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Are serious injuries rare with eu's?


trx123

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So I've spent the last couple of weeks reading posts and watching videos and learned a lot about eu's. Then today I saw the post here about a sudden cut out on a Nine bot that sent a guy to the hopsital. Years ago I fell like that when learning to ski but I fell on snow, not on hard pavement. So, how common are faceplants? Has anyone here been riding without a major fall?

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On my fourth time out on an EU,  I really started pushing it to the limits. I was practicing in an empty parking lot and trying to go as fast as possible. What I didn't plan on was the speed bump that jumped into my path ;) more quickly than I could react. (Okay, it wasn't the speed bump that was moving, it was only me.) So, entirely of my own accord I took a pretty serious fall. 

I was, however, wearing full protective gear. From the scratches on my helmet, wrist guards, knee and elbow pads, it's pretty clear I fell pretty hard. The gear worked, mostly, and I broke no bones. I did get some road rash on my shoulder, and forty days later my elbow and wrist still hurt somewhat due to some soft-tissue injuries.

I'm still out and about on my 9bot1 about every weekend, though. The accident was my own fault. The real lessons are:

1) Wear protective gear. Always. it's when your having the most fun that the worst will happen, and it may not be your own fault. (Either the EU's or a car?)

2) Know your limits and don't exceed them carelessly. You have to exceed them every once in a while to learn something new, though. Just don't be stupid about it like I was.

3) Go out and have fun on your EU. Mishaps happen, but they are part of life, and usually part of things that are a lot of fun. There are no rewards without some risk.

:D

 

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Most riders haven't experienced any major fall. If falls are so frequent, then no one would be interested with EUC's anymore. When my Ninebot got resurrected, what I noticed that might have contributed to the sudden forward tilt causing a fall is an uncalibrated unit.

When testing my Ninebot yesterday which has an unbalanced roll angle, I noticed that the pedals tilt more forward when doing acceleration and sudden turns. This was fixed by doing the manual calibration although I am still very cautious and need to do further testing.

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I broke my arm a few weeks ago but it could have been worse since I face-planted while coming off a curb and into the middle of a road. Luckily there were no cars coming at the time. Partly rider error and now I know to expect a faceplant on certain terrain, so I'm a lot more cautious but its the sort of thing that could just happen. Typically when I fell it was the one day I didn't have wristpads and a helmet on :(

A few other accidents - EUs have there risks but then so does bicycling.

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Bottom line is: if you come off at a speed faster than you can run you are going to fall on your face. The key, and there is plenty of discussion about it on this site, is protective gear. Fortunately, unlike hoverboards, which tend to very easily throw you off sideways - potentially into the path of a vehicle - you are most likely to come off forwards on an EUC and presumably that area will be clear if you were heading towards it at speed anyway. So with wrist, knee, elbow and head protection you should be OK if the worst happens. Only If you are going slow enough to run off, will you probably get away without protection.

So as to riding without a major fall, I bought a Kingsong 14C as it has the best safety reputation, in the 4 months I've been riding, at up to 16MPH, it has never come close to letting me down. However  a car turned into its drive directly in front of me without looking and, trying to brake too hard, I went down on my backside, spraining my wrist. At the very least I now always wear wrist guards!

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EUC carry the same risks as a regular bicycle as far as riding on the road goes. So try to avoid potholes, riding parallel to rail tracks, and turning sharply on wet roads to avoid any falls. The only thing unique though is not pushing the wheel pass the max power it can provide. Speed is a huge factor, but its not exclusive to it. Other factors include how much battery life is remaining (voltage level) and if you are going up or down an hill. But getting a good wheel that can give audible and physical feedback is key to remaining safe.

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You will fall while learning, no matter how good you think you may be. @dbfrese made some great points.

My worst fall was the day I actually put on my New helmet for the first time. I'm so glad I did too. It's saved me from a head injury and probably some serious cuts to the head.

My hands weren't as lucky as my wrist guards were still in the mail being delivered. Elbows too got some nice cuts as I didn't use my elbow pads even though I had them. I did use my knee pads which most likely saved my knees from getting torn up. My nice jeans however weren't so lucky along with my new jacket which sustained most of the damage from the asphalt. $90 jacket down the drain. Cuts along the back and shoulders, but lucky I didn't break my clavicle!

