Solowheel Xtreme Impressions

[MvM]

Today, I had a meet with Daan from Seattle, who is the proud new owner of this electric Unicycle.

When Daan mentioned he would be visiting the Netherlands (he is originally from the Netherlands), I proposed to meet him to give him a chance to ride my classic 1500W Solowheel model and of course to try the new Solowheel Xtreme myself.

He agreed to meet up and today was the day. The weather was not 100% perfect, but good enough to ride.
After some talking about EU's in general, we went outside and I immediately got the chance to try the Solowheel Xtreme myself.

Daan has only had his SW for just three weeks, whereas I have been riding the older model since June 2014.
I have had a chance to only try a few Airwheel models in the past, and to be honest, was not very impressed by them. Very stiff ride, not very agile and uncomfortable casing.

The Solowheel Xtreme is absolutely the opposite of that.
First of all, the 18" wheel makes for a very comfortable ride in general. Not just on the street, but also on the forest path where we went for a ride.
The pedals are bigger than those on the SW Classic which I like very much.
The Xtreme is a bit taller than the Classic model, but now by much. It is also a little heavier but in riding, this is not very noticable.

What struck me the most in riding the Xtreme is how unbelievable comfortable it is. The SW  Classic model is very responsive and moves in the same way my body moves as I brake or accelerate.  When you lean forward, the SW actually tilts a bit. When braking, the opposite happens. If you are used to a 'stiff' EU, this might feel awkward, but after some use, and especially when doing tight turns or weaving through traffic, it becomes very natural. You don't need to 'force' the SW to go round a corner, it just 'flows' in the direction you want.

With the new Solowheel Xtreme this is even more so. The wheel was only a little less agile but with a little more practice, I think it will prove to be just as 'turnable' as the smaller model.
It's movements are also very 'soft'. This might be because of the bigger tire. Actually, when accelerating fast, or trying a very tight turn, I sometimes felt the pedals tilted forward a bit too much for me, but that might be just a matter of getting used to it. 
It is possible to chance the setting of the Solowheel Xtreme, but we left it as it is because we didn't have the app needed to change the setting and the ride was fine as it was.
The Xtreme case is rather narrow and not chunky and sits very naturally between your legs. I have never ridden a Gotway or any of the other large EU's, but from the picture, these seem to be rather bulky between your legs. With the Xtreme I have room to spare so to say
I had the feeling the Xtreme is a little bit faster than the classic model, but that I didn't really test it for speed.

Daan, at the same time, had no trouble riding the classic model and had no trouble riding it trough the forest nor on the streets.
I didn't try any high jumps downwards, but my feeling would be that the Xtreme would be able to overcome larger obstacles than the classic model because of the bigger wheel.

All in all, I was impressed by the quality of the product and the overal 'smoothness' of the ride it offers.
Compared with the Airwheels I tried in the past (bad comparison, I know ), my own SW offers a superior ride, but the Xtreme model surpasses mine with ease.

Daan also told me he had ridden the Xtreme for more than 19km the day before over hilly terrain and still had charge left, so even the range is more than I would have expected for such a relatively small battery pack.

 

Me and Daan together with our Solowheels.

My Solowheel classic in front of the new Xolowheel Xtreme. Larger indeeed, but not by much.

[Sam Clegg]

Thanks for posting.   I'm about to post my first impressions now, including some video and images.

Regarding the app, this is not available and probably won't be for a quite a while  So there is currently no way to change the ride style.

Also regarding the pedals tilting forward, I notice that a lot too.  I also notice it with the original solowheel, if you turn sharply the pedals tilt forward in a very unnatural way.  I clearly the firmware issue and I don't think it effect all versions.  I'm hoping Inventist will fix this as it makes tricks very awkward.

Aside from that I agree about the confort.  The large wheel and large pedals make the thing very smooth and comfortable.

[Daan]

Great write-up MvM   I had a great time riding together -- the internet makes the world a smaller place indeed   

I enjoyed trying out the Solowheel Classic -- first time on another wheel. Felt great too and a bit more agile with the 16" wheel; I guess it was easy to transfer because both wheels probably have similar firmware and riding characteristics.