The term "Electric Unicycle" is wrong

[mrelwood]

 

4 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.

The heart of the e-wheel’s operation is the onboard gyroscope chip that provides the brains of the wheel all the required balancing information. No other than self-balancing vehicles have this, so I do find it appropriate to be included in the name as well.

 Then again, “car” or even “automobile” has very little descriptive properties about the vehicle. Granted, it’s often one of the first words people learn to say as a baby, so it doesn’t need to.

But @Vanturion has great points about the name “e-wheel” as well. This is a difficult pick! GyroWheel would translate much better into Finnish though, since “wheel” and “bike” essentially translate the same. So e-wheel and e-bike would overlap badly.

 

4 hours ago, KiwiMark said:

If the proponents of e-bikes and e-SK8s can have their devices referred to with 2 syllable names then I want the same!

“G-wheel”, short of “GyroWheel”? Can also represent the “huge” g-forces at play when we MJ-lean our way to the front of the pack launching from the traffic lights…? 

Definitely wouldn’t mind renaming the forum to forum.e-wheel.org! The current name… just doesn’t roll off one’s tongue all that fluently.

[winterwheel]

If it wasn't taken by an existing business I'd be totally down for e-wheel or ewheel. Love the company but it's really damaging for the community as a whole to have to say euc or electric unicycle all the time.

[techyiam]

Since it is can be perceived as a gyro, and borrowing the term "auto" from automobile, meaning self propelled, how about calling it a:

auto-gyro

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On 10/26/2022 at 8:29 AM, mrelwood said:

GyroWheel would translate much better into Finnish though, since “wheel” and “bike” essentially translate the same. So e-wheel and e-bike would overlap badly.

Hmm unfortunate, but thinking about translations into many languages makes renaming way more difficult!

 

On 10/26/2022 at 8:29 AM, mrelwood said:

“G-wheel”, short of “GyroWheel”? Can also represent the “huge” g-forces at play when we MJ-lean our way to the front of the pack launching from the traffic lights…? 

Nice, that abbreviation could work and be relatively interchangeable with e-wheel too, especially as they sound almost exactly the same. It's also pretty much still respecting the same hyphenated naming convention as other micro-mobility devices too which is cool. A lot of people already call their wheels a wheel (see what I did there) so this descriptor would be respecting this already well-used and interchangeable term for EUCs too. As @winterwheel said, G-wheel doesn't play favorites either with established businesses. I think it's a great compromise.
 

On 10/26/2022 at 5:00 PM, techyiam said:

Since it is can be perceived as a gyro, and borrowing the term "auto" from automobile, meaning self propelled, how about calling it a:

auto-gyro

That's not a bad point either, where auto would follow the more traditional naming convention referring to automobile while also hinting additional meaning of being automatically self-balanced. It's a somewhat subjective point, but I think following more closely in the tradition of other e-PEVs makes more sense as a direct replacement for the EUC label. However, I also think in terms of category, auto-gyro and gyro-cycle could be interchangeable to represent PEVs that make use of self-balancing in operation.

An analogy of how an equivalent classification would break down could be:

Automobile-->Car-->Ford-->Mustang = AutoGyro/GyroCycle-->GyroWheel/G-Wheel-->Begode-->Master

Edited October 27, 2022 by Vanturion
no AutoGyro, check

[dycus]

Autogyro is out, it's already a well-known type of plane. You don't want competing search terms, if you tell people you're riding an autogyro and they search it up, they'll only find planes.

Similarly, Gyrowheel is already a brand-name product (a bicycle training aid). Not a very popular or relevant one, but it does exist.

I personally like gyrocycle! It passes the search engine test. Some sparse results, but really nothing relevant or modern. That search term could easily be taken over by the popularity of EUC, as compared to anything else that currently shows up.