Learned it the hard way by not paying attention to the beeps that a lot of people on the forums complain about. But now, I listen to the beep. It took a long time to get myself back to riding faster then 23km/h. I usually cruise at 25km/h now days. Every once and a while I'll push it to past 30km/h but only if the battery is over 80% charged. I mostly stay under 30km/h

Getting face planted as speeds over 35km/h mph is no fun! I'm lucky I didn't sustain worst injuries.

My advice to all you new EUC speed demons, keep it aleast 5-8km/h under manufacturers max speed. What most people don't keep in mind is all the other variables that work against you and the EUC. Keeping the EUC running at the speeds close to max takes much more energy from the battery pack. And then you got to factor in wind speed against you, riders weight, battery size, etc. Too many riders don't factor these limitations into buying a EUC. 

Helmet, elbow, knee, and wrist guards with closed gloves are a must in my view. For those speed demons out there, a full protective suit and closed faced helmet is probably best! 

There is no redundancy in these wheels, so all you need is one component to fail and you better hope you not going faster then 16km/h when that happens because for some fast reacting people you'll be able to run it off. 

Those are my thoughts...

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A lot depends on what you consider a major injury.

Most times you can just step off or run of your mistakes but in the last year I've broken my nose and fractured my arm along with taking several large lumps of skin off my palms and various other parts of my body. I consider all these as minor injuries as non of them have involved a visit to the doctor or hospital.

Plus they've all been entirely my fault for becoming complacent and not paying enough attention to the surface I'm riding on. I've only had two wheel failures and both times it was more of an inconvenience than anything else as I've stayed on my feet and been left with the problem of how to return home.

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I think @NevNutz nailed it, his experience is similar to mine. Riding an EUC is fun and once you've gotten the hang of it the next thing you want to do is go  F A S T  because it's fun. That's how you find out the limits, and hopefully you don't hurt yourself in the process.

Wear protection. At this point I just wear a helmet and gloves, but also long pants and shirt because that helps with road rash in case I end up on the pavement. I've had a couple of high-speed crashes from overleaning, both while pushing the wheel too far. 

 

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The way I see it, these are these general categories that can cause falls, in order from most common to least common, imo.

1)Learning Period: Typically not bad falls because you aren't comfortable enough to be going very fast.

2)Your fault: Not paying attention when riding, and hitting a pothole or some obstruction.

3)Their fault: A pedestrian jumps in front of you or a car turns without looking.

4)Underpowered EU at its limit: I fell a lot because of this reason off my first EUC, a generic 14". I was going along at it's top speed (11 mph) and a slight change in elevation or a small bump would cause the EU to tip over. Thankfully the speed wasn't that high and you could tell it was tipping over so I was almost able to run off.

5)Normally powered EU at it's limit: My friend fell of his ninebot for this reason and broke his arm. He was going along when he hit a indentation in the road which caused him and the EU to start rocking back and forth. I've had this happen to me 3 times before and was able to save myself from going over, but he as he was trying to balance himself out, the ninebot's motor couldn't the extreme changes in direction and eventually gave out.

6)Firmware updates causing the Motherboard to fry: This has been a big issue with ninebot, and part of the reason I won't update the firmware anymore on mine.

7)Mechanical issues/cutoffs: Probably the rarest cause of a fall, but tend to cause the worst injuries because they happen unexpectedly and don't give your body much time to adjust to the fall.

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@Michael Vu said it well.

I'd add that after reading this thread you are already less likely to make a serious fall, if you're a cautious commuter minded person and have a decent wheel. If you're into downhill skiing and other fast sports, as many first wave EUC riders are, yes, you will fall while searching for the limits.

Another thing to remember is that there's under reporting: people with no falls are not looking for this thread and even if reading, may not bother to reply. The subject becomes hugely more interesting after your first bad fall. 

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10 minutes ago, Skara said:

Another thing to remember is that there's under reporting: people with no falls are not looking for this thread and even if reading, may not bother to reply. The subject becomes hugely more interesting after your first bad fall. 

I got six EUC's. No major fall so far. Knock on wood.

