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Any regrets? Taking the leap?


EUCnewtome

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OK this is the issue. My only exposure to the EUC world is what I see on YouTube and recently what I read here on this forum. I have also read that people will purchase a wheel having not ridden one because the area that they live does not have many riders to interface with. I live in Frederick, Maryland, USA and just wanted to ask if any of you have purchased a wheel without riding one and have been disappointed? I’m planning on spending $2000 on a wheel and I’m hoping I will enjoy riding the EUC. I ride my motorcycle and ATV once in a while but the excitement isn’t what it used to be. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

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I actually purchased 2 wheels before riding my first. The first one I bought was on back order. I could not wait. :facepalm:

Riding these things is like a new freedom of motion. It does take time and effort to learn but anyone motivated can do it. I have taught 7 people how to ride. One of them could barely ride a bicycle. Learning is a fun workout that becomes much easier in a reasonable time. 15 mints each day will get you going. Unless you are not really itching to learn you will be fine. It just takes a few weeks of 15 minutes days. After 3 months you could be a pro.  

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It would help us give you feedback if you tell us your expectation for the wheel you're buying. What are you planning to do with it? How old u are,  weight, wheel you're looking at, etc. 

I bought mine for a specific purpose: to ride the 3 miles to/from the electric car charging station while I charge my electric car. I have a Inmotion V8F (since xmas 2020). Never rode one before I bought it. Took me about 10 hours to be able to stay on it without falling off it. I slowly increased the max speed while learning, now I can go as fast as it goes (20 miles/hours). I slowed down after I scraped my knee and silly me had the knee pads at home...lol.  

I got lots of good info here in the "which electric unicycle to get?" section. Lots of people here can give you their opinion to help you make a good choice.  Don't forget the kneepads, helmet, etc.

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I think pretty much all of us purchased a wheel without having ever ridden one, I had one advantage, we have an outfit here offers lessons, so I took lessons on their wheel and hopped right on mine, pretty shaky but no problem.  I would make one recommendation, a big mistake I made was buying multiple wheels early on before I had good basic skills, get really comfortable on your wheel before trying/buying another.

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Zero regrets. 

Once I saw someone ride one on youtube, I knew I had to have one.  The challenge is what makes it the most fun. 

I purchased a used Ninebot One E+ and rode (and crashed) the heck out of it.  There a different schools of thought about the first wheel.  Some say buy the best you can afford, others say buy a beater.  I bought a beater, and don't regret it.  Was fun to learn on the Ninebot, since it is so low to the ground and is built like a small tank.  I have since added multiple wheels to my collection and I enjoy every one of them.

Welcome to the addiction!

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I want to Thank all of you for your input, thoughts and suggestions. This has confirmed my feeling that I need to go for it! 
This forum is full of supportive riders with great insight.

I’ll be using my tax refund to buy a new KS18XL hopefully in about 7 weeks from now. I’m looking forward to the challenge of learning to ride. I will put in the work to learn and practice, but I have seen many people talk about 15 minutes a day effort to learn, is that enough time per day?

When learning to ride a wheel, is it physically exhausting to learn? Is that why people suggest 15 minutes per day?
I am 55 years old, and I have seen videos online showing guys in their 50s, 60s and 70s riding these wheels - so that is encouraging. It just looks so fun, I’m hoping it will be as fun as it looks when I see all of those awesome EUC videos.

I will invest in all of the safety gear, I’m always safe as I can be when I ride my motorcycle and ATV. 
I hope I don’t make the same mistake as so many have made where you become so comfortable that you start pushing the wheel to hard and suffer a major accident. I know there is a risk, just looking to not have a major fall, am I being naive?

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When you get your wheel, head to the far end of a big parking lot with a shopping cart. Push the cart around till you get the feel of it. I didn’t have one unplanned dismount the first four (20 min.) sessions. Then I graduated to path bridges w/ handrails.

After that, it was free riding. With a belt in hand looped through the carrying handle to keep the wheel from hitting the pavement when hopping off.

Best,

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Coming from motorcycle riding it will be easier. Both safety wise and maneuverability. It's kind of like standing up on your motorcycle and trying to steer it by squeezing it with your legs. 

It won't let you fall forward or back. Only sideways.

Countersteering on a motorcycle works the same way on an euc.

You will use your low speed riding ability a lot so if you can stay in the seat without putting your feet down even at a near standstill, you have a head start learning eucs.

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Spoiler

No regretts.:ph34r:

I went fresh in early this year. Living in Skandinavia the weather wasnt on my side ,so was limited places to learn to ride.

But found 2 places i keept at. Spring isnt here yet but its better and it will be fun to try it more out. Im preety confident on my but i tire out on the feets fast i think it due to i dont got to ride consistent it can be 1week/2weeks between im on it.

To day its raining so thats stops that day. 

Wanted a wheel upgrade but i decided to wait to next year and decide on whats my needs are. So far i dont think its not going to be range n speed but more agile n fun perhaps.

