First Five Days on Other Wheels: Now On to the V13

[Josiah]

(update)Feb 5

I cheated.  One day before wheel ships out  my buddy let me borrow his wheel to practice.  The 18XL with neoprene cover.  I’ll add some videos but ended up going 10-12 miles from free launch and no real falls.  Heard one beep 6 miles in (@ 28 MPH) and slowed up.  Went fast between and slow (normal walking speed) before, during and after passing pedestrians.  Still a bit off balance wobbles but my dream of just going some place on the wheel day 1 happened.  I did have a full face helmet, , motorcycle jacket,  Leatt knee guards, and some good winter gloves.  (Would have had wrist guards too but they came in the wrong size).  All the gear on the first go helped me feel safe to just go for it but in terms of stabilizing speed)

But it just was not not on the V13.  I couldn’t wait and had to take the opportunity to practice on a smaller wheel.  I’m hooked.  Thanks to all your help here on the forum.  4 months of reading and thinking about euc helped me feel natural on the wheel.  I think I’ve reached lvl 2 rank PV2

 

 

(Original Post). 
Hey All, getting close to ship date for my first wheel.  The InMotion V13 Challenger.

Most of the advice I’ve seen on here would be to start with a smaller wheel.  But I couldn’t resist going with a top contender after seeing Hsiang’s announcement video back after the initial press release from InMotion. 

I’ve got large Grizzla flow pads.  And Clark seat/bumper setup.  After learning from you guys I may start out without any power pads until I can control the wheel but use the bumpers to protect the wheel.

Might start slow with only wrist guards or might go full gear.  Also really like the idea of going around a pole or tree forwards and backwards then off the pole onto open grass as opposed to the wall/ hallway/ shopping cart options.  Also thinking of leaving the settings on default to start with. 

Plan to document my learning experience with you all along the way.

Thanks for all the advice!  And I’m eager to hear your thoughts.

Some factors:

About me 5’7 170lbs age 39

Regular heavy lifting in my profession.(handyman/general contractor)

Non EUC balancing skills that I rate my level as moderate in:

skate board and half pipe

ski and snowboard

bmx bike and mountain bike

rough water stand up paddle board

14” - 48” drywall finishing stilts

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Josiah

[Cerbera]

As you are yet to step on any wheel, the most important thing will be to get used to the size, weight, step-up height and sheer heft of the V13, and controlling that with one foot on a pedal, and the other on the ground. You will initially find it difficult enough to make that roll forwards and back, and then in circles around your stationary foot before you even think about getting on it ! That bit you can probably do without armour. Once you start the hop-ups and stationary mounts / dismounts and very slow forward motion and turns you want wrist guards. Once you get outside then is the time I would add the helmet. And a month later, once you are regularly going above 20 kph, then you could start adding the other stuff. So you know - a gentle ramp up in armour to match what you are doing...

[Josiah]

Rethinking the starting without pads idea after @dangasaur’s first impressions on his V13.  He is an experienced rider so not in the same predicament I’ll be in as a beginner.  I’ll just have to be able to get my legs unstuck quickly when I need to bail.

[Tawpie]

14 minutes ago, Josiah said:

I’ll just have to be able to get my legs unstuck quickly when I need to bail.

Push pads aren't an issue with bailing, it's the jump pads that can hang you up. Setup your pads so they don't lock your foot down and it'll ok enough.

[Cerbera]

Agreed - pads only lock you in (and then only a bit) front-to-back, you can always slip out the side, and if you have practised your mounting drills sufficiently at standstill you should have written the 'dismount routine' into muscle memory already: Lift (to clear the studs), swing out and drop, slightly backward of pedal position, toes out for stability at the same time as your pedal foot exerts gentle even heel pressure to bring the wheel back under you, for a clean sturdy dismount and hold.

I presume you won't be jumping the V13 at all initially, and hardly ever after that, and if that is the case you can keep the toe pads very high, which the Flow pads easily permit. As you get better though, you'll realise you can lower them and all is still fine as long as you can lift enough to get off the pedal studs.

