Inmotion V8F - First time EUC rider.

[inv_rod]

Hello all,

Like some others here i was looking into getting a Onewheel Pint or XR and was doing a bunch of research, watching youtube videos and it finally led me here.  Today is my 4th day trying to ride.  I am able to control the wheel with 1 foot, mount without a wall/rail/fence, go straight and wide turns.  My problem is my foot placement I think.  When I mount the wheel, I feel like I'm always having to adjust my foot placement and it keeps making me feel very unstable and about to fall.  I think this is also the source of my feet in pain after 15 - 30 minutes practicing.  I'm confused on how it supposed to feel standing on the wheel, like as if my knees and toes are pointed inwards toward each other or am i supposed to be relaxed and stand straight like i'm standing on flat ground?  What works for most folks starting out?  Does your toes point inward or straight or slightly outward?  I don't know anyone who rides so I'm winging it here trying to learn from YouTube and this forum.  Thank you all in advanced for the support and advice..

[Scottie888]

Heya welcome to the forum. FWIW the V8's a great wheel to learn on & should be easily resold when upgraditis hits.

Far's foot placement, I think you'd likely get multi opines on this subject. Some put alot of front foot over & beyond the pedals, some less. Some use a staggered ie. asymmetrical placements. Some stick the foot close to the side panels while others don't. You get the drift here I hope.

Its likely you'd have to figure it out yourself so long as the basics work ie. if one can accelerate, decelerate, turns, fast, slow & all without the dreaded wobbles, then its likely the correct foot position for you. Some will also experience foot pains at least in the beginning but thankfully, its gets better in due course. Also different types of shoes & diff sole hardness might also affect it as well.

Goodluck

[inv_rod]

Thanks @Scottie888..  I really appreciate the welcome and the feedback.  I suspected this would end up being a "figure it out yourself" thing..   Can't wait to join the ranks of many others here and ride pain free everywhere.

[meepmeepmayer]

1 hour ago, inv_rod said:

I'm confused on how it supposed to feel standing on the wheel, like as if my knees and toes are pointed inwards toward each other or am i supposed to be relaxed and stand straight like i'm standing on flat ground?

As relaxed as possible is best. It can help to keep going, roll up to a pole/wall, hold on, and adjust your stance.

Try doing it without even looking down, just go by what feels right. You might be surprised where your feet end up on the pedals.

But it simply takes time to get used to riding, so just enjoy and you will get better automatically (but don't expect too much too fast).

29 minutes ago, Scottie888 said:

when upgraditis hits

That might be in about 2 weeks or so

Also: there's plenty of Vegas riders for group rides and for trying other wheels. Group rides are fantastic in so many respects.

[wheel-life]

Welcome to the forum! I had this exact question when first starting:

 

...and as these guys said, just takes a little time to feel out what works best for you. Being relaxed and trusting the wheel makes all the difference. I had some foot cramps until I found a pair of shoes that helped too. One of the videos that really helped me after I had been riding for a few weeks was this one from U-Stride. I like to keep my right leg/foot close to the wheel (almost leaning into the top of the wheel) while my left foot is further out on the pedal. And they are offset as well...all of that seems to keep the wobbles at bay (for me at least).

 

 

Keep in mind, that's just one of many ways of riding so keep playing around with it and see what works best for you. Good luck!

Edited May 18, 2021 by wheel-life

[OldFartRides]

From a noob : Keep the sessions short at first. 20 min. was plenty for me at first. I hugged the wheel. Seemed to stabilize it.

Best,

[Tawpie]

Your posture should be upright (not bent at the waist) but don’t lock your knees… learn to ride with a pretty good knee bend, this keeps you from getting bounced (literally) off the wheel.

Some of the foot pain is your foot muscles getting into shape—they’re not used to this at all and let you know. Patience and practice will get them solid.

+1 to @OldFartRides’s advice, short sessions are best.

Welcome to the forum, and to the insanity. Start squirreling away your spare change, few are immune to the must-have-another-wheel virus, and there no jab for that.

[inv_rod]

14 hours ago, OldFartRides said:

From a noob : Keep the sessions short at first. 20 min. was plenty for me at first. I hugged the wheel. Seemed to stabilize it.

Best,

Great advice!!  trying to ride through the pain only made things worse..  I'm 45 y/o and I'm noticing it's taking longer for me to recover.  Getting to the point of consistent pain makes recovery take twice as long especially since I still need to walk using these sore feet.

[inv_rod]

Thank you all for the tips/advice and support.  I think I need to take some time off the wheel for now, a couple of days at least.  I got some bruises and strawberries on my knee and elbow.  My impatience is costing me some skin, blood and pain.  You know when you hit that pain threshold and start contemplating your decisions and actions... yep i'm there.. lol.  I'm not giving up, just recovering...  I'll post my progress soon.

This forum and community is AWESOME!!  You guys are all rockstars in my book!

