New rider with V8F, my learning experience

[rcgldr]

Old guy here (69 years old). While deciding if I wanted to buy an EUC, I watched quite a few videos on how to ride EUC. After getting sense that I would be able to learn to ride, I ordered a V8F and watched more videos. I liked Kuji Roll's how to ride video approach: learn skills in an order so that you are only learning one new skill at a time. So first stepping forwards with one foot on to learn how to stop (in my case, at first grabbing the EUC after stopped, later I learned how to stop without grabbing the EUC). Next using wall mounting and launching to learn how to ride. Last skill to learn was free mount. This may be slower way to learn for some, but it worked for me. Kuji's also advised to steer into a fall (somewhat obvious, but he mentioned it), another key aspect for me.

My first session was using a rail and getting advice, the best of which for me was to constantly steer left and right, rather than trying to ride straight. It was hot so I only did a 20 minute session.

My second session was later that day at a tennis court, using the windscreened fence for wall mount and launch. After about 4 minutes of riding with the wall assist, I ventured away from the fence at low speed, using yaw steer | arm flail (flail left to steer EUC right and vice versa), not expecting to go far, but somehow managed to maintain balance and direct the EUC to do 30 second laps, one lap at at time, around the tennis court at around 4 mph.

The second day and third session, I did 3 laps at a time. My wife took a video, which helped, since I didn't realize I was hunched over a bit, which I corrected after viewing the video to stand up straight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPyy84EThmM

I didn't feel comfortable with faster speeds in the tennis court, so I went to an empty 500 foot long driveway with parking slots on both sides, where I felt comfortable with a bit more speed, 6 mph to 10 mph, which was more stable. I worked on leaning forwards | backwards to accelerate | decelerate. I also worked on foot steering (tilt steering), moving inside foot down, outside foot up, to lean the V8F to learn how it would respond. Unlike yaw steering, where I steered the EUC, with foot steering, leaning the EUC caused it to steer me. I did a gentle weave pattern that evolved into mild carving like motion. During this time I also learned how to stop properly by slowing to near stop or stopped and stepping off, leaving one foot on the EUC and not grabbing it.

After getting a sense of how foot steer worked, I did a few laps at the tennis court using foot steer at 4 mph or so for both left and right wide radius uturns. I later did the same (wide radius uturns) on that long driveway.

Last was free mount, which I first did on a soccer field, my first time on grass. I had some left over minor bruising on inside calf, so rather than learn one foot glide, I put one foot on the EUC, moved forwards while stepping 2 or 3 times and stepped on, relying on the yaw steering that I had already learned for balance until I accelerated to a stable speed (about 5 mph). This improved as I accelerated sooner and a bit faster after stepping on. The field was a bit bumpy, but this wasn't an issue for the V8F's 16 inch wheel.

Once I could free mount, I switched to a very long and wide walkway (Great Park walkway in Irvine). 

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by rcgldr
cleanup

[rcgldr]

What I need to work on now is getting better at coordinating speed, turning radius, and tilt steering, as currently I'm having to make some mid-turn adjustments for balance, although I'm able to follow a wide radius line reasonably close. I'm up to 21 miles total now. 

I lowered max speed on the V8F from 25 kph to 20 kph, and triggered the max speed alarm beep one time to test it out. I don't think I've ever triggered tilt back. I've since had 3 sessions where the app shows a max speed of 20 kph, but I never hear a beep. It may be that you have to exceed the max speed by some small amount before you get the beep. It seems unlikely that I somehow managed to get that close to the max speed setting without triggering the beep. I'll try increasing volume on the V8F. 

[rcgldr]

At the request of the vendor that sold me the V8F, I tested max speed alarm tone and tilt back. I lowered max speed to 15 kph and set audio volume to max. I did a run that triggered the alarm tone and tilt back. The tilt back was smooth. Afterwards I used the app and it indicated max speed was 16 kph.

With tilt back alone, the pedals move forwards, leaning the rider back, but the center of mass (rider + EUC) is not shifted relative to the contact patch, so the EUC also has to accelerate forwards in order to get the contact patch ahead of the center of mass, the same as a rider normally leaning back, then the EUC can decelerate, which could explain why the actual max speed was 16 kph.

Edited August 14, 2021 by rcgldr
cleanup

[rcgldr]

Short video from day 10 at the Great Park in Irvine:

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by rcgldr