Troubles hoping on the V11

[Mike Petrogeorge]

I have been riding a Kingsong s18 for a year and a 1/2 and I totally love the wheel. It's nimble, it quick, its great. My problem is that I upgraded to a Inmotion V11 and I am starting to regret my purchase. I love the smooth ride the V11 gives. Love the suspension, love that I can now ride off curbs with nothing more than a little pump on your feet.

However, for the life of me, my hop ons for the V11 just totally suck. My hop offs are fine, The wheel is heavy, hard to maneuver, and every time I ride it, its a big fight to get me motivated. My weight is 200 lbs wearing all my gear. I have the air chambers set to the Inmotion recommended PSI, which raises the pedals almost 9 inches from the ground; an additional 5 inches from the Kingsong. When I do my hop and sometimes miss the pedal,  I sometimes fall over, sometimes I have to push hard to stand up straight, sometimes I do it perfect, only to be disappointed the on the next hop. Currently, I have no pads. I thought about pads from ewheels, but I am afraid that when I hop on, my foot won't go into the pad correctly. Does anybody have any tips or videos to point me to and get over this dilemma?   It's really driving me crazy.

[AtlasP]

Two thoughts:

1. FWIW, know that you're really going from one extreme to the other. While the 16S is a great low-middle-end wheel (and a great starter wheel), it actually has quite a lot lower pedals than some other wheels even in its same category, let alone compared to larger, more expensive wheels. Ultimately it'll just take some time to adjust, but which will happen with time (perhaps more time because of the more-extreme delta between your two particular options). Don't beat yourself up over it. It really won't take /that/ much time/maybe a couple weeks at most. Ultimately most all riders who stick with such a transition do prefer their larger wheels after a little bit of time. (Particularly when you already have such a positive opinion of the ride/smoothness/etc, and your issues are just regarding mounting/dismounting.)
2. I'd say to try/practice riding a couple seconds on one foot when you take off before trying to get your second foot on the other pedal. Some riders develop some weird quirks with how quickly/aggressively they try to find the pedal with their second foot that actually disturbs their balance/flow when taking off (particularly when switching wheels, disrupting your muscle memory in this regard which can magnify the negative effects of this).

[Mike Petrogeorge]

Thanks for the post. Hmmm...I never did learn how to ride with one foot. But I did see a video the other day telling me this was an essential skill to have. So, I guess I can go back to the 16s and pick up that skill. It looks like I just have to buckle down and spend a couple of weeks doing nothing but mounting and dismounting no matter how boring it gets. I can't wait till I get over my frustration and start enjoying this wheel. I guess for now, it's practice on the big wheel. If I need to go on rides without worries, I will just take the 16s for now. Looks like I got my work cut out for me. I don't want to give up for two reasons. 1) That wheel aint cheap. 2) I really enjoy my riding whether alone or with others. I don't have to tell you how riding is enjoyable. You already know that. 

[Dgar]

I got my V11 a couple of weeks ago after riding a KS14. The pedal height was pretty intimidating on the V11 at first. While I still can't really ride on one foot, I had been practicing quite a bit (yesterday was the first day I could actually lift one leg completely free for about 10 yards). I have found this has been very helpful in getting on the V11. I have been trying to get on smoothly for months (on my KS14) and it has been very difficult for me but I never really sat down and practiced it over and over again. I can get on OK now and have learned how to adjust my feet some once riding. I think some consistent time spent concentrating on it would probably do me a lot of good. 

[Mike Petrogeorge]

Glad you posted this because its good to know I am not the only one intimated over the pedal height. I will keep practicing at the Zoo parking lot (currently empty these days because of  covid) and keep all these comments in mind, and become an ace at this hop on thing. Thanks.

[Griffin]

I have had just 3 day's of EUC riding as my V11 is my first.  Yesterday was the first day I could really mount without supports.  I can't ride with one foot yet, but I get a bit farther with my hops and glide.  So now to mount I'm hop maybe two or three times forward then step up.  This is working for level ground and slight downhill.  I still can't mount like this for uphill.  I found if I keep my back strait and knee tucked those are the keys for me personally to a good mount.  Since this is my fist wheel, I am wondering if its that much easier with a lower pedal height or not.

 

[Griffin]

My tire pressure was very low for my first 50km of practice.  I pumped it up today to 35lb and thought I had to go back to square one.  It was so squirrely at that pressure, I went to 28lb and its much better.  I still need to back track and get better at slow speed wobbles, before I feel after as confident as I was with the lower pressures.