bbulkow Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 Hi, n00b rider here. I bought a glide 3 with the new pricing. I had saved up my money and was prepared to pay the old price, but the new price makes me happier. I imagine this will make your business people sad, that I was willing to pay more and the lower pricing left money on the table, but you've at least built some brand equity. Reading this thread, I just have a couple of comments. 1. You can't make all the people happy. Some people thing any company is bad and will mistrust it and even when you do something good for your business that's also good for the customers, they are mistrustful. Maybe solowheel is evil, I don't know and don't really care. I just bought a wheel and want a quality product. These forums are somewhat poisonous for the company to read because they give a strong voice to the negative people. Your product is far from perfect, and your goal is to make money not to make us happy, but still.... 2. Regarding pricing, there is this statement that "it's better through a dealer and thus the AliExpress prices fold in the dealer's markup. Well, I bought through the SoloWheel website because I'm not really a fan of getting schmoozed by know-nothing people. Maybe the "EUC community" or an individual shop is good, and maybe there's one near me, but going into a store and asking for advice is 80% of the time asking to be lied to. I recently went bicycle shopping helping a friend - and the advice we got from 3 reputable shops was TERRIBLE. So --- if you're going to tout the "dealer route", why am I paying the same price on the Solowheel website that others are paying "with the dealer experience" ? 3. Some people seem to have a really loose grasp on patent law. I see all these posts about "why do they think they can set the prices so high" and the answer is PATENT LAW. Shipping wheels from AliExpress is illegal because of patent law. If you wouldn't walk into a store and steal a loaf of bread, why would you break this law? There's a lot of good reasons to disagree with the US patent system, a lot of recent reforms ( first to file vs first to invent, ALICE, etc ) will working their way through the system, a chronic under funding of the patent courts, but it is the system we have. There's a very real case that patents just aren't worth the 17 year market distortion ( a great case is the Wright Brothers choking off all American airplane companies, because the Wright brothers were good inventors but bad business people, so in WWI the Americans had to buy foreign airplanes until the fundamental patents on wing shape expired ). BUT IT IS THE LAW. So stop saying "what gives them the right" and instead say "the market would be bigger if SoloWheel dropped the price". Which, ha, they did. Thanks. I'll post some of my "first user" responses elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 22 hours ago, bbulkow said: Some people seem to have a really loose grasp on patent law. I see all these posts about "why do they think they can set the prices so high" and the answer is PATENT LAW. Shipping wheels from AliExpress is illegal because of patent law Yes you included! Since you felt empowered to mention them, let us take the Wright Brothers as an excellent example, wing shape had been known about for decades and was in the public domain so that is rubbish to start with. What the Wright Brothers did, and nobody else did, was learn how to control a plane, spent years and an awful lot of their money to learn how to fly and patented just that - control. Unfortunately they made a small mistake and specified roll control as wing warping. Glen Curtiss came along and used ailerons - hinged roll control surfaces to get around those patents and the mighty Smithsonian backed him to get Langley’s Aerodrome flying with the knowledge gained from the Wrights. They then proclaimed that the Aerodrome was the first successful powered aircraft (Langley was the secretary of the Smithsonian).This was a significant part of the Wright’s intransigence and, even today, in The Smithsonian there is a clearly displayed public denial that the Aerodrome could ever have flown in it’s original form - the price the Smithsonian had to pay to get the Wright Flyer One back from the British Science Museum to whom the Wrights loaned it in disgust at the Smithsonian. The point of the above story is that you appear to believe that had Glen Curtis’ been able to patent ailerons that should have made him the sole guy who controlled exactly who could build and sell aircraft if he was the guy with the aileron patent. I.e. nobody else’s patents matter is exactly what you are saying because that is pretty much what appears to have happened with Electric Unicycles, a small tweak to a number of existing patents that were already in place and are being used by other suppliers - not the least Segway themselves (who like the Wrights made a small mistake - in their case not allowing for one wheel as well as two.) The difference was US patent courts seemed to have more common sense in those days and eventually agreed the Wrights patent still applied - even to ailerons! Oh and why should shipping an InMotion V8 from Aliexpress, or any of the other excellent dealers out there be any more illegal than shipping an Inmotion V8 from Solowheel just because it has been renamed as a Glide 3? That is just nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McNeil Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 After a couple days of back-and-forth negotiations with the new Solowheel, as of today the Glide3/V8 is back online though our site. It's certainly an anomaly where the supplier is in direct competition with the Distributor, but I'm confident we can make a compelling value proposition to our prospective Customers. I asked Solowheel directly if they could foresee this as being a source conflict in the future, they say it will not. https://www.ewheels.com/product/inmotion-v8/ For me, one of the main