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Legway or temporarily known as Urban Glider


Austin Marhold

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Many of you know me as the guy who wanted to release the "Urban Glider".  Originally I got involved with the Legway team and we had big plans for the design.  Since then, the Legway team and I have had a falling out and I no longer intend to refine the product into the Urban Glider.  Here are my experiences with the design when I left the project:

 

Pros:

  • ultra durable, can withstand hundreds of crashes without shell failure.
  • automatically reset when brought back to upright (if it falls over)
  • cell phone app
  • fast to recharge (30-45min to 80% charged)
  • decent terrain handling
  • better motor than some at an approximate 1200w peak
  • replaceable leg pad design
  • latest firmware had ultra-smooth motor operation
  • comfortable foot pedals (no drop in the middle like most designs) 
  • nice shell aesthetics

Cons:

  • Frequent circuit board failure; 10 of the 11 units I own or sold have fried circuit boards (this includes brand new control boards that the manufacturer sent me)
  • several of the battery packs were fried when the circuit boards went out
  • they use some low grade local chinese brand of battery
  • slow, I never got a proper speed reading on the motor but it was max of about 18-19km/h
  • sub-par manufacturing quality
  • device would "cut-out" (motor disconnect) when you tried to stop to quickly and would not restart until you plugged the unit into the charger
  • painful leg pad design
  • was partially water resistant but would fry the board and battery if you went through too deep of a puddle
  • latest firmware and/or circuit board design would tend to fry quicker than the old one 
  • foot pedals would become extremely slippery when wet, dangerously so
  • when you would go too fast, the device would "cut out".  Literally stop moving the wheel forward and at this point, you better know how to run

Neutral points:

  • app, but it's in chinese

 

Conclusion:  Due to it's fast failure rate, the design is 1-2 months away from refinement.  It's operated by the Chinese, don't expect it to happen.  So if you do buy in its current configuration, you will have a large door stop in about 3 months.

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Thanks Austin for your honnest and sincere feedback about Legway. Feels like it's almost a good thing the kickstarter campaign was stopped. On the other hand, this campaign lasted long enough to prove that there was a real demand. Will be looking forward to your detailed review of the firewheel  :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a firewheels f528. As does a colleague of mine. Sadly I wasn't able to try mine yet as the circuit board died right at the start. The other one worked like a charm. He described it as being fast and very silent with great range. It is very well designed (I've taken it apart) the foot rests are great as they have studs that dig into the shoe soles and keep you on them even if you have wet shoes (due to rain).

The leg pads are great too.

It is not as "squirrelly" as the rockwheel - so it won't replace that for me in terms of off road fun, but it is great for urban riding.

Also to note: great customer service! The defective part was taken care of right away. This is not what I have heard from others who shopped for unicycles of other brands in China and needed customer support. Usually you are left to repair it on your own without support.

This is only a rough review for now, as I can't ride my own yet. But the spare parts are in the mail!

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So Austin how are you doing with your firewheel? Which model did you get? I am still having major issues with mine. It arrived and short circuited, got new parts yesterday, they don't work (I have repeatedly taken it apart, triple checked every connection, plug, wire, etc) - instead it now boots up and vibrates like crazy or locks up. 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everybody, so I'm an Airwheel X6 Music user but my dad just bought a Legway (atleast that's what they told us it's called here in the Netherlands) from www.legway.nl and we had a ton of production problems with it. WE HAD TO SWAP IT FOUR TIMES. Some just suddenly turned off after x (usually a hundred) meters, and some just turned off and only went back on when put into the charger for some mysterious reason. The one we have now is working for 95%, sometimes has to be put in charger to turn on again (some kind of reset it feels like?). When it works it's pure pleasure! Day 2 of my dad on the Legway video below:

 

http://youtu.be/BSiKhCVrmBE

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Hello everybody, so I'm an Airwheel X6 Music user but my dad just bought a Legway (atleast that's what they told us it's called here in the Netherlands) from www.legway.nl and we had a ton of production problems with it. WE HAD TO SWAP IT FOUR TIMES. Some just suddenly turned off after x (usually a hundred) meters, and some just turned off and only went back on when put into the charger for some mysterious reason. The one we have now is working for 95%, sometimes has to be put in charger to turn on again (some kind of reset it feels like?). When it works it's pure pleasure! Day 2 of my dad on the Legway video below:

 

http://youtu.be/BSiKhCVrmBE

 

They should not be working only 95% of the time.  They should just work.  I looked at the NL site you linked and I don't see any of them being the actual Legway brand.  I see Rockwheel and Ninebot One for example.

Your dad is doing spectacular for Day Two.  At this rate he'll be completely natural by Day Four.  Did he not use a "training strap" at all to start?  Note that the training strap does not make it easier, it just prevent the wheel from tumbling when you jump off.

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They should not be working only 95% of the time.  They should just work.  I looked at the NL site you linked and I don't see any of them being the actual Legway brand.  I see Rockwheel and Ninebot One for example.

Your dad is doing spectacular for Day Two.  At this rate he'll be completely natural by Day Four.  Did he not use a "training strap" at all to start?  Note that the training strap does not make it easier, it just prevent the wheel from tumbling when you jump off.

 

Ah, so it is not actually a Legway. I feel a bit screwed.. though it was very cheap with the discount because of the malfunctioning ones.

 

Yeah he's doing real good! The first day/evening/night (it was a long run) practising me and my brothers helped him keep balance without using the strap so it got some damage on it. Then we put some protective rubber/foam on it, which is working pretty good.

 

My brothers second day looks even better (talented little bugger..):

 

http://youtu.be/anG378a4T6M

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Ah, so it is not actually a Legway. I feel a bit screwed.. though it was very cheap with the discount because of the malfunctioning ones.

 

Yeah he's doing real good! The first day/evening/night (it was a long run) practising me and my brothers helped him keep balance without using the strap so it got some damage on it. Then we put some protective rubber/foam on it, which is working pretty good.

 

My brothers second day looks even better (talented little bugger..):

 

http://youtu.be/anG378a4T6M

 

Wow.  Second day and already jumping off curbs.  They look like they've been riding for weeks.

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  • 5 months later...

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