Mten4 announced!

[Funky]

53 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

The ultimate meme wheel

Doh more welcome/loved, than those heavy turds..

[Dan Hillary]

Got a little bit of info from Jason after putting in my pre-order. It's greek to me but sounds like good news about the board design:

[DjPanJan]

 

[DjPanJan]

 

[pico]

This wheel has tricks written all over it!

Call the Man!

[SanDiegoGuy]

If you already have the mten3, would you also get the mten4?

[OldFartRides]

Some would say yes, others will be selling their 3’s…

[Tawpie]

29 minutes ago, SanDiegoGuy said:

If you already have the mten3, would you also get the mten4?

I have a 67V mten3, which probably doesn't actually have much resale value anymore so it probably won't be "replaced". I'm tempted by the mten4 because its tire is a teeny bit wider and I might be able to use it on the fat bike trails in the snow, but mostly because it looks about as goofy as I can imagine and I like that.

I'll be waiting to see how it plays out though.

[winterwheel]

We use MTen3s for teaching new students. I suspect they may be better than MTen4 for that purpose.

We also always say that the old wheel is not a practical wheel to use in real life, too twitchy and hard to ride on even mildly rough surfaces, plus all the flat tires.

With the new tire and setup I see some possibility that we could actually recommend MTen4 as a usable wheel outside the practice area, but I'm reserving judgement on that until we actually get to evaluate one in person.

[360rumors]

7 minutes ago, winterwheel said:

We use MTen3s for teaching new students. I suspect they may be better than MTen4 for that purpose.

We also always say that the old wheel is not a practical wheel to use in real life, too twitchy and hard to ride on even mildly rough surfaces, plus all the flat tires.

With the new tire and setup I see some possibility that we could actually recommend MTen4 as a usable wheel outside the practice area, but I'm reserving judgement on that until we actually get to evaluate one in person.

May I know why you use Mten3 for teaching?  Is it the low pedal height, the low speed required for stabilization, easier to ride it slowly?

[Funky]

22 minutes ago, winterwheel said:

We use MTen3s for teaching new students. I suspect they may be better than MTen4 for that purpose.

We also always say that the old wheel is not a practical wheel to use in real life, too twitchy and hard to ride on even mildly rough surfaces, plus all the flat tires.

With the new tire and setup I see some possibility that we could actually recommend MTen4 as a usable wheel outside the practice area, but I'm reserving judgement on that until we actually get to evaluate one in person.

I also would think that 10" wheel would be much, much harder to ride/learn than 14-16". Heck i even have problems riding my dads ks16s. (Yes i can ride it.. I even learned on it, but the euc body is so small/short.) Compared it to my 18" which is bigger, it feels so stable at low speeds and so easy to ride. On the 16s it feels more "twitchy" and so on at walking speeds.

Also turning i always scratch the ground with 16s, because of lower pedals.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Funky

[winterwheel]

18 minutes ago, 360rumors said:

Is it the low pedal height, the low speed required for stabilization, easier to ride it slowly?

Yes. 

After six years of trial and error we've found the MTen3 is the one wheel that almost everyone can ride as an absolute beginner. 

Beginners ride at extremely low speed; MTen3 with its small size and relatively wide tire for a 10" wheel means that it can be ridden successfully by non-confident riders at 3-5 kms/hour. Very difficult even for experienced riders to do that on larger wheels.

For mounting and dismounting aspects of the lesson we use bigger wheels -- 14D, 16S. But to actually get students on their first rollout we use the MTen3s.

[Frank-oh-boy]

What do you guys think about snow riding with that tire?

 

Also is there any possibility this thing will have a trolley handle addon? 

[houseofjob]

11 hours ago, winterwheel said:

We also always say that the old wheel is not a practical wheel to use in real life, too twitchy and hard to ride on even mildly rough surfaces, plus all the flat tires.

The twitchiness is the "stock" tire, aka recycled Ninebot mini tire, which was always a terrible choice by Gotway, the tread is not symmetrical, leading to artificial pull, and was never intended to be used outside of a dual tire setup, ie the Ninebot mini / Segway style.

 

 

That all goes away if you swap to any of the other 70/65-6.5 tire options with proper symmetrical tread patterns, albeit asking a newbie to do a tire change on their wheel is a big ask I know, esp on the not-so-easy-to-work-with smallness of the MTen3

 

Bow 70/65-6.5

Naiputun 70/65-6.5

zc-rubber 70/65-6.5

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by houseofjob

[360rumors]

3 hours ago, houseofjob said:

The twitchiness is the "stock" tire, aka recycled Ninebot mini tire, which was always a terrible choice by Gotway, the tread is not symmetrical, leading to artificial pull, and was never intended to be used outside of a dual tire setup, ie the Ninebot mini / Segway style.

That all goes away if you swap to any of the other 70/65-6.5 tire options with proper symmetrical tread patterns, albeit asking a newbie to do a tire change on their wheel is a big ask I know.

 

Bow 70/65-6.5

Naiputun 70/65-6.5

zc-rubber 70/65-6.5

 

Interesting. I find it twitchy but I don’t notice any pull to either direction. Fwiw mten4 seems to use a tire with symmetrical tread design. 

