Thoughts on using electric unicycles?
 

Hello! Anybody here using an electric unicycle? I was thinking of buying one, not because it looks cool but because it can be a mode of transpo. I saw a person riding an electric unicycle on the sidewalk with his backpack. Then I suddenly think that its possible for me to use e-uni when going to work. It would help me save.... well, that's what I thought. So now, I'm in search for a good brand or model of electric unicycle. I saw a list here but still can't decided which one to pick. The Inmotion V8 and Segway One S1 are my two choices. Any thoughts about it? Thanks.

Hoverboard

Jalopnik: Florida Figured Out How To Hoverboard While Sitting

I'm all for the electrification of the automobile but in my opinion a bike is a better option to these last mile devices. (segway, hoverboards...) Why use electricity for under 12 miles/ 12 miles per hour? (the typical limit for these)

daguldol

Having just finished building an electric bicycle. Some things to think about...

- Where will you store the batteries/controller/BMS? (more range = more batteries = more weight)
- What size motor are you looking at? (I built my eBike with a 1500w motor and the amount of torque that thing puts out would easily cause you to wreck on a unicycle 'all you'd have to do is sneeze and twitch the throttle')

What speeds would you like to travel at? For how many miles?

It's an interesting idea. :)

You have a point right there. Now that I think about it, the speed is not really that fast for a transportation. The problem with bike is that I get sweaty. Maybe I'll just go with an electric bike instead.

Honestly, if all you want is last mile, I'd do a small folding electric scooter, something like:

Carbon Fiber 6600mAh 5.5 inch Wheels Folding Electric Scooter -$459.99 Online Shopping| GearBest.com

Weighs 15 lbs, folds up nice and small, should easily travel 12 mi/hour for 10 miles. No where near as dangerous as the unicycles, but way more portable than a bicycle.

Onewheel?

Made locally for you in Santa Cruz, California. As Tested by Adam Savage...

Most days I can ride at 12 mph without sweat but it may warmer where you are.

So you have the bike already?

Fashion a tight-fitting aluminum skull cap and put aluminum fins on it. They substitute for the foam inside by being crushable. A large portion of heat loss is through the head. It's why people wear hats.

If you cool the back of your neck you will feel cooler, whether you sweat less or not.

Edit: Art Deco aluminum fins with speed holes.

Nice, thanks for that. Such a nice option :D

A few weeks ago I saw one of those electric unicycles.

There's a shocker. Spam link for some financial garbage embedded in the post.

So surprised. But congrats on reaching exactly 10 posts.

He is gone now. I got an error message when I went to report him. It gave two possible reasons for the error and one was that I had been blocked. I know I annoy some on here, but blocked.

Yeah, it should definitely mention the possibility that I was reporting a post that was already removed.

After all the flak on the other thread, dare I mention that the OP is also just linkspam:
https://www.google.com/search?q=foru...onevolved.com"

And the most damning evidence: here's the guy who made that site advertising it in his portfolio of SEO/Amazon affiliate spam sites:
Portfolio | Amazon Affiliate Niche Sites | KS Web Services

Sam

shut up and take my money :D

Guess that bashing your teeth in on normal unicycle is too boring nowadays. Anyway great respect for anybody who can ride that thing :)

An e-bike would have more cargo capacity and a body shell for better aero efficiency.

Add a third wheel for stability, 80mph top speed and 70 miles range: Boom! Arcimoto SRK.

Quite a range of prices. A basic e-bike could be had starting for $500 and an high end electric velomobile might run $10,000.

Apart from a handful of circus artists, the last time I saw someone riding an unicycle was about 8 years ago.

This guy:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UQjOkA0Z9M...nociclista.jpg

I've ridden my unicycle to work on occasion. The benefits over a bike are small. It takes less space to store, and I got interesting comments along the way. Most people have never seen one. The drawback over the bike are many. My uni is only about three times faster than walking or about two times slower the a bicycle. Obviously stability is a problem, it has a much lower tolerance for wind. For some the lack of coasting, my commuter bike is also fixed gear.

I ride the fixed gear because I love the simplicity/reliability, so the uni takes that to another level, Only a wheel and pedals. But it did not work out that way. Just too much trouble.
I don't feel the need to electrify either of them.

