InMotion V14 First Impression (Heavy Rider)

[Christian90s]

Today I received my first EUC, the InMotion V14 50s and I wanted to give some first impressions both for the wheel itself and my first EUC experiance. A little about me, I am 6'3 287lbs and have never ridden an EUC. This was literally my first go ever. My biggest fears have been am I too heavy to ride and, if so, will I be able to go even moderatly fast. The V14 pads arrived first, and today the wheel itself arrived. Still in the box, this thing is HEAVY, 90lbs of wheel. 90lbs doesnt sound that bad until its between your legs. Secondly, the quality of this thing was very apparent. The only thing that feels cheap is the trolly handle, but it does the job. There was no instructions to speak of other than a pamphlet telling me to charge it and download the app, so I had to figure out how to mount the kickstand on my own. *Important note*: DO NOT TURN IT ON INSIDE! I already scratched my floors when the thing started spinning. Ah well. You learn. After this I had a heck of a time trying to get the pads just right. This was WAY more difficult than I expected. Once the pads were on it was time to try it, so I went out behind my apartment and tried to see if i could at least stand on it. Again, way more difficult than I thought, but Im working on it. Suns gone down so I guess Ill try tomorrow. Overall the wheel is what Id hoped for. If feels quality, it absolutely can hold me with ease, and does not feel too small at all. I can tell its got loads of torque, and im a little intimidated tbh. Excited, but intimidated. For a big guy I feel very happy about going with the V14. I would appreciate any tips on hiw to get comfortable with riding, and am happy to send more photos or answer any questions as I know its a new model.

Edited April 26 by Christian90s

[Roadpower]

I could write up a longish post on this but I'm going to avoid that. I made a lot of time destroying mistakes when learning to ride because many of the videos I watched I found were basically just wrong.

#1 Learn outdoors, preferably on a great lawn that is preferably firm and not squishy. Solid surfaces are going to be incredibly tempting and you may have to use them but a great lawn is a better initial learning platform. The whole point of using a lawn is to get away from the fear of banging up the wheel and yourself. You will drop the wheel and possibly yourself in the initial stages.

#2 Do not use "helper" objects like poles, fences, friends etc. You will be very tempted but don't do it. Using them will handicap your progress to various degrees.

#3 Figure out which leg is your preferred leg for staying on the wheel while you hop along with the other leg but try both anyway.

#4 You will be learning to ride by first teaching your body to know the weight and momentum of the wheel this is done through repetitive mounting & dismounting. Mounting & dismounting is THE core skill from which you learn to ride. Put your preferred leg on the wheel and hop with the other leg while moving forward. IE the hopping leg is NOT coming up on the pedal until the initial body and brain conditioning is done. You bring the hoping leg up on the pedal for only very short moments as you progress. As you get better at this the distances get longer, at some point you will be testing your ability to ride a few feet and then a few yards, etc.

Also it is critical that the tire is inflated correctly for your weight. Assuming that this is a suspension wheel, you should also attempt to get that dialed in enough so that it is not feeling too soft or too stiff, if it crushes a lot under your weight it is probably too soft. If it has no give it is too stiff. You can always adjust it later as experience grows.

Good luck and welcome to the world of EUC'ing.

Edited April 26 by Roadpower

[alcatraz]

For comfort you just need to practice and increase the time spent on the wheel incrementally. 

5min.... next day 10min... 

Eventually you'll be able to do hours but at first you'll think it's impossible. It's like that for everybody.

[alcatraz]

One last thing. Jumping and dropping the wheel seems like fun. Everyone is doing it on youtube. Stairs up/down. 

If you want your wheel to last you treat it nicely. New wheels can fail and wheels that look like they've been to hell and back can keep on going. It depends on luck and who's riding/doing maintenance.

[Funky]

Remove pads while you are learning to ride.... Easier to jump off, etc.. When you can mount/dismount without problems - add them then. (You won't be going 40mph first few weeks anyway.. So pads aren't needed. They will be in the way only.)

