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Taming the MTen3 - My First-Wheel Learning Log


beast@tanagra

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9 minutes ago, beast@tanagra said:

Yeah, I wasn't too worried. Figured I should look into it, though. Thanks for the pointer!

Day 20: Feeling great. Ready to roll. Don’t know if I let a bunch of air out when testing tire pressure, but it came in low, about 25 psi, so I inflated to 35 and made a mental note to check this once a week from now on.

60 min on sidewalk and asphalt: What would @meepmeepmayer do? For life reasons outside either of our control, the wife-assisted backwards date has been newly postponed. So instead, after gearing up in record time (about 3.5 min), I got the audiobook going and took off in the easiest direction to get some distance, eventually reaching my previous far point, but no farther, as this would be difficult without a different route or a bigger wheel. Along the way, I was stopped by my second inquisitive onlooker — this one flying an impressively small micro-drone and geeking out about our mutual “tech moment”. He pointed and said, “Hey, that’s what the Segway was supposed to be!”, and I knew exactly what he was talking about. Good times.

On the way home, I got a little turned around in a labyrinthine subdivision, and spent the last 20 minutes in more darkness than I would normally brave beyond the safety of my driveway. Slowed down for fear of @Rehab1-ing. Just when this threatened to make me impatient, I had a solitary zen-like moment where it was just me and the moon, and my soul heard the call of the meep.

Broke my distance record with just over 12 km. Feet are definitely the weak link for me on sustained rides, and they first complain at about the 15-minute mark. I’m not sure if it’s a circulation shortage, vibration-induced numbness, or some combination of the two, but what wiggling exercises I was able to try while mounted were not enough. Spending even 30 seconds off the wheel pacing around, though, as when I checked Google Maps, fully restored them for another 10 min or so. If eventually figuring out one-legged riding lets me restore my feet on the go, this may make a big difference in my feelings about distance riding. As it is, unless I have a purpose to my destination, I think I’m happier staying closer to home where I can respond more readily to issues with my ride or my family.

The feet thing was a massive issue for me and still is to a point some days, when I first started my trip to work is 4 miles and i'd have to stop 3 times, after 2 miles, 3 miles, 3.5 miles and then work each time needing a 30 second flat foot walk stretch. I felt like I was useless, but then it started to ease off, I also found myself moving my feet futher up the pedals so that my weight was more forward centric and didn't require so much forward lean to keep my movement going and this has really helped. 

Sometimes I still get a bit of tingling but I can usually then just lean to one side put say 95% pressure on my non tingly foot and give the other one about 10 seconds break and then fine to carry on.

Hope that helps

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Been accumulating entries until something interesting happened...

Day 21: Meh.

30 min on concrete and asphalt: It was hot and I wasn’t really feelin’ it. (Probably some combination of allergies and stuff on my mind.) Didn’t push myself, and packed it in early.

 

Day 22: More enthused, but the weather remains quite hot. 

30 min on concrete and asphalt: If I ain’t wobblin’, I ain’t tryin’... Late start after losing track of time. Good ride, though. Lots of turns. Tried out different postures, got more of a leg workout than I have in a while. Pushed the envelope on slow maneuvering. Stopped only account of darkness.

 

Day 23: Feelin’ fine. Windy.

50 min on mixed terrain: I felt like I had good strength and form without thinking too hard, but still felt like experimenting with different postures and contact points. I especially focused on harder turns at moderate speed, which I feel is a weak point for this wheel (it seems like I would be able to lean more easily on something bigger). Also tried to work harder at keeping a solid margin of leg extension available on all turns so I’m never overcommitted and stuck turning without intention. Finished with more mounting practice and stopped on account of darkness.

Adding things up, I’m just shy of the 20-hour mark, and a week away from the 30-day mark. I feel like it’s time to start weaning myself off the strap when I’m not trying new moves. This will take some getting used to — I find the strap handy for mounting and dismounting on such a low wheel — but freeing up both hands should add some grace to my turns and make it easier to check things on my phone. Once I’ve gotten used to strapless, I’ll take off the bumpers for most cruises as well. Fortunately, the elastic harness my wife made should make these easy to take on and off depending on what I’m doing.

