First post: My Second Ride, or How I Learned To Respect The Speed Cutoff

[Z-Rabbit]

Hey all I'm brand new, literally joined earlier today in excitement to ride a rental from a guy in the area. It's my second time on this particular wheel (Mten3), and I was making TONS of progress, compared to my first day, when I only managed to get on and ride it in a straight line twice after about 4 hours of attempt. Today I was riding, turning, getting used to going fast (although the top speed was locked to 16mph or so). I even rode over speed bumps. Obviously, I was feeling shit-hot.

Anyway, I decided to do one last lap before packing it in for the day, and leaned forward, hard. I went from zero to BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP in no time. By the time I registered the beeping, I was already airborne. I hit the ground pretty damn hard. Fortunately I didn't skimp on protection, and my elbows and hands (which hit first) are unscathed. But I rotated in midair, and SLAMMED my side into the asphalt.

Jesus I haven't made noises like that in a decade or more. It took a solid 5 minutes before I could collect myself enough to stop rolling around and making wounded animal sounds. After 10, I limped back to my car (I was practicing in a parking lot), and proceeded to whine at my dashboard until I got home.

Just some minor road rash, what I'm assuming will be a bitch of a bruise, and a pretty bad limp (walking upstairs is a chore, I tell ya). But today I learned an important lesson: listen to the damn beeps.

[meepmeepmayer]

Heyo!

I would say the real lesson here is that you need a more powerful wheel! Prepare your wallet Looks like you overpowered the mten3 with a combination of acceleration and speed. Good that you had the protective gear from the start and didn't have to "learn" that from this experience.

If you think EUCs are exciting, wait till you ride a "real" wheel and not the mten3.

Also, I recommend joining a group ride as soon as possible. There's just nothing better!

[Cerbera]

8 hours ago, Z-Rabbit said:

Jesus I haven't made noises like that in a decade or more. It took a solid 5 minutes before I could collect myself enough to stop rolling around and making wounded animal sounds. After 10, I limped back to my car (I was practicing in a parking lot), and proceeded to whine at my dashboard until I got home.

Yeah, the first crash tends to come as bit of a shock to the system, hey ? But it's all valuable XP, and as you say, you will have learned an important lesson here about not over-leaning or otherwise over-powering the wheel, and how much those 'unintentional dismounts' can hurt. Try and make all your control inputs to the wheel as slow and smooth as possible and really take your time to know the machine you are learning on, including its maximum 'safe' speed.

26 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Also, I recommend joining a group ride as soon as possible. There's just nothing better!

Not sure that's the greatest advice for someone just starting out, because the overall pace might be faster than you are used to, which could lead you to feel a certain amount of peer pressure to 'keep up', which in turn could lead to riding mistakes in the unexperienced, and the falls / cut-outs / crashes that sometimes follow them, especially if your machine is not up to the power and speed of the other riders, who tend to be on big, powerhouse type machines. The sense of community is great in group rides, and it's good to have people around you to help if it all goes wrong, but maybe try and find a group ride where there are also learners who tend to hang out at the back of the pack and take things at their own, more relaxed pace.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Cerbera

[meepmeepmayer]

Honestly, as soon as someone learns the first two things (being able to ride on the wheel, then being able to brake) I think they are ready for a group event. Does not have to be a super high speed chase. Just some meet-up.

[Cerbera]

23 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Honestly, as soon as someone learns the first two things (being able to ride on the wheel, then being able to brake) I think they are ready for a group event.

Ultimately I suppose it is down to the confidence of the individual rider. But I would still say there is some value in gaining at least a month's worth of riding solo in which to familiarise yourself with the 'terrain capabilities' of your wheel. You need to know how the wheel feels when you ride over a great range of surfaces - grass, cobbles, asphalt, trails, inclines, what (if any) steps and kerbs you and it can handle (or more importantly CAN'T handle!), gravel of varying sizes, sand, mud, wet or oily surfaces and sometimes just badly maintained roads and pathways. You may not have trained yourself for 'pothole watch' yet for example, which lays many a new rider low if you are not aware and especially if you are riding a non-suspension wheel.

I just think it's a good idea to know your wheel quite well before you start riding with other people, unless you are lucky enough to find a smaller group of newer riders, who can all help each other learn. I'd also recommend staying off roads until you have quite a lot of XP under your belt - you really don't want to be playing next to cars until you are really pretty confident you know what you are doing.

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Cerbera

[woke rider]

Nothing like getting the wind knocked out of you to remind us of our childhood. Please be careful @Z-Rabbit, you can definitely end up getting hospitalized in an accident on electric unicycles.

Edited June 29, 2023 by earthtwin
forgot a word

[mrelwood]

@Z-Rabbit, sorry to hear about your crash! Thank goodness you were protected. And lesson learned is indeed the fact that wheels have a limited amount of balancing power.

@Cerbera’s comments about not joining a group ride at the very beginning are definitely valid. The meetups and group rides seem to vary a lot per continent/area though. For example our group rides welcome new riders alike, and we adjust the speed accordingly. Or split to two groups. Even without those though, the meeting part of the day is very valuable and nice as well. We tend to just hang out and chat for up to two hours before the actual ride. And that is definitely an event I’d recommend to attend to the second you’re nothing more but just interested in EUCs.