What is the likelihood of Hydroplaning?

[HiddenPrior]

So yesterday I had my first wipeout, and I'm still trying to piece together what happened. I was riding my inmotion V8S home from work after the rain had stopped.  I had been pretty cautious for most of the trip, but on the second to last intersection I had to cross to get home I took it pretty fast so I could get across the crosswalk before the walk time expired. There was no bike path here so I had to go up on the sidewalk, which had a small ramp with a small puddle accumulated at its base.

I tried to slow down as I approached, but this may have been my undoing since after I hit the puddle it is all a blur, but in one swift motion the wheel went right out from under me and I landed perfectly far on my back, with my backpack failing to catch any of my weight.

I was wearing a helmet and wrist guards, though I'm pretty sure my head didn't even touch the ground, just my back. The wind was knocked totally out of me, and I couldn't breathe for probably about 20 seconds, though it felt much longer than that.

It hurt a LOT.

The wheel had flown ahead about 25-30 feet, maybe further, and the outer and inner casing on the right side was damaged. As far as I could tell though, the internals are fine and I was able to wheel it the rest of the way home using the trolley handle. I will need to inspect the batteries though before I consider seriously using it again.

After I could breathe, and checked I was able to articulate my spine carefully, I slowly made my way to the wheel and picked up the pieces of broken plastic that had come off it.

I was going between 15-20 mph (as 21 is the top speed on the V8S) and I ended with pretty major bruising on my back/ribs, and bleeding abrasions on my lower back and elbows. The wrist guards probably saved me from a serious wrist sprain at the least, and though the helmet actually probably made no difference, I am very glad I was wearing one.

The question I am still wrestling with, and why I am here, is I'm trying to figure out what happened. I'm not a very experienced rider, as I have only been riding for about 3 weeks, but I have about 120 miles on that wheel, and another 40 on a V12 High Torque someone lent me. I ride a lot between commuting and Uber deliveries I have been doing for fun. Every other time I have run into a bump or had instability I have usually been able to recover, or worst case bail from the wheel, but what set this incident apart is that as far as I can tell it was instantaneous. I didn't have even a moment to recover or react before I was falling.

My best guess as to what happened is that there was silt or mud in the puddle that caused me to lose traction while leaning back. The wheel kept going and probably spun faster trying to recover balance, which didn't help since traction was already gone.

My girlfriend however has an alternate hypothesis, that I hydroplaned upon hitting the puddle, which had a similar effect. This seems unlikely to me, given the skinnyness of the V8S wheel, and my relatively low speed, but it happened quickly enough to be that way.

The other hypothesis is that some sort of malfunction took place, and the wheel, maybe trying to regain traction or something, simply accelerated forward while I was leaning back.

Either way, the result was some pretty gnarly damage to the wheel casing and a very painful set of bruises, it hurts to breathe still and work has been pretty miserable.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why I may have lost traction so suddenly, and most importantly what I should do in the future to prevent that from happening again?

[Cerbera]

46 minutes ago, HiddenPrior said:

Does anyone have any ideas as to why I may have lost traction so suddenly, and most importantly what I should do in the future to prevent that from happening again?

That's the troubles with puddles - you can't see what's under 'em... if you're lucky it'll be asphalt, and if not it'll be literally anything else - mud, leaves, wet grass, even perhaps a massive hole or crack in the road ! I suspect mud personally, which is always dicey on the smaller EUCs. Usually we slip out the side on that tho, rather than the wheel running on. Anyway, sorry to hear you crashed, and may your recovery be swift...

Edited October 3, 2023 by Cerbera

[Scubadragonsan]

I have owned and riden different brands of wheels. Every wheel seems to ride differently. Speaking of InMotion, I own an InMotion V10F and found that it reacts extremely bouncy when hitting bumps that I don't find with my other brands. What that has led to is that I was going up a slanted curb about 7mph and the wheel bounced me off from the pedals, I fell. There was no hydroplane or wetness on the ground. Now I have becoming extremely cautious when using V10F going over uneven surface. Could it be something about the make/nature of the wheel?

Edited October 3, 2023 by Scubadragonsan

[Mono]

The remedy is pretty straight forward: don't ride through puddles or potholes at 20mph unless you have done exactly this already at 5mph, 10mph, and 15mph without any problem. In fact, don't do pretty much anything at 20mph unless you have done it already successfully at various lower speeds.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Mono

[The Brahan Seer]

21 hours ago, HiddenPrior said:

but what set this incident apart is that as far as I can tell it was instantaneous.

Another possible cause is you over powered the wheel just as you hit the puddle and started to slow down. What was the battery percentage?, 

[Poker]

Yeah trust your gut feeling @HiddenPrior no way you were hydroplaning. I've driven motorcycles much faster with about the same weight on the wheel and with an slightly wider tire without hydroplaning. Unless you weigh maybe 10kg or something.

[HiddenPrior]

1 hour ago, The Brahan Seer said:

Another possible cause is you over powered the wheel just as you hit the puddle and started to slow down. What was the battery percentage?, 

That is a good point, considering the V8S is only a 1000W motor. It was about 65-70%, so not in the sub 20℅ danger zone, but it probably wasn't capable of max wattage either.

The only reason I'm not sure about a cutout/overpower, is I think the wheel was on for a minute after I fell, based on where it ended up I think it did a few flips before the safety kicked in.

I'm not familiar with he mechanics of cutouts or overpowering though, so maybe it was able to turn back on.

58 minutes ago, Poker said:

Yeah trust your gut feeling @HiddenPrior no way you were hydroplaning. I've driven motorcycles much faster with about the same weight on the wheel and with an slightly wider tire without hydroplaning. Unless you weigh maybe 10kg or something.

That is helpful. I am pretty sure there was mud or leaves or something that were obscured from me.

[The Brahan Seer]

19 minutes ago, HiddenPrior said:

I'm not familiar with he mechanics of cutouts or overpowering though, so maybe it was able to turn back on.

In an overlean the power stays on. Its just the wheel has not enough power to keep you upright at that instant in time. So it drops you instantly. You can create an overlean at any % battery rate if you try hard enough. So even at 60% on a small capacity battery this can be easily done. 

If you jump from the V12 to your V8 it would make it very easy to do without realising too with the power differences and all. 

I'm not saying this definitely happened to you but certainly might have.

[OldSolo]

Was there a paint stripe at the edge of the road?  Decades ago I learned about wet paint strips on motorcycles.  Instant slick spot, and if you are at all off balance (forces not going straight down) tires easily slide.

[HiddenPrior]

2 hours ago, OldSolo said:

Was there a paint stripe at the edge of the road?  Decades ago I learned about wet paint strips on motorcycles.  Instant slick spot, and if you are at all off balance (forces not going straight down) tires easily slide.

There actually was a lot of paint, as it was a crosswalk area. Not sure if that was it, but certainly a possibility.

[Nostris]

No..there is absolutely no chance you could get a V8, or any other wheel to aquaplane. It must have been something else..paint or mud..under the water. When riding..always expect the worst! ..it comes with experience.which comes with a few years and many miles of riding!