The term "Electric Unicycle" is wrong

[techyiam]

Or:

Single wheel Segway.

 

Self explanatory. No need to explain further.

[WILSONEUC]

I usually tell people electric unicycle, but since this topic is in the forum, im considering just  saying the product name of the wheel instead of "electric unicycle" to people. Sounds cooler i think lol

"What is that?!!"
"Its the Begode Master"

Either way, usually the response is...
"Wow, thats cool"

 

[Sumako]

“GYRO-CYCLE” : In the futurist sci fi movie ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ there are monster sized EUC’s they have called Gyro-Cycles. We have been riding compact versions of these all a long. So that is what I call my EXN; compact Gyro-Cycle.

[David 1200]

It’s funny you bring this up because when I was riding my V 11. People would ask me seeing that for the first time…what is that? I would literally tell every single person that it’s an electric mono wheel or the community and the Internet calls them electric unicycles.

[RayRay]

What, this again?

How 'bout: "Vroomba"

[litewave]

Too bad that "OneWheel" was snagged early on.

I always believed that 'Ninebot' was catchy and as good a name as any. After all, the two-wheeled versions are still called Segways more than a decade later. Alas, Ninebot abandoned us

Edited October 19, 2022 by litewave

[0000]

On 10/17/2022 at 6:12 AM, Sumako said:

“GYRO-CYCLE” : In the futurist sci fi movie ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ there are monster sized EUC’s they have called Gyro-Cycles. We have been riding compact versions of these all a long. So that is what I call my EXN; compact Gyro-Cycle.

Since a lot of the good ones are taken, this one isn't bad at all. I like it. Gy-ro cy-cle certainly rolls of the tongue better at 4 syllables vs e-lec-tric u-ni-cy-cle at 7.

Even abbreviated, saying my GC (gee-cee) sounds better than my EUC (E-yew-see).

Not just that, but the "Gyro" descriptor signals probably the most important or distinct feature about EUCs, that they work by use of gyroscopic sensor(s) for balance. Kind of a cool distinction to lead with vs "Electric" which isn't unique to any other micro-mobility device these days. The electric term simply serving to distinguish that an EUC is different from a traditional pedal unicycle.

In any case, we're probably stuck with EUC. It's pretty unlikely that the a majority of content creators would abandon the utility of already established hashtags and search terms they currently rely on, to point out just one of many sticking points.

 

[KiwiMark]

On 10/9/2022 at 9:10 PM, plentora said:

There is no cycling involved. I believe cycle is some kind of process (up/down, around) and I don't think rolling of the tire counts.

Incorrect, cycle basically means wheel.  Just like a motorcycle, which uses a motor to drive a wheel, rather than a rider actually cycling with pedals.  Even the term "motorbike" is just a contraction of motor bicycle.

I have an e-bike (it's actually an e-MTB) and an e-scooter as well as my e-unicycle.  I don't like "electric unicycle" because that is like 7 syllables which is way too much, e-unicycle cuts it down to 5, which is better but still a bit cumbersome to say.  My e-bike is only 2 syllables and that is way easier to say.  Unfortunately the words we use for 2 (bi) or 3 (tri) are only 1 syllable, whereas uni or mono are each 2 syllables.  We have all become familiar with bicycle (3 syllables) being shortened to bike - only 1 syllable, very succinct!  I know some people have suggested EUC being pronounced "yuke", but I have a problem with that because no one that isn't already familiar with EUCs would have a clue about what you are saying - that is bad communication!

If EUCs where much more common and just about everyone was familiar with them, then you could just say e-wheel and everyone would know what you are talking about.  I like e-wheel, it is just as short as e-bike verbally and one better than e-scooter.  We just need a lot more people to be familiar with e-wheels and then no one would be confused.  If we want to vote on a neat short name to refer to our EUCs, I'd definitely vote for e-wheel, I think that it is the option that sounds the best.  Maybe we should promote e-wheel and make it a much more common-place term.

[Spaghetteh]

On 10/9/2022 at 3:16 AM, atdlzpae said:

My favorite alternative name is onewheel. Nice, catchy, rolls of the tongue. What's not to like? Let's all adopt it!

Literally everyone who knows I ride but doesn't ride themselves calls it a one-wheel no matter how many times I remind them that a OneWheel is the skateboard-ish one. I've since given up on trying to correct their terminology and accepted that OneWheel has become essentially the Xerox or Purell or whatever of single-wheeled PEVs.

[techyiam]

OneCycle

  (pronounced cycle as in bicycle) 

Edited October 21, 2022 by techyiam

[mrelwood]

EUC is life. In mathematical form:

EUC = Life

Which is of course the same as:

Life = EUC

So I just call it Life.

