Victoria BC eu group

[Mike B in Victoria]

I understand, we normally go around 30k but longer is always possible.

maybe by September we will all be in a better place with COVID.

[DaveN]

@Mike B in Victoria it was good to meet you on Sunday. I filled up my tire with air when I got home. Seems fine after all.

 

I was looking through the forums and I think you are a reseller? Are you from Ride the glide?

[Mike B in Victoria]

Hi Dave

that is correct I’m from Ride The Glide, see you on the next one.

we need to do this every couple weeks or once a month.

[Kerberos]

Hi Everyone!

 

I'm in the James Bay area and I may soon be a new rider in the Victoria area, mainly commuting to work on the goose! I'm looking at a used v10f on usedvictoria, the seller says that he got it second hand and has had it for a year. Sounds like it's probably at least 1-1.5 years old at this point. Asking price is $1000 which feels a bit much considering it's got some age behind it. I'm going to be meeting with the seller on Monday to take a look at it. I might take a took to think about it after that. I plan to ask about what maintenance it's had on it and how much use it's generally gotten, what the lifespan of the battery is now...etc.. If anyone can give me any points of what I should look for and be aware of it would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Andrei

[meepmeepmayer]

30 minutes ago, Kerberos said:

If anyone can give me any points of what I should look for and be aware of it would be much appreciated!

1. Charges to (more or less) full voltage?

2. No obvious serious mechanical damage (cracks, totally crooked, ...) that might indicate something that bites you in the ass later?

3. It's not the very first batch that had fire problems (well.. a fire or two) due to bad waterproofing and water getting in? Very unlikely, but just ask for the buy date to be sure (November 2018 and later should be good, I think the fire was in September). If it's from ewheels, you're good too (the original owner would have been warned if affected).

A bit more here (second part of the post):

Edited May 16, 2021 by meepmeepmayer

[Rywokast]

16 hours ago, Kerberos said:

Hi Everyone!

 

I'm in the James Bay area and I may soon be a new rider in the Victoria area, mainly commuting to work on the goose! I'm looking at a used v10f on usedvictoria, the seller says that he got it second hand and has had it for a year. Sounds like it's probably at least 1-1.5 years old at this point. Asking price is $1000 which feels a bit much considering it's got some age behind it. I'm going to be meeting with the seller on Monday to take a look at it. I might take a took to think about it after that. I plan to ask about what maintenance it's had on it and how much use it's generally gotten, what the lifespan of the battery is now...etc.. If anyone can give me any points of what I should look for and be aware of it would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Andrei

im not entirely sure if the current owner is in this thread, or if its just the original owner... but i think they both are... anyways, he doesnt really list much info about it but im guessing its fairly low km on it seeing as it was both their first wheel and they quickly upgraded.... v10f is a great and very capable wheel but eucs are just so addicting that most people cant resist haha... just check like meep said that it charges to full voltage, if it doesnt get him to show you it while its charging at 100% and see that it drops off to below ~0.5A indicating that its balancing properly.... might be annoying to do while waiting to buy it if you trust him you could just take it home and do that yourself.... other than that just make sire that the wheel spins true (small variation is normal, just not wobbling like crazy) check for large cracks or damage in the motor or frame, the obvious stuff... do yourself a favour and get the inmotion euc app now, because they have a great diagnostics tool on there that will tell you all details about the euc and the health of the various components. if all is good chances are it will serve you well for years and years and 1000 CAD is dirt cheap for a V10F that's cheaper than the retail of a 14D lmao

Edited May 17, 2021 by Rywokast

[UniMe]

@Rywokast is a super knowledgeable and solid peep -- I bought a wheel from him. Personally, I'd trust his opinion. 

[Kerberos]

4 hours ago, Rywokast said:

im not entirely sure if the current owner is in this thread, or if its just the original owner... but i think they both are... anyways, he doesnt really list much info about it but im guessing its fairly low km on it seeing as it was both their first wheel and they quickly upgraded.... v10f is a great and very capable wheel but eucs are just so addicting that most people cant resist haha... just check like meep said that it charges to full voltage, if it doesnt get him to show you it while its charging at 100% and see that it drops off to below ~0.5A indicating that its balancing properly.... might be annoying to do while waiting to buy it if you trust him you could just take it home and do that yourself.... other than that just make sire that the wheel spins true (small variation is normal, just not wobbling like crazy) check for large cracks or damage in the motor or frame, the obvious stuff... do yourself a favour and get the inmotion euc app now, because they have a great diagnostics tool on there that will tell you all details about the euc and the health of the various components. if all is good chances are it will serve you well for years and years and 1000 CAD is dirt cheap for a V10F i cant even get a KS14D for that price lmao

I feel rather silly asking this coming from a technology background, but I don't quite understand how I should check for the battery status. Is there any chance you could explain it a little bit more? Would I need a tool for that? 

