Why do EUCs attract such ridicule?

[solocoyote]

I’ve noticed a change in my city over the last couple years as people have gotten used to seeing them.  Before it was nonstop questions (while moving) and positive comments… now it’s mostly ambivalence with a few shout-outs from kids.  

But the other night… that’s when my wheel finished it’s death spiral from ‘cool’ to ‘whatever’ to flat-out dorky.  It was dark - I’ve got all the crazy lights turned on and I’m zooming up the sidewalk by a bar.  There were a bunch of smokers outside and one of them says to the others “what… a… NERD!” I dunno… maybe I wasn’t going fast enough to be cool.  In their defense I was balancing a hot pizza box and talking on my watch-phone at the same time.   

[RooEUC]

24 minutes ago, solocoyote said:

...and talking on my watch-phone at the same time.   

Haha that may have been the cherry on top.  Don't worry, early adopters of new technologies or new knowledge are usually ridiculed.  Galileo was imprisoned for suggesting that the Earth was not at the centre of the universe.  If these machines one day go mainstream we will already have long forgotten them and moved onto something even cooler.  But we will forever be ridiculed by the rest of the sheepulation.   

[Scatcat]

53 minutes ago, solocoyote said:

I’ve noticed a change in my city over the last couple years as people have gotten used to seeing them.  Before it was nonstop questions (while moving) and positive comments… now it’s mostly ambivalence with a few shout-outs from kids.  

But the other night… that’s when my wheel finished it’s death spiral from ‘cool’ to ‘whatever’ to flat-out dorky.  It was dark - I’ve got all the crazy lights turned on and I’m zooming up the sidewalk by a bar.  There were a bunch of smokers outside and one of them says to the others “what… a… NERD!” I dunno… maybe I wasn’t going fast enough to be cool.  In their defense I was balancing a hot pizza box and talking on my watch-phone at the same time.   

If it had been me, it would have been a hot pizza box and vaping massive clouds. That would have taken the cake as far as that bunch was concerned. Smart moving and a smart alternative to their cancer-sticks...  

[steve454]

4 hours ago, Robert Hoffmann said:

Where did you find this?  That's @The Fat Unicyclist's forum picture.  I never saw it this big before,  now I see the Xima LHotz wheel.

If you hover the cursor over the blue forum name, you'll see the picture.

[HermanTheGerman]

10 hours ago, Scatcat said:

Give me a Tesla Model S on the other hand, and I would smile from ear to ear.

I would, too, but I would even more smile if someone would give me this:

http://www.rimac-automobili.com/en/supercars/concept_one/

THAT is a pure electric sportscar !   900,000 bucks, and it is yours.

If it is to weak for you with it's 1224 hp, then you could take this:

http://www.rimac-automobili.com/en/supercars/concept_s/

Just because we talk about dinosaurs like Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari or the like.

[RooEUC]

4 hours ago, Scatcat said:

If it had been me, it would have been a hot pizza box and vaping massive clouds. That would have taken the cake as far as that bunch was concerned. Smart moving and a smart alternative to their cancer-sticks...  

I wouldn't be too smug about the vaping.  There's nothing smart about breathing in toxic chemicals and filling the air with it for those of us who actually care about our health and don't want to breathe in cherry flavoured poison.  I believe people should be allowed to take any chemical they want as long as it's not airborne and the rest of us don't have to breathe it too.  I'm sick of breathing in other people's smoke and vape clouds.  It's selfish and I hope it gets banned.

[Shemp]

I only ever got one derisive comment, and it was from the kind of obviously insecure teen girl in a pack of teen girls (and a couple of boys); other members of her pack promptly whooped, cheered, and otherwise indicated approval and enthusiasm. Also, I'm not even sure the comment had much to do with the EUC - it was more likely because I was riding with my wife, who is extremely pretty in a way that tends to bring out cattiness in a certain kind of female.

