good-cheap beater Wheel to learn on

[BigWilly]

As the title suggests...

I am looking for a good-cheap beater wheel to learn on.

I don't want to buy a $2.5K wheel and crash it 1000 times. I'd rather buy something super cheap to learn, sell it, then upgrade later. 

I don't care about range. I don't care about motor power/speed. I care about learning to ride without getting hit by a car

thanks

[litewave]

Here are my recommendations in order of maximum recommended used price.

1. Ninebot E+ hands down. Best 16" bang for the buck. $300 maximum recommended purchase price - used.

2. Ninebot C+. Nearly identical to E+, a bit slower, smaller battery. $200 maximum recommended purchase price - used.

3. Ninebot A2/S2 (dual battery config). 14", lots of fun and easily transportable. Can be a bit pricey. $400 maximum recommended purchase price - used.

4. Inmotion V5/7 - 14"/16" great first wheels, will cost you at least $200+ more. $5-600 maximum recommended purchase price - used. Still in production.

5. MCM5 - awesome if you can find one. Very zippy. $600 maximum recommended purchase price - used. V2 is more desirable but will cost you at least $700.

6. KS 14D/16S - also great wheels, can be expensive if you can find one. $800 maximum recommended purchase price - used. Still in production.

Edit: The E+ will cost more than the C+ but is worth it in my opinion. You can keep any of these wheels as backups/spares or to pass on to friends and family members to learn on.

Edit2: All of the above wheels are very durable, except the MCM5 which is less hardy. I'd say the Ninebots are the most indestructible.

Edited April 12, 2022 by litewave

[Esash]

2 hours ago, BigWilly said:

As the title suggests...

I am looking for a good-cheap beater wheel to learn on.

I don't want to buy a $2.5K wheel and crash it 1000 times. I'd rather buy something super cheap to learn, sell it, then upgrade later. 

I don't care about range. I don't care about motor power/speed. I care about learning to ride without getting hit by a car

thanks

In my opinion not worth it. My first wheel was a MCM 3 (14") and it was/is way harder to ride than a bigger wheel.

All you need to do is tie a rope to the top of your wheel and hold the rope with your hand while you ride. If you jump off you just hold the rope up.

You don't want to waste money on a wheel that you quickly get bored of and basically never ride again except for once in a while when you feel guilty for never riding it.

At least get a wheel that will serve a long term purpose for you, like get you around town in comfort and at an acceptable speed.

And don't worry about breaking your first wheel. You're not gonna break it from learning how to ride at 5-10 mph. They're built to survive mild/moderate crashes, and you're going to get a scratch or 3 on your expensive wheel even if you waste your money on a little Ninebot first to learn how to ride.

Only reason to get a cheap slow wheel is lack of funds, period.

So just buy the best and most kick azz wheel you can afford right now, that seems like it might be your favorite wheel at that price point.

Tesla, Nikola, KS18XL, KS16X, Begode RS, or Inmotion V10f, V11, or V12.

All awesome all around wheels great for zipping around town at good speed and will take you a long long time to get bored with.

If money is real tight, just prowl the used EUC listings until you find something that goes 20+ mph with preferably a 16" wheel or bigger.

[mrelwood]

On 4/13/2022 at 3:10 AM, Esash said:

All you need to do is tie a rope to the top of your wheel and hold the rope with your hand while you ride. If you jump off you just hold the rope up.

This is a bad idea for learning, and it will show down the process. Holding a short rope/leash inhibits most of the balancing movements you should be able to do with your upper body.

 Just look at any video of any learner trying to ride. Do they have a spare hand just hanging there stationary? Nope they don’t, because they are using them for balancing.

 Just wrap up your wheel. It doesn’t take much to be able to handle low speed tumbles.

[BigWilly]

Thank you litewave, Esash, and mrelwood for your replies and opinions to my inquiry. You all make v good points. 

For further discussion on the topic, I am curious to know.. What initial wheel did yall use to learn on???

A great wheel is expensive! But money isnt my main concern. Perhaps, a beater for learning/crashing and also buy the nice shiny new euc to keep me motivated to learn Bacz if I buy the KS S20, another 2-300 bucks for a cheap ninebot wouldn't really make much of a difference on the total spent $. On the other hand, that extra $ spent on a ninebot is basically the same as buying 300$ crash bumpers for the S20....Thinking outloud now. Still a little indecisive.

