Parking your EUC

[RichieV]

One thing that prevents me from using my ewheels for more mundane tasks such as grocery shopping or grabbing a bite from a restaurant is the hassle of trolleying (or worse, carrying) the wheel around while I go about my business.  Bicycle riders can usually lock up their bikes to a pole or rack and that's that.  I'm hesitant to do that for fear of theft or something like:

• "John, what's that thing up against the pole?"
• "Martha, I think that's an IED!"
• "An IE what???"
• "A bomb, Martha!  For God's sake get away from it and call 911!!!"

Ok so maybe that's a bit ridiculous; still, I'd rather not have curious strangers poking and prodding and pushing buttons on my EUC while it's unattended.

So what do you guys do?  Do you just leave it home and use the car like I do, or do you keep the wheel with you throughout, or do you lock it up to a pole or bike rack, or do you do something else entirely?

[LanghamP]

I trolley it with me, almost always, unless I dump it in a car (in the front seat, the current girlfriend rides in the back).

That's why I prefer small wheels with excellent trolleys. I would never leave or lock up my wheel outside when I could easily trolley it inside. A 14 inch wheel like the Inmotion V5F is so small that I dump it inside my shopping cart.

[kour]

something like this might work - motion detecting ones might just go off if people walk by:

https://www.amazon.com/Handlebar-Mounted-Bicycle-Speaker-Waterproof/dp/B00O70BTC2/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1496851944&sr=1-10&keywords=bicycle+theft+alarm

[Michael Vu]

Trolley it in with me as much as I can. Sometimes I can coat check it in the venue like hotels and performance venues. Otherwise I just lock it up like a bicycle. I will however never lock it up overnight.

[Lorents]

I guess it depends on the size of your wheel, but I always take my 14 incher with me when I go to a store or restaurant. I just toss it in the shopping cart or "hide" it in a corner somewhere. On the subway I just let it rest between my legs. Nobody have mistaken it for a bomb yet

[Frode]

I carry it with me. If for some reason I cannot take it with me, I try to hide it out of sight from most passersby.

[Mono]

20 hours ago, RichieV said:

One thing that prevents me from using my ewheels for more mundane tasks such as grocery shopping or grabbing a bite from a restaurant is the hassle of trolleying (or worse, carrying) the wheel around while I go about my business.  Bicycle riders can usually lock up their bikes to a pole or rack and that's that.

I find locking up my bicycle for grocery shopping or a restaurant visit actually less practical than trolleying my wheel at my side. It seems to be purely a matter of preference then.

[RichieV]

Hmmm. Maybe it's the EUCs that I'm using right now that has me soured on trolleying them in a mall or shopping center for an extended period of time.  My KS18a doesn't have an extendable handle so I have to hunch over uncomfortably to walk that wheel around, and my Ninebot One's extendable trolley handle is pretty rickety and the wheel can easily go off course if I don't trolley it just so.

Still, I wish parking lockers were a thing where people could just put their EUC/scooter/skateboard in and lock it up so they could shop unencumbered.  I suppose chaining it up to a rack is not much different in terms of  security; a determined thief can probably compromise a locker just as easily as a chain.  And I've left bicycles locked up unattended without much concern in the past; many do so with bicycles which cost easily as much as any EUC.  Not sure why I have a hang up about my EUCs, bomb scares aside

[kour]

3 minutes ago, RichieV said:

Not sure why I have a hang up about my EUCs, bomb scares aside

i'd be wary of leaving it alone - for the reason you mentioned earlier that people might turn it on and fool with it and make it smash around!

[LanghamP]

12 minutes ago, RichieV said:

Hmmm. Maybe it's the EUCs that I'm using right now that has me soured on trolleying them in a mall or shopping center for an extended period of time.  My KS18a doesn't have an extendable handle so I have to hunch over uncomfortably to walk that wheel around, and my Ninebot One's extendable trolley handle is pretty rickety and the wheel can easily go off course if I don't trolley it just so.

I use my V5F+ so much in the trolley mode, as a walking cane, that I've had to purposefully stop using it as my legs gradually weakened through disuse. I lean on it and let it pull me everywhere, especially uphill.

Specifically, I usually do a 6 mile run at a 9 minute per mile pace, but Tuesday I could barely manage 5 miles at a 10 mile pace. My jogging mates laughed at me as I went from fastest to slowest, and had to take shortcuts just to keep up with them.

[uniler]

I simply lock mine up like It was a bike, i never leave home without My lock. This is made easy by living in a bike friendly community. If I'm going into a store for just a minute I either throw it in the shopping cart casually or leave it by the registers or somewhere near the door but out of sight.

[Dingfelder]

On 6/8/2017 at 8:52 AM, RichieV said:

Hmmm. Maybe it's the EUCs that I'm using right now that has me soured on trolleying them in a mall or shopping center for an extended period of time.  My KS18a doesn't have an extendable handle so I have to hunch over uncomfortably to walk that wheel around, and my Ninebot One's extendable trolley handle is pretty rickety and the wheel can easily go off course if I don't trolley it just so.

