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Do you think letting non-riders have a quick go on a EUC discourages more people than it does encourage?


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2 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

Whatever she's doing, I'm all for it.  I think you said something in that post too, but somehow I've forgotten what it was.

Seriously though, I like your ideas, but wonder where you live that there are so many people using EUC's that such a business could possibly succeed.  I've never even seen a EUC in real life.

I live in Chicago.  By US standards its a densely populated city, it is very social, and has the nicest city parks and trails of any city in the country (we have New York and LA beat by a long shot).  So there is lots of potential, but still untapped.

 

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How many EUC's do you see per week or month there?  I'm just trying to get a picture of how ordinary you find the sight ... especially considering I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't see my first one for years unless I bought it myself.

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3 hours ago, Paddylaz said:

It used to be: "wow, what the fuck is that!" (I still get these from time to time, to be fair)

Then it went to: "Oh look that's a Segway thing!" (people starting to identify the technology)

Then it went to: "That's a ninebot!" (it wasn't, but the important thing here is awareness has increased to them being able to name-drop a specific brand).

Ah, the Three Stages of EUC Awareness.  We're still stuck in Stage 1 in Arizona, maybe Stage 1.5 since we did get a comment about "tourists on their Segs" a couple of weeks ago.

It looks like a long haul here.  In the past week I've been asked about my EUC about 10 times, and only one person showed an actual inclination toward riding it.

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1 hour ago, Ombre said:

Ah, the Three Stages of EUC Awareness.  We're still stuck in Stage 1 in Arizona, maybe Stage 1.5 since we did get a comment about "tourists on their Segs" a couple of weeks ago.

It looks like a long haul here.  In the past week I've been asked about my EUC about 10 times, and only one person showed an actual inclination toward riding it.

Yeah.

I've got a pet theory that the Hoverboards have done irreversible damage to the euc 'PR.'

When people say 'Segway', (at least in Europe), they are comparing the euc to those bloody boards, not the actual mop-with-handles Segway that George Bush fell off.

I think the general mediocrity of those 'boards has perhaps slightly damaged the rep of the technology in general. If they had never existed, and eucs had come out of nowhere as the next evolution after the proper Segway.....it might be bigger by now.

Still time I guess.

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2 hours ago, Paddylaz said:

Yeah.

I've got a pet theory that the Hoverboards have done irreversible damage to the euc 'PR.'

When people say 'Segway', (at least in Europe), they are comparing the euc to those bloody boards, not the actual mop-with-handles Segway that George Bush fell off.

I think the general mediocrity of those 'boards has perhaps slightly damaged the rep of the technology in general. If they had never existed, and eucs had come out of nowhere as the next evolution after the proper Segway.....it might be bigger by now.

Still time I guess.

Second that. People even call those crapboards - "mini-segways"... Doh! Why!?

Good thing Ninebot grabbed the name now and hopefully the Ninebot by Segway MiniPro will bring technology's reputation up from the ground.

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On the flip side, here in the US, the shitty hoverboards make EUC's look like a toys. The bonus is that in real everyday life, no one cares about them at all. It's like a skateboard or a pogostick basically to most people. This leaves riders to do whatever they like without worry of anyone bothering them. The plane part sucks, but the leaving me alone to ride my toy part is good. 

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6 hours ago, meepmeepmayer said:

@Duf's girfriend (wife?) also seems to have gone from Minipro to EUC (Inmotion)... some more time and she gets a Monster/msuper too;)

Thats funny, last weekend my Wife learned the EUC - she's been on a mini pro for the last 12 months.

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On 4/26/2017 at 10:33 AM, Carlos E Rodriguez said:

I will open a shop when I retire. Hire a bunch of supper hot chicks to stroll along the lake front and have all the horny guys follow them to the shop. Buy a wheel and get to hold on to a super hot chick for 30 minutes 5 different days while learning. 

Lol. 

If I was the student, I would never graduate from your school.

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7 hours ago, Chris Westland said:

I live in Chicago.  By US standards its a densely populated city, it is very social, and has the nicest city parks and trails of any city in the country (we have New York and LA beat by a long shot).  So there is lots of potential, but still untapped.

 

I bet guy looking at the garage door sataryed thinking. "I wonder what cordless drill she is using". Time warpppp "I wonder what ECU she is riding".

you see it works!

