Marty Backe Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 A little story some of you may find interesting... Yesterday I was taking a mid-afternoon ride along the beach on my KS14C. Beautiful Southern California day. As I was approaching the Hermosa Beach Pier I spotted two wheelers in the distance! Amazing. In the year that I've been involved with EUC's I've never come across a fellow rider, let alone two. As I approached from behind (they were traveling at a leisurely pace) I saw that that they were a young couple, in their early 20's I would say. He was riding an MCM and she was on a two wheeled Inmotion wheel. I smiled and waved as I rode past them. Needless to say they were really surprised. We stopped and chatted for a nice long time. The MCM was bought from Dion (@myfunwheel) and the Inmotion from @Jason McNeil (EWheels). All within the last couple of months. They had no knowledge of the forum and our local group rides that I organize. I think that I may have found a couple of new recruits. Hopefully they will join the forum. Now Brian, he was a little frustrated with his wheel because it would always tilt-back, and was about as fast as the Inmotion (i.e., not very fast). I took it for a little spin and sure enough, tilt-back must have been set to 10mph or less. I whipped out my phone and reconfigured his wheel (with his permission of course). Immediately he saw a huge change in his wheel. It felt like he just received an updated EUC. He looked very happy as he started zooming around (I turned tilt-back off). We rode together for a bit more before we went our separate ways. I'm hoping to see them during our meetup with @The Fat Unicyclist In hindsight I thought it must have been very unique from their perspective to have some guy pass them by on another wheel, stop, and reconfigure their wheel to make it perform much better, and then zoom away. I hope to have more encounters like this in the upcoming years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luiz Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 Nice one Marty. This guys were very lucky to find you . I am sure they will love to join your group on those beautiful rides. By the way . Hope you are fully recovered after the msuper accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted June 29, 2017 Author Share Posted June 29, 2017 1 minute ago, Luiz said: Nice one Marty. This guys were very lucky to find you . I am sure they will love to join your group on those beautiful rides. By the way . Hope you are fully recovered after the msuper accident. Thanks. My hand is much better but there's still lots of internal pain in the palm area. It'll probably be a few more weeks before it's fully healed. Things heal a lot slower at 57 than at 27 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainKBLS Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 Since you're zooming again, you must me ok. For selfish reason, I kinda want the EUC popularity to not grow. I'm worried about new rules banning it everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 awesome story Marty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 You the man, Marty! I just hope Brian doesn't go happily zooming past the danger zone ignoring the beeps whereas before the tiltback kept him safer... <splat!> I kinda like the tiltback. At least on the Ninebot it's a good physical deterrent to getting out of control plus it acts as a quiet reminder rather than all the beeping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 2 minutes ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said: You the man, Marty! I just hope Brian doesn't go happily zooming past the danger zone ignoring the beeps whereas before the tiltback kept him safer... <splat!> I kinda like the tiltback. At least on the Ninebot it's a good physical deterrent to getting out of control plus it acts as a quiet reminder rather than all the beeping. I told him my reasoning for disabling tilt-back. That plus the fact that my app could only turn it off, not set the speed What's funny is they were riding side-by-side when I came upon them, but after I gave him a boost in speed, when I departed he was a couple of hundred feet in front of her. No Inmotion was going to hold him back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 Endangering lives and breaking up relationships. I see your plan, and now you've got a new female riding partner. "Helpful" and smooth. That's almost at a Hunka Hunka level move there. <Good thing there's no "Disable Braking" feature in the app>. (Or is there? ) Dun dun dun.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 1 hour ago, CaptainKBLS said: Since you're zooming again, you must me ok. For selfish reason, I kinda want the EUC popularity to not grow. I'm worried about new rules banning it everywhere. I know what you mean, but I really don't think EUC's will ever be anything but a niche market. Enjoy the uniqueness while you can. Everyone knows what a Hangglider is but that doesn't take away the cool factor. I think the same will apply towards EUC's. So I will continue to encourage their growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 5 minutes ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said: Endangering lives and breaking up relationships. I see your plan, and now you've got a new female riding partner. "Helpful" and smooth. That's almost at a Hunka Hunka level move there. <Good thing there's no "Disable Braking" feature in the app>. (Or is there? ) Dun dun dun.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abinder3 Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 1 hour ago, Marty Backe said: I told him my reasoning for disabling tilt-back. That plus the fact that my app could only turn it off, not set the speed What's funny is they were riding side-by-side when I came upon them, but after I gave him a boost in speed, when I departed he was a couple of hundred feet in front of her. No Inmotion was going to hold him back By the way you described what she was on, it was probably a V3pro and only has a top speed of 12mph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luiz Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 You are not selfish at all , you just love eucs and personal electric transportation as we all do . No matter how much the technology develops , eucs will never be 100% safe and just as for motorcycles the adrenalin rush is a big part of the fun. Quick popularity growth will lead to banishments and bad reputation just like other self balancing devices had . Maybe a slow adoption pace in conjunction with growing enviromental awereness will some day make the eucs and other personal electric transportation devices acceptable as part of the transportation sistem . I reckon the green revolution has already started in open minded places like Paris . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoinPostal Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 7 hours ago, Marty Backe said: Thanks. My hand is much better but there's still lots of internal pain in the palm area. It'll probably be a few more weeks before it's fully healed. Things heal a lot slower at 57 than at 27 Amen Brother! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luiz Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 Be careful with this hand Marty . Hand trauma can be very tricky . Have you had it checked with an orthopedist? 57 really ! . You look like 40 mate . I am 46 but not in good shape like you man . We all wish you a speedy full recovery Marty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted June 30, 2017 Author Share Posted June 30, 2017 45 minutes ago, Luiz said: Be careful with this hand Marty . Hand trauma can be very tricky . Have you had it checked with an orthopedist? 57 really ! . You look like 40 mate . I am 46 but not in good shape like you man . We all wish you a speedy full recovery Marty. Unfortunately this is the third hand injury. Based on my last two occurrences, and this feels similar, I'll be OK. Thanks Hey, riding EUC's is keeping me young Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dingfelder Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 Marty the guardian angel! Cool that you were able to help out and possible expand the community. And lucky for that guy that his girl is involved too. That will keep them both going longer, no doubt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethereal Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Marty- I just came back from my week long stay in San Diego, California. During the time I was there as I travelled to Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Top of the World in Laguna Beach, etc, I was hoping to see you or anybody else wheeling around. I had the impression that EUCing was more popular there in sunny Cali than here in NJ. To my disappointment, I saw no one on an EUC. So many beautiful landscapes and terrain in Cali. The views were just spectacular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanghamP Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 On 6/30/2017 at 1:25 AM, Luiz said: Be careful with this hand Marty . Hand trauma can be very tricky . Have you had it checked with an orthopedist? 57 really ! . You look like 40 mate . I am 46 but not in good shape like you man . We all wish you a speedy full recovery Marty. I've never seen a video of a physically unfit EUC rider. I have seen some chubbies, me included, but we can still slam down a 27 minute 5km. Parkour group is way more fit and coordinated than us, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 1 hour ago, Ethereal said: Marty- I just came back from my week long stay in San Diego, California. During the time I was there as I travelled to Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Top of the World in Laguna Beach, etc, I was hoping to see you or anybody else wheeling around. I had the impression that EUCing was more popular there in sunny Cali than here in NJ. To my disappointment, I saw no one on an EUC. So many beautiful landscapes and terrain in Cali. The views were just spectacular. Funny. Well, considering that California has ~40 million people, the odds of seeing me was going to be very low All of my riding is in the Los Angeles area, quite a drive from San Diego. I have only seen 3 other unknown riders in California. EUCs are rare here too. We do have endless places to ride here with great, varied, views. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scatcat Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Well I'm 50 and hope my youth keeps as well as yours the next decade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethereal Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 37 minutes ago, Marty Backe said: Funny. Well, considering that California has ~40 million people, the odds of seeing me was going to be very low All of my riding is in the Los Angeles area, quite a drive from San Diego. I have only seen 3 other unknown riders in California. EUCs are rare here too. We do have endless places to ride here with great, varied, views. I had a friend from college go to China once and what are the odds of finding someone you know there? He did. Quite amazing! Anyway, it would have been great to see a fellow EUCer in sunny Cali. The closest I got to an EUCer was some guy on a classic Segway giving instructions to tourists how to ride one in La Jolla. The instructor thought he was so cool as he was swaying back and forth and turning while saying how easy it was to learn. Lol. Good to know now that you ride in the LA area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethereal Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Marty- I just saw a YouTube video where you and Jason McNeill and a bunch other guys were wheeling around in Griffith Park a couple weeks ago. I was there too just a few days back at the Griffith Observatory! You rode all over the place. That would have been a sight to see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 1 hour ago, Ethereal said: Marty- I just saw a YouTube video where you and Jason McNeill and a bunch other guys were wheeling around in Griffith Park a couple weeks ago. I was there too just a few days back at the Griffith Observatory! You rode all over the place. That would have been a sight to see! Hey, that place looks familiar It's actually my favorite place to ride. I'm riding there tomorrow morning too. It would have been funny if you saw me riding there. Were you just doing the touristy stuff - were you riding a wheel? You can see how much more pleasant it is to ride there on a wheel vs dealing with all the traffic madness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethereal Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 I was with my wife and 2 girls. Parking was horrendous and I was able to find parking downhill. We walked uphill to get to the Observatory. I kept wishing that I had my KS14C with me. If only those airlines were forgiving you bet I would have probably left my family in the dust as I wheeled up. Lol. The scene in the Youtube video where you were all bypassing the congested line of cars in the tunnel on the way to the Observatory was priceless. I just arrived back to NJ last night and I am already missing Cali. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Backe Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 11 minutes ago, Ethereal said: I was with my wife and 2 girls. Parking was horrendous and I was able to find parking downhill. We walked uphill to get to the Observatory. I kept wishing that I had my KS14C with me. If only those airlines were forgiving you bet I would have probably left my family in the dust as I wheeled up. Lol. The scene in the Youtube video where you were all bypassing the congested line of cars in the tunnel on the way to the Observatory was priceless. I just arrived back to NJ last night and I am already missing Cali. Yeah, I can't help laugh to myself when riding past everyone stuck in traffic. They might be slightly perturbed at me though I've ridden my KS14C there too. Fun times always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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