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Newbies first day on wheel


esaj

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Just a quick update on what's going on, for anyone who's interested:

  • I cancelled the Ninebot One E -order last night, but today got a message that the wheel might have shipped yesterday from their warehouse right after unpacking the shipment, they haven't gotten the confirmation from the warehouse yet (and won't until monday), so they don't know if it has indeed been sent or not. I told them to cancel the order, if it hasn't been shipped, but if it's on it's way, I'll have to figure out what to do with it (keep it, send it back or sell it forwards). On the other hand, if it has been shipped, might as well at least try it ;)  Although if I scratch it, not sure if I can send it back anymore.
  • Got a quote for the different Firewheel-batteries, will have to see about the upgrade (Leaning towards adding another 264Wh in parallel, as I'm seeing it as the best option currently, same capacity as F520 but with redundant power, even cutting the cable from one battery won't stop the wheel from getting power from the other one)
  • Didn't get to ride at all today, as I was away for the day, and once I got back, it had already started raining  :rolleyes:

On the upside, it looks like it's going to be all sunshine tomorrow, and I should have the time to make at least one, and probably more trips on the Firewheel, yay! :)

 

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I have now ridden the Firewheel for a total of one week (well, a little over, since I got it from the post office on the tuesday evening a week ago, so a week and some hours), and got 153 kilometers behind me with it (yes, I've kept count ;)). I rode in downtown for the first time ever today, in the middle of the day, as I had to visit the office to pick up some phones for testing purposes. I was a bit nervous, as there were a lot of people about, and I could see (and feel) people staring at me, riding in the pedestrian zone ("kävelykatu" in Finnish, at least that's the translation Google Translate offered, it's a large street going through the town centre for several blocks, that's only allowed for pedestrians and bicycles, our office is in middle of downtown).

Coming in towards the downtown, when I had to pass car lanes further away from the pedestrian zone, I opted to stop and carry the wheel over, instead of risking falling crossing a curb ;). At one point, someone opened a door in the side of a building just when I was about to pass it, and I narrowly evaded it with a fast slalom lean. A little bit faster, and I'd have ridden straight into it. After that I rode slower in the streets.

When I got to the front of our office, the wheel almost fell to its side when I stopped, as I was nervous of all the people staring (there was one guy who looked like his jaw was about to drop to pavement, gaping with his mouth open :D). Got in the office, showed the wheel a bit to some colleagues, and continued working. Later I also picked up a bicycle bell from a sports shop, that I can put around my index finger and use with my thumb to warn people when I'm coming from behind them and can't pass. I took the scenic route home, with not much going on, had to use the bell a couple of times (roller skaters skating and bicycle riders riding side by side going slowly, so I couldn't pass them). Seems to be pretty useful, and easier than opening the helmet chin-part and asking for them to move aside a bit, like before :)

I took the wheel out for a longer run tonight, with three goals in mind:

  • Visit a gas station with pressure air-systems for filling car tires, so I could empty & refill the tire, as the slight vibration I've noticed before is because the tire isn't exactly round (I tried it by placing a wire taped to the shell that was some millimeters from the center of the tire's outermost part, and then turning the tire, the wire eventually touches the tire at certain point), and thought that it might not be correctly settled on place (vee had replaced it, as he used the studded tire before on the wheel), but I wasn't sure if the connector would fit, and had no extensions.
  • Secondly, as I now had a phone with GPS (iPhone 5s), I wanted to see the top speed and downloaded some gps speedometer-app on it that could record max speed. 
  • Thirdly, I wanted to drive the battery as empty as I dared, without having to walk for several kilometers. It was a bit chilly, as the sun had went down, around +11C when I left, +8 when I got back and slight winds (3-4m/s).

I headed to the gas station first (which is located pretty much across the street from the police station), about 6.3km ride. Once I got there, of course I couldn't fit the connector into the valve under the shell. So need to get an extension-part and try again some day. Then I headed back to the lake bicycle lane, which I've ridden a lot lately (I haven't taken the Firewheel to off-road yet, maybe this week). After some kilometers, I stopped to check the battery status (60% when stopped) and checked the GPS-meter, I had the phone in my jacket pocket, so I didn't check it while riding, and the software only shows current speed and max speed recorded. It showed a max of 27.2km/h, and I hadn't heard the "Take care" -warning once, which seems to match what vee says (the warning should come at 28km/h). Of course it could have come at some point and I just didn't hear it (I wish I could somehow make it louder).