[Scatcat]

58 minutes ago, RooMiniPro said:

I wouldn't be too smug about the vaping.  There's nothing smart about breathing in toxic chemicals and filling the air with it for those of us who actually care about our health and don't want to breathe in cherry flavoured poison.  I believe people should be allowed to take any chemical they want as long as it's not airborne and the rest of us don't have to breathe it too.  I'm sick of breathing in other people's smoke and vape clouds.  It's selfish and I hope it gets banned.

I hear you, and I'm not one of the vapers that think my farts smell like roses. I actively try NOT to force others to live in my clouds. But for me, the choice was very simple.

I was one of the idiots that started smoking in my early teens, and my addiction stayed with me for 35 years. I think I must have tried every f-ing way there is to stop: cold turkey, gum, patches, spray, you name it. The only ways left I had not tried was hypnosis and group therapy... Then on an impulse I got a cheap bloody vaping pen at my convenience store, and it sucked. But it didn't suck just enough to make me realise it might actually do the trick, if it worked better. So I invested a hundred bucks or so in gear that wasn't totally ridiculous, and within a month I had thrown away my cigarettes, within two months I had no urges left to use tobacco whatsoever. That was more than two years ago, and I still haven't had any urges to pick up my old habit.

My sleep apnea is totally gone, and I've even stopped snoring altogether (try that on as a marriage saver ). I also don't go around smelling like I've been standing downwind from a pile of burning newspapers. My teeth are white nowadays. I have less problems with my teeth overall. I breathe deeper. I can walk the stairs more than one floor at a time without shortness of breath and if I have to run a few blocks to catch a bus, train or whatever, the time from stopping to cool-down and normal pulse are now counted in minutes on one hand, not in fractions of an hour. It feels like I got ten years younger, maybe even more.

I know what goes into my vape, i mix the juices myself. ~70-90% is plain glycerine, ~8-28% is propylene glycol, 0.3% is nicotine, the remaining ~1.7% is flavours. Out of those about 80-90% are simple esters, the same stuff that makes candy taste like candy, then there's some "natural" flavours like for example cinaldehyde, which should be used sparingly, and some others that should also be used with care. Overall, the "toxic" - as in not neutral health-wise - parts of the brew are less than 0.5% of the content. Given that 80-90% of the clouds you see are water from the air condensed around the ejuice, that means 0.05% of the vapour contains chemicals that may or may not be good for you. Considering the toxicity of cigarettes, that worries me about as much as a three year old peeing in the pacific ocean. If you never smoked, for f***ks sake don't start vaping. But tobacco will claim a billion lives over the next century, and I don't want one of them being mine.

So call me selfish, but this it my new lease of life.

[kasenutty]

Don't worry, Scat, I downvoted that bastard Roo

[Scatcat]

1 minute ago, kasenutty said:

Don't worry, Scat, I downvoted that bastard Roo

Well, I didn't. I respect that not everybody likes it. But I doubt we could even begin to fathom what it would mean for the public health if the unlikely happened and every smoker became a vaper. As I said, it would save a billion lives over the next hundred years. What it would save in pain and suffering, grief from survivors not to mention money saved is even more stunning.

[kasenutty]

Roo wishes we were dead, let that sink in.

[RooEUC]

23 minutes ago, kasenutty said:

Don't worry, Scat, I downvoted that bastard Roo

 I know you're a massive pot head and spend much of your life intoxicated, and I am totally for legalising all drugs, but only if the methods of consumption don't force others to consume the drugs too.  Anyone who decides to smoke/vape toxic compounds anywhere near other people is doing do selfishly.  Why should I have to breathe in your toxic crap just because you want to get high?  I would be much happier if people used edibles.  Or any other method of consumption that's personal.  I'm sick of people puffing their crap in parks, in the street, outside shops and at dog parks, where I have to breathe it in.  Smoking and vaping should be something that's only allowed at home, not in public.   