attractions of committing to a volume purchase through the Solowheel entity here in the US, are the lead times & persistent headaches of exporting from China. It's not unusual for the time that it takes from placing an order with a factory to receiving the product to be 6-8 weeks. Each month I'm witness to some new imposition that makes it progressively more burdensome for conducting business with the PRC—currency export restrictions, extra paperwork/cost for equipment containing lithium batteries, Chinese Customs holding up a shipments, factories where it can take up to a week to get a response... I'm actively involved in a program to reduce reliance on this fragile but currently vital link, this Solowheel deal plays a large part of this strategy. On 12/27/2017 at 8:38 PM, who_the said: I wish the LEDs on my V8 still worke Can you drop me a PM, I'll send you out a new set of LEDs tomorrow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehab1 Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 3 hours ago, Jason McNeil said: After a couple days of back-and-forth negotiations with the new Solowheel, as of today the Glide3/V8 is back online though our site. It's certainly an anomaly where the supplier is in direct competition with the Distributor, but I'm confident we can make a compelling value proposition to our prospective Customers. I asked Solowheel directly if they could foresee this as being a source conflict in the future, they say it will not. So glad the Jennie is out of the bottle. Thanks for filling everyone in on the details. Both you, Solowheel and EUC consumers will benefit from this unique and very exciting business relationship. Best wishes on your venture. BTW...nice update on your website. Did you end up drinking those Redbulls? BTW.. if you have any V8 lights left mine quit working as well. Could you please include a set with my order. Many thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kael Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 19 hours ago, Jason McNeil said: After a couple days of back-and-forth negotiations with the new Solowheel, as of today the Glide3/V8 is back online though our site. It's certainly an anomaly where the supplier is in direct competition with the Distributor, but I'm confident we can make a compelling value proposition to our prospective Customers. I asked Solowheel directly if they could foresee this as being a source conflict in the future, they say it will not. https://www.ewheels.com/product/inmotion-v8/ For me, one of the main attractions of committing to a volume purchase through the Solowheel entity here in the US, are the lead times & persistent headaches of exporting from China. It's not unusual for the time that it takes from placing an order with a factory to receiving the product to be 6-8 weeks. Each month I'm witness to some new imposition that makes it progressively more burdensome for conducting business with the PRC—currency export restrictions, extra paperwork/cost for equipment containing lithium batteries, Chinese Customs holding up a shipments, factories where it can take up to a week to get a response... I'm actively involved in a program to reduce reliance on this fragile but currently vital link, this Solowheel deal plays a large part of this strategy. Can you drop me a PM, I'll send you out a new set of LEDs tomorrow... Really liking that new cover design. Can't wait to see how the upcoming Solowheel looks/performs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 On 1/1/2018 at 10:01 PM, Jason McNeil said: For me, one of the main attractions of committing to a volume purchase through the Solowheel entity here in the US, are the lead times & persistent headaches of exporting from China. It's not unusual for the time that it takes from placing an order with a factory to receiving the product to be 6-8 weeks. Each month I'm witness to some new imposition that makes it progressively more burdensome for conducting business with the PRC—currency export restrictions, extra paperwork/cost for equipment containing lithium batteries, Chinese Customs holding up a shipments, factories where it can take up to a week to get a response... I'm actively involved in a program to reduce reliance on this fragile but currently vital link, this Solowheel deal plays a large part of this strategy. Wasn't Inmotion Korean? Although I wouldn't be too surprised if the wheels are actually made in China... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houseofjob Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 12 minutes ago, esaj said: Wasn't Inmotion Korean? Although I wouldn't be too surprised if the wheels are actually made in China... Nope. Korea only makes e-kickboard scooters, no EUC companies. (I should know, as I am Korean). And even for e-kickboard scooters, manufacturing is mainly Shenzhen as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Yan Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 On 1/2/2018 at 7:26 AM, Kael said: Really liking that new cover design. Can't wait to see how the upcoming Solowheel looks/performs. You can find the cover here if you need. https://solowheel.com/products/solowheel-glide-3-protective-cover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duaner Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 https://solowheel.com/products/solowheel-glide-2https://solowheel.com/products/solowheel-glide-3https://solowheel.com/pages/comparison Not a one shows Wh battery capacity. Boo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Scott Will Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 On 1/19/2018 at 9:44 PM, duaner said: https://solowheel.com/products/solowheel-glide-2https://solowheel.com/products/solowheel-glide-3https://solowheel.com/pages/comparison Not a one shows Wh battery capacity. Boo! Hey @duaner Glide 3 = 480 Wh Glide 2 = 320 Wh These specs will be on the website soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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