for using it that way.

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Since I only have a kingsong I guess I can't be sure about this, but I doubt it's unique in its ability to go into a tasmanian devil spin if dropped just right. I would say in an ordinary fall and the vast majority of the time, nothing dramatic happens, it just tips over. But maybe if it's rolling a tiny bit as it tips, or if it rolls off a curb etc, I think there will always be corner cases where it goes wild.

On the one hand I think built in safety features to keep the wheels from spinning out of control are great, but on the other side these are powerful devices we're carrying and that tasmanian devil spin was a reminder for me that I shouldn't be too nonchalant about it and I have to keep control of the wheel.

I do wonder what other safety features might be built in besides the tilt sensor. If too many wheels spin out of control in public that would just give authorities more reasons to ban them.

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41 minutes ago, mark321 said:

I do wonder what other safety features might be built in besides the tilt sensor. If too many wheels spin out of control in public that would just give authorities more reasons to ban them.

Check out the new Uniwheel launched yesterday http://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/1918-uniwheel-the-first-uk-euc/?page=2#comment-23034 that has "proximity sensors" that cut power if at least one foot isn't on the wheel - I particularly like that it means you can just pick up the wheel to (say) walk up steps without powering it off and it should immediately stop if you fall off of it. So far, even in its first release it is looking like a really well thought out design :-)

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1 hour ago, Keith said:

cut power if at least one foot isn't on the wheel

I hope you got this wrong - if I want to start going, I have only one foot on the wheel - and of course it should stay on to be able start immediately. To me stopping the motor would only make sense when both feet are off the pedals for a certain amount of time (> 2 seconds or some such).

While I'm at it: I find the design of the Uniwheel really "sexy" and I'm nearly sold ... if there wasn't this Chinglish in the FAQ ("WHY THE UNIWHEEL IS BETTER?"). Or is this acceptable English? I'm not a native speaker, so I might be wrong in my assumption that all of this might just be a big fake campaign by Chinese manufacturers with some British accomplices. Or maybe I'm just getting paranoid because of all the lies that ads tell us lately.

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8 hours ago, Achim63 said:

I hope you got this wrong - if I want to start going, I have only one foot on the wheel - and of course it should stay on to be able start immediately. To me stopping the motor would only make sense when both feet are off the pedals for a certain amount of time (> 2 seconds or some such).

I missed the launch as I was working so I'm going on what has been said in the forum I linked to. However, I could have phrased what I said better. I meant at least 1 foot has to be on the wheel  so, yes, you put 1 foot on the wheel and the motor powers up, put the second foot on and ride away. It is, I understand, an infrared sensor so it should not be at all critical about exactly where your feet are, however I've asked the question about what happens if both feet temporarily leave the footplates, if you suddenly bounce over a tree root for example.

The designers on the above forum say it is British designed and built - I see no reason to doubt them.

"Why the Uniwheel is better" seems perfectly good English to me, I guess I'm qualified being a Technical Author born just across the River Thames from The Houses of Parliament :-). 

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@Keith Thank you for the clarification. That's making sense.

I agree that "Why the Uniwheel is better" is good English - as a headline or followed by a colon. But as a question my feel for language tells me it should be "Why is the Uniwheel better?". Probably nitpicking ;-)

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