[winterwheel]

12 hours ago, houseofjob said:

The twitchiness is the "stock" tire, aka recycled Ninebot mini tire, which was always a terrible choice by Gotway, the tread is not symmetrical, leading to artificial pull, and was never intended to be used outside of a dual tire setup, ie the Ninebot mini / Segway style.

That all goes away if you swap to any of the other 70/65-6.5 tire options with proper symmetrical tread patterns, albeit asking a newbie to do a tire change on their wheel is a big ask I know, esp on the not-so-easy-to-work-with smallness of the MTen3

Stuff I needed to know before the MTen3 was deprecated lol. Still I plan to order all of these and see how they do. Right now I have four MTen3s so I could put a different tire on each wheel and see how they do under identical conditions. Might make a fun video.

Our PEV community here has matured enough that we have a shop in town that does tire changes and other maintenance stuff for EUCs. 

 

[houseofjob]

18 hours ago, 360rumors said:

Interesting. I find it twitchy but I don’t notice any pull to either direction. Fwiw mten4 seems to use a tire with symmetrical tread design. 

Maybe because you don't ride max psi (?) dunno (and I don't mean what the tire max ratings say, as again, this tire was meant to be in a pair, I pump for max stiffness for my weight).

And yes, the MTen4 90/65-6.5 opens things up vastly, no need to be stuck with wrong tread. When the MTen3 first launched, the only 2 tires available in such a size were this "stock" and the flat-down-the-middle Bow 70/65-6.5 unfortunately. None of the other 70/65-6.5 tires I listed, nor the the thinner Honeycombs were on the market yet at the time I believe.

 

8 hours ago, winterwheel said:

Stuff I needed to know before the MTen3 was deprecated lol.

LOL, I still think there's value in those MTen3's, as the durability of the MTen4 is still an unknown IMHO (I don't put much weight in that silly "crash" test they posted, as that is not real world).

Also, if you're a fan of softer modes, the MTen3 still has that amazing and feather-floaty OG Gotway soft even on newer production runs (albeit you don't wanna use that soft mode for teaching newbies). The MTen4 modes are another unknown until final delivery, but I'm guessing not a lot will have changed in the firmware given how much existing MTen3 infrastructure is being recycled under the hood here.

Also, no one has talked about the lack of a good trolley solution for the MTen4 (personally not a fan of hernia-inducing 20 lb+ backpack), which on the MTen3 is a tad easier on account of the built-in handle and body shape (hope that existing screw-and-strap method is still applicable for MTen4).

I'm actually *slightly* tempted to pickup an MTen3 (maybe on a better price discount) before the model goes EOL. I have a dream of swapping the cells with Mollicel P28A's for less sag and possibly a smidge more top end 

 

8 hours ago, winterwheel said:

Right now I have four MTen3s so I could put a different tire on each wheel and see how they do under identical conditions. Might make a fun video.

 

8 hours ago, winterwheel said:

Our PEV community here has matured enough that we have a shop in town that does tire changes and other maintenance stuff for EUCs. 

Nice!

I'm too much of a control freak to go to someone else, but I do need to search and see if someone has a better way to pop off / mount the tire, as my method of C clamps and metal tire handles tends to scratch the rim too much *smh.

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by houseofjob

[jcfp]

Mten4 Setup, carry/in backpack demo, T4 dimension comparison video... 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by jcfp

[OldFartRides]

Very informative.

[Funky]

What a happy wheel family. Doh they still are missing 20-25kg wheel.  

[jmsjms]

If the tire is pumped with high pressure, can this wheel do 30 mph for a light weight rider?

[Tawpie]

1 minute ago, jmsjms said:

If the tire is pumped with high pressure, can this wheel do 30 mph for a light weight rider?

if it could, you'd crash. Seriously, this wheel diameter is far too small to go very fast. 20 mph is really asking for trouble.

[jmsjms]

I would've thought that the smaller the wheel, the more connected to the road you feel... kind of like driving a small car vs driving an old-school giant car from the 60s-80s.

[winterwheel]

3 hours ago, houseofjob said:

I'm too much of a control freak to go to someone else, but I do need to search and see if someone has a better way to pop off / mount the tire, as my method of C clamps and metal tire handles tends to scratch the rim too much *smh.

That's true for most of us long-term guys including me. But for newer, semi-casual riders it's a big deal to have that available. 

Once I found the trick for replacing MTen3 tires using that center-channel in the rim I found it's not that difficult. Not really expecting to be able to mount that solid tire though, if it ever comes in.

[Tawpie]

17 minutes ago, jmsjms said:

I would've thought that the smaller the wheel, the more connected to the road you feel... kind of like driving a small car vs driving an old-school giant car from the 60s-80s.

It is sort of, more connected to the road. The major issue is that the small wheel diameter means that any road imperfection is in effect a "larger" obstacle for the wheel. A crack in the road is a chasm. A seam between concrete and asphalt is a curb. A small depression is a crater. A bit of gravel is a rock.

None of that is good "at speed". Plus, it's squirrelly. You think to turn it, it has no mass so nothing resists twisting it.

But all of these attributes are fantastic in the right situation—you just have to choose your tool and 10" wheels aren't the best for going fast.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Tawpie