And I wouldn't have 'freedom to bail' uppermost in your mind - there are actually very few circumstances in which bailing is a better thing to do than fighting 'til the end to bring your machine to a controlled stop and dismount. As soon as you bail you give away any control you had remaining over either the machine or your dismount, both of which are likely to end up less than ideally. And besides leaving these aspects to luck, by bailing you actually deprive yourself of vital learning XP as to how to recover from these 'risky biscuits' situations...

Edited January 24, 2023 by Cerbera

[Josiah]

Are grizzla flow pads the jump pad or push pad style?

Edited January 24, 2023 by Josiah

[Cerbera]

57 minutes ago, Josiah said:

Are grizzla flow pads jump pad style or push pads?

They are both, but arguably not on a V13. If you were a hopeless lightweight like me you would have zero chance of being able to jump 120 lb for example, no matter how good your pads or locked in your toes were ! I can't even jump my Master more than a fraction of a centimetre - it's pathetic, but then I don't feel any need to do so, so horses for courses etc etc....

Edited January 24, 2023 by Cerbera

[Josiah]

I’m a hopeless many things.

[Impoy47]

I don't know where you're from and how accessible it is to practice on an e-wheel but if you can, rent or barrow one while you're waiting. Might as well get the steep learning curve out of the way. You have to take the initiative now because when the v13 comes you won't have to struggle as hard... I'm sure you've seen dozens of how to videos and anxious to get on.. Be patient and persistent on the learning process, everything will come together. Just start learning now! 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Impoy47

[The Brahan Seer]

Very hard to know because we are all different but I started on the S18 which was 36% of my body weight. I'm fit but not massively strong plus over 50. I found it a bit of a struggle to build up my muscle strength probably took me a few months. But I got there in the end and I was in no rush.

The V13 will be 65% of your body weight so this would imply to me it would be hard work to throw around. But if you are very strong, stocky and muscular already then maybe this isn't such a big issue. Also it depends what kind of experience you want from your wheel. If its doing street cruising with little else [which I imagine is what you want hence why you chose the V13] then that would be less work than wanting to have totally quick, nimble control doing tricks and off road. I do concur with the above though and recommend trying out/ borrowing a smaller wheel just because it will be easier, but maybe you enjoy the challenge. Either way if you do find it tough or limiting you can always get another wheel for different purposes anyway. I do look forward to your progress just out of curiosity. But you might be one of those people who get it straight away. This actually happened to me today i gave a couple of workmen who took an interest in my wheel a shot and they both managed to travel 20ft straight off the bat within seconds. Just a couple of swings back and forward holding onto a rail and off they went. Brilliant!

[meepmeepmayer]

Get a lot of yoga mats so you can thoroughly wrap your nice and shiny new wheel for the first few weeks of learning! That's when it will get all the scruffs.

Don't start with attempting low speed maneuvers. Speed stabilizes you. Just get on with the help of a wall/pole and start by going straight and not too slow (15-20kph is fine! Walking speed or twice that is too slow to be stable.). Everything else - slower riding, stepping on, ... - comes later, because it is more difficult.

Don't try to learn on grass. If you don't want to take your (heavily yoga-matted) wheel to asphalt, find a tennis court-like surface. But it should be a hard, smooth surface with little rolling resistance.

Don't try to catch the wheel when it falls. Especially with such a heavy wheel. I'd be worried about unlucky injuries there. Just get yourself to safety and trust your yoga mats to do the rest.

I think you can get away with wrist guards only for learning, but of course wear more protective gear if it doesn't bother you anyways. Power pads or not, trust your intuition on what looks to make more sense to you.

Enjoy! You can only learn to ride once, and it's a lot of fun.

Edited January 24, 2023 by meepmeepmayer

[The Brahan Seer]

1 hour ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Just get on with the help of a wall/pole and start by going straight and not too slow (15-20kph is fine! Walking speed or twice that is too slow to be stable.). Everything else - slower riding, stepping on, ... - comes later, because it is more difficult.

I totally agree with this, the guys i mentioned above just went for it, I told them to look up and go go go, it worked. I learned the going slow way which took a long time (but I am probably a slow learner anyway).

[Impoy47]

Maybe use a shopping cart?

https://youtu.be/cy7mwmcQ6Dk

[meepmeepmayer]

1 hour ago, The Brahan Seer said:

I told them to look up and go go go, it worked

This is a good point. A EUC goes where you look, and if you look at the ground, that's where you'll go Standing straight (and relaxed) and looking forward is best.