[Scottie888]

54 minutes ago, inv_rod said:

I think I need to take some time off the wheel for now, a couple of days at least.  I got some bruises and strawberries on my knee and elbow.  My impatience is costing me some skin, blood and pain.  You know when you hit that pain threshold and start contemplating your decisions and actions...

Awesome & most profound insight IMO! This is a hobby thats supposed to be fun. Once the fun & enjoyment factor isn't there, take some time off. Do other things or even just flop on the LZboy & binge watch movies or whatever. 

Some might need EUCs for transport & such but for a lot of us, this is a hobby & hobbies are to be enjoyed or its meaningless. Lose sight of that & it can easily be a drag or worse, we lose focus leading to accidents & injuries. 

Taking multiple breaks per ride is a super idea. I know there's peeps that can ride for hours straight but personally, my feet can't hack it. Taking even a 5min break makes a huge diff. I bring coffee in a zoji thermos & take lots of coffee breaks. Makes it way more enjoyable for me plus I get to take in scenery that otherwise I'd miss (to concentrate on riding).

[Scottie]

4 hours ago, Scottie888 said:

Taking multiple breaks per ride is a super idea. I know there's peeps that can ride for hours straight but personally, my feet can't hack it. Taking even a 5min break makes a huge diff.

Darn! I was going to say that, but another Scottie beat me to it. Oh well ... ditto ... or +1 to that.

[Roadpower]

I'm an older rider (started at 57), at first and even to this day I get pretty achy feet. In fact just this morning I did my longest run ever (about 14 miles broken in half by a twenty minute wait and thirty minute ferry ride) as part of my work (Yes, I literally get paid to ride as I transport class eight trucks to repair shops). On the second leg of this run I realized that my feet had become numb (past the point of pain).

When I first started I had come to the belief that I was experiencing foot pain because of decades of wearing heavy protective boots which allowed my feet to weaken over time despite doing a lot of daily walking. At this point I'm not entirely sure of that but it is likely true plus age plus having naturally thin feet.

So I switched to lighter shoes with ankle protection (ankle protection is critical IMO) to help strengthen my feet. It has taken over a year for my feet to get more resilient to riding and my bouts of fighting for good foot placement are easing but definitely not gone. I think the adjusting of feet is something that is innate to this method of transport and you just have to learn to deal with it and what the various foot placements have what effects on your foot fatigue and control ability.

Since the wheels adjust their tilt angle automatically given the conditions, this seems like a never ending process. There are some great riders out there who know a lot more about this than I do. (Side note: Just this morning I was watching a video by Wrong Way about the V12 in which he claims that the wheel adjusts itself to help the rider on incline/decline's if I understood him correctly).

On this forum when I talked about the issue with my feet I was given the advice to get a yoga mat to build foot strength with. The yoga mat forces you to actively balance yourself in order to stay vertical. I'm ashamed to admit that I actually got the yoga mat for this purpose but then failed to take advantage of it. I did try it out and found that the claim was true, it would do as the advice suggested. Obviously the time has to be put in to gain the benefits.

While it has taken a good bit of time my feet are becoming more resilient with the amount of riding that I do which is normally a minimum of thirteen miles a day but can be upwards of thirty miles. Inclines put the most amount of stress on my feet. If it matter to the conversation I'm using a heavy wheel, a KS18XL. I actually prefer my V10F for the lighter weight but I can't use it at the moment. The KS is better for top end speed between the two.

Hope this helped.

[mrelwood]

I could type a really long post of the journey the EUC has taken my shoe shelf through, but I know my feet to be uncommon in a few ways so I’m not sure if it would help that many people. I started with having a break every 10 minutes, now I can ride for two hours straight without issues.

 What I have noticed though is that the most common beginner issue with foot positioning is to stand too far back. It requires one to tense the foot and calf muscles constantly just to keep a steady speed, and even more so when accelerating. It’s an unstable position, causing preliminary pain, wobbles, and risking one to fall forward on bumps.

 On most pedals you get close to the optimal position front to back by leveling the back of your shoes to the back of the pedals. What this aims to do is to put one’s heels and balls of the feet at an equal distance from the edges of the pedals.

Centering the whole shoe doesn’t work, since the toes are not as well suited for long time stabilization, and most shoes have a good amount of space at the front before the toes even come in to the picture. One’s weight should be shared equally between the heels and the balls of the feet, not heels and toes.

I have seen many riders be able to double or triple their painless distance just by applying this tip.

 Another key for long rides without numbing is to move one’s (relaxed) feet every now and then during riding. Lift your left heel and the ball of the right foot, and then the other way around. Keep doing this for half a minute every ten minutes or whenever you feel like your feet are getting tired, numb or aching. If it doesn’t help enough, have a break, even just for half a minute.

 None of these remove the need for well fitting shoes and insoles however. But also, even the best shoes don’t remove the need for these techniques!

