Inmotion V14 Adventure: a new trail wheel from Inmotion

[Kmil]

1 hour ago, jmsjms said:

What does it look like: like a road tire, or is it knobby?

Mine like this.

And yes, follow this @Unventor thread to get more information about tire type for V14

 

 

[jmsjms]

For street riding with a street tire, would any of you pick the Lynx (with a street tire) if it was the same price as the V14?

[techyiam]

1 hour ago, jmsjms said:

For street riding with a street tire, would any of you pick the Lynx (with a street tire) if it was the same price as the V14?

I haven't ridden a V14 yet.

But, for the same price, it would be the Lynx for me, hands down.

 

[Bookmark]

1 hour ago, jmsjms said:

For street riding with a street tire, would any of you pick the Lynx (with a street tire) if it was the same price as the V14?

No clear choice for me - that's how good both of them are.  I'd have to ride each for many more miles before I could answer that question.

[techyiam]

8 minutes ago, Bookmark said:

No clear choice for me - that's how good both of them are.  I'd have to ride each for many more miles before I could answer that question.

Interesting collection of new wheels: Lynx, V14, & S16 Pro.

How would you rank them for street-use, just to get around, in terms of suspension action, acceleration & braking, and riding characteristics?

While riding, which wheel felt the lightest, and which wheel felt the heaviest?

[Bookmark]

42 minutes ago, techyiam said:

Interesting collection of new wheels: Lynx, V14, & S16 Pro.

How would you rank them for street-use, just to get around, in terms of suspension action, acceleration & braking, and riding characteristics?

While riding, which wheel felt the lightest, and which wheel felt the heaviest?

Lynx suspension (70lb) is just so buttery.  V14 not as great but still very nice.  Both are in a different class than the S16 Pro and priced accordingly.  The advantage of the S16pro is the portability and it feels the lightest to ride.  Next is the V14.  The V14 weighs almost as much as the Lynx but it is more compact in shape with lower pedals so it feels like a much lighter wheel. Out of the box, it has the best pedal setup with the best bite and the only one that allows you to modify the dihedral angle which I particular like. I feel the most planted on the V14. It is common knowledge that the Lynx is more prone to wheel wobbles due to high pedals (I've got the aftermarket pedal hangers but haven't installed it yet).

I've got the street tire on the Lynx but offroad tire on the V14 so riding street is better on the Lynx and the larger wheel diameter makes it a better cruiser. The V14 seems to brake and accelerate better plus you can better fine tune the assist options on the V14. Lynx is the best wheel for seated riding, no contest there. Lynx is better carver for me but, then again, it is probably the street tire.  I want to withhold judgement until I put a lot more miles on the wheels.

A nice thing about the Lynx tire is you can put a bluetooth tire sensor on it which you can get for ~$15 on Aliexpress.  The other wheels don't have a large enough wheel clearance to accept the sensor.

[Kmil]

Staying in a place where sudden weather changes are very common, I am concerned about being able to ride safely back during sudden heavy rain showers. How do you rank these 3 eucs, in terms of waterproofing? @Bookmark @techyiam

4 hours ago, techyiam said:

Interesting collection of new wheels: Lynx, V14, & S16 Pro.

 

[Duccen]

Interesting topic Lynx vs V14. Since I'm in the market for a new wheel I have been eyeballing these two options lately. The Lynx was the chosen one from the beginning but then the thought of riding in straight line is boring the search for now also includes off road capability. I like the versatility and build quality(?) of the Lynx but form factor and perhaps also suspension setup are better with more after market options for the V14.

Regarding waterproofing imo one need to ride/use the wheel for at least 1000h in wet or rain condition and then dissemble to check for leakages/damages before making a conclusion.

[techyiam]

3 minutes ago, Duccen said:

The Lynx was the chosen one from the beginning but then the thought of riding in straight line is boring the search for now also includes off road capability.

The Lynx has been out for a while. There are off-roaders who really like it for off-roading.

