A mini-guide for learning to ride with links to videos

[rcgldr]

Both Kuji Rolls and Wrong Way (Adam) recommend learning to ride using support to mount and launch before attempting free mount. Learning to ride first means you can just push the EUC and step on to free mount. It's less tiring and less prone to bruising of the inner calf.

If you have to bail, don't try to grab an EUC when it is out of control: wait for it to stop and shut off before picking it up. Eventually you'll want to be able to dismount under control by stepping off and leaving one foot on.

I recommend watching Kuji Roll's how to ride video of a girl learning to ride on a V8, with some modification to what is shown in the video. It's suggested to lower pressure to 25 psi, but that is due to the light weight of the girl in the video. 30 to 35 psi would be more typical, depending on rider weight and the EUC. Kuji shows some one foot glide drills, normally done to help with free mount, but in this case, the goal is to be able to step off and keep the EUC from rolling off into cars since they are in a parking lot (the girl never free mounts in Kuji's video). Kuji mentions using pressure on the inside toe to turn, but this would result in an EUC accelerating as well as turning. To turn, just tilt the EUC inwards which will steer due to camber effect (more on this below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6o8ZMlo5ko

As seen in Kuji's video when the girl first tries to ride, she uses her arms for balance, due to not riding quite fast enough. At 8:05 into the video, she riding at around 8 mph, fast enough that the V8 becomes stable, allowing her to relax her arms and essentially just stand still as the V8 becomes self-balancing due to camber effect while riding in a  straight line. A small imbalance will tilt and steer an EUC into the direction of imbalance and at sufficient speed, it is enough to become self-balancing.

Once at a stable speed, you can try out leaning forwards | backwards by small amounts to accelerate | decelerate, which shouldn't be an issue.

Next, learn to tilt steer (inner foot down, outer foot up), first small tilts to see how the EUC will respond, then try a weaving pattern, and then large radius turns.

Being able to tilt steer at various speeds and turning radius will take the longest to learn since a rider has to coordinate how much to tilt an EUC and how much to lean. I did a drill at as some specific speed on a long straight where I would lean left a bit, then tilt the EUC left enough to straighten up, and repeat to the right, weaving side to side while otherwise going straight. Later I extended the weave by only tilting enough to hold lean angle for a brief moment before tilting more to straighten up. I then repeated this drill at various speeds. The goal is to learn to tilt the EUC in direction of lean or imbalance such as getting hit by a cross-wind.

This is the video I used as a guide for tilt steering. The girl is on a S18, with minimal movement, no twisting, no carving (Marty Backe | Duf style but with turns), at around 15 mph or so, just leaning and tilting the S18, very stable. Due to the tire, speed, turning radius, ... , she tilts the S18 less than she leans:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRNMmeSP0ns&t=15s

For slow speed tight turns, the EUC is titled a lot while the rider barely leans.  You'll want to learn normal speed turns before trying this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqoNhGEhk2Y

Dawn Champion on a Commander GT Pro at 30 to 50 mph, tilting the GT Pro much less than she leans | hangs off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3aNqosYgG0&t=1170s

Wrong Way made a video on how tires affect the camber response to tilt. Some minor corrections, he mentions applying a force to the EUC, without explaining that this tilts the EUC. Tire radius is smallest at the edges and largest at the middle. When tilted, this difference causes the EUC to steer, called camber effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsXW4OKnmWc

To balance at slow speed, you can yaw (twist) steer via arm flailing (flail left to steer right and vice versa). Example of a 3 year old arm flailing.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z9YiHu5HJ6o

It's also possible to balance at slow speed using tilt steering, still with some arm movement, but this is an advanced skill. His feet are outwards on the pedals to allow the EUC to tilt more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4IdImdnUCA

Once you can basically ride, then to free mount (without support), just push the EUC forward with one foot on and step on with the other. In Wrong Way's video, Kate had already ridden 60 to 80 km using support before attempting free mount on a 77 lb Veteran Sherman as seen in his video and she gets it on her second try. In his video, he mentions riding with one foot for the smallest of bits, and quickly getting the second foot on. The foot and leg on the EUC need to be braced against the EUC to keep it from falling when mounting. The goal here is to quickly step on to minimize time spent riding on one foot rather than learning to truly ride on one foot, which is a skill a rider can learn later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW-y5RiecMc&t=634s

Once you can ride reasonably well, work on being able to look or move around without upsetting balance or changing direction. This allows a rider to look to the side or over the shoulder for traffic. Example video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5HB40I4C3g&t=440s

 

 

Edited April 23 by rcgldr

[skunkmonkey]

For self-starting I found a trick that helped a lot was to turn my knee inwards a bit (not the foot, just the knee), so that it was pressed tightly against the EUC when moving the EUC forward. This helped me to get more leverage to stand up straight, which is important because you'll have a hard time balancing if you're crouched over.

[rcgldr]

23 hours ago, skunkmonkey said:

For self-starting I found a trick that helped a lot was to turn my knee inwards a bit (not the foot, just the knee), so that it was pressed tightly against the EUC when moving the EUC forward. This helped me to get more leverage to stand up straight, which is important because you'll have a hard time balancing if you're crouched over.

I assume you mean free mount. Normally this isn't an issue if a rider has already learned to ride and stop by stepping off reasonably well. In Wrong Way's video, he mentions "you need to ride with the smallest of bits with one foot", so his strategy is to get the other foot on quickly, rather than trying to one foot glide for a second or longer. I'll update my post.

[skunkmonkey]

39 minutes ago, rcgldr said:

I assume you mean free mount.

Yeah, sorry for the poor terminology. I'm still pretty new to the sport so I don't have all the lingo down yet. I'm absolutely loving it though. I can really see this sport sucking me in!