Mten3 First Impressions / Review - BUY ONE NOW!!!

[Marty Backe]

4 minutes ago, radial said:

Seems like the Mten3 has enough fans right here in this thread!  

So, I think the saga of my effort to buy one of these little wheels is finally done.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to place an order through the AliExpress platform with the "Green and Fashion Travaling [sic] Shop." Apparently, AliExpress REALLY doesn't like my money.  I tried multiple payment methods including two different perfectly valid credit card accounts plus PayPal only to be thwarted by their security review process.  The only way to appeal would have been to further validate my identity by submitting copies of my passport, drivers license, bank statement, etc.  Fat chance of that!  I would sooner turn over my wallet to a pack of thieves.  

The proprietor at G&FTS was very accommodating throughout this ordeal, and eventually we decided to just cut Ali out of the equation and deal directly with each other through a PayPal transaction.  Whew, spending nearly $1,000 USD shouldn't be this difficult!

Now for the waiting part.  Looking forward to the riding part.   

I think that's what many of us did. I wasn't going to give them my bank account statements, birth certificate, etc. So I also did a direct Paypal payment. I know others did as well.

Looks like you should have your wheel in less than two weeks based on @Stan Onymous's recent experience.

[US69]

8 minutes ago, radial said:

So, I think the saga of my effort to buy one of these little wheels is finally done.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to place an order through the AliExpress platform with the "Green and Fashion Travaling [sic] Shop." Apparently, AliExpress REALLY doesn't like my money.  I tried multiple payment methods including two different perfectly valid credit card accounts plus PayPal only to be thwarted by their security review process.  The only way to appeal would have been to further validate my identity by submitting copies of my passport, drivers license, bank statement, etc.  Fat chance of that!  I would sooner turn over my wallet to a pack of thieves.  

The proprietor at G&FTS was very accommodating throughout this ordeal, and eventually we decided to just cut Ali out of the equation and deal directly with each other through a PayPal transaction.  Whew, spending nearly $1,000 USD shouldn't be this difficult!

Now for the waiting part.  Looking forward to the riding part.   

Actually this "validating" process is to protect everybody that creditcard Dates are used from another Person that the owner...

In the end they just want to check that you are the real Person behind the credit Card.

Yes, it is "disturbing"...but a practice nearly every big chinese online seller is doing when first transactiion with a for them "fromer unknown" credit Card is achieved!

 

For the waiting time:

It can go from fast 8-10 days, middle 14-17, or Long 25-28! Can be anything of this ....

That just depends on when the chinese sending Distributor"service" has a new air freight Container to USA full :-)

So in case it Needs longer and the tracking number is for longer time not updated(which will happen), no Need to worry!  It is not in  GFTS Shop's abilities to Speed this process up...

 

[Marty Backe]

9 minutes ago, KingSong69 said:

Actually this "validating" process is to protect everybody that creditcard Dates are used from another Person that the owner...

In the end they just want to check that you are the real Person behind the credit Card.

Yes, it is "disturbing"...but a practice nearly every big chinese online seller is doing when first transactiion with a for them "fromer unknown" credit Card is achieved!

 

For the waiting time:

It can go from fast 8-10 days, middle 14-17, or Long 25-28! Can be anything of this ....

That just depends on when the chinese sending Distributor"service" has a new air freight Container to USA full :-)

So in case it Needs longer and the tracking number is for longer time not updated(which will happen), no Need to worry!  It is not in  GFTS Shop's abilities to Speed this process up...

 

In America at least, identity theft is rampant. Nowhere except for these Chinese sellers do you have to literally supply a copy of your bank statements, drivers license, and other items.

I would be very hesitant to provide those documents to a company in the United States let alone China. Why is it that somehow Europe and America can sell products without requiring this and the Chinese can't?

I understand what you are saying and agree that's why they are doing what they are doing. But I don't recommend that anyone actually supply what they want.

