MeetchNYC Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Hey Guys! New to the forum and obsessed with getting one of the EUC models. I'm 6'4, a solid 275lbs with size 13 foot. I see all of the EUC have weight ranges. What would you recommend? Does the weight requirements matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimlet Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Weight and size obviously does make a big difference to the performance of any vehicle. You will obviously not get anything like the performance from any euc that a lighter person will enjoy but on the other hand my 210lb son was quite able to carry his 180lb friend piggy back style for over a mile on one of my small mten V2 euc. The danger of mechanical failure of pedals etc. especially when dropping off of high kerbs will obviously be much greater with your weight being over the maximum design weight of all the eucs i know of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trey Lewis Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 1 hour ago, MeetchNYC said: Hey Guys! New to the forum and obsessed with getting one of the EUC models. I'm 6'4, a solid 275lbs with size 13 foot. I see all of the EUC have weight ranges. What would you recommend? Does the weight requirements matter? I know some 280 pund riders that ride a MCM4. I have rode one with a an EUC in each hand and it seemed to perform fine. With that being said, I wouldn't recommend it. Most wheels feel capable of carrying pretty heavy loads but you put yourself at a lot higher risk of something going wrong. If a wheel has a listed top speed of 30km/h for example and is rated for a 200 pound rider you can imagine cut-off limits are a safe disance above that. Bring the weight above listed requirements and you narrow that cut-off gap. Potentially to a dangerous level. Weight also greatly effects your range. I am sure if you listed why and where you are riding we could offer some solid advice. Are you commuting? Distance? Also, prepared to be hooked and have your life changed, not even joking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dingfelder Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Hi. I'm about to buy my first EUC too, and I swing from about 205 to 215 pounds fairly regularly, with my natural weight at about 210. Researching EUC's emphasized to me that I simply don't have the freedom of choice many EUC'ers have. Especially not if I want to ride safely. But also if I want to have a reasonable range and ability to climb hills, which are everywhere around where I live. And even so that I don't cause heat stress on the machine that could damage the internals or become a safety issue during rides. For all those reasons, I can only use the strongest wheels ... and that with rare exception also means the biggest and most expensive. You can go smaller, and some people report using wheels at well over their recommended weight limits. But it sounds like asking for trouble. And while most of them might exceed weight limits or put unusual stress on a machine for a minute or an hour, that's different from exceeding them every time and all the time. I narrowed my search to 18 inch wheels, the Gotway Monster 22 inch wheel, and the higher power Gotway ACM+, a 16 inch wheel that is exceptionally strong and that gets many positive reviews. These all meet your recommended weight capacity at 300 to 350 pounds. Jason McNeil at ewheels.com put together a graphic that gathers those machines toward the right and will give an idea on pricing: https://www.ewheels.com/electric-unicycle-ultimate_ewheel_comparison_ips_airwheel_ninebot_king_song_gotway/ One thing to point out about it -- both Gotway and Kingsong are coming out with or have already come out with updated versions of the larger wheels, so some of the text on Jason's site and on every site I have seen is a bit outdated. Battery capacity, power, etc., is something you should confirm before being sure you're really comparing apples to apples and not to oranges. I would recommend you read and study the text on all the sales pages for each of the larger wheels on Jason's site. It tends to be more up to date, and what is said about one wheel often applies to similar wheels and sometimes isn't written as well on the a similar machine's page. Finally, I really loved the review and riding videos of speedyfeet, a British distributor, on youtube. He goes into lots of depth and takes long rides that show you the capabilities of many machines, both on and off-road. Marty Backe does reviews too, and has lots of riding videos that I particularly like for showing the kind of performance you get and issues you can run into on hills and trails. And of course you have found a great resource in the forum here. Welcome! P.S.: I don't mean to slight anyone else's contributions or sales sites by not mentioning them here. I just wanted to start the ball rolling regarding additional information/entertainment sources, is all. There are many great contributors on the forum and on youtube, as well as more than