Fixed gear in a bicycle ain't that bad, especially if it's fitted with those coaster brakes. But the unicycle would be out of question for me.

Fixxees don't have brakes, you pedal backward.

Why don't you just electrocute the rider?

But it has some sort of lock that prevents the hub from keep free-wheeling once you pedal backward.

We should let hamsterpower comment, but 'fixed gear' is not the same thing as a freewheeling hub and coaster brake. No coasting.

Freebeard is correct, a fixed gear bicycle does not coast at all. when you pedal forward the drive wheel turns forward, when you pedal backward the drive wheel turns backward. To brake one has to either do a little hop and lock the pedals in turn locking the drive wheel or apply negative pressure to the pedals which adds drag and slows without skidding. Many fixed gear bicycles have a traditional hand brake on the front wheel for emergency stopping. That negative pressure is a much different workout than one usually gets on a coasting bicycle.
I personally enjoy the pureness or oneness with my fixed gear bicycle. I find it more like walking. Pedal faster go faster, pedal slower the bike slows immediately.

This is why we have the Oxford Comma. Hoverboards or electric scooters vs unicycles?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuXAVrwF8Lo

https://www.amazon.com/Xiaomi-Electr...gateway&sr=8-2

One of these would be the best bet. I noticed on an engineering document a while ago it said they were only using 1900 mAh 18650 cells for their battery pack. If you swapped to 3500 mAh cells you could really increase the range and speed on one of these with a new motor controller and a temp sensor. It would be a cool project to work on, but my city isn't urban enough for something like this. They aren't super light weight either. Maybe with the more energy dense batteries in series and parallel you could shrink the pack size and swiss cheese the frame a little lol.

I've had one up to 20 mph here down hill (bird scooter), but the electric scooter law is 28 mph and below. Would be a wild ride at 28 lol.

Ah, the Oxford Comma! My supervisor complained about paperwork errors and made me install Grammarly.

It does not seem to believe in the Oxford Comma, but and tells me to make changes to my writing just as bizarre as my supervisor does.

No wonder she recommended it!

Somehow I missed this thread the first go-'round. I made an impulse purchase to get a Ninebot (Segway) Mini for ~$300, and it's a ton of fun. The problem I have with it is that you very quickly get comfortable traveling at the max speed of 10 MPH and wish it would go faster.

An electric unicycle (EUC) is on my purchase list. There are ones that will do something like 45 MPH and have a 45 mile range. I probably wouldn't ride at those speeds without full leathers and a helmet, but it would be fun to have the oomf on tap. They are silly expensive though, so I'll have to keep an eye out for a sale or a good price on a used one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnYuzgJ3_aE

And they say only kids have toys. Pshh....

I'm as impressed by the image stabilization as the wheel. That's floating at the end of a 4ft lever and he's bouncing his end up and down.

The thing about the Kooter is it has wide tires and a low CG so it stands at rest without a kick-stand.

Zero crash protection and maximum air drag. I spent $300 on a good city bike 20 years ago and it can let me cruise comfortably at 12 mph and carry four bags of groceries. Just be careful where you ride.

The higher end scooters here can do up to and beyond 80 km/h (about 50 mph).

Which is vastly more than you need for an in-city commute. 30-40 mph would be more than enough.

The problem is, to build up a kick scooter to withstand those speeds, you need to add bigger tires and an actual suspension (unless you like breaking the front arms off when you hit something at speed), and those things become much less portable.

True. Thats why I said it would be something else to get one to go that fast would be something else. lol
They literally beat you to death. But in Midtown Memphis I can already beat traffic through the city by a large margin with the 15 mph top speed on the bird scooters for 1/7 of the cost.
I think where it would really help is these scooters have zero guts up hills. like no balls at all.

Hills are part of the reason I want a powerful EUC. My Segway mini slows down to 1 MPH or less on the steepest hills. If an EUC can do 45 MPH flat, it should be able to do 5 MPH up a very steep hill.

Boosted boards are supposed to be great up hills.

I think the high end ones should do fine. The Dualtrons that some people are using to deal with our potholed streets are built specifically for off-road use.

They're absolutely fantastic on-road because of the suspension, but I personally wouldn't have the guts to go off-roading on something like that!