cannot hop up on peddles.

[tjcooper]

I have a new MoHoo.  put on all the safety equipment and try to lean against a hand rail to get started.  I cannot hop up on the second peddle.  I put my right foot flat on the right peddle and have arch in center of peddle.  I stand up straight and hold onto strap.  I try to "hop up" with left foot on left peddle.  The unit falls over to the right before the left foot makes it to the peddle.  The only way I can get moving is to put right peddle all the way to ground.  Step on it leaning over,  then take left foot and put it on left peddle which is now high up in the air.  When I come down with my weight on left side, the eu levels out and I can move forward and backward.   Why can I not just hop up with left foot?  Much thanks.

   tjcooper

[Frankman]

@tjcooper  Take  a look at this video, please. Perhaps it may help.

 

[dbfrese]

I'd forget about the strap -- it adds just another thing to think about while you are mastering a new skill. Keep the leg that is already on the pedal tight against the side of the EU. The EU can only go so far when its tight against you leg. Use that leg to leverage the weight of your upper body against the EU. Honest, it won't fall over when you make the attempt to step on it. It WILL give you plenty of time to get the foot on the ground onto the pedal.

My initial problem was I tried to do it too fast, thinking it would just fall over and take me with it if I didn't get on fast enough. Take your time, try it over and over again and you will see that it is a lot simpler than you think. Don't get psyched-out by it!

 

 

[Paddylaz]

11 hours ago, tjcooper said:

"I stand up straight and hold onto strap"

Things in life that aren't your friend:

1) alcohol

2) drugs

3) 'friends' who only contact you when they need something

4) credit cards

5) Donald trump

6) THE STRAP.

7) THE STRAP. AGAIN.

 

 

 

(lose the strap ?)

 

 

[dmethvin]

Don't pay attention to @Paddylaz, I use this strap all the time so I can hold my beer while riding. 

[MetricUSA]

Hopping on is a quick and semi precision act, a strap, wall, or pole will help you. When the left or right foot is on pedal, keep it still but do not put any weight on it, the hop up should not move the wheel, expect when you push with forward momentum, and obviously try not to flip the petal up or you never land on it, that happens occasionally...

[Gimlet]

A good exercise to give you the right action for getting your second foot on the pedal is to put a paper/card type egg tray on the bottom step of some stairs, put one foot on it and try getting the second foot up onto the step without crushing the egg tray. You are basically hopping up rather than stepping up onto the second pedal.

[Vanquiz]

Let's step it up further, shall we? LOL

 

2 hours ago, Gimlet said:

A good exercise to give you the right action for getting your second foot on the pedal is to put a paper/card type egg tray on the bottom step of some stairs, put one foot on it and try getting the second foot up onto the step without crushing the egg tray. You are basically hopping up rather than stepping up onto the second pedal.

 

[tjcooper]

On 3/4/2016 at 3:46 PM, Gimlet said:

A good exercise to give you the right action for getting your second foot on the pedal is to put a paper/card type egg tray on the bottom step of some stairs, put one foot on it and try getting the second foot up onto the step without crushing the egg tray. You are basically hopping up rather than stepping up onto the second pedal.

Gimlet,

your description sounds like a good test but I am not sure I understand the mechanics of it.  Let us say that the ground floor is "step 0" and the first step will be called "step 1".  You are saying to put the egg tray on "step 1" and stand two footed on "step 0".  Then take your left foot and gently put it on top the the egg tray on "step 1" but put so little pressure that the egg tray does not deform.  Then comes the hop with right foot.  Your goal is to get the right foot on top of the egg tray on "step 1" quickly enough so that the left foot does not crush the tray before the right foot gets up on top of the egg tray?  And when the right foot does get up there, you will crush the egg tray with both feet when the full static pressure is applied?   Do I have the right mechanics here?