one or two well-reviewed sales sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddylaz Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 One thing that should also be taken into account is weight CHANGE. You might buy a wheel that seems to perform ok at your weight, but it means maintaining that weight. Who knows what could happen if your weight goes up, even by a small amount, if it's already at the high end of what these machines will handle. PLUS the added weight of a backpack etc and what you might choose to put in it. Having said that I'm sure the 'Monster can handle almost anything thrown at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 Losing weight would be a good idea, if possible EUCs are surprisingly weight sensitive, both in terms of performance and (more importantly) safety. Think of them like helicopters - very weight sensitive, and if you're suddenly demanding more than they can do, the consequences are NOT GOOD AT ALL. 120 kg is the official upper limit for most wheels (this may not be a conservative limit, as it's from China) and you're 125. @Trey Lewis said it very well what's up. The big worry is you can more easily overstress the wheel. If you do that beyond what it can balance, you must necessarily fall. Think for example you're emergency braking but the wheel can't keep up and suddenly "slips" away from below your feet while you're leaning back, bad fall. Don't let that push you away from EUCs. They're fantastic little things Obviously, get one of the stronger wheels and enjoy! Just be careful because you're in perpetual "more than what it's meant for" mode and you will have to be more careful on what you can and can't do unless you want to crash because of the much lower safety margin. You can roughly say, wheel stress is proportional to weight (because so many quantities like torque, momentum, kinetic energy are proportional to mass), so if you're 80 kg and at 2/3 (67%) of wheel utilization (good safety margin), in the same situation at 120 kg you're at 100% and have no margin! Less weight should also give you quite steep and notable performance improvements. It's crazy what the difference in range and (safe) max speed is between 60 and 80 kg, for example. So sorry for the preaching, but this is a wonderful hobby and you really do benefit impressively from lower weight here. The stronger wheels would be Gotway and Kingsong models 16'' or more, >1000W motors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddylaz Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 14 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said: Losing weight would be a good idea, if possible Yep, this. Thats kinda what I wanted to say. That could actually be a surprisingly powerful motivator - instead of losing weight for health or vanity, lose it so you can buy and use your dream euc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeetchNYC Posted May 16, 2017 Author Share Posted May 16, 2017 On 5/13/2017 at 11:29 AM, Paddylaz said: Yep, this. Thats kinda what I wanted to say. That could actually be a surprisingly powerful motivator - instead of losing weight for health or vanity, lose it so you can buy and use your dream euc! Thank you for the weight advice....But my current weight was not the question. The question was what EUC is capable of handling larger frames. Thank you for everyone that gave me recommendations on EUC models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos E Rodriguez Posted May 16, 2017 Share Posted May 16, 2017 On 5/13/2017 at 1:16 AM, MeetchNYC said: Hey Guys! New to the forum and obsessed with getting one of the EUC models. I'm 6'4, a solid 275lbs with size 13 foot. I see all of the EUC have weight ranges. What would you recommend? Does the weight requirements matter? I think you should buy two EUCs and strap them one on each foot. you are a special human being. These things are made with bicycle size axles. Hey guys I am. Gigiantic football player. I love those Mini Coopers. Which mini should I get? Well i just don't think a mini is for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddylaz Posted May 16, 2017 Share Posted May 16, 2017 10 hours ago, MeetchNYC said: Thank you for the weight advice....But my current weight was not the question. The question was what EUC is capable of handling larger frames. Thank you for everyone that gave me recommendations on EUC models. No, your question was concerning weight ranges and weight requirements. You've.....written it yourself right there at the top of the page along with your current weight. Your 'frame' is obviously going to be about as relevant as your star sign, given that you control the wheel with just your feet and changes in your WEIGHT distribution. The range you can get out of the wheel will also be based on your weight - how much strain you're putting on the wheel to shift you, and the power requirements of that. Anyway. In answer to the question: it matters a lot. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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