One Wheel not a bike but beauty in motion

On my bike rides a rider on a One Wheel eBoard sometimes passes, usually going in the opposite direction. The rider is moving along smartly and in excellent and seemingly effortless control. He's traveling faster than the eSkateboards that I see and corners beautifully.

A couple days ago I was doing around 13.5 mph and heard something that didn't sound like a bike overtaking me. It was the One Wheel, it passed smartly. I caught him and paced him for a moment, he was doing 23 mph.

Watching the riding and especially cornering of the One Wheel is watching grace and beauty beyond almost anything else. Well, at least watching this rider is.

ETA: If I tried to ride that thing, it would look like a comedy of errors or a tragedy.

more threads with info

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=OneWheel&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Thanks,

that will be interesting reading.

MikeSSS said:

On my bike rides a rider on a One Wheel eBoard sometimes passes, usually going in the opposite direction. The rider is moving along smartly and in excellent and seemingly effortless control. He's traveling faster than the eSkateboards that I see and corners beautifully.

A couple days ago I was doing around 13.5 mph and heard something that didn't sound like a bike overtaking me. It was the One Wheel, it passed smartly. I caught him and paced him for a moment, he was doing 23 mph.

Watching the riding and especially cornering of the One Wheel is watching grace and beauty beyond almost anything else. Well, at least watching this rider is.

ETA: If I tried to ride that thing, it would look like a comedy of errors or a tragedy.

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It is very dangerous because if the electric motor fails for some reason (like a broken wire, bad contact or other thing) or loosing traction on a small bumps, the rider will do a face plant immediately!!

On escooters and bicycles that will not happen.

But I agree that the feeling is magic to ride them, it is unique!! I did ride hoverboards and electric unicycles... To be safe the only way is to ride at low speeds like 20 km/h so you can jump of and quick run to avoid face plant.

The one wheels are awesome. I talked with an owner on the local trails and he fell off and injured himself. Asked me if I thought he'd broken his leg. lol. Awesome machine though. I plan to get one.

casainho said:

It is very dangerous

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If you can't hop off. Elite sprinters can run fast enough to hop off at 23 mph. Most people can sprint at 15-18 mph without much training. Don't ride faster than you can run!

flat tire said:

casainho said:

It is very dangerous

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If you can't hop off. Elite sprinters can run fast enough to hop off at 23 mph. Most people can sprint at 15-18 mph without much training. Don't ride faster than you can run!

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The thing is that you go relaxed, is like a peaceful moment (it must be for you be able to ride/drive) and you are not counting with the failure, so, you have no less chances...

To be safe, you have to go at lower speeds and so it get more like a toy than a useful mean of transportation, at least compared with bicycles and electric scooters.
If you search on Google you will find reports from users, here is an example:

Dangerous indeed, high risk, but the reward is very high for a really good rider. One Wheel is not for everybody.

Motor stopping on a Segway would also put the rider in a bad situation, but they are very reliable.

After an hour on a Segway I got off and walked into a restroom, walking felt very disabled compared to riding the Segway. The difference between walking and riding was huge.

MikeSSS said:

Dangerous indeed, high risk, but the reward is very high for a really good rider.

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The problem is not the rider but the things that the rider can't control, like small bumps that make the wheel lose traction (because the control system expect always a constant contact with the ground, if not the wheel will quick accelerate in one direction) and the rider can fall easily.

MikeSSS said:

Motor stopping on a Segway would also put the rider in a bad situation, but they are very reliable.

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Sure but the max speed of Segway is 20km/h, again, that is kind of low speed on purpose other way in the case of electronic fail, the fall can be almost fatal to user. Things with 2 wheels in line and that do not depend from electronics to be stable, are way safe and so we can ride them at higher speeds. I rode electric unicycles at 25 up to 30 km/h and it felt slow but I was taking a very high risk. Now I ride my ebike at 40 or 50km/h and I feel way safe.

Note that I already drove electric scooters at 90km/h with wheel with the same size of Segway wheels. This same scooters can go to highway at 120km/h. I mean that Segways have electric and mechanical capacity to go way faster but since it is very dangerous, they won't go, they just go to max of 20 km/h.

to think about it how unstable it is when you ride it.
what about when you have to stop suddenly for any reason?
weight of the rider on this light thing with no support of second wheel make it unstable and dangerous.

miro13car said:

to think about it how unstable it is when you ride it.
what about when you have to stop suddenly for any reason?
weight of the rider on this light thing with no support of second wheel make it unstable and dangerous.

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If you go on a place that you know without other people around, flat ground, then you can relax because you will probably not need to brake.

The more speed, the higher risk. Unknown place or with other possible problems, then you will be stressed because you need extra focus/attention/tension, because you can fall or you may need to suddenly "brake". Brake in this case means a specific movement of all body that may be impossible to do at speeds like 25 km/s.

The extra focus/attention/tension makes me remember to ride a fixed gear bicycle, that ones where people usually don't have any brakes and has a fixed gear, you need to use your muscle to suddenly stop the wheel -- it is so nice, unique, just like riding balance wheels.