[winterwheel]

Being a winter enthusiast I often tell people that wheeling is like a cross between skiing and skating.

Accordingly I floated "Skeel" and "Skeeling" around here. 

Zero uptake so far. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by winterwheel

[0000]

1 hour ago, mrelwood said:

So I just call it Life.

that sounds like a cop-out! lol

Edit: also Quaker Oats beat you to the punch by a few years there

55 minutes ago, winterwheel said:

Accordingly I floated "Skeel" and "Skeeling" around here. 

Zero uptake so far. 

Makes me think of keeling over and skinning, which I guess could occur in that order coming off a wheel on a bad day.

So yeah, guess I'm glad this one didn't take... hah.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Vanturion
jokes

[mrelwood]

1 hour ago, Vanturion said:

that sounds like a cop-out! lol

Edit: also Quaker Oats beat you to the punch by a few years there

Darn! There's actually a local shop for health products called Life as well, so I was double beat.

Sometimes us locals call it "Eukki", which is a fictional semi-direct Finnish pronounciation/nickname of a word "EUC". A bit like the "Eyuck" that was suggested earlier. "Eukki" doesn't tell much to outsiders though.

For the suggested so far, my vote would go for "e-wheel". (Sorry, not sorry Ewheels!)

Edited October 21, 2022 by mrelwood

[0000]

1 hour ago, mrelwood said:

For the suggested so far, my vote would go for "e-wheel". (Sorry, not sorry Ewheels!)

Same. If unintended vendor favoritism is the price for attempting to rid the world of one awkward acronym, so be it!

[GothamMike]

On 10/10/2022 at 12:02 AM, sbb said:

I'm still partial to "Self Propelled Suitcase".

Onewheelers call my EUC "Luggage" due to the trolley handle.

[GothamMike]

On 10/21/2022 at 5:16 PM, winterwheel said:

Being a winter enthusiast I often tell people that wheeling is like a cross between skiing and skating.

Accordingly I floated "Skeel" and "Skeeling" around here. 

Zero uptake so far. 

Skeelering = Dutch for inline skate racing. Try again.

[winterwheel]

1 hour ago, GothamMike said:

Try again.

Skwheeling? 

[Sumako]

I’ve tested GyroCycle many times over. After people ask what it is I ride, Ill test the two terms. “Thats my electric unicycle”; just won’t land with non riders. EUC obviously does not. This is why the fandom, every once in a while comes back to exploring this topic. 
 

in my experience (tests) GyroCycle has been the clear winner. Period! 
 

When I tell people “thats a GyroCycle “ they immediately get it. The name alone does not just tell you what it is but how it works. GyroCycle makes sense to people’s brains and that’s why I have adopted the name. 

[Tawpie]

On 10/24/2022 at 10:36 AM, winterwheel said:

Skwheeling? 

My brain thought that was "Skywheeling" and immediately went to the superman pose after a cutout...

[samzed]

I like the term "private transport" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_transport

[KiwiMark]

On 10/25/2022 at 5:08 AM, GothamMike said:

Onewheelers call my EUC "Luggage" due to the trolley handle.

My e-wheel when riding, my e-luggage when trolleying?  I kinda like it!

[0000]

3 hours ago, Sumako said:

When I tell people “thats a GyroCycle “ they immediately get it. The name alone does not just tell you what it is but how it works. GyroCycle makes sense to people’s brains and that’s why I have adopted the name. 

Well, I think you've made a good case - ya got one convert here at least.

Plus, if I were to judge the difference between e-wheel and gyro cycle by sound alone, gyro cycle just sounds more distinct and masculine. I'd really take either though if it means I didn't have to explain or say electric unicycle anymore. Besides just speaking awkward relatively long-syllables, the term unicycle connotes a certain kind of "dorky-ness" in many peoples' minds.

Speaking of, didn't an Inmotion employee just prompt us with how to make EUCs more appealing...?

Calling on @Bob Yan for another suggestion that addresses your recent prompt directly on the nose, please consider changing your promotional material for your next crop of wheels with a cooler descriptor. #GyroCycle (I'm biased and hoping for first-ask, first-serve preference ) and #ewheel/#e-wheel to potentially one day replace "EUC/electric unicycle" are top contenders.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Vanturion

[KiwiMark]

If electric unicycle is cumbersome to say, just realise that electric bicycle isn't much better, being only 1 less syllable.  All around the world everyone seems happy to shorten electric bicycle to e-bike and few people find it confusing to refer to the electric bicycle as an e-bike.  The only real difference with the EUCs is that there is less familiarity with them, often when someone sees one it is the first time they have ever seen such a vehicle.  I think that the relative rarity of EUCs over e-bikes is a much bigger factor than what we call them.