 

Today in the pouring rain here in California I took the unit into a brand new clean parking garage and tried to use the training wheels to get started.  The "sidwalk" beside the parking garage walls was so wide I could not push against the wall to get balance.  But just hopping up I did get "landed" on both petals to the point where I got balance and the MoHoo did move forward.  I was finally able to get moving when I positioned my feet "way far forward" on the petals so that I could get the angle of the petals pushed down far enough so that the gyro indicated that unit would move forward.  I had no idea that I had to put my feet so far forward on the petals in order to get enough "tilt" to make unit go forward.  In 20 minutes of riding I was able to go up and down the slight parking garage ramp and do circles so that I could repeat the path.  Now I need to get enough balance so that I can hop up without the training wheels on.   My guess is 4-5 more training sessions.

    tjcooper

[Gimlet]

If you want to use the same egg tray more than once your second foot needs to land on the step alongside the tray, not on it.

Lose the training wheels, long term they're holding back your learning process!

[tjcooper]

Gimlet,

so that is why all the egg trays are flat now.......LOL.  I was able to get three sessions in today because the rain went away.  Biggest lesson learned: need to put 1st foot on petal with toes extending beyond the front edge by at least 3-4 inches.  Then make sure the 2nd foot tries to match that forward placement.  When I got both feet on far forward it was a piece of cake to coast forward and keep the balance.  Never saw anyone on the YouTube videos indicate how far forward you needed to stand.  That was so critical for me.  Couple of more sessions with training wheels and then they go away.   Tried lowering my hand and making the strap go "limp".  Can probably get rid of that after the training wheels go.

 

Found a neat device on Amazon that allows me to easily monitor the charging to know total voltage, current, watts, and energy (W/hours).  Was easy to add to the original charger.  Nominal state when LiPo are full is a 20 milliamp residual charge.  Will detail device and hookup if anyone interested.  Cost was only $16.

  tjcooper

[SlowMo]

43 minutes ago, tjcooper said:

Found a neat device on Amazon that allows me to easily monitor the charging to know total voltage, current, watts, and energy (W/hours).  Was easy to add to the original charger.  Nominal state when LiPo are full is a 20 milliamp residual charge.  Will detail device and hookup if anyone interested.  Cost was only $16.

Can you please show us the link?

[Keith]

11 hours ago, tjcooper said:

 Biggest lesson learned: need to put 1st foot on petal with toes extending beyond the front edge by at least 3-4 inches.  Then make sure the 2nd foot tries to match that forward placement.  When I got both feet on far forward it was a piece of cake to coast forward and keep the balance.  Never saw anyone on the YouTube videos indicate how far forward you needed to stand.  That was so critical for me. 

When you are cruising, I.e. neither accelerating or decelerating your centre of gravity needs to be over the middle of the wheel, not surprisingly the CofG will be down through your knees and calves, so they need to be centred on the wheel. You may have noticed your feet stick out more in front of your legs then behind them - that is why they need to be more forward than you might think.

HOWEVER, DO NOT OVER DO IT. Practice stopping fast as well as moving forward. If your feet are too far forward you will find it difficult to slow down, it goes without saying I hope that that can get you into trouble. If your feet are in the right place, you should be able to accelerate and decelerate equally and it should be possible, when only one leg is on the wheel (I.e. Whilst mounting) to control the wheel so it doesn't try to shoot away from you in either direction.

P.S. I disagree with @Paddylaz about the strap, it must not be used as a balance aid but for the first few weeks as you pass through overconfidence, if you are riding anywhere where an out of control wheel might do expensive damage, for example to parked cars or pedestrians  then the strap allows you to keep the wheel under control by lifting it off the ground if you fall off (at this time you should be still slow enough to stay on your feet for most falls). I even found that it stopped me from flying off too fast forwards by sort of acting like an anchor on my wrist when I tried to drive over too big a tree root. I stopped using it after about a month.

[tjcooper]

Here is the DROK unit on Amazon that I used:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017FSED9I?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01

just cut off the DIN 3 connector  But first measure which pin is + and which is -.

then put the + into the DROK + clamp for LOAD and the minus into the -.  Next put the Wall Wart wires into the DC source connectors.  Again, being sure to put + to + line and - to - line.

Then put on the AC power and use DC multimeter at the 200 vDC level to verify that you are still getting the right power polarity.  Then connect to unicycle.  You have to push and hold the button on face of DROK until it says "clr", then quickly within 2 seconds release and re-push the button.  That resets the energy reading.   Works very well and shows you the voltage (up to 67.2 vDC) which charging the LiPo.  Note that the amps never goes over 2 amps.....if it does stop charging immediately.