 

Day 24: Can’t wait to ride. Close to perfect weather, if occasionally gusty and clouds that hint at a distant (but welcome) possibility of rain.

100 min on concrete and asphalt: Zzub Zzub Zzub (the sound of a bee flying backwards)... Overcast skies invited an early start. The wife finally helped me go backwards for about 20 minutes. My biggest hurdle here was speed control. A close second was directional control. So yeah, I was kind of a mess, as indicated both by my inconsistent reliance on my partner and on the amp-alarm vibration feedback I activated on my Pebble tonight. Felt some modest improvement by the end of that session and proceeded immediately to some audiobook-listening (forwards) joyriding.

This was also kind of a mess, as all the neighbors seemed to pick up on the awesome weather as well, swarming my usual routes. I felt compelled to dismount for distracted pedestrians for the first time. And then the second time — for someone so glued to a phone that I had stopped a good 15 feet ahead of her and she still almost tripped over me before seeing me.

I concluded with some more slow maneuvering practice mixed with gentle solo backwards attempts. I did manage, on two occasions, to pendulum from forward motion to reverse, stay in reverse for a couple seconds, and pendulum back into forwards motion, but with little control over my direction (speed control seemed to come a little easier solo). Baby steps, but still a big psychological breakthrough, even if it meant a couple of (bumpered and strapped) wheel spills and uncomfortable step-offs. Stopped on account of darkness and general fatigue. 

Without ever going very far or very fast tonight, I broke my distance record by dint of sheer time-on-wheel, finishing with 12.6 km.
 

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one of the very important things I learned (and confirmed with a few other people I put on a wheel) is to completely relax your legs and body.  Start from paying attention to your feet first: if you feel that your toes are are not relaxed and are trying to "grab" the pedal - force it to relax. Then check the muscles of your legs, are they stiff? If yes - relax them, let them flex easily. Finally, your body also must not be stiff - relax it too. Do this check periodically and force your muscles to relax every the time you feel they are not loose.  

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2 hours ago, trya said:

one of the very important things I learned (and confirmed with a few other people I put on a wheel) is to completely relax your legs and body.  Start from paying attention to your feet first: if you feel that your toes are are not relaxed and are trying to "grab" the pedal - force it to relax. Then check the muscles of your legs, are they stiff? If yes - relax them, let them flex easily. Finally, your body also must not be stiff - relax it too. Do this check periodically and force your muscles to relax every the time you feel they are not loose.  

Even after knowing how to ride it took a long time before I stopped trying to grab the pedals with my toes ? Good advice.

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8 hours ago, meepmeepmayer said:

You're certainly taking the methodical approach here:efefd8a002:

Lose the strap, that's way overdue, and keep the bumpers (because why not).

Because partially-exposed segments of fluorescent pool noodle scream "eccentric-but-harmless doofus" when I would like to start shifting my look closer to "oddly normal guy on the go" -- you know, the @Marty Backe look (in anything but his Scorpion helm).

8 hours ago, trya said:

one of the very important things I learned (and confirmed with a few other people I put on a wheel) is to completely relax your legs and body.  Start from paying attention to your feet first: if you feel that your toes are are not relaxed and are trying to "grab" the pedal - force it to relax. Then check the muscles of your legs, are they stiff? If yes - relax them, let them flex easily. Finally, your body also must not be stiff - relax it too. Do this check periodically and force your muscles to relax every the time you feel they are not loose. 

Oddly, toe-clenching has never been a reflex for me, and it would have never occurred to me to do it consciously. This might have to do with my usual riding shoes, which are steel-toed and quite stiff up front. I have no sense that anything I do with my toes would make any difference in my ride. I do, however, notice that I sometimes stiffen up at the ankle on the vertical axis -- in those tippy-toes up-and-down muscles.