After I got moving again, right after the next bend, I saw a drunken looking man walking away from a... backside of a police car. In the middle of the bicycle lane, where no two cars can even pass each other. I slowed down (the wheels light was on) and rode towards them. The police started the car, and drove slowly forwards, after maybe 20m or so, they turned to a small road that leads away from the bicycle lane and goes to a street. Maybe they didn't see me, maybe they thought I was riding a bicycle with the light attached near the wheel or maybe they just didn't care. I drove slowly for some time, in case they'd have  turned around and would come behind me soon, but since it didn't happen for a couple of kilometers, I sped up again. I wanted to get the "Take care" -warning and drive at it for some time so the GPS would record the top speed. After some time I came to a couple longer straights that were empty, so I accelerated until I got the warning, and kept it there for a few seconds. I'm fairly sure I've ridden with the "Take care"-warning repeating constantly before, and the wheel did not shut down, like vee said it did earlier before the BMS-mod, but as I wasn't completely sure, I didn't want to risk it, in case it would shutdown. I haven't also experienced the sudden acceleration that hobby16 mentioned his wheel has. Later on I repeated accelerating to the last warning -speed a with a couple more long straights.

When I stopped after several kilometers (at this point, the battery indicator was going below 10% when riding constant speed straight) to check the GPS-reading, it showed 36.3km/h. I'm pretty sure it must be a GPS glitch, I did go clearly faster at top speeds than before the first 27.2km/h -check, but I doubt it could have been that high, maybe even 30-32km/h, but not over 36km/h. Stationary, the battery-indicator was showing 20%. As the battery was towards the end, I decided I wouldn't try to record the top speed anymore, but just try to ride the battery to almost empty. Have to repeat the top speed -test later, maybe I should use the bike computer to get more accurate readings. I wonder if wireless bike computers are available (with back lit display), so I could fit the sensor to the wheel and attach the display to my visor, so I could see it by glance during riding...

Nearer to home, I stopped again to check the battery reading (it was showing actually 26% when stopped, but as I had just came down a longer hill, I think the regenerative breaking must have got the voltage a bit higher for a short while), but the indicator was finally showing 0% most of the time when going straight at constant speed. I took a couple of detours to get some more mileage before heading home and did some faster accelerations, but not to the top speed. Once I finally got home, the wheel showed 6% stationary, and after waiting for something like 30 seconds, rebounded to 8%. Close enough, and didn't have to walk ;) . In total, my route length was 21.7km. The battery could MAYBE have taken me a couple more kilometers with steady speed and without much faster accelerations, so I think the range (in these conditions) could have been around 23-24km total.

I did experience the battery running out totally in weekend, when there were strong winds (10-11m/s constant + faster gusts). On more open places, it felt like the head wind was going to stop me and the wheel was sometimes struggling even keeping moving forwards. Luckily it didn't run out until about 100m from my home, coming up the last hill. The wheel started to shake, and the female voice said something like 'Low battery'. I'm not sure if I decelerated myself when I noticed it, or if the wheel did it, I wasn't coming that fast up the hill though, as I could feel that the wheel felt sluggish and was worried about it cutting out. Anyway, even though I had to walk, it's good to know that the wheel has clear warning when the battery really is out. Didn't pay to notice if it tilted the pedals, but maybe it did. That time, I had only ridden 18.25km.

The battery indicator of the Firewheel isn't that good really, as you can tell from my earlier posts, the value bounces a lot while riding, the range where it bounces around depending are you accelerating/going up hill, riding steady or breaking. You can get a somewhat good reading stopping and holding the wheel stationary, but it's still only somewhat indicative and can show larger values after downhill braking. It also is pretty much unreadable while riding during daylight, as the plastic cover on top of the display glares a lot. The pedals are good, I don't get numb or sore feet even when riding almost 20km on one go without stopping, as long as you get your feet positioned good (if they're off, it does become uncomfortable after a while). For me, riding with the hiking boots seems to be a better option, they're comfortable with sneakers, but even more with the boots.