6 minutes ago, kasenutty said:

Roo wishes we were dead, let that sink in.

Why are you making up ridiculous false statements?

[RooEUC]

27 minutes ago, Scatcat said:

Well, I didn't. I respect that not everybody likes it. But I doubt we could even begin to fathom what it would mean for the public health if the unlikely happened and every smoker became a vaper. As I said, it would save a billion lives over the next hundred years. What it would save in pain and suffering, grief from survivors not to mention money saved is even more stunning.

Isn't it a bit much to act like a victim?  Smokers choose to take up smoking.  No one likes their first cigarette, but they choose to keep smoking, knowing it leads to guaranteed addiction, ill health and sometimes cancer and early death.  People choose that path and end up sick. It's totally self inflicted.  Why should those of us smart enough not to intentionally do something that is known to cause nothing but a very negative outcome have to breathe in toxic crap too, just because smokers and vapers want their hit?  There are all sorts of nicotine products that can give you your fix without forcing the substance onto innocent bystanders.  If you want to smoke/vape/shoot heroin/drink bleach I am totally on your side because I believe we should all have that right.  But I am against you spewing it into the air that others have to breathe.

[kasenutty]

14 minutes ago, RooMiniPro said:

 I know you're a massive pot head and spend much of your life intoxicated, and I am totally for legalising all drugs, but only if the methods of consumption don't force others to consume the drugs too.  Anyone who decides to smoke/vape toxic compounds anywhere near other people is doing do selfishly.  Why should I have to breathe in your toxic crap just because you want to get high?  I would be much happier if people used edibles.  Or any other method of consumption that's personal.  I'm sick of people puffing their crap in parks, in the street, outside shops and at dog parks, where I have to breathe it in.  Smoking and vaping should be something that's only allowed at home, not in public.   

Why are you making up ridiculous false statements?

 

Shut up, Roo, you goddamn know-it-all. No one wants to hear your expert opinions on, well, anything really. Go make some DIY leather belt straps you fucking innovator. 

[steve454]

57 minutes ago, Scatcat said:

Well, I didn't. I respect that not everybody likes it. But I doubt we could even begin to fathom what it would mean for the public health if the unlikely happened and every smoker became a vaper. As I said, it would save a billion lives over the next hundred years. What it would save in pain and suffering, grief from survivors not to mention money saved is even more stunning.

Here we have lawn crews with leaf blowers that send clouds of dirt into the street.  You are breathing dirty air all the time.  All the fertilizer chemicals, plus the car is dirty again.

[mrelwood]

On 08/10/2017 at 10:03 PM, exoplanet said:

there are real reasons for why people who are productive and have money dont drive euc's

There was a topic and a poll about what kind of people we EUC users are. One thing stuck with me: One guy thought 95% of us ride because we are environmentally conscientious. One guy thought 95% of us ride because we want to have the latest gadgets. One guy thought 95% of us ride because we want to avoid walking at all costs.

Whenever a person is asked what they think others think, they can only reflect their own ideas, fobias and fears. Completely unaware of what others actually think. For teenagers this is especially bad as they have an illusion of what others think to bear a lot of meaning.

In short: exoplanet, you are wrong about this.

14 hours ago, exoplanet said:

Also the device should be small enough to not be noticed when you carry it in your hand.

On 08/10/2017 at 10:03 PM, exoplanet said:

But i dont see others riding them. likely because it is new and because people are afraid of being judged

14 hours ago, exoplanet said:

I am a lazy nogood loser that hasnt taken responsibility for myself fully yet

14 hours ago, exoplanet said:

Could be because I grew up with a class identity problem.

Dear exoplanet. It's OK to carry something that other people don't know what it is. Most people don't waste a passing thought into judging what other people do, wear, or carry.

I think you're on the right track regarding the class identity problem. Unfortunately it seems to be bad enough to have quite a hold on you. I truly hope it is something you will grow out of, as no-one should have to carry such a burden.

