Rode my 2nd wheel today, what an eye opener...

[dangasaur]

Backstory: I bought a V11 this time last year without ever touching an EUC in person.  I just decided EUCs looked fun to ride and I did research and watched videos and pulled the trigger.  I taught myself to ride in four days and have put about 1k miles on the wheel over the last year.  It feels like an extension of my body, I don't feel like I use any brain power riding it.

Today I had the chance to swap wheels with a friend for about one mile through a hilly twisty neighborhood and it was quite the experience.  His wheel is a Begode EX.N which was wider, heavier, and has a knobby tire which all felt very different than my V11.  We both looked like we had just learned to ride.  Swerving, arms-out balancing, and poor acceleration and braking control.

I'm sure that reviewers and vendors have a lot more experience with a whole variety of wheels but this has just reinforced my appreciation for reviewers that put hundreds of miles on wheels before sharing their opinions.  If I had to tell you anything about the EX.N it's that it is unstable, heavy, and generally hard to ride.  My buddy would say that the V11 rides on stilts and that it turns the wrong way.  Obviously, we are both wrong.

[.....]

9 minutes ago, dangasaur said:

Backstory: I bought a V11 this time last year without ever touching an EUC in person.  I just decided EUCs looked fun to ride and I did research and watched videos and pulled the trigger.  I taught myself to ride in four days and have put about 1k miles on the wheel over the last year.  It feels like an extension of my body, I don't feel like I use any brain power riding it.

Today I had the chance to swap wheels with a friend for about one mile through a hilly twisty neighborhood and it was quite the experience.  His wheel is a Begode EX.N which was wider, heavier, and has a knobby tire which all felt very different than my V11.  We both looked like we had just learned to ride.  Swerving, arms-out balancing, and poor acceleration and braking control.

I'm sure that reviewers and vendors have a lot more experience with a whole variety of wheels but this has just reinforced my appreciation for reviewers that put hundreds of miles on wheels before sharing their opinions.  If I had to tell you anything about the EX.N it's that it is unstable, heavy, and generally hard to ride.  My buddy would say that the V11 rides on stilts and that it turns the wrong way.  Obviously, we are both wrong.

You're both RIGHT  

Its definitely fun having a cpla wheel flavors to choose from. I hear a lot of people talk about how wierd they feel in compare to each other.

[TantasStarke]

I tried a friends V11 a few months back and had the same experience, could barely turn, and felt like I was back in week 1 of riding even though I had nearly 2000 miles at the time. The V11 is a vastly different wheel from anything else, the high suspended pedals make turning feel a lot different compared to your regular wheels.

[Rawnei]

What you are describing is mostly the behavior of the tire, tires can feel very different in how they behave but the more experienced you get from riding the faster you can adopt to different tire behaviors.

Another difference is pedal height, it might feel odd going too/from a high pedal wheel like the V11 to/from something with lower pedal height but you get used to that pretty fast.

[mhpr262]

Too true. The first time I rode my new V11 after around 6.000 kilometers on two V10Fs I felt like I had forgotten how to ride, I couldnt turn at all. With my V10F I turned by leaning inwards and forcing the body of the  wheel into the curve with the inside of my outer leg. That doesnt work well with the V11 because the lever arms are not suited for that (pedals much higher off the ground and lower shell above the pedals). I had to use tilt steering much more, like from the hips. Took me a couple of kilometers to get halfway comfortable on it. It is still difficult when I havent ridden one of the wheels for a long time and then get on it again.

[dangasaur]

Based on these comments, it sounds like (if you exclude the V11) going from wheel to wheel doesn't have muscle memory issues.  If I were riding a Sherman or MSX and I jumped on my buddy's EX.N it sounds like I would have felt right at home, and vise versa for him.

I have a Sherman Max in the mail so I guess this is going to be a steeper learning curve than I anticipated.

[Tawpie]

Yes and no! I've found the longer I ride the easier it is to make the transition. But every wheel is different, some are VERY different (looking at you little MTen). I do believe tires make a huge difference too. Take it easy to start, do your turning/acceleration/panic stop drills, get on and off a few times and in 10 minutes it'll be fine.

[Rawnei]

1 hour ago, dangasaur said:

I have a Sherman Max in the mail so I guess this is going to be a steeper learning curve than I anticipated.

You will feel that it's heavy at start but that's something you will get used to and eventually not even think about, other than that depends on what tire it comes with and how that tire compares to the V11 tire.

Another important aspect, you are going from suspension to non-suspension, I don't know your posture on the V11 but don't forget to bend your knees on the Sherman Max because bumps and potholes will be felt much harder, also something you get used to but can be jarring at first.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Rawnei