[radial]

2 hours ago, KingSong69 said:

Actually this "validating" process is to protect everybody that creditcard Dates are used from another Person that the owner...

In the end they just want to check that you are the real Person behind the credit Card.

Yes, it is "disturbing"...but a practice nearly every big chinese online seller is doing when first transactiion with a for them "fromer unknown" credit Card is achieved!

 

For the waiting time:

It can go from fast 8-10 days, middle 14-17, or Long 25-28! Can be anything of this ....

That just depends on when the chinese sending Distributor"service" has a new air freight Container to USA full :-)

So in case it Needs longer and the tracking number is for longer time not updated(which will happen), no Need to worry!  It is not in  GFTS Shop's abilities to Speed this process up...

 

14

Thanks, I'm not too worried about waiting for the shipping process to play out.  But I'll confess that I was really surprised at how onerous the purchase process turned out to be. Were I not the stubborn person I am, and were the GFTS proprietor not the sensible person he is, there would have been no sale.  Requiring customers to cough up the kind of sensitive documentation that could be used to defraud them so easily is over the top excessive for most American consumers.  We are used to dealing online with vendors who manage to validate our identity and creditworthiness without imposing these risky requirements.  Not to mention that we are culturally predisposed to look askance at anyone who tells us to, "show your papers."  As I wrote to Ali (and GFTS), they are doing their merchants a huge disservice by making the purchase process so difficult, especially where American consumers are concerned.  

Edited September 22, 2017 by radial

[novazeus]

i did paypal, too. no problems. on all my aliexpress purchases. aliexpress wastoo onerous for me. no mten3 for me. glad my kingsongs won't do a happy dance like the old rc helis did. mine never did while i was flying but it was gut wrenching watching others. that auto shut off outweighs anything else, for me.

[Jason McNeil]

We have an order of MTen3 under production with Gotway, pushing them to complete before the 1st October Chinese Holiday—the entire country shuts down several times a year.... 

If all goes to plan, we should have the shipment arriving in the US sometime in late October. You can pre-order either the 325Wh or 512WH on our website. Our prices are better than those you'll find on Ali. 

https://www.ewheels.com/new-mten3-the-10-rocket-512wh800w-motor/

Edited September 22, 2017 by Jason McNeil

[Stan Onymous]

1 minute ago, Jason McNeil said:

Our prices are better than those you'll find on Ali. 

Oh Crap!  @Marty Backe how could you lead me astray! I am extremely happy with it, but how could you? We shall see if eWheels beat my price. Jason is too good!

[Stan Onymous]

On September 20, 2017 at 2:03 PM, Mrd777 said:

A nice tip.

A applied some half round auto molding to the edge so you can put the mten on its side.I also applied it to the bottom of the pedals as I was scraping them on sharp turns.. 

You can also get the carbon fiber looking 3/4" strips and place it over the glossy black part for a full carbon fiber look. They are fender and door moldings and the biggest selection around me was at Pep boys, but the others both had the carbon fiber ribbon. It has 3M sticky stuff on the back for quick installation, and is easy to both cut and bend to shape.

I did my own version of the half moon molding. Its around $20, and will look professional. I also picked up a little convex mirror for my wrist guard as a rear view mirror since I never ride without them and I ride on the streets.

[Marty Backe]

34 minutes ago, Jason McNeil said:

We have an order of MTen3 under production with Gotway, pushing them to complete before the 1st October Chinese Holiday—the entire country shuts down several times a year.... 