[Tawpie]

I gulped hard and spent $1500 for a KS16XS not knowing if I'd even like riding... it looked like more fun than walking laps around the neighborhood. Turned out I loved riding, so I dropped another $550 to double the battery and haven't looked back.

Crash a thousand times? Did that. Handle and pedals have scrapes but that's it. I did put a roll.nz cover on it, which took basically all of the punishment. If you don't want to use the much cheaper baby bumper stuff and yoga mats + tape, I am a complete fan of the roll.nz.

The 16XS-LR (long range?) is a keeper. It's the group ride wheel, the go-with-ebike-wheel, the de-stress-cruise wheel. The backup to the S22 that's on order.

I add this ramble to assure you that there are mid-tier wheels that can and will last through the learning phase and serve you very well for a long time, should you decide to go that route. If you're a stickler for a pristine wheel, you will (eventually) get over that... all your wheels will either have some don't-do-that-again reminders on it, or will be covered with 3D printed crash protectors. You will knock the new off of it at some point!

Just get something, learn to ride, and start dreaming about that 2nd or 3rd wheel!

[UtahRider]

You can always buy new plastic after you’ve mastered your wheel if you really want to, replacement side panels and such aren’t expensive. But, will you really want to remove all those hard earned scars? I didn’t.

[Funky]

I learned on ks16s, I dropped it around 8-15 times, before i "learned" to ride/mount it. (Learned on sand/grass - no scrapes/damage to wheel)

Then i bought ks18xl for my self. Most drops are at very, very slow speed while stepping off to fast.

Or going over a curb and not leaning forwards enough to gain speed - wheel simply stops and drops sideways. Flops on it's side, while i step forwards, because of the lean..

For that i simply used double sided tape and put "yoga mat" all over my wheel. Absorbs all the scrapes and what not, from those side drops.. Also as mentioned side panels are "cheap" to replace if you hate the scrapes.. I can live with them.

Save money, buy right wheel from the start. Won't lie at start you will think - WTF.. How the hell do you ride this fucking thing!!! >>> 1-2 weeks later O.M.G. So fun!

I have dropped my 18xl - 6 times till now.. Not even close to 1000.  5 of those drops where on it's side. Once it did a frontal flip (rolled like a coin) and dropped sideways..  

Edited April 14, 2022 by Funky

[wstuart]

I learned on a used v8f.  You can get them in ebay for around $700.  It's got enough range and speed to keep things interesting for about 2 months. 

I would then sell that and get a kingsong 18xl or try to find one used 

 

 

[Begodecrashtestdummy]

Just bought a rs19 high speed today from ewheels .it will be my first wheel .i wanted something that will be more than enough in each category for months to come learning .i like to challenge myself .when I bought my first bike …was it a mini bike..nope ,a dirt bike ..nope ..me having never been on anything that you had to shift gears I decided on a brand new in 2003 r6 that does 160mph out the door with a 15,500rpm redline and went to school parking lots and learned to ride ..within a year I was riding 100+mph wheelies down the highway lol I just hope my old ass now can catch on quick to riding this aswell cuz I never dropped my r6 once ,but I bet I’m not so lucky with an euc 🤣🤣🤣

[Esash]

30 minutes ago, Dosingpsychedelics said:

Just bought a rs19 high speed today from ewheels .it will be my first wheel .i wanted something that will be more than enough in each category for months to come learning .i like to challenge myself .when I bought my first bike …was it a mini bike..nope ,a dirt bike ..nope ..me having never been on anything that you had to shift gears I decided on a brand new in 2003 r6 that does 160mph out the door with a 15,500rpm redline and went to school parking lots and learned to ride ..within a year I was riding 100+mph wheelies down the highway lol I just hope my old ass now can catch on quick to riding this aswell cuz I never dropped my r6 once ,but I bet I’m not so lucky with an euc 🤣🤣🤣

Big congrats on your new RS19!

 

[Menace]

43 minutes ago, Dosingpsychedelics said:

Just bought a rs19 high speed today from ewheels .it will be my first wheel .i wanted something that will be more than enough in each category for months to come learning .i like to challenge myself .when I bought my first bike …was it a mini bike..nope ,a dirt bike ..nope ..me having never been on anything that you had to shift gears I decided on a brand new in 2003 r6 that does 160mph out the door with a 15,500rpm redline and went to school parking lots and learned to ride ..within a year I was riding 100+mph wheelies down the highway lol I just hope my old ass now can catch on quick to riding this aswell cuz I never dropped my r6 once ,but I bet I’m not so lucky with an euc 🤣🤣🤣

Congrats. The Rs19 HS is a great wheel. It can take a beating and is no slouch on performance either, I hit 48mph on mine today.