I also had a friend visit over the weekend, who tried the 14" generic. He started without the strap or learning wheels (I offered both to him, but he wanted to go without), got going with it with less than 10 tries, and after riding the battery all the way to the end in about two hours, he learned to mount it without any problems, shift his feet on the pedals, brake effectively (including the "emergency braking", where you push the wheel in front of you), stopping without the wheel going anywhere, turning fairly tightly, riding down and up steep gravel hill, ride in soft ground... pretty much all the basics. Although, it is fair to note that this guy does also things like slack lining (kind of like tight rope walking, but the rope is, well, slack) and bouldering (rock/cliff climbing without any other equipment except magnesium powder for hands and stiff-bottomed shoes), so he's got his balance in check ;) I showed him things like getting mounted, how to turn by leaning and by tilting the wheel with your legs in very slow speed, braking etc, and he could pretty much repeat them after me all the time (btw, as he was wearing all my safety gear, this was the first time I rode without any of them myself, but it was only for a very short times in place where there was no traffic and at slow speeds). Only thing he didn't try was curb jumping. After the 14" battery died out, I let him ride the Firewheel a while (we tried both sport- and comfort-mode, like me, he liked the sport-mode more), but he didn't dare to take into the first warning speed (18km/h). Now he's trying to decide whether he'll buy his own wheel or wait until next summer for newer models and the legislation to pass... :)

 

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When I got to the front of our office, the wheel almost fell to its side when I stopped, as I was nervous of all the people staring (there was one guy who looked like his jaw was about to drop to pavement, gaping with his mouth open 

:D

). 

Lol, I had also funny encounters, a guy staring at me instead of looking straight away and hitting a light pole. Many times, some are removing their sunglasses (yeah, we have sun here in the south of France B) ) to look at me coming towards them, probably they can't believe their shady eyes.

Recently, a guy was following me with his car, I was riding at rather high speed and not slowing down at a speed bump since there is a narrow flat lane at the side without the bump. He was probably too absorbed by the wheel (or maybe by my coolness factor, don't know) and forget to slow down, hit the bump with a too high speed and made a big "clunk" noise with his car. And he wasn't even cursing me, overtaking me with a thumb up, go figure...

For the range, you get values consistent with mines, about 24km full charge, but since I ride nearly always at top speed (cruising over 25km/h with several huge acceleration per ride so nearer to 30km/h than 25 km/h), you probably have lost some battery capacity. Don't worry about the cut off, it will never happens with a shunted FW, the wheel will gracely slowdown and let you climb down when its battery is empty.

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Just a quick update on what's going on, for anyone who's interested:

  • I cancelled the Ninebot One E -order last night, but today got a message that the wheel might have shipped yesterday from their warehouse right after unpacking the shipment, they haven't gotten the confirmation from the warehouse yet (and won't until monday), so they don't know if it has indeed been sent or not. I told them to cancel the order, if it hasn't been shipped, but if it's on it's way, I'll have to figure out what to do with it (keep it, send it back or sell it forwards). On the other hand, if it has been shipped, might as well at least try it ;)  Although if I scratch it, not sure if I can send it back anymore.

 

Now he's trying to decide whether he'll buy his own wheel or wait until next summer for newer models and the legislation to pass... :)

 

​Problem solved, if indeed, they shipped it to you. Sell it to your friend. It's a win-win situation for both of you. ;) I couldn't imagine going a year without one, especially after getting a good taste of one for the past couple months. 

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​Problem solved, if indeed, they shipped it to you. Sell it to your friend. It's a win-win situation for both of you. ;) I couldn't imagine going a year without one, especially after getting a good taste of one for the past couple months. 

​Oh right, I forgot to mention... the Ninebot-situation is clear now, they hadn't shipped it yet on friday, and they cancelled my order on monday & sent the money back. My friend is currently looking into 16" wheels, but other than the Firewheel, suspects that the top speed & range may not be enough for him in the long run, so might got for 14" or 18" Gotway with big batteries or no wheel at all yet. He's also looking for ordering inside the EU-trade agreement zone (or whatever it is really called) to avoid hassle with customs/VAT and possible warranty-issues.