[inv_rod]

Hello All..  I'm back on the EUC today and I must say it feels much better.  I just did about 10 minutes in my backyard to get the feel of the wheel again.  The tips and advice here has helped immensely!!  I guess the couple of days rest, the tips provided, and just letting things sync into my brain..  This weekend I'll go to a park and get some longer rides.. hopefully it'll "click" for me as some have experienced.    Thanks everyone

[upbnsfrrfan]

Just got mine today. Practiced for an hour but so far I still could not get the balancing act to it. But I'll keep on trying. Less than an hour and it already has a battle scar on one of the pedals 😁

Edited May 30, 2021 by upbnsfrrfan

[Scottie888]

Awesome! Don't worry too much & just keep at it. It'll click soon enough. 

FWIW I used a long hand rail (or a long wall will do as well) to assist me til I "got" it. Trick is to keep moving as spot balancing won't work well. The hand rail helped me keep moving til I got the basics.

Practise lotsa mount/dismounts too. 

[upbnsfrrfan]

Somehow, I always have that "frozen" feeling when I'm about to let go. Is that natural for first timers? 

[.....]

22 minutes ago, upbnsfrrfan said:

Somehow, I always have that "frozen" feeling when I'm about to let go. Is that natural for first timers? 

Thats normal for a lot or people doing a lot of things. I think it has something to do with mental overload and NOT wanting to make things worse, when you don't know how to rectify it. Skydiving and flying my bedsheet plane do this to me a lot. As does high speed wobbles. I think the proper term is.. "oh shit". Tis normal, but you need to try to at least stay a little limber. Its not a good thing to lock up or get tense, but its not like you can just turn it off. Practice and eventually the connection between mind and butt pucker, will lessen.

It will take a while for you to gain confidence to know when to bail and when not to bail. As you get better, you will pull off some stupid bad angles and pedal drags and instead of jump... just another day at the races. Its quite amazing how far we can recover a lean, or not..  Don't wear yourself out too badly. I spent 15-30 minutes per day in my open grass yard. Within a week-10 days, I was on the road and it was a done deal. Bruised, sore, tired, happy as a dog with 2 di*ks. Yeah, I skipped the entire practice start/stop thing. Once rolling, I was cashing in on what I paid for. Start/Stop is nice, but some of us are instant gratification. After a few hundred more miles, I eventually figured out how to start and stop too. I guess the moral of the story is... Ride easy and take breaks in the beginning. Don't watch too many videos of people who are pro or kids that learn in 15 minutes. Shut into your own world and enjoy the learning. I found learning was TOUGH! I don't care what people say and I didnt have anyone to help (nor wanted). It was a tough self exploration that made me sore, gave me bruises, and gave me the WONDERFUL chance to succeed at something new. Keep going man, its your journey. Don't skip the struggle, enjoy it and soak it in. Once the initial curve is gone, you'll never have it back.

Edited May 29, 2021 by ShanesPlanet

[mrelwood]

Can we get a miniature Nobel prize for @ShanesPlanet for that beautiful write up, please?! 

[Scottie]

16 hours ago, mrelwood said:

Can we get a miniature Nobel prize for @ShanesPlanet for that beautiful write up, please?! 

@ShanesPlanet      

[.....]

Aww, how sweet. See, when you spew enough letters together, long enough, even a monkey can make a good posting . Today was a 12 hr day of failed launch attempts on my 'plane'. Just another daunting journey per the usual. Once we quit trying, we accelerate dyin'!

Edited June 1, 2021 by ShanesPlanet

[mrelwood]

14 hours ago, Scottie said:

@ShanesPlanet      

Magnificent! Simply wonderful! Thank you @Scottie!

[Unventor]

On 5/29/2021 at 5:27 AM, ShanesPlanet said:

I found learning was TOUGH! I don't care what people say and I didnt have anyone to help (nor wanted). It was a tough self exploration that made me sore, gave me bruises, and gave me the WONDERFUL chance to succeed at something new. Keep going man, its your journey. Don't skip the struggle, enjoy it and soak it in. Once the initial curve is gone, you'll never have it back.

Ohh yes this is part learning. I can add I have had several of your "oh shit" or what I call brown moments. 

It is part of why I enjoy riding EUC. 

As for the learning pro ess this gorum are full of classic storytelling, initial starting question => tips from fellow riders => more frustrations =>stubbornness kicks in => more blod sweat and bruises => then one morning the sun will shine from a cloudless sky=> hallajula moment kicks in =>more problems =>analyse =>understanding how to put theory to practice =>advancement happens =>and a new butterfly emerges and after a short while what seems impossible is so hard to understand why. 

There are a few that do not follow this story line but most of us know this path well. 

Also about this hard struggle, the feeling you get once overcome it is priceless....or 5 new wheels later you realise it did have a price but that doesn't matter. Must feed the craving. 

Does this seem familiar fellow riders? 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Unventor

[Scottie]

6 minutes ago, Unventor said:

Does this seem familiar fellow riders? 

[Paulo Mesquita]

On 5/31/2021 at 11:07 PM, Scottie said:

@ShanesPlanet      

BBBBEEEEEEAAAAAUUUUTTTIIIIFFFFUUUULLLL!!!!!!!!!