If all goes to plan, we should have the shipment arriving in the US sometime in late October. You can pre-order either the 325Wh or 512WH on our website. Our prices are better than those you'll find on Ali. 

https://www.ewheels.com/new-mten3-the-10-rocket-512wh800w-motor/

Fantastic Jason, and those are good prices. So much nicer to buy locally (you) versus from China. I'm glad you decided to carry this "Rocket" as you call it   Where were you a month ago 

I hope you sell a ton these. Everyone should experience the fun factor of these wheels. It's been a month since I've touched my ACM or Monster, and barely the MSuper. What's wrong with me 

[Marty Backe]

27 minutes ago, Stan Onymous said:

You can also get the carbon fiber looking 3/4" strips and place it over the glossy black part for a full carbon fiber look. They are fender and door moldings and the biggest selection around me was at Pep boys, but the others both had the carbon fiber ribbon. It has 3M sticky stuff on the back for quick installation, and is easy to both cut and bend to shape.

I did my own version of the half moon molding. Its around $20, and will look professional. I also picked up a little convex mirror for my wrist guard as a rear view mirror since I never ride without them and I ride on the streets.

Looks cool. Can't wait to see it. We should do a city ride soon 

[Jason McNeil]

2 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

I'm glad you decided to carry this "Rocket" as you call it   Where were you a month ago 

With the M. Becke seal of approval & a title of 'Buy one Now!!!' it was remiss of me to not have posted earlier.
Seems like the post-MSuper/ACMs+ GW firmware fiasco cooling off period has ended—like a spouse unable to keep away from a battered relationship, the lure of the latest shiny new GW model is all too strong to resist! 

[Marty Backe]

2 minutes ago, Jason McNeil said:

With the M. Becke seal of approval & a title of 'Buy one Now!!!' it was remiss of me to not have posted earlier.
Seems like the post-MSuper/ACMs+ GW firmware fiasco cooling off period has ended—like a spouse unable to keep away from a battered relationship, the lure of the latest shiny new GW model is all too strong to resist! 

[steve454]

4 hours ago, radial said:

But I'll confess that I was really surprised at how onerous the purchase process turned out to be.

Not sure, but I get the impression that the Chinese prefer that we use PayPal, and not a credit card directly.  Like @novazeus I used it to get my TGT3 from China and had no problems.  It's good that we have a reseller in the States.

Edited September 22, 2017 by steve454

[US69]

17 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

America at least, identity theft is rampant. Nowhere except for these Chinese sellers do you have to literally supply a copy of your bank statements, drivers license, and other items.

I would be very hesitant to provide those documents to a company in the United States let alone China. Why is it that somehow Europe and America can sell products without requiring this and the Chinese can't?

I have been through this process on 2 different chinese online sellers...

Like said, the only reason they do this is to avoid credit card scam. They are not looking out for COMPLETE copys of the required documents...on both times i gave them a copy of my identy card, but with only my name and adress visible(which they have anyway) and all the numbers, id‘s have been totaly blacked out. And a copy of a stupid bill, where my adress and the credit card number can be seen. (but nothing else)

The hole purpose of this is just to check if there is a real person behind this credit card, not to grab your identy card numbers or anything else of personal information....

Your credit card number can get easily stolen when you slide it somewhere through, and there can be a copy of your credit card on the roads then...why european sellers or american dont do this checks? i would guess that in the  states the credkit card fraud is not that often(from adresses IN the states) and even if...they can get a grab of the user/adress, as its in there nearby. This credit card scam is known to happen in China/Asia mainly...And also: who knows what american/european online sellers require from a buyer from china/asia , so from other side of the world?

As this check happened the first time to me, i was very upset also, and contacted the service of the company...they then explained it better, and made clear they were not out for complete copy’s or more data. When thinking a bit longer about it, i -at least- understand the motivation behind it. In the end none of the companys got any more information as they would have before...ah, no, they have seen a ugly some years old identity card photo :-)

Yes, it is not consumer friendly....but in the end its just for getting rid of credit card scam in asia, and as i want to take part in global buying perhaps its just needed then.

They could definitly describe  their motivation better......

Dont be to happy  about Paypal....there you can run in -a lot - of other problems, and obviously some of the advantages of credit cards are completly missing.....but this would be a new thread :-)

[US69]

11 hours ago, steve454 said:

sure, but I get the impression that the Chinese prefer that we use PayPal, and not a credit card directly.