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Went shopping yesterday with the wheel. A guy drove his car onto the sidewalk and stopped there to ask me about the wheel, and a couple I saw in a grocery store waited for me outside, asked lots of questions and shot a short video of me riding around the parking lot (which actually didn't even go that well, but don't know if they noticed ;)). A cashier in a store tried to "beep" (read the product barcode) the wheel, as I had the wheel and my helmet in the shopping cart... I told her that I don't think they stock these... :D

Today I went for a ride with my friend, who was again visiting the city. It's the same one who rode the 14" for two hours last sunday and tried a little bit on the Firewheel. This time he had a bicycle helmet with him and wanted to go for a ride together. We rode around the usual hiking path-route, and it was the first time for me going off-road with the Firewheel. Went pretty smoothly all in all, I had the iPhone with me and shot a few videos on the way. At the beginning, I have just fished the phone out of my pocket, entered the passcode and figured where I could open the camera-app (all while riding, I hit a couple of larger potholes while fiddling with the phone, luckily the 16" rolls over such pretty easily, with the 14" wheel I'd probably had fallen and broken the phone  ;)):

 

Unfortunately, the only three videos (edited into one above) I shot always show him dismounting, the downhill on the first part is actually pretty tricky, as it's somewhat steep and has grooves and lots of smaller and bigger rocks, plus I should have told him to ride the right edge, as it's easier :rolleyes:. The uphill is one of my "climbing test"-hills, the 14" wheel can get me to the top (although at crawl speed just before the top). On the second try of my friend, shown last in the video, he suspected that it could have taken him to the top, but he chose to dismount, because he was afraid it might stall. The Firewheel handled the hill pretty easily with my weight, I don't know how steep it is, but I'd guess over 20 degrees, maybe closer to 30?

Other than that, I was surprised how well he could ride on the hiking paths, I couldn't have done it myself with that little riding experience. :)

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 Btw, does anyone know what the number in the lowest part of the display is? I haven't checked it a lot, but it feels like it's always saying "1". Maybe it's 1 for sport-mode and 0 for comfort or something?

I don't have any such thing on my FW260. It must be a feature of the new board.

​Forgot to mention also, I've "solved" this mystery some days ago, and now remembered to take pictures before full recharge, here it is:

batterydisplay.jpg

So it's not actually displaying number "1", just the spent charge bars look same as number "1" would show on 7-segment display... :D

 

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Don;t feel bad, it took me a while to figure out that the battery wasn't stuck at 66% :rolleyes:

:D  Well, the battery display isn't the clearest thing... I'm still not sure why there are both the bars and the percentage shown. And it isn't the most reliable one either, as you know, after the voltage starts to drop and the percentage starts to show values below 99%, it goes up and down a lot while riding, so the only sure(ish) way to check the battery is to stop and check the value while stationary.

Went for a short night ride (13km) in quiet areas after around 1:30AM, empty bikelanes (saw less than 20 cars, despite riding half the way next to roads, and only 2 people standing in front of an apartment building)... whatever doubts I had before about the torque are completely gone. I went to the steepest paved hill around here that I know (around 20 degrees), no problem climbing or accelerating uphill, even to top speed. Rode pretty aggressively otherwise too, as I had planned the route ahead and knew I couldn't run out of battery even if I pushed it hard, so tested the acceleration on straights too, and it is really powerful. All you need is to dare to push it :P. Too bad I didn't take the phone with me, might have been a good time to test the top speed again...