If you can, ride both before making a decision.

[Rawnei]

30 minutes ago, Duccen said:

Interesting topic Lynx vs V14. Since I'm in the market for a new wheel I have been eyeballing these two options lately. The Lynx was the chosen one from the beginning but then the thought of riding in straight line is boring the search for now also includes off road capability. I like the versatility and build quality(?) of the Lynx but form factor and perhaps also suspension setup are better with more after market options for the V14.

Regarding waterproofing imo one need to ride/use the wheel for at least 1000h in wet or rain condition and then dissemble to check for leakages/damages before making a conclusion.

Hate to join this topic derail train but how is aftermarket shocks and advantage? I don't see it, the fastace shocks are very good and don't need to be replaced. How is the suspension setup better? The v14 has same poor slider design as Begode and will require a lot of maintenance. The Lynx is an offroad monster with insane amount of torque.

 

The only reason to choose a V14 over a Lynx would be the smaller formfactor if that is your personal preference and perhaps price, but technically the Lynx is better on all other points.

[Bookmark]

8 hours ago, Kmil said:

Staying in a place where sudden weather changes are very common, I am concerned about being able to ride safely back during sudden heavy rain showers. How do you rank these 3 eucs, in terms of waterproofing? @Bookmark @techyiam

 

I have only ridden the Lynx in light rain and not opened up any of the wheels so I can only cite external sources for now.  The V14 is best based on IM's ipx claims. Then comes the Lynx.  The S16 is last based on a reviewer finding rust on an early model S16.  Unfortunately I don't remember where I saw this so please treat it as hearsay for now.

[Unventor]

16 hours ago, jmsjms said:

For street riding with a street tire, would any of you pick the Lynx (with a street tire) if it was the same price as the V14?

Nope never. I massively support Inmotion as a brand. Also it is more to how the brand created the product and how I as a customer can get support. And what level of trust (this is not blindly trust).

And then it comes down to weight and I don't need any more top speed.

[Unventor]

6 hours ago, Rawnei said:

The only reason to choose a V14 over a Lynx would be the smaller formfactor if that is your personal preference and perhaps price, but technically the Lynx is better on all other points.

Well I never even considered or will consider a GW/Begode/Liberkin or what these spin off brands are called these days. I am very sure we view this very different. And so be it. 

I just don't think it is fair to call the V14 a bad construction. The only thing I dislike in the way the V14 is build is the trolley handle. But Inmotion will apparently look into this and hopefully make a scorpion tail aftermarket option. But it is likely to take a little time as other things right now has higher priority (from my source inside Inmotion).

This is the lates update I got on this yesterday.

[mtl]

9 hours ago, Unventor said:

... I don't need any more top speed.

This point is a key reason why the V14 hit a sweet spot for me. Since the V14 and Lynx released around the same time, and while the V14 suffered delays and 1st batch glitches, the Lynx hype was getting intense, I considered switching my order to the Lynx. In the end I stayed with the V14, some of the reasons being things that don't show up well in a comparison of specs.

I try to keep my EUC profile low to avoid freaking people out too much. The Lynx is a beast and I suspect it looks intimidating to a casual observer. The V14 looks friendlier. That's important to me since I live in a building where people raise concerns about PEVs and the potential fire risk. Also my wife has valid concerns over my safety while riding. I imagined her taking one look at the Lynx, thinking it looks too dangerous, then googling it and finding YouTube thumbnails with garish claims of 50+ MPH. So in terms of size, looks, and top speed (which I am fine with), the V14 helps me manage perceptions. I've mentioned it elsewhere but the quieter charger also helps me avoid bringing further attention to the wheel.

All that said, there are purely technical reasons for me to prefer the V14. I like the idea of it being designed and tested to tolerate water spray (though a longer-term and independent assessment of the IP rating is needed). I like the headlight better. I don't (yet) do seated riding and so a more compact wheel is preferable. I like the idea of being able to experiment with different shocks down the road.