The awareness of tension in other scattered regions of my body is something I have been working on this week, for sure, and is part of what I meant by trying to make maneuvers such that I always have a reserve margin of range-of-motion in my joints. This often entails involving more of my body in the maneuver, which can't happen while those other parts are stiffened up.

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11 minutes ago, beast@tanagra said:

Because partially-exposed segments of fluorescent pool noodle scream "eccentric-but-harmless doofus" when I would like to start shifting my look closer to "oddly normal guy on the go" -- you know, the @Marty Backe look (in anything but his Scorpion helm).

Oddly, toe-clenching has never been a reflex for me, and it would have never occurred to me to do it consciously. This might have to do with my usual riding shoes, which are steel-toed and quite stiff up front. I have no sense that anything I do with my toes would make any difference in my ride. I do, however, notice that I sometimes stiffen up at the ankle on the vertical axis -- in those tippy-toes up-and-down muscles.

The awareness of tension in other scattered regions of my body is something I have been working on this week, for sure, and is part of what I meant by trying to make maneuvers such that I always have a reserve margin of range-of-motion in my joints. This often entails involving more of my body in the maneuver, which can't happen while those other parts are stiffened up.

Good choice to forego the pool noodles :D

I never consciously used my toes to grip the peddle (which isn't actually possible), but I would find myself having clenched toes, and then would relax. The cycle would repeat. Somehow that faded over time.

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tl,dr: going backwards, going shopping (but not both at the same time)

 

Day 25: More perfect weather, but slightly fatigued from yesterday.

90 min on concrete and asphalt: Started with my first strapless ride. Went fine until it didn’t — a dismount left me watching the wheel give me the metaphorical finger and hit the road on its own, until it fell into gravel and tried to do the Gotway dance. I’ll need to develop a reflex for bending over and grabbing the handle when I’m not going to have a grip with my other foot.

I then put the strap back on for intense backwards practice. I’ve already become much better at transitioning to backwards and holding that (general) direction, but transitioning to forward afterwards is proving harder, especially if I want to do it on command, instead of when I feel like I have an opportunity. I had a harmless fall doing this: a comical pratfall onto my rear that was completely mitigated by my right-hand wrist guard and the aforementioned behind. Stopped on account of darkness and general fatigue.

 

Day 26: One more day of perfect weather, still some fatigue.

65 min on mixed terrain: Started with a short audio joyride. Followed it up with an extensive ultra-slow and reverse session. My WheelLog telemetry is a thick fur of orange over a low base of white after such sessions. Gained some more basic competency, performing semi-controlled k-turns around the driveway, up to 4 pendulums consecutive, but usually fewer and failing at the transition back to forwards. I’m finding that the muscles used to lean more weight into the toes and less on the heel are key to stall recovery on a bad transition to forwards.

The strap might be on its way out for destination riding, but it has been a real hero during this sort of practice, saving the wheel from countless spills — and my shins from the bite of spinning pedals.

 

Day 27: Decent weather still, if short of perfect. Slight fatigue.

55 min: Pulled out the backpack and made my first shopping run! Wouldn’t you know, I had to dismount on my first crossing at a traffic light as I was in danger of being left hooked by a car I’m positive didn’t have a turning arrow. The rest of the trip was nice, though. I’d never considered how much time it can take in a car to traverse a large and busy parking lot at pedestrian speeds (both in the car and to-and-from your parking spot) until I was able to wheel right up to the door. Mounting right up afterwards and scooting straight out was equally delightful. Also picked up the mail and did a bit of joy riding, followed by more slow reverse. I feel like my progress has started to level off a bit, but it is still progressing. Stopped on account of darkness.

 

Day 28: Weather heating up. Slight fatigue. 

60 min: My forward-backwards antics have left me noticeably improved in my forwards slow game. My transitions to reverse are now pretty confident and trouble-free. Transitions back to forwards are still more sketchy. Near the end of the night, I noticed that I strongly favor right turns in reverse, but have no such bias going forwards. I’ll need to work on reverse left. I think I’m turning a corner now where I find slow freestyling more relaxing than anxious, without the feeling of building up unsustainable fatigue. My typical audiobook joyride now has me pausing at promising places where I try little k-turns and u-turns and such, with mixed results.