14 hours ago, exoplanet said:

Maybe this gives me tinted glasses when I view other peoples reactions, but from close friends, they would rather be seen dead than with me riding the thing next to them

Those people you call "close friends" I would call a$$holes who I hope I'll never see again.

9 hours ago, exoplanet said:

I want to avoid the giggling of schoolgirls. It hits me the hardest. lol. serious.

I can relate to this on some level, but I can also say for certain that it does grow off. You will understand that they aren't giggling because you are or look ridiculous. For people of any age, the most rudimentary reaction to any surprise is laughter. That's what every single joke in the world is based on, surprise. Nobody expects to see an EUC rider. Most people haven't even dreamed of an EUC rider. Most people don't understand how in the earth a person can stay on an EUC. Seeing one is a surprise on so many levels it's bound to pop laughter!

But they're not laughing at you, or because riding an EUC is ridiculous. I truly hope you see the difference.

__

 

5 minutes ago, Scatcat said:

I respect that not everybody likes it.

I didn't downvote because RooMiniPro doesn't like vaping. What irked me was the ignorance on the matter, straight quotes from big pharma propaganda, and viewing things way out of proportion. The tiny fraction of a permille of substance that is known to be safe for millions of times that, reaching your breath for two seconds per day, should be banned by law. Feeding the same stuff to kids thousands of times the same amount, every day? Nah, that's ok.

[mrelwood]

50 minutes ago, RooMiniPro said:

where I have to breathe it in.  Smoking and vaping should be something that's only allowed at home, not in public.

Let's start with the ones that pollute the air around us the most. For example motor cars, only allowed inside closed spaces.  I'm sure I have Roo's vote on this!

[Scatcat]

1 minute ago, RooMiniPro said:

Isn't it a bit much to act like a victim?  Smokers choose to take up smoking.  No one likes their first cigarette, but they choose to keep smoking, knowing it leads to guaranteed addiction, ill health and sometimes cancer and early death.  People choose that path and end up sick. It's totally self inflicted.  Why should those of us smart enough not to intentionally do something that is known to cause nothing but a very negative outcome have to breathe in toxic crap too, just because smokers and vapers want their hit?  There are all sorts of nicotine products that can give you your fix without forcing the substance onto innocent bystanders.  If you want to smoke/vape/shoot heroin/drink bleach I am totally on your side because I believe we should all have that right.  But I am against you spewing it into the air that others have to breathe.

At the time I had reached the fantastically mature age of not quite fourteen years old. You know the age where looking cool, tough and grown up seems a lot more important that stupid things like that cigarettes can kill you or that alcohol can ruin your life... If you want to call that acting like a victim, then go on - it's no skin off my nose.

My respect for you and your ilk goes as far as not forcing you to breathe in my vapors. As I said, I actively try to avoid blowing my steam on others, and will move away if I even suspect someone gets disturbed by me puffing. I make mistakes, but they're honest ones. I am not one of those that will say it's my right to puff wherever, and even choose to go outside when at work, even though my boss has said it would be okay to puff indoors.

But my respect also stops there. I have no respect whatsoever for any holier-than-thou attitudes, where mister or missus better-than-you tells me that an addiction that have fucked up so many peoples lives is no more than a free choice to self-destruct. Yes, I probably could stop, if the choice where that or a fucking bullet to my brain. But the insidious problem with addictions is that each "hit" as you call it, doesn't feel life threatening, it's only when you've done it for years and the damage creeps up on you that you realise the self-deception. If it were as simple as you make it sound, there would be no alcoholics, no smokers, no crack-heads, coke snorters, heroine shooters and so on.

Also my respect for your preferences not to breathe in my steam stops at showing normal decent consideration. The fact, as in what we actually know about it, is that there is NO proof whatsoever that there even exist such a thing as second hand vaping. There are no side streams, no tar, no carbon monoxide and no other combustion products.