Big tip - when you got both feet on pedals START falling on your face. (trust fall, but forwards) The faster you will fall - the faster wheel will start to move and faster you will gain balance. (You may think i'm crazy saying this - but this is  how it works.. JUST DO IT!)

Try riding around 30psi at start.. Otherwise the wheel will feel like you are riding on "knife edge". Wheel will want to go left/right all the time. When you will get used to riding - then you can pump up to higher psi. I was riding 28psi while learning. I could not ride over 30psi at start! Wheel wanted to wobble all the time, especially if i started to go faster, or accelerated to fast..

Also try learning on softer ground, or wrap your wheel in some padding - so you don't scrape the wheel while it's falling.. (My wheel was wrapped in shower mat first 3 days while learning - it looked dumb as F, but it worked..)

While mounting you need to have wheel at angle "/" and whole body weight are pressed against wheel side with one leg. While you put your other feet on pedal.(You are controlling wheel with one leg. While mounting you need to find that balance point of pedal/tire, so you can step on..) 

I'm 280lbs and my wheel is ks18xl.  

Edited April 26 by Funky

[Christian90s]

These are all great tips guys. Getting on the wheel is the tricky part. It feels so high up haha. Im going to try it in the park today where ive got room to fall.  

[woke rider]

You got yourself an amazing device, very powerful. I'm exciting about reading your experiences.

[Cerbera]

8 hours ago, Roadpower said:

#2 Do not use "helper" objects like poles, fences, friends etc. You will be very tempted but don't do it. Using them will handicap your progress to various degrees.

Initially, free-mounting that wheel (ie without anything nearby to hold onto) will be, by far, the most challenging aspect of your learning to ride. There can be quite a lot of frustration involved in getting that right, so my advice would be slightly different in that I really don't see the harm in starting on Day 1 next to a nice helpful wall or chain link fence or something, so that your first ever mounts can be assisted, and begin from stationary, which will help with making you feel like there has been progress while you get used to the feeling of standing on and controlling the speed of a wheel !

However, I do agree with Roadpower that you shouldn't rely on these things for much past Day 1. 

Also agree with him about short grass initially, although the sooner you trust the wheel enough to move to asphalt the better, as it is where you will probably be spending most of your riding time.  For that reason amongst others, Tennis courts are particularly good for Day 1's, in that they have helpful chain-link fence all the way round, usually don't have anyone else in them, and are nice grippy flat surface like concrete / asphalt.

Edited April 26 by Cerbera

[WillCO]

Biggest thing I found while learning to mount the darn thing was to not look down at the wheel, but look forward to where you're hoping to go.  Made a huge difference in being able to get initial balance....

[woke rider]

I tried free mounting my KS14D on day one. I reasoned, somewhat fallaciously that King Song wouldn't possible manufacture a product that you can't just jump on and ride. Nope, I fell off and got a deep cut on my shin from the pedal. Anyway, I learned using a bunk bed to guide me back and forth on carpet, which worked surprisingly well. I would recommend parallel bars to start out learning on. That way you can hold yourself up when you loose control of your wheel.

[Funky]

2 hours ago, Cerbera said:

Initially, free-mounting that wheel (ie without anything nearby to hold onto) will be, by far, the most challenging aspect of your learning to ride. There can be quite a lot of frustration involved in getting that right, so my advice would be slightly different in that I really don't see the harm in starting on Day 1 next to a nice helpful wall or chain link fence or something, so that your first ever mounts can be assisted, and begin from stationary, which will help with making you feel like there has been progress while you get used to the feeling of standing on and controlling the speed of a wheel !

However, I do agree with Roadpower that you shouldn't rely on these things for much past Day 1. 