 

Day 29: Uncomfortably warm. Did my new Saturday routine of putting the air pump to the wheel. About where I would have guessed from the previous three weeks — losing maybe 0.4 PSI per day, unless I’m just flubbing and letting out a bunch when I attach the pump. The wheel is so small that a half-second puff can mean a few PSI off.

60 min: Hot weather sucks, and it’s only going to get worse, but I took the leaf blower to the driveway and stuck fresh bulbs in the exterior lights, so I could shift my ride into darker (cooler) hours and continue working on my slow/reverse game, and this is what I did. Good zen times with my audiobook.

 

Day 30: The beginning of 100+ degree weather that is now unlikely to relent before October. No fatigue.

65 min: I started with an urban sprint of 2.4 km in a direction I’ve never taken the wheel, seeing how my travel time estimations compared with reality and investigating the terrain. This wheel and I do like to cruise at about 17-21 kph, so it was about what I thought. There were a couple of sketchy moments: a close to 2-inch gap at a railroad crossing that I decided to yolo and, and which the MTen took better than expected (at least at an exact perpendicular), and then at a sizable speed bump that I dared myself into going over. I actually caught some air on the latter — my wheel leaving the pavement and then my feet leaving the wheel — enough that my toes were about an inch more forward on the pedals after landing than before launching. I had to dismount to adjust, and have no plans to repeat that one.

I followed that up with a brief joyride with some slow maneuvering mixed in, then went back to the driveway after dusk for 30 min of slow/reverse. I’ve gotten to where I can sometimes lose track of how long I’ve been up and how many back-and-forths I’ve gone before getting myself into a dismount. I’ve learned that a lot of situations I used to see as unrecoverable can actually be salvaged with a bit more twist and torque, provided I have plenty of space around me to pull out. I can now control my rear direction pretty well at the larger scale, but still not within inches like I can going forwards.

On the whole, I’ve really enjoyed adding reverse into the mix. It’s given my riding a whole new, um... direction. The MTen3 has delivered on my desire for a game of balance playable at slow speeds and in tight spaces.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Days 31-42: I’ve actually managed to ride every one of these days, about 50 min on average, and to collect some notes each time. The play-by-play would be boring, though, so here’s the highlight reel instead:

Issues: The most significant issue encountered over the past 11 days was a thermal one on days 32-35. It’s only May, but even at sunset it was still ~38°C outside, and I was working hard on my reverse and directional transitions. I wasn’t doing anything nearly as aggressive as @eddiemoy's recent overheating pendulums, and Wheelog never reported board temperatures higher than the mid 50s C — but if I turned the wheel off after it had warmed up, it would not want to turn back on until resting for a few minutes. (During those minutes, holding down the power button would cause the body lights to illuminate, but the start cycle would not engage.) I am confident that this was temperature related, because the weather has mercifully cooled off by about 6°C for the past week and it hasn’t happened since. I can only assume that overheat protection of some sort was being tripped even if the board itself is below the temps that @Marty Backe has said would trigger overheat functions.

So heat is probably a growing issue for me as the Phoenix-area summer bears down. I may find myself doing more night riding, as I ended  up doing on Day 39. (Life events meant that this was the only chance I had to ride at all.) I kept my speed down for safety, but this was an otherwise pleasant session. I might invest in a helmet light.

Progress: By Day 33, my reverse skills were strong enough to make K-turns of practical smallness, and by Day 40 I had actually done this in the wild as a sudden reaction to conditions, without any advance planning.

I’m definitely a stronger rider for having conquered reverse. My on-and-off again fling with extra padding on the upper side pads is back in what feels like a permanent “off” phase, as my improved poise has left me enjoying tiltier turns and finer control -- at the expense of the extra stability given by the padding. One-legged efforts are still on hold; I’ll wait until I've learned this on a bigger wheel.

