Should I buy an Electric Unicycle - EUC?

I wish we were cool like the french and Calle them Gyros…

But yeah.
Here we go.

You may know me as being obsessed with esk8 from my journal thing.

I went on a sort of ebike tangent here with the spouse thread.

And I went off the deep end with Onewheels a long time after starting a thread kinda of like this one.

So what gives.

Well.
I am super set on boards to ride.
Most of the boards are running and are feeling great.
All kinds of flavors.
And both of the Onewheels are also awesome.

It’s amazing spring time and the weather is awesome.

So with all that it was time for something on my body to crap out.
And it’s kinda tricky this time.

My neck is jacked up.
I may have a bulging disc, and I show signs of degenerative disc disease, and I have pain on my neck and down my arm.

And as the universe would have it riding and facing the same direction increases the pain.

So this has put a super damper on my riding.

I’m not like totally out of commission. But I am not super epic riding like I would be if my body was cooperating.

So I’m taking Heavy duty NSAIDs and will be starting physical therapy.

But still may be a while to find comfort.

So bummed.
I wish I was out riding right now…

In my riding deprived depression one of the crazy ideas I came up with is getting an EUC so I can ride something that I ride facing forward.

That should on fact remove some of the discomfort I get riding.

I have been riding switch a lot.
It’s really hard for me on the boards. I go super slow.
It’s a bit easier on the Onewheels…

So yeah.

All this has me considering getting an EUC seriously for the first time.

I would like to hear from folks that have gotten into them too.

@longhairedboy you have had one for a long time right?

@Arzamenable you dabble?

@Evwan you just got one right?

@EDness

@dskate

Is it hard to learn?

Am I going to fuck myself up?

Am I going to negate any benefits to my neck the first time I eat it and get whiplash???

I am still riding a bit everyday, less, but still. So I am still out there taking the risk of riding.

But maybe. If I get a EUC I’ll get to riding more sooner…

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Honestly I was just about to make a thread talking about EUCs from the perspective of a DIY esk8 enthusiast. Once i’m done with my homework i’ll write up something small.

My TL:DR is its kinda boring compared to my emtb

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I started pondering getting the Inmotion V11.
I have seen one in real life. And I can get it on Amazon which is all kinds of comforting…

But a local dude that lives that life has suggested the Begode T4.

And that looks really interesting.

Probably can’t spend more than that 2200 mark.
Really can’t be doing that.
But probably going to start begging my wife anyways…

I feel like I should go for suspension…

Not sure if there what else to consider.

Which one did you get?

Dibs on all the akashas

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I view this strictly but the one as a therapeutic opportunity with better ergonomics to get me back to riding esk8 more ASAP.

Alright, fuck my homework (for now)

Do NOT buy an euc with suspension as your first euc. You will learn incorrectly. You need to rely on your knees to dampen bumps, then you can upgrade to something with suspension. The really high ride height of a suspension EUC will also make it much harder to learn.

A good EUC to buy for learning is something like an inmotion v8F or kingsong 14d. Inmotion EUCs have a reputation for being built well, and they are able to withstand the abuse that comes with learning how to ride an EUC.
@EDness gave me a great deal on his old v12 HS, so I took it.

My advice, buy a small EUC like the v8f second hand, learn on it, and pass it on. Then you can consider another EUC.

The begode t4 is built like shit, dont buy it. The inmotion v11 is a pogo stick, but isnt bad overall. It’s built pretty well, fairly water resistant, and has a decent amount of power and speed. It’s a last gen EUC, still on a 20s battery which limits its top speed pretty hard.

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The InMotion V11 is a solid choice. The first iterations of the Begode T4 had some issues, I don’t recall the details but you can probably read about them on the EUC forum. It might be safe to buy one now, but you might want to check with the retailer about the manufacturing date.

The whole industry is kind of a clusterfuck with half-baked product releases followed by incremental fixes, but the V11 has been around for a while.

I have a King Song S22, but wouldn’t recommend one until King Song puts out a new iteration of the circuit board. The said they’d upgrade it in the new S22 “Pro” but it’s still the same version. My burned out. They sent a replacement, both with “version 2.3” and the same date printed on the bottom.

Anyway…

Is it hard? Yes. My first half-hour was borderline humiliating. :slight_smile: You’ll want to start next to a wall or fence that you can keep one hand on for balance at first. It’s a bit like riding a bike in that it’s completely counter-intuitive at first, but then it clicks, and you’re off to the races.

Gonna kill yourself? For most people I’d say don’t worry, but if your back is already giving you trouble… well it’s no more risky than esk8, probably less risky in fact, since you’ll be going slow (walking speed) until you build skills.

You should expect to need to jump off and walk away from it many times before you get the hang of it. The risk of actually falling to your knees/face/butt/whatever is relatively low, but definitely not zero. I just had a LOT of hop-off-and-walk events before I figured out how to steer it.

But once it clicks, it’s a pretty magical feeling. You just lean forward to accelerate and lean back to slow down. Steering is mostly negligible effort, just finesse. The more you ride, the less you think about controlling it. You just… go.

Due to the 16-20" tires, they have an easy time with obstacles that skateboards struggle with.

I ride my eks8s more because I like the sideways stance, but EUCs are still pretty fun for their own reasons. I really want to combine the two into a sort of skate-stance hands-free Segway. I think it would be the best of both words. But I have one esk8 to fix and another to finish building before I tackle that project.

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Dangit @Evwan I’m looking for a bit more enabling here…

You ride Onewheels any?

Learning how to ride an EUC will become much easier when the damn thing doesnt weigh 1/3 of what you do. Start small. I first started learning on a friends inmotion v10, then moved up to a nikola and a v12.

Btw, it’s closer to skiing than riding a onewheel, and its not even close to skiing. Just for reference. It’s a very new experience.

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I am hoping the local dude is going to come over to try to teach me with his V8F.

And there are 2 V11s around…

I am hesitant to jump on someone’s board and beat it up.

I had no shame hehe

Dangit. Wanna ignore this…

Alien rides said they are shipping a V3 with the V2 upgrades plus nicer pedals and metal battery box.

I understand the Begode may be easier to service.
Tinker with?

Is that something you do with these things?

Easier to tinker and service because they’re built like garbage and require regular servicing. The metal battery boxes should’ve been standard from day 1, it was a cost cutting move. Also, begode eucs are known as the fire wheels due to their miserable battery construction.

There’s nothing to really modify.
Unless you needed the “begode performance” (which you dont, plus the t4 doesnt have), theres no point of getting one.

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On one hand, newer wheels are much less likely to catch fire, even from Begode. They all seem to have figured out that cell quality and BMS are important.

On the other hand, Begode advised customers who own their time-bombs to replace the batteries annually to reduce the risk of fire. That’s a company that deserves to collapse.

Unfortunately there are only 4 companies making EUCs, and they all suck for different reasons. They’re all too busy making new products, rather than making good products.

InMotion might be the least bad, though. And like I said, the V11 is pretty well proven.

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Ok.
So the V11 rises to the top.

Is there anything else to consider?

The v12. Much better first wheel as you’ll learn properly. Plus larger battery and more power.
Or, start with a smaller wheel. Learning with a 65+lb euc is just difficult

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I’m old Evan… Gonna need that suspension.

I do understand it will make the initial learning curve steeper.
But I also expect with time and miles I would over come there challenge.

And long term I expect I would have a more dynamic experience with a suspension wheel.