What is a cutout and how to save it?

[Mono]

When the rider physically forces the wheel to tilt forward and falls off in front, it is often called a "cutout" or "cutoff" (whereas we used to call this an "overlean" and I have seen "overtorque" too). This usually happens, because the reserve motor torque diminishes with increasing speed quickly to zero! Close to the maximum speed, self-balancing can easily fail due to the inherent lack of reserve torque from the motor: any ever-so-slight acceleration or a small bump may require more additional torque than is available and thereby flip the pedals forward. (The analogous is not true for deceleration/braking.)

Contrary to a common belief (so I think), a "cutout" can be saved. Unfortunately, I am not aware to have seen many examples caught on camera. This is one, but the save is pretty subtle:

A heavier rider would have had to react more pronounced to prevent a "cutout". To save this situation, the rider should instantly release the down force on the wheel thereby recovering enough reserve motor torque to prevent the pedal flip. The release comes from a combination of bending knees, hips and ankles.

I'd be quite interested to see other examples of saves caught on camera!

Edited January 24 by Mono

[Hellkitten]

[UniVehje]

21 hours ago, Mono said:

When the rider physically forces the wheel to tilt forward and falls off in front, it is often called a "cutout" or "cutoff".

Semantics: this above described situation used to be called overlean. Which it technically is. Cutout used to mean wheel suddenly stopping balancing. Sometimes overlean leads to cutoff when the tilt sensors detect the wheel being more than 45 degrees angle. Cutout is a fault in the wheel, cutoff is designed behavior and overlean is user error. 
But it seems every overlean is today called cutout 

[Mono]

1 hour ago, UniVehje said:

Cutout is a fault in the wheel, cutoff is designed behavior and overlean is user error. 

This would be a very good definition of terms! Words however are ultimately defined by their usages, and the proposal is not being followed by the masses  The above clip title is a testament to this. "Cutout" feels like a misnomer for an overlean, but I don't have much hope it will ever go away. "Cutout" is now in effect the word for "something bad happened due to the lack or loss of power" regardless where the loss came from.

 

[Panzer04]

On 1/22/2024 at 8:31 AM, Mono said:

When the rider physically forces the wheel to tilt forward and falls off in front, it is often called a "cutout" or "cutoff" (whereas we used to call this an "overlean" and I have seen "overtorque" too). This usually happens, because the reserve motor torque diminishes with increasing speed quickly to zero! Close to the maximum speed, self-balancing can easily fail due to the inherent lack of reserve torque from the motor: any ever-so-slight acceleration or a small bump may require more additional torque than is available and thereby flip the pedals forward. (The analogous is not true for deceleration/braking.)

Contrary to a common belief (so I think), a "cutout" can be saved. Unfortunately, I am not aware to have seen many examples caught on camera. This is one, but the save is pretty subtle:

A heavier rider would have had to react more pronounced to prevent a "cutout". To save this situation, the rider should instantly release the down force on the wheel thereby recovering enough reserve motor torque to prevent the pedal flip. The release comes from a combination of bending knees, hips and ankles.

I'd be quite interested to see other examples of saves caught on camera!

I'd recommend trying to ride an Mten4 some day. I find it's an excellent object lesson in interacting with overlean, as the lightness of the wheel makes it very easy to manipulate, while the limited power makes it easy to push it into an overlean state (either forward or backwards :)). In addition, because it's so light and you don't have to commit much weight to getting the wheel into that state, the ability to recover from said overlean is fairly high as well since you aren't going to be helter-skelter in front of the wheel XD.

[Hellkitten]

44 minutes ago, Panzer04 said:

I'd recommend trying to ride an Mten4 some day. I find it's an excellent object lesson in interacting with overlean, as the lightness of the wheel makes it very easy to manipulate, while the limited power makes it easy to push it into an overlean state (either forward or backwards :)). In addition, because it's so light and you don't have to commit much weight to getting the wheel into that state, the ability to recover from said overlean is fairly high as well since you aren't going to be helter-skelter in front of the wheel XD.

100%. I love mine. It has taught me many lessons about riding so far. It’s a finesse skill riding wheel. 👌🏻