Probably need to deflate and reinflate the tire, I did it once and put 4 bars of pressure in it afterwards, and you can really feel the vibration now, especially with high speed. I tested the tire by taping a wire to the shell that was almost touching the centerline of the tire and turned it by hand, there's maybe 3-4mm difference on radius in different parts of the tire, so it's a little bit oval, rather than circular. It might settle just by doing deflation & reinflation again and this time pushing the sides inside the rim a bit more, in case it still isn't set correctly on the rim (not that I could see any problems by naked eye checking the tire along the rim), if that doesn't seem to cut it, I might have to take it off and put it on again to get it to settle (or get another tire, if it's actually faulty). Not that big of an issue, since you can't really feel it unless riding on fairly flat road, normal bumps in the road feel a lot more than it, but still it's slightly annoying. <_<

I would have liked to ride more today, as I'd have had the time, but again, it was raining a lot during the evening and looks like it's going to rain all through sunday into monday morning :angry:  But at least I then had the time to put the side rubbers/silicones/whatever in place, apparently the new shell came without them, and vee had left them glued to the old shells (they were actually the only thing keeping the black plastic parts together :D), had to cut them off from the plastic with carpet knife.

sides.jpg

Should have probably glued them, but I didn't want to wait for the glue to dry, so I settled for double-sided tape. Ran out of the good stuff (3M) on the other side, so I opted for cheaper tape I had. Don't know how long they're going to hold the rubbers, might have to eventually glue them...

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The reason the battery percentage goes up and down whilst riding is probably because it is measured via the voltage. The available voltage drops dramatically during periods of heavy use because of the internal resistance of each individual battery cell.

 

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As it's, not so surprisingly, raining again the whole day, I took the time to remove the bike computer from my bicycle and do a temporary fitting to the Firewheel. I just used painters' tape, as it's easy to get off, but probably wouldn't hold during real riding, and did some lift tests (ie. lifting the wheel up from ground and letting it run without resistance to record the max speed). I used a table value of 1272mm for 16" tire circumference, which might not be correct (have to measure the wheel with measuring tape to get correct value, if it's off), as I suspect it might explain the weird values I got. Or then the bike computer just runs out of precision, as the values I got over four tries were (in order):

81.9km/h

81.4km/h

77.7km/h

81.2km/h

Of course, this is without load, but I still doubt it can be that high running free. Or maybe the sensor gets two signals from the magnet as it passes for some reason, and it's showing high values because of that. Will update the post once I get some more testing done, and see if I could attach the magnet, sensor & wiring more securely for really riding with the computer (if the weather ever allows me to <_<).

Edit: Measured the wheel outer circumference with measuring tape, it's actually 1310mm (so the speed would be even higher, as one turn of the tire means longer distance than 1272mm), but might leave it at the 1272-table value to account for the tire pushing in a bit while there's weight on it, although I run with high pressure for my weight (above 4 bars).

A few more tries later, I was still getting values around 80km/h before the wheel shuts down and starts playing the "Please restart the unicycle"-message (ie. the mainboard software switches the motor off at high enough rpm/voltage drop/current/whatever).

I rotated the wheel by hand to hear the faint "click" the sensor makes as the magnet passes it, and it was indeed clicking twice. Removing and re-attaching the magnet to another position, and testing that I only get one "click", the values started to make more sense:

39.4km/h

40.7km/h

39.8km/h

38.8km/h

As I'm not sure if the shutdown occurs due to rpm or current/voltage, I'm not sure if it's safe to ride at these speeds (assuming it can even get near those speeds with my weight on top, wind drag and rolling resistance etc.). If it is motor rpm that the software measures, I should be able to ride the 35km/h that hobby16 says he can achieve without fear of shutdown.

 

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The weather is just mocking me... <_<  after raining 14 hours straight at varying intensity, it finally stopped raining after midnight. Not that good light, as it was still cloudy, although not totally dark either. Had it not been raining all the time, as I had nothing worthwhile to do all day, I could have been riding 3 or 4 trips... But now I could take the FW out for a speed test, as I had secured the bike computer better after the lift tests. Except, once I reached the first good part for faster riding of my planned route where to test it, it was so foggy I couldn't see but some tens of meters at a time... too dangerous to ride really fast, as I could hit a pedestrian appearing suddenly from the fog (happened a couple of times, meaning people appearing from the fog, not crashing them, at worst I didn't see them until maybe 10 meters before passing). I had to keep the visor open, as humidity was condensing on it, and I could see even less with it down. At times, even my glasses would start to fog.