On Day 40 I finally stopped using my safety strap even for rides where I might do a lot of reverse. I am no longer dismounting with enough frequency or volatility for it to save me or the wheel from damage over even a few hours of riding, and it’s nice to feel that much freer. At this point, the only beginner’s mod I’m still running is the bumpers, and I think I’m about to ditch those, too. (Yeah, that’s been on my radar for a while, but I’ve wanted to make sure I had some practice catching the wheel strapless after unplanned dismounts first.) Wheel is desperately going to need a sponge bath after I remove the last mods. So much dust!

Aesthetic highlight: Speaking of dust, Day 35 saw me riding during a break in a major dust storm, which obscured the sun in such a way as to give the effect of looking at it through eclipse glasses. Very alien.

Practical highlight: On Day 37, I made a Sunday morning trip to Starbucks to cash in some gift card money that has been languishing in a drawer for years. I’m not a coffee drinker, and this Starbucks is deep in a concrete sea of retail parking lots, so it had never felt worth the hassle of taking the car. As an EUC destination, though, it was delightful: nice weather, yummy breakfast, and the last time the strap did me any good -- with the wheel off, it acted as a poor-man’s trolley handle while I waited in line; I could hoist the wheel around and keep it upright next to my leg.

Looking ahead

Trolley handle? Marty’s DIY video on this still intimidates me a bit, and the handle he used looked a little short and flimsy at the end. I’m going to put this decision on hold until I’ve seen how I use my next wheel. I don’t need a trolley handle at the grocery store, my most frequent practical destination, where I just drop the wheel into the shopping cart. The trolley would be more for situations like that Starbucks line, which has only come up once so far. (I am intrigued, though.)

Shoe shopping? I’ve rotated through all of my shoes a few times now. I have no perfect pair, unfortunately. My most comfortable riding shoes are still my steel-toed high-top hiker hybrids, because their very stiff sole has the effect of making the pedals feel larger, distributing the pressure on my feet more widely. Unfortunately, the bottoms of these shoes are also very hard and only have a few bumpy protrusions instead of good grippy treads, so they tend to slip around in rough terrain or during aggressive maneuvers.

I have some really grippy slip-on faux-dockers that are very comfortable to stand or walk in. These easily give me the best control on the wheel — but they have such bendy soles that the pedals bite uncomfortably into my feet along the edges. I can’t bring myself to use them for more than ~20 minutes at a time.

I’m following the recent threads on footwear, and will see if anything grabs my interest.

Incoming wheel! I paid the balance on that preorder I left with Jason for the V10F. I’m expecting my ship to come in (literally) soon, with delivery expected at the very end of this month. ?

This purchase is something of a leap of faith based mostly on the depth to which EUC has sunk into my psyche, because I haven’t exactly embraced distance or off-road riding in the past two weeks. Right now, the riding I love doing most is the riding that feels right on the MTen3 — slow, twisty, torque-y, smooth. It’s an intimate conversation I have in the background while my higher brain processes audiobooks, and I often find myself craving the feel of the ride at various times throughout the day. I’m not sure what sort of conversation I’ll have with the V10F, but I’m sure it will be interesting and am excited to find out!
 

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@beast@tanagra - excellent progress! the reverse after only a month of riding is a very fast pace. Granted, the reverse on Mten3 is easier than on bigger wheels, but you are the first one we know who learned it on Mten3 first :) I look forward to your future reports, especially interesting how your transition to V10 will work out. I'm pretty sure you'll love this wheel - but don't get discouraged in the beginning, when it feels weird to use this heavy behemoth :)

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7 hours ago, beast@tanagra said:

Days 31-42: I’ve actually managed to ride every one of these days, about 50 min on average, and to collect some notes each time. The play-by-play would be boring, though, so here’s the highlight reel instead:

Issues: The most significant issue encountered over the past 11 days was a thermal one on days 32-35. It’s only May, but even at sunset it was still ~38°C outside, and I was working hard on my reverse and directional transitions. I wasn’t doing anything nearly as aggressive as @eddiemoy's recent overheating pendulums, and Wheelog never reported board temperatures higher than the mid 50s C — but if I turned the wheel off after it had warmed up, it would not want to turn back on until resting for a few minutes. (During those minutes, holding down the power button would cause the body lights to illuminate, but the start cycle would not engage.) I am confident that this was temperature related, because the weather has mercifully cooled off by about 6°C for the past week and it hasn’t happened since. I can only assume that overheat protection of some sort was being tripped even if the board itself is below the temps that @Marty Backe has said would trigger overheat functions.