 

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Why the 18XL when the V11 exists? You may have your reasons, I'm not criticizing here, as said: trust your instincts, they're right! Just wondering because the V11 is better (to me) in every regard. Or do you plan on a used 18XL (not many used V11s around I guess). But then it should not be $2k.

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12 hours ago, EUCnewtome said:

I will put in the work to learn and practice, but I have seen many people talk about 15 minutes a day effort to learn, is that enough time per day?

When learning to ride a wheel, is it physically exhausting to learn? 

I will invest in all of the safety gear, I’m always safe as I can be when I ride my motorcycle and ATV. 
I hope I don’t make the same mistake as so many have made where you become so comfortable that you start pushing the wheel to hard and suffer a major accident. I know there is a risk, just looking to not have a major fall, am I being naive?

I would not fixate on a specific amount of time per day. Everyone learns differently. I did two 1hr sessions my initial days of EUC practice. I didn't find learning tiring at all, but that amount of time fit into my day well around other things I needed to do. I'd just listen to your body/mind and practice for as long as feels right. On one hand there is no rush to learn ASAP. OTOH there is no reason to stop after an arbitrary amount of time like 15mins if you feel good and are making progress. 

I watched a lot of YT videos about learning to ride EUCs and made a "Best Practices" list mentally that I used to guide me. #1 was to lockdown the placement of my control foot on the EUC and make sure I could make it do what I wanted. That only took a few minutes, but it meant I only dropped the EUC a few times in my first couple days. Without all the bending over to pick up the wheel and get things back in place I saved a lot of energy. I'm 52 and I skateboard, ride bikes, hike, etc...  I didn't find the process of learning to ride an EUC tiring physically. 

In terms of risk I thought like you do initially. I would just not do the things that result in crashes. The more I learn I'm not sure that's a reasonable way to look at it and I'm still trying to figure out how risky I feel riding an EUC is. It seems like experienced people that are not doing crazy things [over accelerating, riding at the limit, stunts/tricks, etc...] are still crashing and getting hurt. Like I noted above I don't expect or need EUCs to be super safe as I do lots of "risky" activities. That said I've never had a serious injury because I have made good choices when I have done stuff like alpine climbing, mountain biking, riding longboards, motorcycles, etc... I am spending a decent amount of time now trying to nail down in my mind how much of the EUC risk I can mitigate and how much is just part of the activity. Like I noted above my general feeling is if riding an EUC around town is as risky or less risky than riding a motorcycle around town than I can live with the risk and I'll mitigate as best I can. If I decide it's more risky than riding a motorcycle I will have to re-evaluate my participation. I'm a newb so I don't pretend to have this all figured out yet. So I am continuing to learn and process this question.

My advice is to read/watch as much about EUC safety as you can. There are lots of good threads here as well as lots of videos to watch on YT. Riding EUCs is totally different than riding a bicycle or riding a motorcycle in terms of safety/crashes so try and put those experiences aside and learn as much about the topic as you can and come to your own determination on safety.

Edited by VikB
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In my experience, learning to ride an EUC is a way of life, not an occasional hobby.

All of the advice above is spot-on, but you also need to consider your use case *and* geography.

Do you have nice, safe trails, sidewalks or roads where you live, that go for 10 (preferably 20 or more) miles? Do you have some/lots of free time every day/week where you can ride frequently without having to make a special trip to get there?

I started riding five years ago as it was my only means of personal transportation. I rode almost every day, because I needed to, and because I loved it. The city was old and not congested, and there was an awesome trail network. Pure riding bliss.

After relocating a couple times for work, I found myself in a transportation 'prison'. The planners who built the city clearly did not want pedestrians or cyclists going anywhere. There were very few sidewalks, no parks with trails of any significant length (there was only one that was 6 miles and was always congested), and the roads were unsafe due to aggressive drivers and total lack of pavement on the side of the road. I had to drive 1-2 hours to other cities on the weekend just to ride, and was able to do so only 1-2 times per month. I hated it, and moved six months later.

I'm lucky to be somewhere now where the attitudes are mostly tolerant, the weather enables riding 75+% of the year,  and the scenery gorgeous. I also can ride to some local shopping everyday.

I would otherwise tell you to go for it without reservation if you can afford it.

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33 minutes ago, YohannFrankfurderIII said:

I'm struggling with the Motorcycle vs ECU safety paradigm in this thread.  I rode a Goldwing for many years; Riding slowly (~35 mph) on the road there is not really much risk of a minor accident caused by pot holes or other conditions. The risk of a minor accident where you or your bike is scraped up is fairly small. But, any accident at 70+ miles an hour on the road is going to seriously mess you up, even kill you.

ECUs on the other hand are relatively slow vehicles with a much higher likely hood of a slow accident caused by road conditions, traffic or loss of control.

In short, I think you're much more likely to get hurt on an ECU but much more likely to die on a motorcycle. Hopefully the getting hurt part is limited to some scrapes and bruises.