[Cerbera]

1 hour ago, Impoy47 said:

Maybe use a shopping cart?

Nope, that'll teach you how to push a shopping cart with an EUC, which is training a whole different set of muscles from the ones you use to control the wheel when there isn't a trolley. Also necessarily results in stiffness and tension throughout the body which is the precise opposite of how we should be when riding. So yes, it teaches a skill, but not the right skill !

[Paul A]

Make very gentle, slight body movements.....to accelerate, brake, turn gently.

Similar to downhill skiing, but don't make the fierce slalom movements.

[KiwiMark]

My advice would be to purchase a fairly cheap 2nd hand wheel and learn on that, then once you have a reasonable handle on the basics you can switch to the V13 and sell the cheap wheel for similar money to what you paid for it.

Learning to ride - on my first day on my first wheel (RS), I was 53 at the time:

I started out holding on to the fence, mounting the wheel and rolling back and forth holding on to the fence (maybe 20 minutes or so of this), I progressed to riding while only contacting the fence intermittently (I started videoing during this stage) and then got to the point where I was riding and just curved away from the fence (you can see me doing this on the first video), after that I went to free mounting and trying to ride.  I had to ditch most of my safety gear because I was getting so hot & sweaty, but I was riding pretty slow on grass, so I doubt it was overly risky.

It felt like a lot of work, but it was only around an hour on my first day.  I continued mounting & riding for an hour on day 2. On day 3 I did an hour of mounting and riding and following a particular path (between the singles & doubles lines on a tennis court, riding circles & figure 8s and making real progress. I wasn't anywhere near as hot or sweating as much on day 3.

On day 5 I practised riding around and did a bunch of practice at stopping and dismounting, then mounting and riding - I had noticed that on day 4 I wasn't very good at doing that.

Note: I had started that day having only ridden for 4 hours total.  I was far from perfect, but I was gaining skill & ability - things kept on getting easier as I got more practise.  I continued to ride around and practise mounting & dismounting for a few more days, then I travelled around the area to find interesting places to ride.

 

Now I really enjoy going out for a ride, just about every day when the weather is good I head out for a ride for anything from 20 to 70 kilometres. When I started I pushed my speed a bit much early on, after coming off during severe wobbles I dialled the speed back and kept it under 30kph.  After more riding and experience my speed went back up and I was able to keep wobbles under control, now I exceed 50kph on pretty much every ride.

I don't know how obvious to others it is, but I'm much more relaxed here. This is fairly recent and I'm finding that riding an EUC is pretty easy.  I'm not 100% perfect and some skills could do with improving, but generally going out for a ride is just a fun thing for me now. I'm 55-years-old and hope to enjoy riding EUCs for many more years to come.

 

I'd suggest keeping the speed down for the first few weeks and just practice the basics - mounting & dismounting, speeding up & slowing down, turning left & turning right. Get to the point where you can get on the wheel and ride, then . . . well then you just need to keep getting on the wheel and riding, as you gain experience things get easier and more fun.  It will just naturally become less & less work, more & more fun.

[Josiah]

Thanks @KiwiMark

 btw The last video not only shows how proficient at riding you became, it also shows how amazing New Zealand is.  I’d love to get a chance to go there again.  It’s been too long since I visited Auckland.  

Edited January 24, 2023 by Josiah

[Punxatawneyjoe]

First i would say good for you not messing around with any of those foolish "toy" smaller wheels.. I feel like if you haven't even tried to learn on anything smaller then you won't even know what your missing. It should be just as easy as learning on a smaller wheel, just a little more effort for corrections/turn/stop. I would suggest that you put the stock pads on at first because they can help you with leverage while not being as obtrusive as the grizzlas. So you wont twist your ankle of you dump the wheel. A smoother surface is easier to learn on than a bump one like grass but you don't really hurt the wheel when you dump off of it like grass. Also the beginning pages of the tread titled "Pushing 60 and against my families wishes - I just ordered my first EUC!" is some good and not so good advice so if you pick through it , there are some gems.  In my opinion, the use of "crutches" like a shopping cart or ski poles etc just hinders the road to learning that muscle memory and how to distribute your weight evenly across both pedals. I find i favor my rt leg so i have to place more pressure on my left to stay level. Good luck, sounds savage.

