Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 I wonder whether a future option on these EUC's might be interchangeable wheels. That is, if a shell could be designed to accept a 10", 14", 16", or a 18" wheel that locks in and plugs in easily, that would give a rider a lot of choice in terms of how they want to ride. Imagine instead of needing to buy a bunch of different EUC's that you just need to buy one and swap out the wheel motors. You could have the fun of a Mten say on certain days and then switch to a 14" or 16" wheel for everyday cruising or choose an 18" wheel for longer distance travelling. Or pop in an 18" fat wheel for off-roading when the urge arises... I guess designing a shell that would accept different sizes of wheel would be difficult plus there's that challenge of a board that has to be compatible with the different calibrations needed for each diameter of wheel. The mounting point would have to be adjustable as well as possibly the width of the shell to accommodate fat wheels like the Mten's. Maybe it would be asking too much for one wheel to be capable of. It would be like having a ten speed bike change into a mountain bike or a BMX bike - maybe not feasible and too much to ask? One other question - why don't they design in mini-shocks to help absorb some of the road irregularities. It could be a part of the foot pedal support so when the wheel goes over rough terrain, the pedals are dampened from the severe bumps. I know there was one model or prototype that had this - was it Rockwheel or Gotway? I can't recall. It sure would make off-roading for guys like EUC Extreme a lot less jarring I bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMo Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 10 minutes ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said: That is, if a shell could be designed to accept a 10", 14", 16", or a 18" wheel that locks in and plugs in easily, that would give a rider a lot of choice in terms of how they want to ride. That would be very difficult since the motor itself is inside the wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted April 6, 2016 Author Share Posted April 6, 2016 I was referring to swapping out the entire wheel with hub motor not just the tire itself. You could have a set of different sized wheels that locks into the shell / casing. The casing would contain the motherboard and battery so it would just take a release of the wheel and unplug of a connector to swap a whole new one in. Picture how some bicycles have removable front wheels that unclip when they are parked at bike racks to deter theft. In our case it's a removable hub motor and tire assembly that you swap a different sized one in when you want to. I guess I'm thinking about more modular designs where if the battery and motherboard and shell/casing can be reused with different tire/hub motor diameters then you might not need to duplicate those things but rather just spend money on the tire/hub-motor itself. If the motherboard could recognize what tire/hub motor is plugged in and adapt to it that would be like plugging in a USB device and having a computer load up a driver to make it work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMo Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 20 minutes ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said: I was referring to swapping out the entire wheel with hub motor not just the tire itself. You could have a set of different sized wheels that locks into the shell / casing. The casing would contain the motherboard and battery so it would just take a release of the wheel and unplug of a connector to swap a whole new one in. The main problem as I pointed out is that there are different motors on different wheel sizes and we are looking into an all-in one motherboard that can run all this motor variations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmethvin Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 8 hours ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said: I wonder whether a future option on these EUC's might be interchangeable wheels. That is, if a shell could be designed to accept a 10", 14", 16", or a 18" wheel that locks in and plugs in easily, that would give a rider a lot of choice in terms of how they want to ride. ... One other question - why don't they design in mini-shocks to help absorb some of the road irregularities. It could be a part of the foot pedal support so when the wheel goes over rough terrain, the pedals are dampened from the severe bumps. I know there was one model or prototype that had this - was it Rockwheel or Gotway? I can't recall. It sure would make off-roading for guys like EUC Extreme a lot less jarring I bet. Since the shell takes most of any impact and also shields the wheel, it's good to have it be a minimal number of pieces that wrap pretty snugly around the wheel. It would be hard to design that with a shell that could handle a wide variety of wheel diameters. You could have a "box" that housed the control board and batteries separate from some fenders I suppose, but most likely that amount of design complexity isn't warranted for these prices and sales volumes. There was a discussion here a year ago about some sort of shock system, one concern was that any suspension that absorbs road bumps could also affect control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egbert Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 9 hours ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said: (...) One other question - why don't they design in mini-shocks to help absorb some of the road irregularities. It could be a part of the foot pedal support so when the wheel goes over rough terrain, the pedals are dampened from the severe bumps. (...) in my opinion this is a very interesting aspect. provided that the damping is not too weak , the expected stability of driving should be much better because not every bump is transmitted to the driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted April 6, 2016 Author Share Posted April 6, 2016 @dmethvin Yes I distinctly remember that thread. It looks like most wheel manufacturers prefer the solid pedal to wheel setup due to its simplicity. That Rockwell strut design looks perfect, but I guess it never took off? I need these in size 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRh1LU4Gy-M Or these which even have a setting for walk / run mode. http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/shockabsorbing-shoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpinDaWheel Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 What i cant work out is why i haven't seen any bike frames you could connect an e-wheel to in order to give more choices, its such a simple device in some ways, i see it as an ideal module for an e-trike or a elbow controlled lay down go-cart frame, the list goes on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimlet Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 As the wheel/hub motor attaches to the rest of the euc by the axle you would have to have the frame extended down a long way on an 18" euc and mount the axle at the bottom of the extensions to get the same ground clearance on the pedals. The mounting point would have to be about 4"lower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 If we lose the 10" wheel accommodation. then we would only need 2" of travel for each component (pedals and shell) to accommodate wheels from 14 to 18". I'm imagining if you can set the pedals down 2 inches and the casing attachment up 2 inches that would expand from 14 to 18 inches for the different wheels. A 16 inch wheel would just need 1 inch of adjustment each way for the two parts. A 10 inch wheel might need too much adjusting to make it work as it's also thicker I think like on the Mten. Maybe this is all just good for theoretical exercise as the more moving / adjustable parts the higher the complexity, points of failure, and decreased solidity of the wheel. The increased cost for the shell/casing/body part might not make the overall cost savings that much over buying an entirely new wheel. I was just thinking it would be cool to have just one universal case with easily swappable battery that can handle tire/hub motor swap outs of different sizes. That way you don't need to duplicate everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimlet Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 I have a feeling the cost would be similar given the added complication and besides if you have two or more wheels you can go wheeling with friends and family and that's ten times more fun than riding alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mono Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 On 4/6/2016 at 6:20 AM, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said: why don't they design in mini-shocks to help absorb some of the road irregularities I believe I have seen some already. I probably would rather go for a larger tire, say >=3.00, which absorbs road irregularities probably even better than suspension. I am not sure I can see the advantage of a suspension over a large tire. Balloon bikes have been a trend also in the consumer bicycle market and are IMHO usually the better option outside sports (I have been riding suspension bikes for many many years). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmethvin Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 I really like the softer ride of the Schwalbe Big Apple, reviewed here. If they made it in a bigger 2.5 size I think it would still fit in the Firewheel shell and I would buy it. The slightly smaller 2.0 size means I have to keep it inflated more than I would like because otherwise the shell scrapes when it hits a bump and the tire gives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mono Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 The 18" Gotway and KingSong wheels do indeed have 2.5" tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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