I dont think that...paypal can be a horror......if you  ever have ONE suspicious payment...or just to much payements, they block your -hole- account and for 30-180 days or more you will not get ANY of your money on it...

The behave like they are an online bank, but as they are not, they have rules/behaviors that you may not even think that this is possible...just one example which is near to us, as it goes about batteries:

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by KingSong69

[Rehab1]

14 hours ago, Jason McNeil said:

If all goes to plan, we should have the shipment arriving in the US sometime in late October. You can pre-order either the 325Wh or 512WH on our website. Our prices are better than those you'll find on Ali. 

So glad you made the point that your prices will be competitive with Ali. Many members including myself did purchase our Mten3's through Ali because of the availability but if a poll were taken today and you stocked the wheels in a similar time frame as Ali the majority of us would much rather purchase through your company!

Knowing your excellent reputation and customer service I myself would gladly wait a few more weeks for an EWheels shipment to arrive. Having the spare parts available for the wheels I purchase from you has always been big plus!

Knock it out of the park buddy!

 

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by Rehab1

[radial]

1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

So glad you made the point that your prices will be competitive with Ali. Many members including myself did purchase our Mten3's through Ali because of the availability but if a poll were taken today and you stocked the wheels in a similar time frame as Ali the majority of us would much rather purchase through your company!

Knowing your excellent reputation and customer service I myself would gladly wait a few more weeks for an EWheels shipment to arrive. Having the spare parts available for the wheels I purchase from you has always been big plus!

Knock it out of the park buddy!

 

 

I couldn't agree more!  I only dealt with Ali because they were earlier to market.  If I had known that Jason would be selling the Mten3, I would have checked my enthusiasm and waited a bit.  

[Ch.Eng.62]

15 hours ago, Jason McNeil said:

We have an order of MTen3 under production with Gotway, pushing them to complete before the 1st October Chinese Holiday—the entire country shuts down several times a year.... 

If all goes to plan, we should have the shipment arriving in the US sometime in late October. You can pre-order either the 325Wh or 512WH on our website. Our prices are better than those you'll find on Ali. 

https://www.ewheels.com/new-mten3-the-10-rocket-512wh800w-motor/

Is that wheel will be available in your European shop wheelgo.com?

[houseofjob]

Just got my MTen3 and loving it like the rest of you are so far!

 

Some things no one seems to be mentioning though:

1. The stock, Symmetrical Tire they include on the MTen3 is really the wrong tire for a small 10" EUC.

Most every EUC out there sports a Directional Tire (arrow on the sidewall) which give more directional stability, something the MTen3 (with it's tendency for squirrel-i-ness) sorely needs. 

Not sure how prevalent 10" x 2.75" (or maybe even 3" wide, as there might be enough clearance) is as a tire size, but I know I at least will be searching for a Directional tread alternative ASAP.

 

 

2. As with all Gotways, the MTen3 will do pedal swaps!

As it helps to have a wider base / wider feet positioning (basically not touching the side padding) to stabilize a smaller 10" tire going at speed (combating the squirrel-i-ness), I find the MSuper3 pedals significantly help with this (along with favoring one leg weight over the other).

... and the pedal arm positioning is high enough that there is no noticeable / incidental pedal scraping.

 

[Stan Onymous]

37 minutes ago, houseofjob said:

1. The stock, Symmetrical Tire they include on the MTen3 is really the wrong tire for a small 10" EUC.

I wonder if that bi directional tread makes it so much easier to go backwards?  Another concern is if that the directional tire may increase the wobbles since the edges are the directions of the arrow treads. I would be interested in seeing what a tread similar to the Msupers that have those longitudinal treads would do too.

[houseofjob]

@Stan Onymous dunno, but the only tread on this stock tire goes in one direction, which is awfully suspicious considering the MTen3's penchant for turning when you don't want it to.

I know from my foray in upgrading my former V8's tire that tire type / tread / consistency is deceptively important on how it affects the ride.

