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ACM Review


oolong

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Posted

Okay.... Review of the ACM after just a couple hours of riding.
 

Overall it's great, but there is one serious problem that needs to be addressed by Gotway immediately. (ACM Owners please see "The Bad" section below)


Looks...
It is nicer in person than I anticipated. I think it's the nicest design Gotway has put out to date. They should really keep going and improve upon the matte black and chrome look for their future eucs. There is a sophisticated appeal to it.


First Ride...
First ride impressions is that it reminded me of riding a fluffy pillow. It's like someone took an MCM and blew air into it. It's bigger and "poofy" feeling. It also seems much easier to ride than my MCM I didn't have any problems riding at all. It was almost too easy. It feels really nice overall..


Pedals....
Okay so I've been riding an MCM2 for over a year so I'm used to horrible pedals ;-) So to me these pedals felt like heaven. They are at a good height, nicely angled. I tested all sorts of lean angles and they were all as good or better than my old euc. I may just need to get used to the larger pedals because I found myself unable to use my ankles to absorb shocks as easily I used to because of the additional support under my heel.


Weight....
It doesn't feel as heavy as I thought it would be. It was pretty easy to move around in general. I was also surprised and glad that I could use the same one handed wrist flick maneuver to flip out my pedals. Which is invaluable when have stuff in your hands and you're trying to get your euc going. Then again if you're a small woman this euc is probably too bulky for you.

How Stiff Are the Pedals?.....
Pretty stiff once I got it into Sport mode, but not as stiff as my MCM.... There is still some give whereas on my MCM they don't move at all. The ride is extremely smooth and fluid, but for my tastes it's a little too smooth and a little too fluid.... I expected a little more acceleration and braking speed when in Sport mode.

It might just be that they haven't gotten to "Madden Mode" yet in the app which I believe used to be one step beyond "Sport". I'm hoping they will release an update for those looking for more of an advanced ride.


Motor....
It's definitely powerful. How much so I don't know yet. It will take me more than a couple hours of riding to start pushing the upper limits of the wheel. I disabled all but the last beeps in the app and even though I was flying through town I never heard any beeps. All the hills that used to slow me down were practically nonexistent. There were some hills that I could gone up faster but it's going to take awhile for me to be able to trust the wheel enough to know how much I can power up things. Did a little offload in some parks with some hills, no problems there. The motor makes a bit more noise than my MCM (not surprising since it's bigger and beefier). There is also still a little resistance in the motor when there is no power.

The motor also doesn't seem to spin as much when lifted. Could be something in the software or maybe it was just my settings at the time.


Lights....
The light in the front is fine. It won't turn night into day but it's bright enough to illuminate your path. It's comparable to most low to midrange bike lights I would say. I have pretty good night vision and most of the city has a dull light to it. So I never rode with a light but this seems to work ok.

Having the battery indicator on the back is annoying. It would be better if they made it a bit higher up so you can glance at it easier.


In Summary......


The Good.
The power is great. A really nice ride with assertive power.  Being highly mod-able and customizable is a huge positive.


The Bad. (Linnea, Jane)
I did some lift tests with the app and apparently the speed cut off for the motor is somewhere around 46-47kmh. However the max tilback you can set in the app is 48 kmh!. It is COMPLETELY NEGLIGENT to allow people to set a tilt-back that is HIGHER than the cut off.... That would be grounds for a lawsuit in most countries. There should be MUCH more buffer for the cut off (at least 10 kmh). There needs to be an IMMEDIATE firmware release to increase the speed at which the motor is cut off and disable the 48kmh tilt-back option in the app for those who are running earlier firmware.

I have my tilt-back set to 45kmh but even that is cutting it too close...


The Ugly.
That trolley handle.

Posted

The KS16 is known for it's infamous tinnitus-noise. Could You describe the sound and level of it, from the ACM, pls?

Posted
14 hours ago, oolong said:

The Bad. (Linnea, Jane)
I did some lift tests with the app and apparently the speed cut off for the motor is somewhere around 46-47kmh. However the max tilback you can set in the app is 48 kmh!. It is COMPLETELY NEGLIGENT to allow people to set a tilt-back that is HIGHER than the cut off.... That would be grounds for a lawsuit in most countries. There should be MUCH more buffer for the cut off (at least 10 kmh). There needs to be an IMMEDIATE firmware release to increase the speed at which the motor is cut off and disable the 48kmh tilt-back option in the app for those who are running earlier firmware.

I have my tilt-back set to 45kmh but even that is cutting it too close...


The Ugly.
That trolley handle.

Excellent review, but before you jump too quickly down Gotway's throat, keep in mind that some people don't like tiltback at all and just prefer to have a beep warning option however more dangerous that may be.  I agree that tiltback can be an important safety measure, and maybe manufacturers should implement a mandatory, critical tiltback speed no matter what.  Others may disagree and instead prefer to have the freedom to set it where ever they want?  I think Gotway understands that if customers are wanting to ride up at those speeds that they likely will be responsible enough to set appropriate tiltback settings.

It's sort of like those cars with speed limiters.  People complain about them and mod their chips to try to eliminate them even though it might not be safe for them or the vehicle.  Going 230 kph vs 240 kph makes a difference to some people, and they don't want to be limited by something that may be designed for their safety.

Posted
4 hours ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said:

they don't want to be limited by something that may be designed for their safety

that is fair enough, but we should keep in mind that the safety of other people is involved as well. 

Posted

Going 45 KPH with tiltback or no tiltback  or going 230 KPH with limiter or no limiter - it's all going to end badly if things go wrong I think.  I've read posts about tiltback being too aggressive and destabilizing the rider.  I wouldn't even attempt 45 KPH unless I had full riot gear on and only if I was in a safe area with no pedestrians, cute dogs, or babies in the way.  As long as tiltback doesn't make you crash I'm all for it, but some people apparently don't want it for whatever reason.  It's just a preference I guess.  As long as they can hear the warning beep or not crash into a line of school children crossing the street I think it's up to them how they want to handle it.  I personally like the tiltback feature as it's a simple method to help slow you down from the danger zone.

 

Posted

No need for tilt back on an EUC that goes 45kph. When you get going that fast you'll know it! The max speed for an EUC is only 24kph in my state (Maryland) but I guess that's because they let us use the sidewalks. I can't imagine going 45kph in most places around here and like Hunka says I'd only do it with full gear.

Posted

As for me, tiltback made me fall several times, especially on rough surface, im not so experienced but think that all settings should be completely customizable by user, without any limitations. 

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