So heat is probably a growing issue for me as the Phoenix-area summer bears down. I may find myself doing more night riding, as I ended  up doing on Day 39. (Life events meant that this was the only chance I had to ride at all.) I kept my speed down for safety, but this was an otherwise pleasant session. I might invest in a helmet light.

Progress: By Day 33, my reverse skills were strong enough to make K-turns of practical smallness, and by Day 40 I had actually done this in the wild as a sudden reaction to conditions, without any advance planning.

I’m definitely a stronger rider for having conquered reverse. My on-and-off again fling with extra padding on the upper side pads is back in what feels like a permanent “off” phase, as my improved poise has left me enjoying tiltier turns and finer control -- at the expense of the extra stability given by the padding. One-legged efforts are still on hold; I’ll wait until I've learned this on a bigger wheel.

On Day 40 I finally stopped using my safety strap even for rides where I might do a lot of reverse. I am no longer dismounting with enough frequency or volatility for it to save me or the wheel from damage over even a few hours of riding, and it’s nice to feel that much freer. At this point, the only beginner’s mod I’m still running is the bumpers, and I think I’m about to ditch those, too. (Yeah, that’s been on my radar for a while, but I’ve wanted to make sure I had some practice catching the wheel strapless after unplanned dismounts first.) Wheel is desperately going to need a sponge bath after I remove the last mods. So much dust!

Aesthetic highlight: Speaking of dust, Day 35 saw me riding during a break in a major dust storm, which obscured the sun in such a way as to give the effect of looking at it through eclipse glasses. Very alien.

Practical highlight: On Day 37, I made a Sunday morning trip to Starbucks to cash in some gift card money that has been languishing in a drawer for years. I’m not a coffee drinker, and this Starbucks is deep in a concrete sea of retail parking lots, so it had never felt worth the hassle of taking the car. As an EUC destination, though, it was delightful: nice weather, yummy breakfast, and the last time the strap did me any good -- with the wheel off, it acted as a poor-man’s trolley handle while I waited in line; I could hoist the wheel around and keep it upright next to my leg.

Looking ahead

Trolley handle? Marty’s DIY video on this still intimidates me a bit, and the handle he used looked a little short and flimsy at the end. I’m going to put this decision on hold until I’ve seen how I use my next wheel. I don’t need a trolley handle at the grocery store, my most frequent practical destination, where I just drop the wheel into the shopping cart. The trolley would be more for situations like that Starbucks line, which has only come up once so far. (I am intrigued, though.)

Shoe shopping? I’ve rotated through all of my shoes a few times now. I have no perfect pair, unfortunately. My most comfortable riding shoes are still my steel-toed high-top hiker hybrids, because their very stiff sole has the effect of making the pedals feel larger, distributing the pressure on my feet more widely. Unfortunately, the bottoms of these shoes are also very hard and only have a few bumpy protrusions instead of good grippy treads, so they tend to slip around in rough terrain or during aggressive maneuvers.

I have some really grippy slip-on faux-dockers that are very comfortable to stand or walk in. These easily give me the best control on the wheel — but they have such bendy soles that the pedals bite uncomfortably into my feet along the edges. I can’t bring myself to use them for more than ~20 minutes at a time.

I’m following the recent threads on footwear, and will see if anything grabs my interest.

Incoming wheel! I paid the balance on that preorder I left with Jason for the V10F. I’m expecting my ship to come in (literally) soon, with delivery expected at the very end of this month. ?