The asphalt was wet and a had lot of puddles and some sand most of the way, but didn't notice it affecting the grip in any way. Later on I tried some acceleration at longer straights with less fog and better visibility, but as the battery was already showing values around 50% stationary (over 10km of the way), I didn't dare to really push it after the "Take care"-message started playing. While I now know for sure that I can keep riding at steady speed while the warning is playing all the time, there is the shutdown (not cut-off, but shutdown, like when doing the lift tests) at some point, so I didn't want to try if I could hit it. I was a bit worried also of all the humidity, and if it could cause a short if water started condensing near the main board (likely the electronics produce enough heat for it not to happen at least directly on the board, but it could start around the compartment and seep in)

I decided to cut the route short and head home.  Towards the end of my route pretty near to home, after the indicator had already started showing values close to or at 0% during acceleration, I noticed that the "Take care" -message starts playing back at slower speed than with fuller battery, maybe 24-25km/h, it's hard to read the bike computer display during riding, as it has no backlight and is positioned somewhat awkwardly at top of the handle, so apparently the warning isn't tied to (only?) speed/motor rpm but also either voltage or current. 

So in the end, the battery indicator was reading 35% stationary, and the bike computer showed 16.73km total distance, 47 minutes 13 seconds of ride time, 21km/h average speed and 28.2km/h max speed with real tire circumference of 1310mm and the bike computer left at the table-value of 1272mm for 16" tire, to account for the tire pushing in a bit with weight on top.

At least it looks like it's finally going to be warm and sunny tomorrow, with very little wind (1-2m/s) and temperatures reaching +20C and over, I should be able to use another long bike lane straight closer by (I call the straight "wind tunnel", because it's long and with hill sides on both sides, so when it's windy, you either get a huge head or tail wind blowing through it) with good visibility and no crossing roads with fairly new asphalt (laid a couple years back), so hopefully will be able to get better results tomorrow and break the magical 30km/h barrier. Or crash trying, hopefully not. ;) Unless the lanes are crowded, as good weather will likely cause people to go biking and walking...

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Well, it wasn't as warm and sunny as forecasted today, plus I didn't get to leave until around 4pm for my first trip, but nice weather nevertheless (+16-17C, some wind). As planned, I first headed for the long straight for testing, about 3km away, so the batteries aren't at full power anymore once got there, as there's also a long incline before the straight, but not nearly empty either. I took one go through the empty straight going as fast as I dared, some head wind but not much. I then continued onwards towards the lake side bike lane before stopping there to check the results; 31.3km/h max speed. Don't know if it still could go faster, but that's plenty for me, I now know that there's some "reserve" above the 25-28km/h "Take care"-warning speed, so no need to fear faceplanting or the wheel shutting down unless I really keep pushing it. I also took a couple of videos, one after stopping to check the max speed and another a bit later (the couple with the man roller skating and woman cycling seen at the end of first video overtook me while I stopped for a second time a bit later, so they're seen on both videos). The "stats" for the total ride were 24% battery left after coming home, 18.63km total distance, 49:14 total ride time, 22.5km/h average speed and 31.3km/h max speed with the same bike computer settings as before (1272mm circumference set to computer, 1310mm real circumference). I accidentally put my finger in front of the camera lens at first on both videos, sorry about that :D , and had shot the first one with the camera upside down, luckily Youtube has editing tools to fix it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Another trip of the day, had my first fall with the Firewheel. Went over a couple of large "ripples" on the road, caused by ground frost in the winter, in a place that has badly worn and old asphalt, and just simply lost my balance with the wheel bouncing up and down fast (admittedly, I probably had a bit too much speed). Nothing spectacular, the wheel didn't get any damage, just fell to its side, and I fell to my side. The elbow pad took the worst hit, but rolled around my arm a bit, so part of my elbow also scratched on the asphalt, and my shirt now has a small hole on the elbow. Didn't notice anything worse and rode another 14km after it, until the battery ran totally out about 500-600m before home. While carrying the wheel the rest of the way, I noticed there was some blood on my hand, and I had also got a few small cuts in my left pinky. So just a bit of road rash on my elbow and small cuts in finger, nothing serious.