[Tawpie]

50 minutes ago, Kerberos said:

Would I need a tool for that? 

You’ll need EUCWORLD or the InMotion app. To check general battery health, ride the battery down to 90% or so then put it on the charger and start the app. Connect Bluetooth to the wheel and monitor the battery voltage for about an hour after the charger light turns green—it should top out at 84v plus or minus a few tenths of a volt. If it does, the battery health is most probably not “bad”.

If for example the battery gets stuck at 82v and won’t go higher there may be a problem with the pack IF the wheel’s mileage is low. A high mileage wheel won’t charge completely, this is normal wear but when a low mileage wheel won’t get to 84v its pack may have a weak/damaged cell and may need to be replaced. A new set of batteries is at least half the cost of a new wheel.

This check of battery health needs to be done as part of ownership BTW, it’s not just something you do when buying! Bad batteries fail suddenly and can start fires, you will want to know.

[Kerberos]

Thanks for your help everyone

[Rywokast]

6 hours ago, Tawpie said:

You’ll need EUCWORLD or the InMotion app. To check general battery health, ride the battery down to 90% or so then put it on the charger and start the app. Connect Bluetooth to the wheel and monitor the battery voltage for about an hour after the charger light turns green—it should top out at 84v plus or minus a few tenths of a volt. If it does, the battery health is most probably not “bad”.

If for example the battery gets stuck at 82v and won’t go higher there may be a problem with the pack IF the wheel’s mileage is low. A high mileage wheel won’t charge completely, this is normal wear but when a low mileage wheel won’t get to 84v its pack may have a weak/damaged cell and may need to be replaced. A new set of batteries is at least half the cost of a new wheel.

This check of battery health needs to be done as part of ownership BTW, it’s not just something you do when buying! Bad batteries fail suddenly and can start fires, you will want to know.

yup this exactly, except I would also point out that a low mileage wheel not getting up to spec be that 67.2, 84.2, 100.8 etc doesn't necessarily indicate a fault with the battery but more likely a faulty reading... there can be variations in accuracy up to ~2%... so though an 84V wheel may read as 83V after being on green for two hours that isn't always indicative of a battery issue, more likely just a faulty reading... this example is from my KS18XL which has been this way since the day I got it, the batteries are in perfect health and balanced... the way to tell is either a charger with an amperage readout, or certain apps used with eucs that report this data (KS, Inmotion)... if there was say a faulty cell you would see the charger outputting its normal amperage (usually 1.5 stock, 1-5A on a fast charger) and then suddenly stop and turn green... this would be a sign of an issue and I wouldn't ride any euc without opening it up and checking myself... however on a healthy battery you would see it get to "100%" and then have the amperage very slowly drop down until it gets somewhere below 0.5A and stops... the BMS in eucs are very basic and balancing doesn't happen until the end of a charge cycle, not throughout it... this is why it's important to every so often (everyone has a different idea... I go around every fifth charge cycle personally) leave the unicycle on the charger for 30 mins plus after it turns green to allow for balancing... it's incredibly rare that improper balancing could pose a risk to the battery itself... however I have seen cells be killed from dropping to way below their min voltage.. the danger is to you and the risk of a cutout while riding should one or more cells dip below this threshold while riding thanks to improper balancing... heard of it happening though again not common at all. I would recommend a charge doctor or better a 5A fast charger with V/A readout if you get into eucs seriously.