Also agree with him about short grass initially, although the sooner you trust the wheel enough to move to asphalt the better, as it is where you will probably be spending most of your riding time.  For that reason amongst others, Tennis courts are particularly good for Day 1's, in that they have helpful chain-link fence all the way round, usually don't have anyone else in them, and are nice grippy flat surface like concrete / asphalt.

I started to learn free mounting, before riding once. Let me tell you after 3 days not riding even 1 meter.. 4rth day, when i did superman lean and got going i was already riding in circles and doing eighths. Second day i was already riding true city/people... Trying to mount the dam thing and going - i learned to balance in place.. 

Edited April 26 by Funky

[Roadpower]

3 hours ago, Cerbera said:

Initially, free-mounting that wheel (ie without anything nearby to hold onto) will be, by far, the most challenging aspect of your learning to ride. There can be quite a lot of frustration involved in getting that right, so my advice would be slightly different in that I really don't see the harm in starting on Day 1 next to a nice helpful wall or chain link fence or something, so that your first ever mounts can be assisted, and begin from stationary, which will help with making you feel like there has been progress while you get used to the feeling of standing on and controlling the speed of a wheel !

However, I do agree with Roadpower that you shouldn't rely on these things for much past Day 1. 

Also agree with him about short grass initially, although the sooner you trust the wheel enough to move to asphalt the better, as it is where you will probably be spending most of your riding time.  For that reason amongst others, Tennis courts are particularly good for Day 1's, in that they have helpful chain-link fence all the way round, usually don't have anyone else in them, and are nice grippy flat surface like concrete / asphalt.

Yeah it is sort of a controversial topic.   I know in my case that using helper objects turned out to be a major time consuming handicap until I realized that every method I was trying to learn via was basically broken by me not getting the core skill of mounting while rolling forward / dismounting completely conquered. Oof that cost me so much time. :[

[Roadpower]

5 hours ago, Christian90s said:

These are all great tips guys. Getting on the wheel is the tricky part. It feels so high up haha. Im going to try it in the park today where ive got room to fall.  

Yeah the height is a bit of a draw back with suspension wheels at first. I started off on non suspension wheels and with my first suspension wheel I first felt that it was a bit scary. That feeling didn't last long but still the height difference was appreciable.

[Roadpower]

BTW, I forgot to add in my first post that you definitely want significant ankle protection. Something like a high-top lightweight boot IMO.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VX03PS/

Those are more like a heavy duty sneaker than a boot but the big key is the padded ankle protection. I bring this up because a pedal strike on your ankle is a real possibility and it will hurt like hell...

 

Edited April 26 by Roadpower

[litewave]

Baby steps.

In my (long past) experience, the most important thing was to just get rolling. If you have to hold onto a fence or light post to launch and stop, then do it. You need to learn how to balance on the wheel when in motion first, then you can graduate to free-mounting.

[Christian90s]

Day 2 update! I took the wheel out to a local park to try and get moving. Just as you said in the comments, mounting the wheel is by far the hardest. I used a lightpole to help get on and go, and held onto whatever i could to try and move fowards. The wheel is so heavy I struggle to get it to stay put as I get on. Another observation is that i feel like i need to really lean, an uncomfortable amount, to go fowards. I dont know if its foot placement or how i have the pads on. I tried the different settings such as comfort and sport mode. Unsure what this really does. Also, what is peddle hardness? Anyway, Ill try and give it another go soon. Also, who'd have thought, but shin-guards are sorta important. Ill add that to my live and learn folder.

Edited April 26 by Christian90s

[Christian90s]

7 hours ago, Funky said:

I started to learn free mounting, before riding once. Let me tell you after 3 days not riding even 1 meter.. 4rth day, when i did superman lean and got going i was already riding in circles and doing eighths. Second day i was already riding true city/people... Trying to mount the dam thing and going - i learned to balance in place.. 

Im not gonna lie, im a little scared to do that. Im a tall dude, 6'3. My balance needs work. I definantly need to just nut up and go all in, but all i have a helmet right now and im not trying that until I have some shin guards.