Hopefully Leaperkim and the Lynx will help push the industry toward reducing weight wherever possible. It seems the ability to tolerate a Hall sensor failure without a high speed cutout is making its way to other brands (I forget which other wheel added this feature). And a 14" rim seems to be better for stability (despite the wobble issues that people seem to be having on the Lynx).

[Rawnei]

You can like any wheel you like but feels that there are some mental gymnastics going on in here in rationalizing why the V14 would be "better" than the Lynx, I don't understand why you are even comparing them? You can just be happy with your choice no need to compare.

[Kmil]

1 hour ago, Rawnei said:

You can like any wheel you like but feels that there are some mental gymnastics going on in here in rationalizing why the V14 would be "better" than the Lynx, I don't understand why you are even comparing them? You can just be happy with your choice no need to compare.

Agree with you partly, this two models V14 and Lynx shouldn't be compared, mainly because they are not in the same category( rim size ).

But most riders don't have the option or like to keep and ride many wheels at the same time, so we're force to compare and choose one only for our need.

A lot of friends in local community riding Lynx w/o any issues at the time, few months back, m forced to decide between the V14 and Lynx too.  V14 was experiencing the @Forwardnbak dipping after jump firmware issue, comparing both is beneficial for those who need to make decision choosing one.

@mtl and @Unventor have some very good points why we choose V14. Everyone has different need. I will still be happy if I can keep an extra Lynx for mainly for off road hill rides and for its seat ready design.

[Ro.man]

Since I was preordering V14 in September, I didn’t know anything about Lynx and didn’t have this problem at that time ) However, after watching first reviews of Lynx, I started questioning my choice and even wanted to cancel the preorder in favor of Leaper Kim because I actually wanted a 20” wheel.

There were only 2 things I didn’t like about Lynx:

1. High pedals (I know you can lower them now, but at that point the solution wasn’t available).
2. Fastace suspension.

I actually prefer the design of fork-style suspension that Leaper Kim uses. It has less moving parts, meaning less things to worry about. I just don’t trust Fastace enough. That is probably similar to what @Unventor thinks about Begode. Coming from an MTB industry, I have only seen Fastace shocks on cheap bikes from Alibaba and never seen them on a quality product from a reputable brand. Out of the box v14 suspension works ok, but not great. I’m not a big fan of progressive springs with such low wheel travel, it just doesn’t have enogh travel to feel the light side of the spring. However, I realize why engineers limit travel to 85mm - increasing that number would raise pedal height and looks like that is what they tried to avoid.

I knew I could change the feel of suspension with a linear spring and a better shock. Looking ahead, I have actually ordered a new shock and even tried fitting it and having a small test ride. Spoiler alert - the difference was substantial! However, it didn’t fit well with stock hardware, as there was a noticeable play and in suspension it is not acceptable. So I had to order a custom hardware for that shock. The problem is that Fastace use an older 12mm mounting standard, most modern shocks use 12.7mm hardware. After I receive the hardware and install the new shock again I will publish a detailed review here.

[Rawnei]

3 minutes ago, Ro.man said:

Since I was preordering V14 in September, I didn’t know anything about Lynx and didn’t have this problem at that time ) However, after watching first reviews of Lynx, I started questioning my choice and even wanted to cancel the preorder in favor of Leaper Kim because I actually wanted a 20” wheel.

There were only 2 things I didn’t like about Lynx:

1. High pedals (I know you can lower them now, but at that point the solution wasn’t available).
2. Fastace suspension.

I actually prefer the design of fork-style suspension that Leaper Kim uses. It has less moving parts, meaning less things to worry about. I just don’t trust Fastace enough. That is probably similar to what @Unventor thinks about Begode. Coming from an MTB industry, I have only seen Fastace shocks on cheap bikes from Alibaba and never seen them on a quality product from a reputable brand. Out of the box v14 suspension works ok, but not great. I’m not a big fan of progressive springs with such low wheel travel, it just doesn’t have enogh travel to feel the light side of the spring. However, I realize why engineers limit travel to 85mm - increasing that number would raise pedal height and looks like that is what they tried to avoid.