Edited October 26, 2022 by dycus

[techyiam]

How about:

ABC

Auto-Balancing-Cycle

[KNZ]

I sometimes wanna call it a “SegWheel” 

[Cerbera]

I don't think it's us that decide what these end up being called. UAV pilots resisted the term 'drone' for years, but that's all the public heard when they saw them, and that's what they ended up being called, and it's ubiquitous now, and there's no rolling back. In the last month I have heard 3 people talk about my wheel as being a 'segway', and a few more, when I have explained to them that I am on an EUC, their response has been - oh - like a segway !? And then it depends how much of a hurry I am in  If I wanna get home, a simple 'yes, similar tech' works, but if unhurried you can obviously spend the time explaining the difference if you can be bothered. I did both on various occasions, but was fairly sure that all of them went away and would later say to their friends 'saw a guy on a segway today'.

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Cerbera

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1 hour ago, Cerbera said:

I don't think it's us that decide what these end up being called.

Maybe not, but it doesn't hurt to discuss good alternatives to the conversationally awkward electric unicycle classification, or have a better alternative ready when someone asks about it. I'm already grateful for the gyro cycle and g-wheel suggestions as I think I'll be using them when future inquiries/opportunities arise. If they don't happen to bring up relevant search terms on the net right now or in the future, so be it.

1 hour ago, Cerbera said:

was fairly sure that all of them went away and would later say to their friends 'saw a guy on a segway today'.

Masses gonna mass.

1 hour ago, techyiam said:

ABC

Auto-Balancing-Cycle

Back to 7-syllables, that's not an improvement over the existing suggestions particularly when you think of all the competition for that acronym in search.

[Jon Wall]

I just refer to it as a Electric  Wheel.  Euc's have little to do with a unicycle just like a Onewheel . Unicycles are steered from your hips and core input through the seat and posture, little in the pedals. Obviously pedal pressure influence the speed and forward/reverse.  I have ridden Unicycles almost 30 years and taught others. Electric wheels are about 1000 times easier to learn . Unicycles are a lot of work .I have taught a new rider to Onewheel in under 5 minutes on a soccer field. Mount, dismount, and holding direction. Its all fun to share but when asked about Sherman , i just call it an  Electric Wheel 

[Wolverine]

My co-workers calls me a Space Man and the wheel is called a Spinning Top. Obviously they didn't buy the word EUC 😀

[techyiam]

1 hour ago, Wolverine said:

and the wheel is called a Spinning Top.

I don't know the Finnish language. Could he be meaning a Gyro?

[mrelwood]

14 hours ago, Wolverine said:

the wheel is called a Spinning Top.

What’s that in Finnish??

[RayRay]

On 10/26/2022 at 10:56 AM, Vanturion said:

Automobile-->Car-->Ford-->Mustang = AutoGyro/GyroCycle-->GyroWheel/G-Wheel-->Begode-->Master

I'm fine with variations of 'Gyro' this or that; except AutoGyro which is a type of plane aircraft. (With a "spinning top".)

Edited October 27, 2022 by RayRay

[samzed]

from now on, I'm calling mine Alita

[0000]

1 hour ago, RayRay said:

I'm fine with variations of 'Gyro' this or that; except AutoGyro which is a type of plane aircraft. (With a "spinning top".)

Got it, X'd it out in my earlier post. Pretty sure we'll be talking about spinning sandwiches soon enough ITT.

@Cerbera's probably more right than I gave him credit for earlier. Eventually there may be some big story or some public interest in our hobby/devices, a lot of people who know little to nothing about EUCs will generate a bunch of buzz, and maybe some new label will result from that and stick over time.

With hashing things out in the earlier discussion, I personally like the idea of having a new label to define the category of self-balancing electric vehicles as, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think there is one. GyroCycle seems to be a good fit for that purpose.

Just for fun, maybe we can run a couple polls on all the suggestions before the discussion peters out just to see what the community collectively thinks on the self-balancing EV category label as well as for possible replacements for the EUC label. It 's not likely to result in anything, but I'm curious what would be the most popular replacement label if given options or if the majority would want to keep EUC as is.

26 minutes ago, samzed said:

from now on, I'm calling mine Alita

Ex-gf?

[Cerbera]

24 minutes ago, Vanturion said:

Eventually there may be some big story or some public interest in our hobby/devices, a lot of people who know little to nothing about EUCs will generate a bunch of buzz, and maybe some new label will result from that and stick over time.

I just hope that event isn't something utterly awful that leads to them being thought of as 'death-wheels' or 'firestarters' in the minds of the general public.