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We have a tendency to hyper-regulate safety issues here in the U.S., so at least for EUC freedom I think we're more likely to be in a Golden Age than not.  As long as people think of them as toys rather than vehicles, or don't know what the heck they are or how to think about them, there will be a lot fewer regular people and legislators and police who want to say "No!" when they see us on a sidewalk rather than a road or on a road rather than a sidewalk, or on a trail or in a mall etc. etc. it goes on and on.  

When people think about regulating safety, the first and favorite word that always comes to mind is "No."

When I watch youtube riding videos, it's hard not to think, "I wonder how long before that's illegal" or "before you can get a fine for that."

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

We have a tendency to hyper-regulate safety issues here in the U.S., so at least for EUC freedom I think we're more likely to be in a Golden Age than not.  As long as people think of them as toys rather than vehicles, or don't know what the heck they are or how to think about them, there will be a lot fewer regular people and legislators and police who want to say "No!" when they see us on a sidewalk rather than a road or on a road rather than a sidewalk, or on a trail or in a mall etc. etc. it goes on and on.  

When people think about regulating safety, the first and favorite word that always comes to mind is "No."

When I watch youtube riding videos, it's hard not to think, "I wonder how long before that's illegal" or "before you can get a fine for that."

 

 

 

So, do you think this is being a responsible steward of our passion :facepalm:

 

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12 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

So, do you think this is being a responsible steward of our passion :facepalm:

 

Where the heck was this allowed to happen (it looks like a Japanese airport, but I don't think it's Narita).  I don't think he would make it past curbside check-in in the US ...

 

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On 4/26/2017 at 6:16 AM, Jonathan Tolhurst said:

If people are polite and I'm in a good mood, I'll often let people have a "quick" go on my wheel. From my experience, very few people manage to ride the wheel in a couple of minutes practice (there have been one or two exceptions). Remembering back to when I first got my wheel, I spent the first hour or so thinking I'd just wasted my money.

Given the general EUC learning curve, do you think giving people a quick go on an EUC puts more people off rather than encouraging them to purchase one?

What other options are out there to introduce non-riders to electric unicycling?

 

I think giving people a quick go on an EUC puts more people off. 

Example: I let my son's friends try my TGT3. None of them bought an EUC. Maybe they are just middle schoolers without $$$. 

Example: I let a couple of my friends/neighbors to try it, none of them bought EUCs either.

Example: One day, I rode passing a house under construction. The workers there asked about EUC and want to try . I was riding my new Msuper and I did not want them to damage it. So I told them this is my NEW and expensive toy. I do not want it scratched. I showed them how to ride. I told them I have another one which I only ask $150 to buy. I told them that just the battery alone cost more than that. They knew that Li-Ion packs were expensive, because they use power tools. So they bought my used TGT3, shared by 3 workers, without trying out first. Two weeks after, I passed that construction site again and talked to them. None of them were able to ride yet.  

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On 4/26/2017 at 11:41 AM, kasenutty said:

I wish my wife would learn, but she won't. Ever. She won't even stand on my minipro :(

She rode the minipro last night!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That means in  year or two, she might stand on the EUC if I hold her hands :D

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My take on this might be different to most here. I think it's a bad situation if a lot more people take up this hobby. When it remains a relatively rare and niche hobby or mode of transport, the law, the media and the public leave us alone to enjoy it. As soon as everyone buys one it's a problem, because "everyone" includes the retards. And they are the ones who will cause the accidents, the fires, the injuries and the negative public perception.

The example I provide is drones. I am an avid RC model flyer. I used to fly quadcopters since before they were called drones and when you had to build them from scratch. I enjoyed the Phantoms and the small racing quads when they came along too.  No one had a problem with these RC aircrafts in the early days.  

Then they went mainstream and the retards got hold of them and the media used them as another fear-driven profit generator. The result is that drones are perceived as a dangerous, privacy invading nuisance to society. I no longer fly them after numerous negative comments and evil looks, and I stick to RC planes.

Other examples are laser pointers, psychadelic plants and research chemicals. Things that are useful and/or interesting but have some inherent risk, can become demonised, regulated and even illegal once popularity puts them in the hands of the retards.

I would prefer EUCs and MiniPros to remain popular enough that companies are incentivised to improve designs and release new products periodically, while still remaining to be a niche enough hobby that the public rarely give these devices a second thought. I don't want to encourage many people to take this up.

