Who's Most Likely to Buy/Use EUCs?

[Dingfelder]

On 7/31/2017 at 8:34 PM, sanman said:

The thought occurred to me that EUCs might be particularly attractive to RV owners. Think about it - when you're driving an RV, it's to go sightseeing, or camping, etc. When you park that big lumbering RV somewhere, like at a campground, it becomes your local campsite where you've "pitched tent", so to speak. You don't want to start up that big lumbering beast again just to go to the local Mom-n-Pop store, or to take a look around. Better to break out the EUC and use that.

 

I really doubt RV owners, who overwhelmingly tend to be middle-aged and older, often retirees.  At that age people are less fit, more fragile, and, despite some exceptions to the contrary, tend to be hesitant to try to learn new things much outside their wheelhouse even if they are still quite capable of it.

For that "wheelhouse" reason, I would suggest people who previously skateboarded and rollerskated/rollerbladed, perhaps even surfed, as prime candidates, once they get the cash and free time available.  They are all sports in which you move rapidly and balance is key.  Doing something you've kinda done before makes a person more confident.

[Keith]

3 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

I really doubt RV owners, who overwhelmingly tend to be middle-aged and older, often retirees.  At that age people are less fit, more fragile, and, despite some exceptions to the contrary, tend to be hesitant to try to learn new things much outside their wheelhouse even if they are still quite capable of it.

You would think so wouldn't you! However the surveys this site has done have shown that the highest percentage of owners ARE middle aged. 

3 hours ago, Dingfelder said:

I would suggest people who previously skateboarded and rollerskated/rollerbladed, perhaps even surfed, as prime candidates,

Perhaps you are forgetting that all of those above activities have been around since the 60's and 70's so the early adopters are all middle aged now. 

Above all that is the generation that have those two vitally important commodities: time and money. Electric Unicycles are far from mainstream at the moment and at a price that is a big risk to many when you are not even able to learn to ride one first before making a buying decision. Only those with time and money to spare and good confidence in their balancing ability are likely to participate - that very much puts the middle aged adventurer squarely in the front line.

Perhaps this is in itself a middle aged thing but, despite sitting here typing this into an iPad, I get the feeling that far too many of those under 30 are actually beginning to live their lives on their mobile devices, I.e. They are beginning to live on the secondhand experiences of others rather than actually "doing" themselves. Certainly, in the UK there is beginning to be a very marked decline in younger members in many outdoor activity clubs, I'm certainly seeing way fewer young members in model flying clubs, but even Golf Courses seem to be struggling for members now.

[Mono]

3 minutes ago, Keith said:

Certainly, in the UK there is beginning to be a very marked decline in younger members in many outdoor activity clubs, I'm certainly seeing way fewer young members in model flying clubs, but even Golf Courses seem to be struggling for members now.

On the upside, at least the number of Kite-surfers is shooting through the roof.

[ir_fuel]

8 minutes ago, Keith said:

I'm certainly seeing way fewer young members in model flying clubs, but even Golf Courses seem to be struggling for members now.

"even". Let's say that golf is not exactly a sport that I associate with youths of today. It still seems mostly linked to a certain upper class kind of people, although it has become a lot more accessible (just like tennis went through). To make assertions about declining numbers for outdoor activities I think you need to check numbers of more popular sports, such as football.

[Dingfelder]

2 hours ago, Keith said:

You would think so wouldn't you! However the surveys this site has done have shown that the highest percentage of owners ARE middle aged. 

Perhaps you are forgetting that all of those above activities have been around since the 60's and 70's so the early adopters are all middle aged now. 

Above all that is the generation that have those two vitally important commodities: time and money. Electric Unicycles are far from mainstream at the moment and at a price that is a big risk to many when you are not even able to learn to ride one first before making a buying decision. Only those with time and money to spare and good confidence in their balancing ability are likely to participate - that very much puts the middle aged adventurer squarely in the front line.