This purchase is something of a leap of faith based mostly on the depth to which EUC has sunk into my psyche, because I haven’t exactly embraced distance or off-road riding in the past two weeks. Right now, the riding I love doing most is the riding that feels right on the MTen3 — slow, twisty, torque-y, smooth. It’s an intimate conversation I have in the background while my higher brain processes audiobooks, and I often find myself craving the feel of the ride at various times throughout the day. I’m not sure what sort of conversation I’ll have with the V10F, but I’m sure it will be interesting and am excited to find out!
 

I must say that I've never over-heated my Mten3. I assume that it behaves like every other Gotway or KingSong wheel. So I've got nothing for you regarding the overheat.

Installing the trolley handle on the Mten3 is easy. No shell modifications required. A hacksaw, wrench/pliers, rope. Note much to it. I love trolley handles now. The only wheel that I have now without a trolley is the Monster, and I need to work on that.

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I have a couple of changes to my mten3 on the way.

  • innertube to tubless conversion
  • new symmetrical tire from segway minipro
  • mSuper3 pedal swap out
  • some type of trolley handle

The stock tire is terrible and too unstable.  Hoping the new symmetrical tire tread will improve the situation.  My feel also hurt a lot after riding for 15 minutes which makes my normal mSuper 45 minute commute not possible even though the mten3 is a faster wheel.  I attribute this to the small pedal size not supporting my arch and the upward inner curve of the stock pedals.  Sometimes I have to carry the wheel which isn't fun for anything longer than 2-3 minutes.  A trolley handle will be a great addition, I just have not found a suitable one yet.

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7 hours ago, GQS said:

I attribute this to the small pedal size not supporting my arch and the upward inner curve of the stock pedals. 

 

I agree the sweet spot on the stock pedals seems way too small, and I don't even have very big feet. If I'm not wearing my very hard-soled shoes, my feet are kind of just melting around the edges of the pedals quite painfully.

Do let us know how your conversions work out, especially if you find a trolley you like.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Days 43-57:

I’m still riding about an hour a day, mostly at sunset. No new moves or breakthroughs, but I feel fluid and confident, and am loving it. But as I will be (hopefully for real this time) getting my V10F tomorrow, this seems like a good day to recap recent first-wheel milestones.

Little things:

On Day 49 I came close to faceplanting when a streed/driveway transition proved steeper than expected and too much for my very slow speed at the time. Fortunately, my reflexes are now adequate at such speeds, and I was able to step up onto the concrete and jog it out when my wheel decided it would stay on the street. No injury, but it was a scary sensation, to be sure.

On day 51, I made my first deliberately irreversible alteration to the wheel, by cutting off the little hoop on the charge port’s rubber cap. From day one, that hoop has never succeeded in keeping the cap from just falling completely off when undone. In its place, I’ve added a bit of velcro to it and to another spot on the front of the wheel. While charging, I leave the cap on that other attachment point for safekeeping.

On Day 54, I made a trip to the Vans store and came home with some stiff-soled skater shoes. They are super grippy, but despite being far stiffer than my other grippy shoes, do not prevent the pain said shoes give me after 10 minutes on pedals like I thought they would. I’m not sure if they still just aren’t stiff enough to keep from bending around the pedals a bit or if there’s something about the inner padding that just hurts. I’ll keep trying to wear them in and see if things improve. I suspect this pair will be a great match for the V10F even if they prove to be no match for the MTen’s tiny torture pedals.

Also on Day 54, I had the wife help me reversibly attach a good LED headlamp to my helmet. This works beautifully to give me wide-field awareness on my night rides, though only the low angle of the MTen’s headlight is adequate to identify which features poke up from the pavement. AS such, I tend to do my night rides (which are always slow and in familiar territory) with a bit of left-right waggle to paint the beam over more of the terrain ahead.