 

The same company, DROK, on Amazon has a DC to DC booster unit that I use to convert 12 vDC from a car to the 67.2 vDC to charge the unicycle.  But you must be very very careful to not allow output voltage to go over 67.2 volts DC for a 16S battery pack.  That could cause a fire.  Using it with the display system above lets you see all the parameters while charging.

I have found a difficult time finding the 3 pin DIN connectors (male and female) used on the unicycles.  Does anyone have a good cheap source?  Right now buying the 24vDC charger for scooters off of Amazon is my cheapest source for the DIN.

     tjcooper

[tjcooper]

UPDATE:  the previous ref to AMAZON was wrong unit.  Here is DROK unit that does ENERGY display also:

http://www.amazon.com/DROK-Digital-Multimeter-Amperage-Backlight/dp/B015XVU1J0/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1457385636&sr=1-1-fkmr3&keywords=drok+power+meter+internal+shunt

 

Please note: there is one product with the 100amp shunt external.  There is a 2nd one with 100 amp shunt internal.   It is much easier and better to use the unit that has the shunt internal.

no idea why they changed the URL in my orders list.

    tjcooper

[esaj]

15 hours ago, tjcooper said:

Here is the DROK unit on Amazon that I used:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017FSED9I?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01

just cut off the DIN 3 connector  But first measure which pin is + and which is -.

then put the + into the DROK + clamp for LOAD and the minus into the -.  Next put the Wall Wart wires into the DC source connectors.  Again, being sure to put + to + line and - to - line.

Then put on the AC power and use DC multimeter at the 200 vDC level to verify that you are still getting the right power polarity.  Then connect to unicycle.  You have to push and hold the button on face of DROK until it says "clr", then quickly within 2 seconds release and re-push the button.  That resets the energy reading.   Works very well and shows you the voltage (up to 67.2 vDC) which charging the LiPo.  Note that the amps never goes over 2 amps.....if it does stop charging immediately.

 

The same company, DROK, on Amazon has a DC to DC booster unit that I use to convert 12 vDC from a car to the 67.2 vDC to charge the unicycle.  But you must be very very careful to not allow output voltage to go over 67.2 volts DC for a 16S battery pack.  That could cause a fire.  Using it with the display system above lets you see all the parameters while charging.

I have found a difficult time finding the 3 pin DIN connectors (male and female) used on the unicycles.  Does anyone have a good cheap source?  Right now buying the 24vDC charger for scooters off of Amazon is my cheapest source for the DIN.

     tjcooper

Hobby16 has created a device specifically meant for measuring voltage, milliamphours / watthours and current while charging:

The typical connector type used in the wheels is GX16-3:

Available for example here (2 pairs for 3€ / little over 3USD):

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-2Pair-4Pcs-GX16-GX16-3-3P-3Pin-16mm-Male-Female-Wire-Panel-Connector-plug/32580579005.html

 

[tjcooper]

Gimlet,

I owe you a strong apology.  From your description of the "egg carton hop" I did not appreciate that you were saying to put your 1st foot on top of egg carton and then have the 2nd foot "hop up" and get on the step with the 1st foot not coming down on egg carton and crushing it.  I assumed this was a 1st foot "beside" the egg carton.

An expert EUC friend this weekend rode my MoHoo at the flight field and said it really performed well for him....but he did not ride it long enough to experience the "unexpected stop" I have documented in other threads.  But he did try to train me on the "hop up".  He described it as "both feet hop straight up in the air" and land on the petals.  But the 1st foot just stays in position above the petal, becomes totally unweighted for a few milliseconds while the 2nd foot makes its way up to the petal height, and then both feet come down with equal weight on the 2 petals.   I did not appreciate that the "hop up" is both feet going up in the air.....one goes 120mm high....the other goes 1 mm high.   When I re-read your egg carton description, I now appreciate that your description is saying the same thing.