I knew I could change the feel of suspension with a linear spring and a better shock. Looking ahead, I have actually ordered a new shock and even tried fitting it and having a small test ride. Spoiler alert - the difference was substantial! However, it didn’t fit well with stock hardware, as there was a noticeable play and in suspension it is not acceptable. So I had to order a custom hardware for that shock. The problem is that Fastace use an older 12mm mounting standard, most modern shocks use 12.7mm hardware. After I receive the hardware and install the new shock again I will publish a detailed review here.

 

FastAce suspension really isn't that complicated, not a lot of things can go wrong, if you want you can switch the oil seals to quality SKF seals and put any oil you want in there and then you're set for a lifetime, doesn't require more than that.

Or you can just ride with stock oil seals and oil until a potential oil leak then do the maintenance (which is completely normal maintenance for shocks), a lot of people put many kilometers on the stock fastace shocks with no maintenance at all and they are super easy to service unlike other shocks so I don't get where the worry comes from.

[Ro.man]

56 minutes ago, Rawnei said:

FastAce suspension really isn't that complicated, not a lot of things can go wrong, if you want you can switch the oil seals to quality SKF seals and put any oil you want in there and then you're set for a lifetime, doesn't require more than that.

Or you can just ride with stock oil seals and oil until a potential oil leak then do the maintenance (which is completely normal maintenance for shocks), a lot of people put many kilometers on the stock fastace shocks with no maintenance at all and they are super easy to service unlike other shocks so I don't get where the worry comes from.

That is more irrational. However, the way Fastace shock on V14 works out of the box - it has a lot of room for improvement. Both in comfort and responsivity.

[Rawnei]

1 hour ago, Ro.man said:

That is more irrational. However, the way Fastace shock on V14 works out of the box - it has a lot of room for improvement. Both in comfort and responsivity.

Now I'm confused, you mentioned Fastace in relation to Lynx and that was the context I replied to.

[Unventor]

So to clarify why I talked about the Lynx @Rawnei is why to were dishing the V14 suspension compared to the Lynx. 

As what I seek in suspension I don't need a American 50ish car feel that is on a magic carpet of air. I mainly seek to take out the spike of an impact. So it help me to feel connected and what speed and forces that are at play when it isn't too cushion feel to the suspension. 

If Fastace parts are good or bad and if so why I can't tell. It is out of my experience zone. So I decided to go with what Inmotion provide. It works for me. The big part here is getting something at low maintenance as possible for me. And that is why I didn't get an airshock system. I am in the mindset that progressive shock system is a better router to avoid bottoming out since I have no understanding of how the link system work, if it is liniar or progressive.

Since I mostly do commuting rides and light trails I don't think I am stressing the suspension that much and at the speed side I most ride around 35 to 40kmh occasionally hitting 45kmh (my beep setting, locked for 50kmh top speed).

As for rim size I kinda like to have had a V11 sized rim, but the V14 is actually much better than I expected. This is probably down to the power or torque of the V14. It never get pushed to its limits from how I use it.

As others has mentioned the weather proofing of the V14 is a sales point for me. It has been like this ever since I got water damage on my KS16X. And since I started to use EauC in almost all weather, all 4 seasons. And this is what Inmotion started to improve with the V11 and going forward.

People chose their model of EUC. What I argue here is why I am happy with my V14. I don't have the luxury to do teardown of all models or do long test rides over long time. So what th this in mind I am happy with my choice.

On a side note. Inmotion is going to a fare/event in Hongkong mid April. If they are bring new stuff there ai don't know (yet). But it is part reason why a aftermarket trolley for V14 is not right around the corner just yet. But it is something that is looked at later from what I understand of the last status I got from Inmotion.