(and the bidirectional ease seems to me more about the tire size and overall weight, as that was my experience with the Luffy and i5)

[Marty Backe]

6 hours ago, KingSong69 said:

I dont think that...paypal can be a horror......if you  ever have ONE suspicious payment...or just to much payements, they block your -hole- account and for 30-180 days or more you will not get ANY of your money on it...

The behave like they are an online bank, but as they are not, they have rules/behaviors that you may not even think that this is possible...just one example which is near to us, as it goes about batteries:

 

I use PayPal for a lot of online transactions (like buying the Mten3). Mine is linked to my primary credit card, so I don't use it in the traditional sense. After many years, never have I had a problem (knock on wood).

[Marty Backe]

2 hours ago, houseofjob said:

Just got my MTen3 and loving it like the rest of you are so far!

 

Some things no one seems to be mentioning though:

1. The stock, Symmetrical Tire they include on the MTen3 is really the wrong tire for a small 10" EUC.

Most every EUC out there sports a Directional Tire (arrow on the sidewall) which give more directional stability, something the MTen3 (with it's tendency for squirrel-i-ness) sorely needs. 

Not sure how prevalent 10" x 2.75" (or maybe even 3" wide, as there might be enough clearance) is as a tire size, but I know I at least will be searching for a Directional tread alternative ASAP.

 

 

2. As with all Gotways, the MTen3 will do pedal swaps!

As it helps to have a wider base / wider feet positioning (basically not touching the side padding) to stabilize a smaller 10" tire going at speed (combating the squirrel-i-ness), I find the MSuper3 pedals significantly help with this (along with favoring one leg weight over the other).

... and the pedal arm positioning is high enough that there is no noticeable / incidental pedal scraping.

 

Wow, you put MSuper pedals on. So funny, but good to know that pedal scraping hasn't increased noticeably.

I do like that Gotway has standardized on their pedal brackets so that we can do things like this.

The stock pedals work great for me, and the red rubber inserts really help to keep my feet stuck to the pedals.

Regarding the tire, I have been looking at other 10 inch tires - there are lots of options out there, which surprised me. Maybe at some point I'll experiment a bit.

Edited September 23, 2017 by Marty Backe

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

On 2017-09-23 at 7:49 AM, radial said:

I couldn't agree more!  I only dealt with Ali because they were earlier to market.  If I had known that Jason would be selling the Mten3, I would have checked my enthusiasm and waited a bit.  

@Jason McNeil  If every mom and pop in China can open an AliExpress shop, wouldn't it be possible for Ewheels to open a local China AliExpress shop to ship directly from China rather than having to first ship to the US then to the customer?  That would seem to me to cut down the delivery times and shipping costs.  Or are foreigners forbidden from setting up AliExpress shops?

It sounds like Green and Fashion Travaling likely has a warehouse depot to which their orders from EUC makers ship to.  Maybe in Hong Kong?  From there they ship directly to customers across the world quickly.  They avoid the whole large shipment by slow boat to the US which adds in a huge delay of goods.  When a new wheel is released they have it available quickly.  In fact they likely don't even carry extra stock, but place segmented orders to Gotway on demand as they come in.

Why not compete with AliEx sellers on their own turf?  People would prefer to buy from Ewheels given the company's good and timely local customer service, but they are wanting the new products sooner directly from China.

Edit: Maybe no can do... unless there is a work around?

http://activities.aliexpress.com/adcms/help-aliexpress-com/topquestions/can_I_sell_on_aliexpress.php

Edit2:  In addition, how would pricing work?  Offering discounted AliEx prices would undercut NA prices, and customers would expect the same level of post-sales service at that discounted price.  Maybe not a good idea from a business standpoint.

Edited September 30, 2017 by Hunka Hunka Burning Love

[Gustesta]

Can I check the MTen 3 in a domestic flight?  Are they allowed?

Many thanks