Bigger moments:

On Day 47, I finally took the training bumpers off the MTen3 and gave the wheel a much-needed sponge bath. So of course, Day 48 would be the day the wife decided she maybe didn’t need to wait for her various life goals after all, and took me up on my standing offer to tempt fate. The bumpers went back on. On Day 52, my 15-year-old son decided to give it a whirl as well. In recent days, the bumpers and strap have being going on and off daily depending on who’s riding, because I like to cruise in stock configuration, where the wheel looks as good as I do. (The snarks out there will point out that the MTen3 won’t win any prizes for looks. Touche.)

Are the wife and kid finding it easy to learn on the ol’ rocket-hamster? Yes and no. With my patented beastmode training method (holding hands and walking briskly beside them in daily 5-15 minute sessions until they can stay up on their own — about 5 days), they skipped the useless and exhausting solo efforts that typified my first few days, and are now both able to ride sustainably without support.

The boy has also skipped the injurious parts of early training; to my knowledge he hasn’t earned so much as a bruise. He came into this with even less prior experience with wheel-and-float sports than I did, but he sure made my jaw drop last night. This was his 5th or 6th session — his first solos were only the night before, and lasted no more than about 10 seconds — but here he was suddenly sustaining his rides more-or-less indefinitely, seeking out sidewalk transition bumps without difficulty, and not seeming the least bit perturbed by spectating teenage girls. More disgustingly, he free-mounted successfully — and gracefully — on his very first attempt, and continued to free-mount like it ain’t no thang for the remaining rides of what stretched into a 45-minute session. I’m confident there’s a perfidious demon out there with claim to a portion of my firstborn’s soul (its name might be Gotway), but the kid put on a good show of seeming as surprised by his sorcery as I was. Maybe he was just trying to let his old man’s ego down gently — I had talked up the challenge of freemounting for days — but if that was his goal I think he might have done more to talk up my brilliant training. It may also be that his beanpole build lets him shift his entire weight wherever the crap he wants by unevenly raising his eyebrows. Whatever. It is some consolation that he still gets the wobbles at most speeds and struggles with right turns. Suck it, next generation. Advantage: Dad. ?

The wife, though, has had a rougher time of it, much closer to my own experience. She’s a bit heavier than I am, which she blames for much of this. She had arch trouble that ultimately took a new pair of shoes to resolve. She’s doing some sustained free rides now, but her calf muscles are cramping up after only about 5 minutes. Along the way, she’s taken her full share of beginner injuries, including a nasty pedal bite. She also took a more unusual fall where her speed seemed to run away from her and she overcorrected by falling backwards into the splits. Her gear absorbed some of the damage, but, lacking extra padding for the rump and inner legs, she felt the burn, for sure. The ego damage was probably worse.

Her perseverance is admirable, but also makes me cringe and wonder if I should call it off. I remind myself that I’m not pushing her. She’s the one with the crazy vision of family EUC outings where the four of us cruise down the middle of the road in a phalanx, trenchcoats flapping in our wake. (Ok, so that does sound kind of cool. I haven’t budgeted for 4 wheels, though — let alone trenchcoats.) As the level-headed realist, I point out that our youngest is only 7 and a self-described “inside person”... but she’s also an aspiring ballerina/mermaid and claims she’s game, so what do I know?

So yeah, I haven’t even taken delivery of my second wheel and I’m already spending way too much time checking out the V5F (It seems like this would be good for either of the kids, and the price is right.) And then I’m thinking, “But what if we went offroad? The MTen3 would have a rough time on trails. Perhaps we’re going to need not four wheels, but five. A sturdy workhorse for the Mrs. and the trail? Maybe an MSuper X? Of course, I would have to “test” it,  @Marty Backestyle…

Where does it end? :facepalm:
 

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Haha, nice write-up!

Kids learn crazy fast. Also never gets old seeing parent envious of their kids.

You'd be crazy to stop your wife if she wants EUC family rides! Some people here would kill for such an attitude with their wifes. Also, don't forget the mten3 is probably the hardest wheel to learn on, so tell that your wife and let her try the V10F right away as well.

Speaking of the V10F (and your closing remarks), didn't take long for wheel madnessTM to kick in. Good:efefa6edcf:

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