[Rawnei]

46 minutes ago, Unventor said:

So to clarify why I talked about the Lynx @Rawnei is why to were dishing the V14 suspension compared to the Lynx. 

As what I seek in suspension I don't need a American 50ish car feel that is on a magic carpet of air. I mainly seek to take out the spike of an impact. So it help me to feel connected and what speed and forces that are at play when it isn't too cushion feel to the suspension. 

If Fastace parts are good or bad and if so why I can't tell. It is out of my experience zone. So I decided to go with what Inmotion provide. It works for me. The big part here is getting something at low maintenance as possible for me. And that is why I didn't get an airshock system. I am in the mindset that progressive shock system is a better router to avoid bottoming out since I have no understanding of how the link system work, if it is liniar or progressive.

Since I mostly do commuting rides and light trails I don't think I am stressing the suspension that much and at the speed side I most ride around 35 to 40kmh occasionally hitting 45kmh (my beep setting, locked for 50kmh top speed).

As for rim size I kinda like to have had a V11 sized rim, but the V14 is actually much better than I expected. This is probably down to the power or torque of the V14. It never get pushed to its limits from how I use it.

As others has mentioned the weather proofing of the V14 is a sales point for me. It has been like this ever since I got water damage on my KS16X. And since I started to use EauC in almost all weather, all 4 seasons. And this is what Inmotion started to improve with the V11 and going forward.

People chose their model of EUC. What I argue here is why I am happy with my V14. I don't have the luxury to do teardown of all models or do long test rides over long time. So what th this in mind I am happy with my choice.

On a side note. Inmotion is going to a fare/event in Hongkong mid April. If they are bring new stuff there ai don't know (yet). But it is part reason why a aftermarket trolley for V14 is not right around the corner just yet. But it is something that is looked at later from what I understand of the last status I got from Inmotion.

I'm not the one doing the comparisons here, I am just replying to various statements being made about the Lynx in comparison to the V14, as I already wrote be happy with your choice and stop comparing.

[Ro.man]

4 hours ago, Rawnei said:

Now I'm confused, you mentioned Fastace in relation to Lynx and that was the context I replied to.

That is correct. Both wheels have Fastace suspensions out of the box. However, I can only talk about the one on V14, because I have never ridden Lynx.
Stock V14 suspension is based on a cheap MTB shock. Like with cheap mountain bikes, it would work well for the majority of the customers, including those who do jumps and drops, all because the spring is rather stiff.  However, based on my previous experience with both cheap and expensive forks and shocks on bikes, I will confidently say there is a significant difference between them. It would be cool if Inmotion or Veteran, or any other EUC brand would offer Tier 1 brand suspension in stock or as an option. Before that happened, I would prefer the opportunity to upgrade. 

[UniVehje]

35 minutes ago, Ro.man said:

It would be cool if Inmotion or Veteran, or any other EUC brand would offer Tier 1 brand suspension in stock or as an option. Before that happened, I would prefer the opportunity to upgrade. 

The best would be to offer a cheaper version without any shock included. It could also come without a tire, pedals and pads. All these are usually changed by enthusiasts anyway. Now all these go to waste. Of course they need to offer a full set also. It would be difficult to compete on price among normies if they included a 500 € shock. 

[mtl]

Any two wheels can be compared as long as they meet one's minimum needs. All features / capabilities beyond that are a bonus, open up new riding style possibilities, give future resale potential, etc.

In the case of Lynx / V14, the Lynx is touted as an excellent "all-rounder", and the V14 can be bought with either street, off-road, or hybrid tire and a firmer or softer coil suspension. So there is overlap in their usages.

But if your needs are on the extreme end of either torque or speed, then you probably wouldn't be comparing these two wheels against each other. In that case you may be comparing V14 vs. Patton, or Lynx vs ET Max. And similarly for other key differences such as range or rim size.