I think skiing, skating, or perhaps trail riding a small motorcycle, is a better comparison. You fall a lot, it hurts sometimes but you get back up and keep going.

To me the comparison is riding an EUC around town vs. riding a moto around town. I would not include high speed riding on a moto vs. low speed riding on an EUC as a reasonable comparison. 

FWIW - I've ridden motos since I was 17 and never come off or crashed riding on pavement. While I would wear appropriate safety gear my expectation for a crash on any given around town ride would be close to zero assuming I rode sensibly. I ride bicycles a lot and not counting being a kid I've probably had 3 crashes on pavement over 35 years. I wear a helmet when I ride my bike around town, but again my expectation for a crash is pretty much zero if I ride normally. So for these activities I feel like if I ride safely my risk of injury is really very low. So I'm now trying to see where riding an EUC fits in to my risk profile once I get beyond the newb phase. 

 

Edited by VikB
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I was 51 years old last summer when I also bought a ks 18xl after only watching YouTube videos.    I also had motorcycle experience.  The opposite not regrets is what?  Delight I guess?  I was delighted with the experience. It felt like being a kid again exploring the neighborhood on a banana seat bike.  Only, when I was a kid I could have only dreamed of this thing. 

Day one was a hot day and I sweated a lot. Dropped the unicycle a bunch of times but never fell down myself. Found that I got over the first learning hump by letting go of all crutches and just going for it. 

This vid was day 3. Still lacking confidence, but able to go. 

 

Since then I have put about 1000 miles on that wheel, and got an S-18 for Christmas which has about 170 miles on it now. 

If you haven't locked in you preference yet, I hate to confuse things, but I see the S-18 being the main wheel now of those two just due to the smoother ride on rough stuff.  The only real downside of S-18 compared to 18xl is the range. I think of them as 30 mile and 45 mile wheels respectively, but that's with a lot of battery remaining as cushion.  Battery to zero is really more like 40 and 60 miles.  That's a lot of range either way. 

Edited by Obee
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Another vote for "bought without ever seeing one in person before, just online" and "absolutely no regrets".

  • The first day/first 30 minutes I absolutely hated it/thought I'd made a huge mistake/etc until I got someone to hold my hand and walk around with me which helped. (I assume the shopping cart trick would've accomplished the same. But either way I think either of these is vastly superior/easier than trying to learn in the open solo or using the "along a wall" method which I personally think is awful.)
  • Day 2 I felt like it was at least possible but incredibly daunting/"ok maybe this is doable but it's going to take a month or more :(".
  • Day 3 I was feeling more optimistic and thought "ok I'll be fine within the week :)".
  • By day 4/5 I was tooling around town a bit already and loving it (although getting on/off and especially turns weren't great yet).
  • By day 6/7 I would've said I was proficient and comfortable using it as a mode of transportation, and that proficiency/my overall sense of stability/confidence (especially turning) just continued growing quite a bit over the second week and beyond.

So essentially at every step of the process it felt like it was going to take longer than it actually did, but pushing through those first couple days was so worth it in the end (and it was only a few days I had to push through, not like bashing your head against a wall for a week or a month or anything). There's this weird thing where you'll stop for the day, and then the next time you get on you do better from the very beginning than you were able to even at your best the previous day--like your sub-conscious is doing homework for you even when you're off the wheel and while you sleep on it, preparing you for the next attempt. Hence my most fundamental maxim on learning to ride: 2-3, 20-30 min sessions per day is vastly superior to a single session even several hours long--and there are diminishing returns to practicing longer than 45 mins or an hour at any one time in the beginning until you cross a certain threshold that you can actually stay up on the wheel for many minutes at a time, then of course the more you ride the better.

Edited by AtlasP
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4 hours ago, YohannFrankfurderIII said:

I'm struggling with the Motorcycle vs ECU safety paradigm in this thread.  I rode a Goldwing for many years; Riding slowly (~35 mph) on the road there is not really much risk of a minor accident caused by pot holes or other conditions. The risk of a minor accident where you or your bike is scraped up is fairly small. But, any accident at 70+ miles an hour on the road is going to seriously mess you up, even kill you.

ECUs on the other hand are relatively slow vehicles with a much higher likely hood of a slow accident caused by road conditions, traffic or loss of control.

In short, I think you're much more likely to get hurt on an ECU but much more likely to die on a motorcycle. Hopefully the getting hurt part is limited to some scrapes and bruises.

I think skiing, skating, or perhaps trail riding a small motorcycle, is a better comparison. You fall a lot, it hurts sometimes but you get back up and keep going.

COuldnt resist, this came to mind immediately. I do agree that euc more likely to crash, motorcycle more likely to crash HARD.

 

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Bought my S2 never having stepped on one.
Two years and many thousand kilometres (and monies) later I still chuckle by myself from sheer joy of riding.

If you have any curiosity and it looks fun you will most probably not regret it.
We're not going to give the most unbiased reply as we are the proverbial choir though.

Edited by null
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