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23 minutes ago, RooMiniPro said:

My take on this might be different to most here. I think it's a bad situation if a lot more people take up this hobby. When it remains a relatively rare and niche hobby or mode of transport, the law, the media and the public leave us alone to enjoy it. As soon as everyone buys one it's a problem, because "everyone" includes the retards. And they are the ones who will cause the accidents, the fires, the injuries and the negative public perception.

The example I provide is drones. I am an avid RC model flyer. I used to fly quadcopters since before they were called drones and when you had to build them from scratch. I enjoyed the Phantoms and the small racing quads when they came along too.  No one had a problem with these RC aircrafts in the early days.  

Then they went mainstream and the retards got hold of them and the media used them as another fear-driven profit generator. The result is that drones are perceived as a dangerous, privacy invading nuisance to society. I no longer fly them after numerous negative comments and evil looks, and I stick to RC planes.

Other examples are laser pointers, psychadelic plants and research chemicals. Things that are useful and/or interesting but have some inherent risk, can become demonised, regulated and even illegal once popularity puts them in the hands of the retards.

I would prefer EUCs and MiniPros to remain popular enough that companies are incentivised to improve designs and release new products periodically, while still remaining to be a niche enough hobby that the public rarely give these devices a second thought. I don't want to encourage many people to take this up.

Some valid points there.

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15 minutes ago, RooMiniPro said:

My take on this might be different to most here. I think it's a bad situation if a lot more people take up this hobby. When it remains a relatively rare and niche hobby or mode of transport, the law, the media and the public leave us alone to enjoy it. As soon as everyone buys one it's a problem, because "everyone" includes the retards. And they are the ones who will cause the accidents, the fires, the injuries and the negative public perception.

I agree with this except that this is a good situation instead of a bad one.

To me, the greatest danger is not other EUC's but cars. Each person riding a bicycle or an EUC is one less dangerous vehicle to me. And yes while sociopaths will ride EUC's they will also cause much less damage on an EUC than a car.

Maybe sociopaths or retards is misleading; my observation is nearly 100% of people in cars at lights are on their cell phones, and a significant portion of those are on their cell phone while moving. Boring and routine drivers make dangerous drivers; I believe it was two years ago that cell phone use surpassed drunk driving as the number one cause of accidents in the USA.

The Atlantic ran an article recently that showed that only 5% of urban commuters used public transportation. Most of the rest, presumably, used cars. I think that's really the crux of the problem; modern cities are almost entirely road and car dependant, and woe to the transportation device that doesn't behave like a car.

It's curious to see that the Tesla is hailed as such a revolutionary device yet its form factor is exactly that of a car.

To me, an EUC rider will always be regarded as a jerk regardless of who and how it is ridden because it "isn't a car." Bicyclists and pedestrians also "aren't cars" and guess what? All those groups irritate car drivers to no end. 

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Really interesting points here on both sides.

I'm surprised I had never considered this one:

It's curious to see that the Tesla is hailed as such a revolutionary device yet its form factor is exactly that of a car.

 

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Just now, Dingfelder said:

Really interesting points here on both sides.

I'm surprised I had never considered this one:

 

 

 

I never thought about Teslas like that either.  For the vast majority of people though, a car is a much better form of transport than a unicycle.  It's safer (you're in a big metal cage surrounded by airbags versus standing on one wheel with a computer program keeping you upright and alive), it can carry multiple people, it can transport goods, it's dry, warm and free of wind and it gets to the destination much faster. It's not a good comparison really.  A better one would be a bicycle and an EUC.  And in that case the EUC has a lot of advantages and the bicycle has some too.

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I get where you're coming from, of course.  Re the Tesla, I was just thinking that all this fuss about Teslas and driverless cars does distract us from the fact that by far the better transportation alternative in cities is subways and the like.  When Los Angeles finally got a subway, it was a huge boon to the city.  Replacing one type of car with another wouldn't have anywhere near the impact in lessening all the negatives of crowding, accidents,pollution, lack of parking, terrible commute times,etc.

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On 4/29/2017 at 2:14 PM, EUCMania said:

1 I think it is in China, because one the banner is an ad in Chinese " China Industrial and Business Bank."

2. By the one made the video has a Japanese name.

ICBC; I think you are right about the Chinese.  Also, one of the signs points out to the street and says zhansheng nanlu, in English and apparently in in full stroke characters = 战胜南路 simplified.  I would guess Taiwan then (I'd recognize the Hong Kong roads and stations).

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