[Christian90s]

One MAJOR positive to this thing is the exorcise. I work in an office environment and I hate just going to the gym and lifting things mindlessly. Riding this wheel is a huge workout that works my entire body. 

[Cerbera]

2 hours ago, Christian90s said:

Another observation is that i feel like i need to really lean, an uncomfortable amount, to go fowards. I dont know if its foot placement or how i have the pads on.

That is what we mean when we refer to lack of 'ride authority'. It can be caused by any of the things you mention or a combination of them.

Feet could be too far back on the pedals. You're a big guy, so am guessing your toes should be hanging over the front of the pedals in the right position.

You may also be leaning forwards the wrong way. Important not to bend from the waist at all, but rather rotate your entire body forward from the ankles, leaning forward into your KNEES on the pads whilst your torso remains relatively straight upright at the waist. Leaning from the waist decreases contact efficiency with the wheel, and increases the risk you will fall over the front of it.

But remember you have chosen to start on a (relatively) big, heavy wheel, and those always feel like they take a while to get going from standstill - there is a lot of mass to get moving. It will be a lot worse when you try and start uphill !

2 hours ago, Christian90s said:

Also, what is peddle hardness?

Pedal hardness, and the various modes (sport / comfort etc) are there to make acceleration and braking feel less immediate and like they require less effort. The softer you have pedals set the more the machine will 'ease in' to the inputs you give it, which has the net effect of making acceleration from standstill seem easier. Sport modes and harder pedals are all about maximising the immediacy with which input results in action, but if you are not racing or an advanced rider who must have instant reaction from the wheel, softer modes are going to be much more comfortable and relaxing.

 

 

[techyiam]

3 hours ago, Christian90s said:

Another observation is that i feel like i need to really lean, an uncomfortable amount, to go fowards

The key to acceleration is to be able to shift your Center-of-gravity (COG) of your body forward (to be able to lose your balance in the forward direction). To do so, you could lean forward, but it may not work for some people at the beginning because unintentionally their COG doesn't get shifted forward by much. Try moving your abdomen (stomach) forward. For some beginners, this helps. With your weight, there is no way you are not able to accelerate, regardless of pads. Another thing you can do when you are off the wheel, is to find out what you need to do to move your COG forward. Step in front of a wall about a foot or more with your hands out to catch yourself when you are falling forward towards the wall. Try to somehow lose your balance so you would be leaning forward towards the wall. At first, you can try leaning your upper body forward but not lose balance at all. Now, figure out how to lose your balance in the forward direction. For example, move your pelvis (abdomen/ stomach) forward. Notice, without much leaning of your upper body, you can easily lose your balance leaning forward. Experiment a bit.

[Christian90s]

5 minutes ago, techyiam said:

The key to acceleration is to be able to shift your Center-of-gravity (COG) of your body forward (to be able to lose your balance in the forward direction). To do so, you could lean forward, but it may not work for some people at the beginning because unintentionally their COG doesn't get shifted forward by much. Try moving your abdomen (stomach) forward. For some beginners, this helps. With your weight, there is no way you are not able to accelerate, regardless of pads. Another thing you can do when you are off the wheel, is to find out what you need to do to move your COG forward. Step in front of a wall about a foot or more with your hands out to catch yourself when you are falling forward towards the wall. Try to somehow lose your balance so you would be leaning forward towards the wall. At first, you can try leaning your upper body forward but not lose balance at all. Now, figure out how to lose your balance in the forward direction. For example, move your pelvis (abdomen/ stomach) forward. Notice, without much leaning of your upper body, you can easily lose your balance leaning forward. Experiment a bit.

I think its just such a weird feeling. I feel like im gonna faceplant, but thats how you do it lol.

[techyiam]

52 minutes ago, Christian90s said:

I think its just such a weird feeling. I feel like im gonna faceplant, but thats how you do it lol.