Still, I wish parking lockers were a thing where people could just put their EUC/scooter/skateboard in and lock it up so they could shop unencumbered.  I suppose chaining it up to a rack is not much different in terms of  security; a determined thief can probably compromise a locker just as easily as a chain.  And I've left bicycles locked up unattended without much concern in the past; many do so with bicycles which cost easily as much as any EUC.  Not sure why I have a hang up about my EUCs, bomb scares aside

I don't blame you.  Where I grew up, anyway, bicycles were constantly being stolen even when chained up to racks..  And I do mean constantly.  Stealing bikes is a very real thing in my experience, and I would not feel right leaving my EUC parked somewhere even if seemingly well-secured.

[Joe Holliday]

On 6/7/2017 at 11:43 AM, RichieV said:

One thing that prevents me from using my ewheels for more mundane tasks such as grocery shopping or grabbing a bite from a restaurant is the hassle of trolleying (or worse, carrying) the wheel around while I go about my business.  Bicycle riders can usually lock up their bikes to a pole or rack and that's that.  I'm hesitant to do that for fear of theft or something like:

• "John, what's that thing up against the pole?"
• "Martha, I think that's an IED!"
• "An IE what???"
• "A bomb, Martha!  For God's sake get away from it and call 911!!!"

Ok so maybe that's a bit ridiculous; still, I'd rather not have curious strangers poking and prodding and pushing buttons on my EUC while it's unattended.

So what do you guys do?  Do you just leave it home and use the car like I do, or do you keep the wheel with you throughout, or do you lock it up to a pole or bike rack, or do you do something else entirely?

It's not as rediculous a scenario as you think. I ran into that very thing when I first started using mine to commute to work. Since I work at a Navy base, unattended packages and unidentifiable devices are a serious matter.  Also, if I bring it into a classified space, security personnel start questioning me about it's Bluetooth capabilities, asking if it can receive and store data. More times than not, I'm not allowed to bring it into any secured spaces.

[JimB]

Keep it with you.

Even if you're not worried about it being stolen (which I'd be worried about), what happens when a curious kid hits the power button and chews off his fingers between the wheel and housing?

[Joe Holliday]

21 minutes ago, JimB said:

Keep it with you.

Even if you're not worried about it being stolen (which I'd be worried about), what happens when a curious kid hits the power button and chews off his fingers between the wheel and housing?

Unfortunately, not every location allows us to bring it inside.  When I worked at NIOC, they wouldn't let me bring it in the building I worked in just because it has Bluetooth capabilities (we weren't even allowed to wear fitness watches that were BT enabled), despite the fact that it's send only and it's just telemetry data from the wheel. I had to chain it to a bike rack. Luckily, I've never seen a single kid on site there.

[steve454]

18 hours ago, Joe Holliday said:

Unfortunately, not every location allows us to bring it inside.  When I worked at NIOC, they wouldn't let me bring it in the building I worked in just because it has Bluetooth capabilities (we weren't even allowed to wear fitness watches that were BT enabled), despite the fact that it's send only and it's just telemetry data from the wheel. I had to chain it to a bike rack. Luckily, I've never seen a single kid on site there.

I wonder if the new Kingsongs that have the fuse on the outside of the shell would be good in that situation?  Pull the fuse and put it in your pocket.  Then even if someone pressed the power button, it wouldn't turn on.

 

[Joe Holliday]

4 minutes ago, steve454 said:

I wonder if the new Kingsongs that have the fuse on the outside of the shell would be good in that situation?  Pull the fuse and put it in your pocket.  Then even if someone pressed the power button, it wouldn't turn on.

 

That might work, but what would be even better (in my opinion) is having a key required to start it. That might help detract from theft too.

[Roo Williams]

I’ve thrown my Tesla in a cart while at Target. In a bodega I’ll just find a place to prop it up against the wall if I’m grabbing more than I can trolley with.

[GoinPostal]

On 6/7/2017 at 9:43 AM, RichieV said:

One thing that prevents me from using my ewheels for more mundane tasks such as grocery shopping or grabbing a bite from a restaurant is the hassle of trolleying (or worse, carrying) the wheel around while I go about my business.  Bicycle riders can usually lock up their bikes to a pole or rack and that's that.  I'm hesitant to do that for fear of theft or something like:

• "John, what's that thing up against the pole?"
• "Martha, I think that's an IED!"
• "An IE what???"
• "A bomb, Martha!  For God's sake get away from it and call 911!!!"

Ok so maybe that's a bit ridiculous; still, I'd rather not have curious strangers poking and prodding and pushing buttons on my EUC while it's unattended.

So what do you guys do?  Do you just leave it home and use the car like I do, or do you keep the wheel with you throughout, or do you lock it up to a pole or bike rack, or do you do something else entirely?

Toss it in the grocery cart.