At some point in the trip, I managed to hit a tad higher max speed than before, 31.5km/h, probably on the same long straight that I had the earlier max speed today. Also had a new record on distance, 23.1km before the battery run totally out (when trying to restart it, it would immediately start saying "Power is low"). The trip had lots of fast acceleration and high speed riding, so surprised it went even that far. Had the first "Power is low" and controlled deceleration around 21.8km, but after that I could still turn it on and ride (slower) 1.3km before it did it again and wouldn't let me ride anymore.

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Thanks for sharing your experience Esaj! I find your posts very interesting and it was helpful for me preparering before I recieved my wheel. Keep it up :)

​Thank you, always good to hear it has been useful for someone! :)  I just do my best to spread the word about these things, and hopefully do my part in the worldwide adoption of this new way of personal transportation...  ;)

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I just realized it's been one whole (calendar) month since I got the Firewheel :) (got it on June 2nd).  559km behind me on it, although I haven't gotten to ride it even nearly as much as I would have liked to and would have had time for (mostly due to bad weather). And now that the weather's finally getting better, and there's a free weekend ahead of me, it looks like I might be coming down with fever... <_<  Hopefully there's a lot, lot more kilometers to ride during the summer, though.

The trips so far have included mostly just cruising around paved roads, some off-road and a few times in the skate park trying the ramps/funboxes/whatever, one fall (that was my own fault), all kinds of testing, lots of curious and positive people, seeing cops everywhere (although they don't seem to mind me) and one very angry lady on a bike (see here: http://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/488-light-electric-vehicles-in-finnish-national-news/?do=findComment&comment=5167). I feel I've become at least a decent rider on the Firewheel, although I haven't tried to ride backwards with it at all (yet). 

Now that I have more experience with it, I'll see if I can cook up a review umm... soonish :)

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Just got 25.79km out of the Firewheel! Temperature at +20 Celsius (when I left) and +18 Celsius (when I got back) over 1hr20m18s ride time with 2-4m/s winds, giving an average power of   260Wh/1,338333333333333h = 194W. But I was driving a bit slower than usually at night (19.5km/h average), despite pretty much empty roads, as I was testing the comfortable-mode over a longer ride (switched to sport after about 10km) and in the end I was just doing slow laps near my home for little over 1km worth, to get the battery all the way to the end. I guess my normal usage would be nearer to 240-260W, as I think I usually ride the battery to empty in an hour or little over. But then of course, I don't even know what its current real capacity is.

I actually found out that the comfort-mode "stiffens" the pedals when going fast enough, maybe after 25-26km/h, so it feels like sport-mode, but with "soft" braking... wish it would be like that all the time (hard-mode when leaning forwards, soft mode for braking), then I'd like it. Wasn't that bad though on the long run, but still too soft, like I've said before, getting going with it feels at first like I'm going to fall forwards, because the pedals tilt too much before the wheel reacts. Probably would get used to it over time, but I don't think I want to.

I also tried to ride backwards a couple of times in an empty parking lot, without much success... the wheel took a couple of bangs (I've been actually surprised how few falls even the wheel has had so far), but nothing major. I think the paddings took the hits, didn't notice any scratches, although I didn't check that closely either.

Edit: I also broke 600km total ridden distance on the Firewheel tonight, at first I updated my signature to say "506km" as I forgot to change the first digit  :P

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  • 1 month later...

Just had my first "bee in the helmet"-incident, luckily it was on a straight road. For a second, I was sure I'm going to crash, but managed to get the chin-part of the helmet open and it flew off... :D 

Haven't gotten that much riding done lately (well, I did break the 1000km milestone on the Firewheel), mostly due to bad weather & other things keeping me busy. The meteorological institute has said that this has been the coldest summer since 1962 so far and the year up until this point has been the rainiest since 1961... <_<  I can just hope it won't come cold early on, and could keep on riding up until October or even later, unless I go the vee73 -route, and make a winter tire & battery warming.

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holy shit! the worst that you can think of! I am not allergic but really dont want to get stung in my face while balancing on one wheel. :o good job on staying calm and remove the strap.

I am surprised since in switzerland they rank these first summermonths as top3 hottest since the beginning of temp measurement. Global warming needs more e-Wheel riders! :P

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