[samzed]

30 minutes ago, Vanturion said:

Got it, X'd it out in my earlier post. Pretty sure we'll be talking about spinning sandwiches soon enough ITT.

@Cerbera's probably more right than I gave him credit for earlier. Eventually there may be some big story or some public interest in our hobby/devices, a lot of people who know little to nothing about EUCs will generate a bunch of buzz, and maybe some new label will result from that and stick over time.

With hashing things out in the earlier discussion, I personally like the idea of having a new label to define the category of self-balancing electric vehicles as, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think there is one. GyroCycle seems to be a good fit for that purpose.

Just for fun, maybe we can run a couple polls on all the suggestions before the discussion peters out just to see what the community collectively thinks on the self-balancing EV category label as well as for possible replacements for the EUC label. It 's not likely to result in anything, but I'm curious what would be the most popular replacement label if given options or if the majority would want to keep EUC as is.

Ex-gf?

https://youtu.be/eS-4T37xOQY

[0000]

17 minutes ago, samzed said:

https://youtu.be/eS-4T37xOQY

Anime eyes on CGI people, why is this a thing!? Why is it just the girl with googly-eyes too? Is that why they're going after her, genetic defect removal squad?

Actually I think it's better if I don't know, I choose ignorance.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Vanturion

[MetricUSA]

I would not call euc a gyro anything unless the wheel can stand by itself, there are already gyro bikes and gyro motorcycle, not that future models would not have this option... 

[0000]

6 minutes ago, MetricUSA said:

I would not call euc a gyro anything unless the wheel can stand by itself, there are already gyro bikes and gyro motorcycle

And yet the single-most important or distinct feature of an EUC is that it uses a gyroscopic sensor to stay balanced both in motion and at a standstill along the axis of rotation so it seems pretty applicable from where I'm standing ^{on my GyroCycle}
 

9 minutes ago, MetricUSA said:

not that future models would not have this option... 

maybe, but then it would be an entirely different thing and very much a neutered experience to ride as well. Maybe like a bicycle with training wheels.

[Cerbera]

Everything about Alita is mainly about (big) eye candy. I'm into it for the cool tech and the CG, which is beautifully executed.

But I do have a sneaking suspicion that our little EUCs and human cyborg enhancement could evolve to the point where races like that are a genuine possibility, presuming we can manage to not blow ourselves up before we get there. In a way it's a shame I won't be around to see it !

Edited October 28, 2022 by Cerbera

[MetricUSA]

That is so BS. A lot of things have gyros in it. You don't call them all Gyros 'devices', a fucking spaceship has gyros in it. You don't call it a gyro rocket... Watches have gyros in it, you don't call them gyro watches... Phones in tablets have gyros in them. You don't call them gyro phones, gyro tablets...

Enough of the gyro bullshit... 

Edited October 28, 2022 by MetricUSA

[0000]

6 minutes ago, MetricUSA said:

That is so BS. A lot of things have gyros in it. You don't call them all Gyros 'devices', a fucking spaceship has gyros in it.

You don't call a spaceship a gyroship probably because it's single most defining characteristic isn't the fact that it has gyroscopic sensors in it, but because it goes to fucking space. So what makes EUCs unique?

1. It self-balances along the axis of rotation.

2. It's got one wheel. OneWheel and MonoWheel are out.

3. It's electric.

4. Oh yeah, it's made in China. Not really unique there and I don't really want to go around talking about my ChinaWheel, lol.

Anything else? That's about what we got to work with for looking at alternatives to EUC. But if you're happy with things as is, you coooould just say that instead.

[mrelwood]

5 hours ago, MetricUSA said:

That is so BS. A lot of things have gyros in it. You don't call them all Gyros 'devices', a fucking spaceship has gyros in it. You don't call it a gyro rocket... Watches have gyros in it, you don't call them gyro watches... Phones in tablets have gyros in them. You don't call them gyro phones, gyro tablets...

Enough of the gyro bullshit... 

I'm ready to vote for whatever this guy wants to call them, I just wouldn't want to piss him off any further. He even sounds like he might be near the snapping point already.