[Uras]

On 1/23/2023 at 3:46 PM, Josiah said:

But I couldn’t resist going with a top contender after seeing Hsiang’s announcement video back after the initial press release from InMotion. 

top contender for what? Does it suit the sort of riding you want to do?

[Robse]

On 1/23/2023 at 5:46 AM, Josiah said:

Hey All, getting close to ship date for my first wheel.  The InMotion V13 Challenger.

Most of the advice I’ve seen on here would be to start with a smaller wheel.  But I couldn’t resist going with a top contender after seeing Hsiang’s announcement video back after the initial press release from InMotion. 

I’ve got large Grizzla flow pads.  And Clark seat/bumper setup.  After learning from you guys I may start out without any power pads until I can control the wheel but use the bumpers to protect the wheel.

Might start slow with only wrist guards or might go full gear.  Also really like the idea of going around a pole or tree forwards and backwards then off the pole onto open grass as opposed to the wall/ hallway/ shopping cart options.

Also thinking of leaving the settings on default to start with. 

Plan to document my learning experience with you all along the way.

About me 5’7 170lbs age 39

Thanks for all the advice!  And I’m eager to hear your thoughts.

 

 

i sincerely wish you good luck 😁, but i am pretty sure you are loooking into some very hard days of just never getting up and riding on that damned thing. Now that you have made a decision and bought the wheel, there's no good advice in telling you to start on a smaller wheel. Learning to keep the balance is much easier with a smaller wheel that has better and faster reaction to your movement. Therefore, may the EUC force be with you in your upcoming quest of getting the v13 to obey 🤗

[Josiah]

@Uras

V 13 looks to be a top contender for speed, safety, suspension, tire size, off road capability, stair climbing, water resistance, visibility, and overall design.  It might be a top seller in its class.  I want to use it for adventure.  

[techyiam]

It's a tall order, even for riders who can already ride smaller wheels. 

You will understand once you have unboxed it. This is a big heavy wheel to the uninitiated. 

When the wheel is not vertical, you will start to feel the weight. The problem is a beginner cannot balance much imbalance side-to-side.

A really big surprise to many riders who had only ridden smaller wheels is that the rotational inertia (moment of inertia) is very high.

This means you won't be able to accelerate nor brake without pads. Even if you manage to move, you won't be able to stop.

After you have unboxed your wheel, you will need to set it up. You won't be able to ride it. Be patient. 

To start, just stand on it at first while holding onto a pole or a door frame. 

The wheel will self balances to and fro, but not side-to-side.

Spend some time just standing there. Get a feel for it for a while. Then maybe tilt very slightly side-to-side, all the while holding onto a pole or something for support.

Be careful with the V13, because there is no center grab handle. Should you lose balance and step off, your tendency would be to grab the front or back lift handle. When you do that, it will fall further and accelerate the wheel twisting your wrist and arm.

You need to practice getting down from the wheel and grab both the front and back grab handles at the same time.

To get a little taste of riding, perhaps stand in a doorway or something equivalent (not to wide nor too narrow), and try to move one side to the other. Make sure you have something to grab and help you keep balance. 

When you feel comfortable, you can accelerate and brake deliberately. You can start lengthening the A to B distance in time.

Good luck.

[Clem604]

Getting a V13 as your first wheel is a tall task for sure, as others have mentioned. It might take you longer because of the V13's massive size and weight but I have no doubt you'll get there eventually if you commit a fair amount of time and effort to the learning process. The good thing about EUC's is your riding experience gets better as your skills mature and at some point you'll be at one with the wheel. I learned on my V11 and I thought THAT was difficult

For those of you who haven't seen the V13 in person, this picture kind of shows you just how large the wheel is. This pic was from the V13 demo and the person standing behind it is around 5'10

 

Edited January 26, 2023 by Clem604

[Uras]

1 hour ago, Josiah said:

off road capability

if it's not too tight and technical or too steep. Open fast stuff it will be awesome. This is simply a big wheel - the biggest. You're at one end of the spectrum. It wouldn't suit me for where I ride. If I ever bought something like this wheel, it would be a 2nd wheel for different use (long fast runs).

Edited January 26, 2023 by Uras