I am of the belief that actual battery fires or explosions are ridiculously rare and 999/1000 times are due to abuse, being punctured, extremely poor manufacturing using off brand, poorly qc'd cells/improper welding, or ingress likely again from a puncture.. it does happen, the chances of it happening with name brand well made properly sealed packs is so ridiculously minuscule that it's never crossed my mind.. lithium batteries are in everything and have proven to be extremely safe if not abused... the aforementioned V10 fires were with only a few vehicles and due to improper sealing that allowed water in, the were quickly recalled and the issue was resolved in them and all others made after the discovery, inmotion eucs are made with a higher quality and attention to detail than any other brand, slightly ahead of kingsong and leaps and bounds ahead of gotway..

while the V10F battery is not AS protected as the V10 due to foregoing the protective hard shell for more cells, that merely makes it on par with any other high end euc, and it's batteries location at the top gives some inmotion eucs a unique advantage for both water and crash protection

Edited May 17, 2021 by Rywokast

[DaveN]

@all, thanks for sharing the info with Kerberos and others on what to look for when buying a used wheel and how to check the  battery.

 I am the one selling the wheel and met with him yesterday to give him a demo of it. I used the (inmotion) app for the first time(funny after a year of ownership) and grabbed the diagnostic info from it. Funny, as a guy in tech, I never felt the need to get the app. Just riding is that much fun.

My plan is to buy the v11. I am checking with mike at ride the glide to see if they are ordering more in.If they are not, who in canada would you order from? Do any sellers offer extended warranties that are worth buying?

 

 

 

[UniMe]

https://www.gowheels.ca/

I bought a wheel from this fella, he's also on the forum. He takes paypal, which is great (I prefer the security), and is reasonably close over in Edmonton.

[Rywokast]

9 hours ago, DaveN said:

@all, thanks for sharing the info with Kerberos and others on what to look for when buying a used wheel and how to check the  battery.

 I am the one selling the wheel and met with him yesterday to give him a demo of it. I used the (inmotion) app for the first time(funny after a year of ownership) and grabbed the diagnostic info from it. Funny, as a guy in tech, I never felt the need to get the app. Just riding is that much fun.

My plan is to buy the v11. I am checking with mike at ride the glide to see if they are ordering more in.If they are not, who in canada would you order from? Do any sellers offer extended warranties that are worth buying?

gowheels, vaneuc, or smartwheel... the latter of which has a good warranty but i havent actually used it so cant speak to how well they honour it.... what i can speak to is ewheels and jasons unparalleled customer service.. hes had my back multiple times and so unless its significantly cheaper somewhere else i will usually go with him, because i know all purchases are fully covered no bs 

[UniMe]

Yup, smartwheels was also great to deal with. gowheels has had consistently lower prices though.

edit: just looked at the smartwheel site, they look to have become more competitive with their pricing... a bit of competition in Canada is a good thing

Edited May 19, 2021 by UniMe

[Kerberos]

I officially own a wheel as of yesterday! I already have some battlescars to show it. Looking forward to doing that less. I'll be heading to MacDonald Park by the James Bay Community School and the parking lot across from Floyd's diner this weekend to practice. If anyone's living nearby and wants to make some plans to meet up and share some pointers feel free to reach out! I look forward to doing some group rides once I get better at this and once Covid calms down. 

[Kerberos]

Oh yeah, and any other good locations I could go to in the James Bay area would also be appreciated! For learning I mean. 

[Rywokast]

35 minutes ago, Kerberos said:

I officially own a wheel as of yesterday! I already have some battlescars to show it. Looking forward to doing that less. I'll be heading to MacDonald Park by the James Bay Community School and the parking lot across from Floyd's diner this weekend to practice. If anyone's living nearby and wants to make some plans to meet up and share some pointers feel free to reach out! I look forward to doing some group rides once I get better at this and once Covid calms down. 

awesome, congrats  macdonald park is a great place to practice, though i dont know of anywhere else in james bay that would be good...id recommend once youre not crashing constantly to get on the bike trails with no cars and very few pedestrians galloping goose and other biking trails are the best for practice,, i wish i knew of some like obstacle courses or something that would be fun.. vic west skatepark might be alright if there isnt a thousand people

[Kerberos]

34 minutes ago, Rywokast said:

once youre not crashing constantly

Sounds fake...

 

 

[Rywokast]

1 hour ago, Kerberos said:

Sounds fake...

we all thought the same way at first lol... i havent crashed in over three years. i do remember back in my early days when it was literally a toss of the coin whether i would drop my wheel on a ride or not xD but it hasnt been a thought in my head for a long time

[Kerberos]

16 hours ago, Rywokast said:

but it hasnt been a thought in my head for a long time

I look forward to this lol. 