I have practiced it for the past two days and I am finally starting to get the timing right.  Now the next big task is to get the position of the 2nd foot in the right x,y position of the petal.  So maybe we should rephrase the "hop up" task to be a "jump up" task because both feet need to become air borne.  Much thanks.

    tjcooper

[Gimlet]

Great that you're getting an idea of the technique required.

It does take a bit of practice and it is possible to get up with some pressure on the first foot but any pressure needs to be braced by your leg against the wheel as in one legged riding.

To practice this alternative mounting method just try scooting the wheel one footed and don't actually put your second foot in place. This does put a lot more pressure and bruises on the inside of your leg.

In practice I believe most people use a combination of both techniques.

[Rehab1]

I did use a strap during my initial training as I wanted to focus entirely on how to learn to ride and not worry about damaging my Ninebot. The only difference was I looped the strap through my belt on my pants. I left enough slack so I could stand up straight. This left my hands free entirely free. 

[Gimlet]

5 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

I did use a strap during my initial training as I wanted to focus entirely on how to learn to ride and not worry about damaging my Ninebot. The only difference was I looped the strap through my belt on my pants. I left enough slack so I could stand up straight. This left my hands free entirely free. 

That's the way we all did it when we started.

We continued using the strap as a safety device in crowded areas for the safety of others for quite some time.

[Chuts]

Maybe you should try the skateboard mount instead.  Some people find that easier to do, as you would expect stand on the pedal with your stronger leg.  Use your other leg to push to generate some forward momentum.  When you need to step forward with the pushing leg instead of pushing on the ground again step onto the pedal instead.

[electricunicyclelady]

I learned by watching this video: 

I hope it helps.

[Skara]

On 1 June 2016 at 10:33 AM, Gimlet said:

That's the way we all did it when we started.

We continued using the strap as a safety device in crowded areas for the safety of others for quite some time.

Having now taught about 20 people to ride, I quite confidently say the fastest way to learning is having two friends who jog along on both sides so you can lean on their shoulders for support. Since the wheel is more stable at higher speeds, you figure out more quickly how the balancing works. Then you can start learning to ride slowly on your own, which is much harder. If you are on your own in the beginning it takes maybe four times as long. And it's more fun with friends!

Details: 

 

[tjcooper]

UPDATE for tjcooper:

much thanks to all the people who gave various ideas and hints on how to "hop up" on the petals.  I can now ride at least 100' with no problems...need more practice....need more practice...definitely need more practice.  I wanted to share what I learned thus far:

1) don't buy a cheap EUC that cannot support your weight.  I am 100kG and the MoHoo I had was a disaster, and it quickly introduced me to the wonderful world of "face plants".  I put the videos of the "abrupt stop" on YouTube where you can see me riding around in a straight line and the wheel just stops dead with no cause or reason.  I switched over to a Ninebot E+ and the difference was night and day.  I am still trying to fix the MoHoo for my son who weighs much less, but this is just a scientific curiosity to see if the MoHoo can be made to work properly.

2) use the "V" angle between the leg on the petal and the leg on the ground.  It is essential to holding your CofG has you step up.

3) push forward with the leg on the ground smoothly.  This gives you the right momentum and the right forward lean when you get on the second petal to keep forward motion.  Just "hopping up" can get you on the 2 petals, but with no forward motion you will just become unbalanced and fall over sideways.   On the MoHoo, it had such poor gyro leveling for my weight that when I hopped up, the unit would not stay level and would roll out from under my feet either forward or backward.  This "rider finds the ground" action really caused me to want a pillow on my tail end when the wheel goes out forward.   With the Ninebot, the petals stay absolutely level no matter how hard I jump on the petals.  That ability to land on both petals with the petals flat was the largest improvement in learning how to ride.

4) stand up straight on both petals as soon as you have forward momentum.  It keeps you legs straight (mostly) and  now you balance with your arms and shoulders.....not your legs.  With the erect position, I move forward faster and need less shifting to keep my balance.   Turning changes the rules.  You need to crouch and push down on one leg more than the other, but get off that push as soon as  you come out of the turn.

 

Again, thanks for all your hints and help......this group is the best support network you could find if you are trying to learn by yourself.

    tjcooper