Edit:

I pray everyday for our safety. Maybe that helps.

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Some falls while Learning. Worst some strains in the hip. Always wear gloves, long pants and if in town, near cars or pushing limits a helmet.

I ended worst just running, with a wrist broken and skiing with ACL injuries, so no more dangerous that other sports but be very careful when in traffic, cars weight much more than you :(

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 0:38 AM, Paco Gorina said:

Some falls while Learning. Worst some strains in the hip. Always wear gloves, long pants and if in town, near cars or pushing limits a helmet.

I ended worst just running, with a wrist broken and skiing with ACL injuries, so no more dangerous that other sports but be very careful when in traffic,  cars weight much more than you :(

I can understand getting hurt while running or skiing. But those injuries are not usually due to equipment failure. My concern has to do with the wheel suddenly stopping and throwing you face down. They need to make them so that in case of motor or battery failure, the wheel slows down graciously. Until they get that done I'm out.

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27 minutes ago, trx123 said:

I can understand getting hurt while running or skiing. But those injuries are not usually due to equipment failure. My concern has to do with the wheel suddenly stopping and throwing you face down. They need to make them so that in case of motor or battery failure, the wheel slows down graciously. Until they get that done I'm out.

Broke an Ski ... Material failure. 

In. Ski mountaineering competitions broken skis, boots and bindings are quite usual, and not only in súper High level competitions.

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Broke one of my rips when learning EU

but: Riders fault!!! To stupid...Not enough experience! 

 

I have an 2 Wheel Ninebot Mini too...and also got  a Bad Fall where just it was just luck that nothing happend to me, was .because of an air loosing tyre!

so can hapen everywhere...one or two wheels...No matter...

best Choice is safety gear....

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7 hours ago, trx123 said:

They need to make them so that in case of motor or battery failure, the wheel slows down graciously. Until they get that done I'm out.

It may take several years to develop this safety measure. That would be a lot of  lost happy moments. Life is short.

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I read about a lot of unfortunate accidents by shutdowns here, so I might add to this with a positive fortunate unfortunate accident on a generic self balancing unicycle that actually left me in a better shape after.

It happened years ago on my first generic wheel. I was having a shoulder injury and couldn't raise my arm above my shoulder at the time so I was really careful while learning how to ride. But this wheel just gave out for no reason when coming out of a turn and smacked me shoulder first to the pavement. I was in shock (as this was my first time experiencing an unexpected shutdown) but quickly came to realise I could move my arms up above my shoulder again without any restrain or pain!

On a side note: I don't promote unexpected shutdowns, I think they are the devils work.

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On 3/15/2016 at 1:57 PM, trx123 said:

I can understand getting hurt while running or skiing. But those injuries are not usually due to equipment failure. My concern has to do with the wheel suddenly stopping and throwing you face down. They need to make them so that in case of motor or battery failure, the wheel slows down graciously. Until they get that done I'm out.

Then you will probably be out forever.  Physics will not allow this behavior with any balance remaining.  I guess you could always add another wheel in front or behind the powered wheel... ;)

On 3/16/2016 at 4:09 AM, Gimlet said:

My broken nose incident actually improved my breathing significantly and practically elliminated my previously loud snoring. :D  

 

On 3/16/2016 at 3:06 AM, Michael David de Gans said:

I was in shock (as this was my first time experiencing an unexpected shutdown) but quickly came to realise I could move my arms up above my shoulder again without any restrain or pain!

These things should be covered on our Medical Insurance Plans as Therapy Devices.  You guys are living proof that these can HEAL!

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I'm still pushing for them to be classified as mobility devices so that they can go everywhere those mobility scooters can.

As a 60 year old codger I certainly find it a lot easier than walking. :rolleyes:

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33 minutes ago, Gimlet said:

I'm still pushing for them to be classified as mobility devices so that they can go everywhere those mobility scooters can.

As a 60 year old codger I certainly find it a lot easier than walking. :rolleyes:

Honestly, that's a main reason I enjoy riding it. I used to run everywhere, but due to a health issue, I'm limited to walking about 1 mile or running 1/4 mile. 

On the wheel, I get to travel again and see the things I've missed out on for the past 10 years.  It truly is a blessing. 

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