Obviously we would like more people to be used to our devices that we love and not many of us want to constantly refer to them as 'electric unicycles'.  In written form EUC is good - it is only 3 letters long, but verbally saying eee-you-cee wouldn't work well - it wouldn't be at all enlightening to anyone unfamiliar with our EUCs.  GyroCycle sounds much better than electric unicycle, but I don't see the name as uniquely applying to our EUCs, all bicycles have some gyroscopic effect from the rotation of the cycles (aka wheels) and don't need to be electric for that to be the case.  But then again I would hate to have to be too specific and say 'self balancing electric unicycle' just to be fully accurate and precise. I still like e-wheel on the basis that it is very much like e-bike where the e- prefix designates an electric motor, but the 'wheel' just implies (rather than explicitly stating) singular because the word itself is not the plural form - not perfect IMO but I feel that it does fit well into the e-vehicles family alongside the e-bike, e-scooter & e-SK8.  The term e-wheel may not be explicitly stating that there is only one wheel, but what is the alternative?  e-unicycle, e-uniwheel, e-solowheel, e-solocycle, e-monowheel, e-monocycle, e-singlewheel, e-singlecycle, e-onecycle - ugh, all of these make the name longer and more awkward to say!

Apart from electric bicycles being shortened to e-bikes (6 syllables reduced to 2 syllables) think about electric stateboards (5 syllables) that got reduced down to e-SK8s (2 syllables again) by their fans.  If the proponents of e-bikes and e-SK8s can have their devices referred to with 2 syllable names then I want the same!  If it is good enough for them then it is good enough for us too!

Even the presence of the company eWheels suggests that they thought the name was pretty good and that they didn't want to call themselves 'Electric Unicycles". It suggests to me that they would agree that the short name for electric unicycles should be e-wheels.

[0000]

2 hours ago, KiwiMark said:

The only real difference with the EUCs is that there is less familiarity with them, often when someone sees one it is the first time they have ever seen such a vehicle.

That, but also that an electric unicycle has little in common with a traditional unicycle that people are familiar with. An e-bike still looks like a bicycle after all. An e-uni, well, you might as well be talking about e-coli as it doesn't benefit from the same association and has about the same amount of appeal to say out loud.

2 hours ago, KiwiMark said:

GyroCycle sounds much better than electric unicycle, but I don't see the name as uniquely applying to our EUCs, all bicycles have some gyroscopic effect from the rotation of the cycles (aka wheels) and don't need to be electric for that to be the case.

Just for the sake of debate, all wheels feature a gyroscopic effect while in motion, but people don't commonly associate this effect to cars or motorcycles, so I don't think that reason is entirely valid to disqualify gyro(cycle) as a potential stand-in term to describe the self-balancing effect. The gyro qualifier used to indicate self-balancing also immediately conveys the EUC's most distinct feature enabling motion vs the electric or "e" qualifier which is a more generic designation just signaling that it is some kind of electric device. Not that the e- qualifier is bad, I just don't think the gyro descriptor should be dismissed so quickly.

2 hours ago, KiwiMark said:

The term e-wheel may not be explicitly stating that there is only one wheel, but what is the alternative?  e-unicycle, e-uniwheel, e-solowheel, e-solocycle, e-monowheel, e-monocycle, e-singlewheel, e-singlecycle, e-onecycle - ugh, all of these make the name longer and more awkward to say!

Totally agree.

2 hours ago, KiwiMark said:

I still like e-wheel on the basis that it is very much like e-bike where the e- prefix designates an electric motor, but the 'wheel' just implies (rather than explicitly stating) singular because the word itself is not the plural form - not perfect IMO but I feel that it does fit well into the e-vehicles family alongside the e-bike, e-scooter & e-SK8.

Thinking about it some more, I have to agree with you. Following the same naming convention as the rest of the e-PEVs makes the most amount of sense. To fit into the naming convention, e-wheel is the most logical choice as a substitute/replacement for EUC. However, I don't think it is wrong to say that EUCs are also gyro cycles, in fact, I'm thinking of the term as more of a general classification now as other gyro cycles would fit into the same category, the OneWheel for example.

So instead of the EUC/electric unicycle label, you could say these e-wheels (specific) fall under the gyro cycle transportation device (category). Just thinking out loud... thoughts?

Petition to change the website name to forum.e-wheel.org now??? LOL

Edited October 26, 2022 by Vanturion