At the very beginning, because everything is so new and unknown, without a prior reference derived from experience, and the body doesn't really know what is OK or not OK intuitively, it is hard to know what to do. It does take time to build-up experience to acquire perspective and understanding. It is too easy to say trust something blindly, and erroneously exposed oneself to too much risk. On top of that, there is also the threat of cutout, due to over torquing. All you need at the beginning is just enough acceleration to get to a rideable speed for your balancing skill level.

I primarily commute, and do go over all kinds of road surfaces. Based on experience, I know that it is really easy to get caught off-guard and lose balance resulting in a crash, when I lean forward too much. And hence, I don't like to lean forward very much. But I do like to go at a good pace. So I rely on the right technique in combination of "ease of acceleration settings" to get the acceleration I want, but without exposing myself to too much risk.

 

Edited April 27 by techyiam

[Funky]

9 hours ago, Christian90s said:

Im not gonna lie, im a little scared to do that. Im a tall dude, 6'3. My balance needs work. I definantly need to just nut up and go all in, but all i have a helmet right now and im not trying that until I have some shin guards.

I had zero gear while learning myself - yes i fall two times.. But noting crazy at those low speeds. Simple belly flop.. and sideways fall. (But those falls was when i was already riding..) I'm 6 feet and 280lbs..

When wheel is moving/riding you don't need to keep the balance almost at all.. Same as on regular bicykle while standing in place - you need to balance.. When riding - you don't need to balance.. That's why i'm saying lean fast and start going, so you don't need to balance in place!

My biggest tip is simply start falling/leaning very much to start riding, otherwise you will be standing with both feet on pedals IN PLACE till losing balance and stepping off. (THIS was my biggest mistake - i wasn't leaning enough to start going. If i did SUPERMAN lean in first day, i think i would have been riding right there and then, not at 4rth day, when i did the lean..)

Edited April 27 by Funky

[Funky]

9 hours ago, Christian90s said:

Day 2 update! I took the wheel out to a local park to try and get moving. Just as you said in the comments, mounting the wheel is by far the hardest. I used a lightpole to help get on and go, and held onto whatever i could to try and move fowards. The wheel is so heavy I struggle to get it to stay put as I get on. Another observation is that i feel like i need to really lean, an uncomfortable amount, to go fowards. I dont know if its foot placement or how i have the pads on. I tried the different settings such as comfort and sport mode. Unsure what this really does. Also, what is peddle hardness? Anyway, Ill try and give it another go soon. Also, who'd have thought, but shin-guards are sorta important. Ill add that to my live and learn folder.

About foot placement - you need to have ankles same position as pedal "L" brackets.

My feet is 1/3 over pedal front.... You don't put your toes same level as pedal front! But bit or quit a bit over pedal front!

More feet over pedal front = easier to start going - harder to stop. Toes right against pedal edge = harder to start going - easier to stop. (Weight is more at front or back..) Also in APP you can play with pedal angle degrees.. Pedal front more up/down. Leaving it at 0 = best.

Yes it feels crazy riding 1/3 feet over pedals..... It feels like you gonna slip off while braking. But that's how i ride now for 3 years.. (And i have no pads.)

Also please remove pads... You will be doing yourself a favor while learning.

Edited April 27 by Funky

[woke rider]

13 hours ago, Christian90s said:

One MAJOR positive to this thing is the exorcise. I work in an office environment and I hate just going to the gym and lifting things mindlessly. Riding this wheel is a huge workout that works my entire body. 

That was my experience too when I was learning I would work myself to sweating exhaustion, something I had not pushed myself toward anything else in a long time. You need pedals that provide wheel control access to your entire foot, heel to toe. That will provide you with a way better riding experience because you can have so much more rider input to be able to use your heel and toes at the same time rather than having parts of your feet hanging off all the time. Try to enjoy your learning process, record yourself because that film would be so valuable later. Reward yourself after a learning session.