Some people with conditions like asthma, or very sensitive mucous glands, may feel some irritation by the hygroscopic properties of alcohols like glycerine and propylene glycol. Some that are oversensitive to smells, might react like they would to perfumes. But there are no second hand toxic effects at all. The nicotine is volatile enough that it is basically gone by the time the vapour reaches bystanders, leaving levels that are close to indistinguishable from the background air. The amount of chemicals you get from the surrounding air in a typical city or suburb is as bad or worse than what I produce - unless I blow right into your face, or you're locked into a bloody telephone booth with me serial vaping.

It may look like awesome volumes of "smoke" (steam), but you actually get exactly the same concoction and more of it visiting a typical discotheque or concert where there is a smoke machine present. In reality a typical smoke-machine produces less clean vapour, since the running temperatures are often higher and the coils dirtier.

Maybe you should make a case for banning smoke machines from concerts and discotheques? Wouldn't that be fun?

[Scatcat]

Damn it, now I got angry. Even had to delete some of what I wrote, not to be too uncivil.

[Scatcat]

My youngest kid is four years old, and with the differences vaping has made for my health, I actually fully expect to be there when he graduates from university some time in the future.

Knock on wood.

[mrelwood]

14 minutes ago, Scatcat said:

Damn it, now I got angry. Even had to delete some of what I wrote, not to be too uncivil.

I'll have a vape for you! Not worth it to get angry because of ignorance. Too much of it around.

And damn you write well.

For a Swede that is.

[Scatcat]

4 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

I'll have a vape for you! Not worth it to get angry because of ignorance. Too much of it around.

And damn you write well.

For a Swede that is.

I probably write more in English than in Swedish nowadays...  

And I'm actually half Estonian, even if I don't speak a word in my second maternal language...

[Mono]

3 hours ago, Scatcat said:

As I said, it would save a billion lives over the next hundred years. What it would save in pain and suffering, grief from survivors not to mention money saved is even more stunning.

True and true. Tobacco is probably the worst of all drugs I know of. But it wouldn't save any money if everybody would quit smoking, rather the contrary. Compared to the average, smokers die quickly and early, thereby saving money for health and geriatric care and pensions to be paid.

[Mono]

2 hours ago, RooMiniPro said:

Smokers choose to take up smoking.  No one likes their first cigarette, but they choose to keep smoking, knowing it leads to guaranteed addiction, ill health and sometimes cancer and early death.  People choose that path and end up sick. It's totally self inflicted. 

On this one, I don't think the evidence is with you. It wouldn't be called addiction if it were such a simple choice. I think it is also pretty clear by now that there is genetic components to addiction. Lucky you, and I, if we got "the good" genes. In any case, addiction is widely recognized as a health problem, not as a choice of free will.

[LanghamP]

5 hours ago, RooMiniPro said:

I wouldn't be too smug about the vaping.  There's nothing smart about breathing in toxic chemicals and filling the air with it for those of us who actually care about our health and don't want to breathe in cherry flavoured poison.  I believe people should be allowed to take any chemical they want as long as it's not airborne and the rest of us don't have to breathe it too.  I'm sick of breathing in other people's smoke and vape clouds.  It's selfish and I hope it gets banned.

As someone correctly pointed out below, and I agree with, is motor cars with internal combustion engines do the same thing as smokers do, and on a larger scale.

If you believe what you say, then you must stop driving and owning an ICE car. I'm being somewhat hypocritical, by the way, but say a rule came about that said, don't exhaust fumes that injure other people (which includes cars, smokers, and vaping) then, yeah, I could get behind such extreme government regulation.

I vape. I never was a smoker, and indeed I have two vape solutions, one with zero nicotine. Can't tell the difference.

There's few things in life more pleasurable than vaping in bed while watching "Archer" on a big screen TV. Throw in the Asian teen hooker giving me head and I'm golden!