[Mike B in Victoria]

It’s good to see some local talk going on here, good luck with the learning I think you we need out around every one in no time.

time your time to work on mounting and dis mounting with control and the rest just comes.

[UniMe]

22 hours ago, Kerberos said:

I look forward to this lol. 

I think if a person uses the EUC on well known road based terrain and doesn't habitually push they can be quite safe. No helmet safe, I'd say never. I also ride a bike with a helmet and won't get on one without it. Brain injuries happen in an instant and can change your life for ever, just not worth the risk.

I push though... it's just in my nature, and wear gear. I'm also interested in learning new skills and trying more challenging terrain, eventually off road (when the EUC's can actually handle it) and occasionally make mistakes that were quite unpredictable as I simply don't fully feel and know the limits of the wheel. Recently, for example, when the ground was still wet, I pulled into some grass that I had ridden through before when it was dry. The wheel sunk and wobbled immediately, and I had to do a slightly uncomfortable step off. Stayed on my feet, but really didn't expect the ride to go sideways that fast. New skill = riding in soft ground/mud!

Edited May 22, 2021 by UniMe

[Rywokast]

7 minutes ago, UniMe said:

New skill = riding in soft ground/mud!

that is the absolute worst! on par with black ice i think haha... in the fall i always keep my eyes out for patches of leaves, because wet muddy leaves almost killed me once xD i was going around a sharp corner and the wheel literally slid like 5m with me on it.. my heart never sank so fast, came out of it luckily but ill never hit a big patch of wet leaves again haha.... i cant imagine pure mud, i dont think the tires we have now would stand a chance, maaaaaaybe the Z10 but thats still pushing it just because of the single tire if you get caught in a patch too deep youre screwed, no other tire to hold you up lol

[Kerberos]

2 hours ago, UniMe said:

I think if a person uses the EUC on well known road based terrain and doesn't habitually push they can be quite safe. No helmet safe, I'd say never. I also ride a bike with a helmet and won't get on one without it. Brain injuries happen in an instant and can change your life for ever, just not worth the risk.

I push though... it's just in my nature, and wear gear. I'm also interested in learning new skills and trying more challenging terrain, eventually off road (when the EUC's can actually handle it) and occasionally make mistakes that were quite unpredictable as I simply don't fully feel and know the limits of the wheel. Recently, for example, when the ground was still wet, I pulled into some grass that I had ridden through before when it was dry. The wheel sunk and wobbled immediately, and I had to do a slightly uncomfortable step off. Stayed on my feet, but really didn't expect the ride to go sideways that fast. New skill = riding in soft ground/mud!

Absolutely, I don't think I'll ever go without a helmet unless MAYBE if I'm going to the grocery store down the street and back, and I plan on sticking to like 10-15 miles and hour max, first thing I did after purchasing the EUC is bought gear, I got a Demon Podium helment which I feel pretty confident with, knee pads are a little lackluster, I felt like maybe putting some extra money to get a pair of those leatt shin/knee pads all the riders seem to like, but I couldn't justify it. Got some wrist guards, simple protec ones, which I figure should do the job. My footwear is a little lackluster, I wear a pair of "barefoot" water shoes that super comfy and very easy to manuever with since the sole is so flexible. Not great protection, but I find I fall less ever since switching to them. I also ordered Hi-Vis vest on Amazon that has LEDs on it that you can signal turns with using a remote. I figure it should work really well once I feel comfortable taking on the goose and other spaces where i have to share the road and let people know my intent. I think I would like to get a motorcycle jacket, or a lazyrolling jacket at some point, but I don't plan on pushing the speed on my v10f super hard for the time being, so that'll be an expense that will have to wait. On a side note, I found the parking lot at tillicum today to be AMAZING for practicing, I was doing laps without having to stop to turn around, did a few sharp turns, managed to mount a few times without assistance. Practiced going over the speedbumps up there, practiced going up and down slopes on the little on/off ramp from the top level parking garage down to the theater stairs. The stairs there seem very gentle as far as stairs go too, so if I ever want to start practicing stair climbing with my unicycle, that place will be amazing! I hope to find that parking lot empty next time I go too, it made for a fantastic practice session.