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The Firewheel


Austin Marhold

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OK this is my experience with my new Firewheel F528: got it couple weeks ago have five partials charges on it.So far I like it, it looks nice, ride nice is quiet.
 I just finished testing for millage per charge and got 30 miles, riding was spread in several days since I am still learning, mostly flat surface, I am just shy of 100kg.

The battery indicator was showing 00 for a while at the end but still no slowing down or any message of battery being low, but eventually I stopped. I turned the wheel  on after about  an hour and it showed still 10%, the charge took five hours. That first speed warning sound is pretty loud, I will probably put some tape over the speakers.

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OK this is my experience with my new Firewheel F528: got it couple weeks ago have five partials charges on it.So far I like it, it looks nice, ride nice is quiet.
 I just finished testing for millage per charge and got 30 miles, riding was spread in several days since I am still learning, mostly flat surface, I am just shy of 100kg.

30 miles = around 48km, not bad  :)

The battery indicator was showing 00 for a while at the end but still no slowing down or any message of battery being low, but eventually I stopped. I turned the wheel  on after about  an hour and it showed still 10%, the charge took five hours. That first speed warning sound is pretty loud, I will probably put some tape over the speakers.

​On the 264Wh -version, I can ride several kilometers while the battery indicator shows 0% while moving. The only way to get any at least somewhat reliable readings out of it is to read it while stationary.

The first "buzz buzz buzz"-warning around 18km/h is somewhat loud, but the voice warnings on the other hand are way too quiet, in my opinion  :mellow:   Although I don't need them anymore anyway.

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It was stationary showing 00 I can't read it while moving. Is there any warning or slowing down before it shuts down?

​At least on my board revision (which is some older type than the newest), it slightly tilts the pedals (there are no tilt-backs for speed, but for this there's a slight one), starts decelerating somewhat slowly (at least when you're standing upstraight to keep the speed steady, I think it has happened at least once on me while slightly accelerating uphill), and after a while (I think after the speed has dropped enough) it starts to vibrate and repeat a "Power is low, power is low"-voice message. It's actually pretty pleasant way of telling you that the battery is pretty much empty. It has occurred only on uphills on me, once I carried the wheel to the top of the hill, put it back on (the batteries had had a little while to recover from the load on the hill), and could still ride about 1.3km (around 1 mile) on it, until it did it again in a very slight uphill, and then started doing it straight away if you turned it on. I think at least @hobby16 has similar experience with his (maybe newer) main board, don't know about dmethvin or Michael Vu (I think he has the F779 -version).

You probably CAN overlean it once it starts the warning, I haven't tried, and wouldn't suggest you to try, but when it happens, it is very noticeable and at least in my experience very safe. Actually the only alarm in FW that actually really works  ;)  

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Today I discovered overheat protection on my Firewheel. There is a really steep about 1/4 mile long street in my neighbourhood. I went down very slowly turn around and up 10 -11mph, when I got to the top the unicycle started shaking and voice saying " Please restart your unicycle", so I did and got the same message and shaking. After about 2 - 3 minutes I tried again and I was back in business.The battery was 70% and air temp. 84F.

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Today I discovered overheat protection on my Firewheel. There is a really steep about 1/4 mile long street in my neighbourhood. I went down very slowly turn around and up 10 -11mph, when I got to the top the unicycle started shaking and voice saying " Please restart your unicycle", so I did and got the same message and shaking. After about 2 - 3 minutes I tried again and I was back in business.The battery was 70% and air temp. 84F.

Never had that myself, although the weather hasn't been that warm this summer (at least yet). Hottest air temperature I've ridden in was around 25-26 Celsius (77-79 Fahrenheit), but don't recall if I made any longer/steeper climbs that time.

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Getting used to riding EU I can cruise now at 15mph, but have to be really focused, what I noticed at around this speed is very slight pedals incline. I don't remember reading about this here, is it common or is it something they added to the later models?

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Getting used to riding EU I can cruise now at 15mph, but have to be really focused, what I noticed at around this speed is very slight pedals incline. I don't remember reading about this here, is it common or is it something they added to the later models?

I don't recall ever noticing any tilt-back while riding (there is a slight tiltback with the battery warning, as I've explained a few posts up), either it's so slight that I've never actually paid any attention to it, or it has been indeed added to the later models only.

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Getting used to riding EU I can cruise now at 15mph, but have to be really focused, what I noticed at around this speed is very slight pedals incline. I don't remember reading about this here, is it common or is it something they added to the later models?

I don't think I've noticed a pedal incline, but it's possible there is one. After several close calls and one big wipeout I have decided to go slower for now. At 10mph I can do stupid things like look at my phone without fear I'll spend a couple of weeks recovering from road rash or worse. The sidewalks around here are just too bumpy to ride at a high speed, even when nobody is around! I can go faster on the roads but that's not a good idea on anything but my local residential roads where there isn't much traffic.

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