 

On 4/12/2022 at 3:16 PM, BigWilly said:

As the title suggests...

I am looking for a good-cheap beater wheel to learn on.

I don't want to buy a $2.5K wheel and crash it 1000 times. I'd rather buy something super cheap to learn, sell it, then upgrade later. 

I don't care about range. I don't care about motor power/speed. I care about learning to ride without getting hit by a car

thanks

I started on a 14s, it was a great starter wheel. Took tons of abuse and still works. I would suggest you look in the private sales section and make a post there asking what people have to offer if you want a used wheel.

[BigWilly]

Thank you to everyone whom responded and contributed to this post. Every one of your replies was insightful! 

I'm pullin the trigger and getting me a fresh new EUC this week  

[Funky]

2 hours ago, BigWilly said:

Thank you to everyone whom responded and contributed to this post. Every one of your replies was insightful! 

I'm pullin the trigger and getting me a fresh new EUC this week  

And which one would that be?  

[BigWilly]

Bought myself a KingSong S18!!!!!!  

https://www.ewheels.com/product/new-king-song-s18-1110wh-battery-2200w-motor-full-body-suspension/ 

The plan was to get the latest model.. I thought S22 was for preOrder in July, but it turns out the S20 is on preOrder instead. So S18 was the most recent model from KS I could buy from eWheels. 

I had 2 options for battery and I went with the 903Wh Molicel P42a. Anyone have any experience with this battery setup? Its advertised to have ">4x more battery power"

[Funky]

2 hours ago, BigWilly said:

Bought myself a KingSong S18!!!!!!  

https://www.ewheels.com/product/new-king-song-s18-1110wh-battery-2200w-motor-full-body-suspension/ 

The plan was to get the latest model.. I thought S22 was for preOrder in July, but it turns out the S20 is on preOrder instead. So S18 was the most recent model from KS I could buy from eWheels. 

I had 2 options for battery and I went with the 903Wh Molicel P42a. Anyone have any experience with this battery setup? Its advertised to have ">4x more battery power"

s20/s22 the same wheel, i thought.. They just changed name? Didn't even know they offer options for batteries..  I personally don't like suspension wheels - in time another failure point.

I heard s18 had some kind battery problems. Like wheel has not enough power, because of small battery pack. Easy to overpower or something like that. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable could explain it in detail.

Other than that, solid wheel.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Funky

[Esash]

4 minutes ago, Funky said:

s20/s22 the same wheel, i thought.. They just changed name? Didn't even know they offer options for batteries..  I personally don't like suspension wheels - in time another failure point.

I heard s18 had some kind battery problems. Like wheel has not enough power, because of small battery pack. Easy to overpower or something like that. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable could explain it in detail.

Other than that, solid wheel.

It's a new version of the S18. From Ewheels web site:

• NEW: Now available in a ‘Special Edition’ Molicel P42a battery pack, with up to >4x more battery power

 

[mrelwood]

12 hours ago, Funky said:

s20/s22 the same wheel, i thought.. They just changed name?

Well, they upgraded the BMS firmware as well, so there’s that…

12 hours ago, Funky said:

Didn't even know they offer options for batteries.. 

KingSong doesn’t, eWheels does.

12 hours ago, Funky said:

personally don't like suspension wheels - in time another failure point.

To be more precise, you don’t like the thought of a suspension in a wheel. 

12 hours ago, Funky said:

I heard s18 had some kind battery problems. Like wheel has not enough power, because of small battery pack. Easy to overpower or something like that.

Exactly. The Molicel battery should help a lot in that regard. Range might be smaller though, especially for calm riders.

12 hours ago, Funky said:

Other than that, solid wheel.

Um… well… Not meaning to rain on anyone’s parade, but Google:

”s18 overhaul site:forum.electricunicycle.org“

TL,DR: The suspension tends to require a lot of work to get it working properly, and the pads needs to be redesigned if you care at all for comfort. After those and a tire change though it really is a solid short range wheel.

But I’m just a grumpy guy fed up trying to fix new S18s, that doesn’t mean others couldn’t be just dandy with theirs.