FIRST SIGHTING OF KING SONG 18L ???

[Smoother]

Curious about the origin of the King Song training video, recently posted, I ended up on Facebook, which is rare for a 55 year old male ( the largest known demographic for EUCS in the west).  And I came across this on the official King Song page ( some place I have never been before)

if you stop the video at exactly 3 seconds, you will have a good broadside view of "SpiderChan's" wheel.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but alloy spokes, means it's not a 16" because the 16" motor goes all the way to the rim, no spokes. so is it the rumoured 18L?  At 2 seconds you can also see the buttons and charge port are on the front and not the top.

 

there's also some awesome two wheel riding later on.  I wish I was 1/10 that good.

[meepmeepmayer]

We already have plenty of official or semi-official pictures and info of the 18L. E.g. in this thread (browse through it for everything):

There's also a video by the Russians of Ecodrift:

[Mrd777]

Apparently there is only “the” prototype floating around according to Vicky Huang that works at KingSong. From what we understand we are looking at possibly an April release.

[houseofjob]

This footage is from the recent Hong Kong Electronics Fair this past October, and yes, this is a beta of the upcoming KS18L

I believe the KS18L is still in beta, specs are not finalized yet.

[Smoother]

Ah yes I see, not the first sighting.  That's why there are 3 question marks in the title of the thread.  I took a break from the forum this summer and autumn, so I missed the eco drift thread.  From all that I have been reading since then, I got the impression that no one had seen it.  This doesn't look like a prototype to me, it looks finished, and finished very nicely.

[Marty Backe]

4 hours ago, Smoother said:

Curious about the origin of the King Song training video, recently posted, I ended up on Facebook, which is rare for a 55 year old male ( the largest known demographic for EUCS in the west).  And I came across this on the official King Song page ( some place I have never been before)

if you stop the video at exactly 3 seconds, you will have a good broadside view of "SpiderChan's" wheel.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but alloy spokes, means it's not a 16" because the 16" motor goes all the way to the rim, no spokes. so is it the rumoured 18L?  At 2 seconds you can also see the buttons and charge port are on the front and not the top.

 

there's also some awesome two wheel riding later on.  I wish I was 1/10 that good.

I need to get another KS14S and learn to have two-wheel fun like that guy in the video. Looks like a blast.

[Rehab1]

6 hours ago, Smoother said:

if you stop the video at exactly 3 seconds, you will have a good broadside view of "SpiderChan's" wheel.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but alloy spokes, means it's not a 16" because the 16" motor goes all the way to the rim, no spokes. so is it the rumoured 18L?  At 2 seconds you can also see the buttons and charge port are on the front and not the top.

Very possible. The wheel looks awesome! For some reason I keep looping the 3rd thru 20 second mark.

 

 

This could have been bad!

[The Fat Unicyclist]

10 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

I need to get another KS14S and learn to have two-wheel fun like that guy in the video. Looks like a blast.

Surely you don't need two wheels the same? l mean perhaps not an Mten3 on one foot and a Monster on the other (though if you try that, please video and post), but perhaps two similar wheels?

<pause for thinking>

Now... Where did I stash my other 16" wheel...

[The Fat Unicyclist]

An update on this... It is very doable, but with different wheels (needing a different amount of tilt) l think there is an additional complexity added. 

I expected the extra pressure on my calves, but what surprised me (but makes perfect sense in hindsight) is the control - with two wheels, balance is easy. Even / especially standing still... But when you move, the speed of each wheel is controlled separately by each foot. And the direction of each wheel depends on your foot orientation. So toes out results in doing the splits, and toes in smashes your ankles together! 

I think I'll go back to learning to ride backward before l try to master this... 

[Marty Backe]

3 minutes ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

An update on this... It is very doable, but with different wheels (needing a different amount of tilt) l think there is an additional complexity added. 

I expected the extra pressure on my calves, but what surprised me (but makes perfect sense in hindsight) is the control - with two wheels, balance is easy. Even / especially standing still... But when you move, the speed of each wheel is controlled separately by each foot. And the direction of each wheel depends on your foot orientation. So toes out results in doing the splits, and toes in smashes your ankles together! 

I think I'll go back to learning to ride backward before l try to master this... 

Maybe when I get my 2nd ACM I'll give this a try.

Did you try riding the two wheels in-line too 

[The Fat Unicyclist]

7 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Maybe when I get my 2nd ACM I'll give this a try.

Did you try riding the two wheels in-line too 

HELL NO!

It all started to dawn on me once I got the two wheels there in front of me - I mean how do you even mount them?

So I ended up going with the two wheels closer together, climbing onto the outer pedals, so the wheel rested on my inner calf). This gave me a feel for doing it, but the steering is quite a different concept... Turning around to ride in-line would also mean one toe and one heel down to keep momentum (with SIDEWAYS bicycle-type balance at the same time), so I decided the more practical course of events was not to "tear myself a new one" (both literally and laterally).

Now that the moment has passed though, and thinking back... I should possibly have changed my 191 from Sport mode to Comfort, which would probably better matched the X8.

But whatever I do, the fact is still that gravity is exponential and being a heavier (and obviously more unco) rider this has got to be a lot harder! Perhaps I need a pair of Monsters?