Perhaps this is in itself a middle aged thing but, despite sitting here typing this into an iPad, I get the feeling that far too many of those under 30 are actually beginning to live their lives on their mobile devices, I.e. They are beginning to live on the secondhand experiences of others rather than actually "doing" themselves. Certainly, in the UK there is beginning to be a very marked decline in younger members in many outdoor activity clubs, I'm certainly seeing way fewer young members in model flying clubs, but even Golf Courses seem to be struggling for members now.

True enough all.  Really though, I was mostly trying to be kind by adding middle aged into the RV set.  Virtually all the people I see with RV's are retirement age -- basically 60 and up, sometimes way up.  And I believe there is a huge difference between that and 50.  I just didn't want to say it and offend younger RV'ers.  I live in RV country by my reckoning, and find any but the retired and early retirees quite uncommon in the RV crowd.  In fact I have gone to a lot of specialty events only appropriate for people with a lot of spare time, and they are overwhelmingly retirement age and above.

I can't picture virtually anyone I've seen at those events on an EUC.  Retired usually means you're in a different phase of life, and caution about physical things is often a big part of it.

[mrelwood]

On 06/08/2017 at 8:09 AM, Dingfelder said:

I think they're vastly harder than bikes.  And growing up, a unicycle was, to me, the very definition of a hard thing to ride.  I think lots of people are up for small challenges, but lots of people aren't necessarily up for big challenges.  Especially ones that could entail hitting the ground a lot.

My nephews, 12 and 14 years of age were very very fast in learning the basics of riding an EUC. Kids do learn really fast. Bicycling is often learned at a far earlier stage, but for a 10 year old I don't think the EUC is that much harder to learn than a bicycle for a 5 year old.

[LanghamP]

4 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

My nephews, 12 and 14 years of age were very very fast in learning the basics of riding an EUC. Kids do learn really fast. Bicycling is often learned at a far earlier stage, but for a 10 year old I doubt EUCing to be much harder to learn than a bicycle for a 5 year old.

When I was looking at which mechanical unicycle to buy I came across this quote.

http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116605&page=3

The single biggest reason that unicycling isn't more popular isn't that it's "hard" - getting good at anything is hard - it's that you can't do *anything* at first. 

Tennis is hard, but you can buy a racquet and a can of balls and have fun playing a reasonable simulation of the game within minutes. Playing piano is hard, but a total novice can sit down and plink out a tune. Ditto the huge majority of sports and activities people do. Not unicycling. Most people who buy one never get to the very basic level of being able to get on it and ride around, and they quit. And that sucks.

I don't think getting good at unicycling is harder than getting good at tennis, or piano, or anything else - it's just that getting started bit that's different - and if this thing really made it easier to get started, it would be great. It wouldn't make the rest of your unicycling progress any less of a satisfying accomplishment, it would just get to to where you could make an honest choice about whether the sport is for you or not.

[EUCGUY]

I believe that most folks would find the euc quite usefull if you show and explain to them the pros by owning and using one.
Example, as long as its not ice cold or snow, i can save as much as 88USD a month by not relying on the grid " buses, metro, train.. etc"  thats around 530 usd a year that i can use on something else or save up to make my euc pay for itself.

[Michael Lutge]

For me I definitely fit the middle-aged guy looking for something new. When I first saw an EUC I thought - WOW that looks fun I need to try that. I was right, they are crazy fun and I ride every day now. I live and work in downtown Portland OR and I figured I could use my wheel to commute. Cut my 30 minute walk down to 10 minutes on the wheel and it's WAY more fun. Not really cheap though, $600 for my Ninebot One S1 and now looking at an M Super for $1600+.

[Dingfelder]

6 hours ago, mrelwood said:

My nephews, 12 and 14 years of age were very very fast in learning the basics of riding an EUC. Kids do learn really fast. Bicycling is often learned at a far earlier stage, but for a 10 year old I doubt EUCing to be much harder to learn than a bicycle for a 5 year old.

I have no idea.  I caught on with bikes almost immediately though and I'm no graceful type.  Maybe just my luck.  My brother had a devil of a time learning to ride a bike and found it very embarrassing.  He would go out in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep to practice.

Unicycles looked more or less impossible and crazed to me.