micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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IDK about e-unis but I avoided One Wheels because I heard they can catch on the ground and send you flying.
interesting, i know many people that like them and none of them have ever had that issue as far as I'm aware.
I've tried them once or twice, but I've always been curious why there's seemingly so little overlap in the two communities. like both camps seem to almost not acknowledge the other.
I'm slightly more in the one wheel camp, but I'm not sold on either of them. hanging with one wheel people started to get me really annoyed by them carrying the one wheel in with them EVERYWHERE they're not that small in the context of an elevator when 4 people have them. and they always bump them into things and it causes a lot of damage. I've got marks on my walls because of them. obviously, is easier to deal with than a car in theory, but there's already so much infrastructure to help you deal with your car.
that said, the one wheel crew beat the rest of us to every event in the city every time. they are genuinely convenient for getting around, and they can easily and confidently go off road. that's huge to me. you don't need a decent road or bike path for them.
it sounds like perhaps the key differences are speed (euc is faster it seems), off road capability, and how you stand on the thing. the stance is actually very important to me. i try not to, but damnit i care if i look good. you don't look cool on an euc. ever. on wheels on the other hand just look like cyber punk skateboards.
the speed isn't a huge concern. those one wheels are already pretty damn fast. i can't imagine if would often be safe to go faster than they can.
all that said, I'm not sold on either, and haven't done much research into electric unicycles. please, sell me if it's something you're passionate about. why should i prefer an euc? also, i do want to try understand why there's such a strong separation in these groups if i can.
damnit, i should have said all that to the other guy..
I gotta say, I don't think they look bad. I think chooch looks awesome when he rides, check out the video I linked.
Practically speaking I don't usually take my fast wheels. Usually I take my mten5 around with just a helmet and some small kneepads and gloves.
It's stupidly powerful for how tiny it is. Easy to carry by the handle. Easy to trolley. And gets me 20 miles of range.
oh that is handsome. but I'm more interested in what a person looks like on it. it's more about the awkward sort of stiff lean that your have to do on them. i just can't see that and not think it looks a bit goofy.
New riders do the "zombie" stance but idk I think it looks good once they learn to relax their arms and bend their legs
here's it today
And here's a clip of me riding my other one
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFD5DFJm/
I don't really care if anyone thinks I look goofy, I look great to my eyes. It feels like flying
I've always been more into skateboards/longboards when it comes to more compact stuff but @[email protected] could probably school you on electric unicycles - they have a few of them IIRC
They certainly can. EUCs can too, but it's harder to do because they mostly have way more torque to stay balanced.
Imo, speed wobbles are the biggest danger on both. Speed wobbles are my enemy
My understanding from the lawsuit is that OneWheel's issue was a software bug, and my understanding of how they handled the issues is that it wasn't very well done.
I don't think it was a bug. It's just that people overpower the wheels and then crash.
Futuremotion added "haptic buzz" to help warn people when they're near overpowering the wheel.
I've met lots of people who just don't understand that the wheel keeps you balanced by driving faster than you're leaning. If you overlean it you crash.
Louis Rossman, the revered right-to-repair crusader, had a similar take. Leaning and overleaning is inherent to how the device works and if you bust your head because you pushed past the point of failure that's not 100% on Future Motion. I also rented a one wheel through a gear sharing app and had a similar impression: its clear when you're reaching max lean.
What is on Future Motion and other EV manufacturers, in my opinion, is how all this bullshit tech that makes cars more difficult to repair at home or at the third party shop is being added to micro mobility devices. These vehicles should be easy to service, like a muscle bike or an unpowered skateboard. Isn't one of the reasons cars suck that we spend way too much time/money maintaining them. I'd like that million dollars back please.
If people are blowing things up, perhaps we should teach more classes on electricity in high school. Or we could establish a trade license similar to a plumber or electrician, but certified to work on all small electronics. Obviously self-repair would still be legal, but to do it commercially in a storefront, you could guarantee that those people understand the difference between volts and amps and could define an ohm. Suddenly, 50% less houses burn down due to EV fires. (I would hope)
Ugh I typed a lot and Lemmy (or Sync) glitched and lost it.
Anyway, I completely agree.
Futuremotion makes a great product but they're an anti-right-to-repair shitty patent troll company.
Also Floatwheel is awesome and entirely right-to-repair. And they give the middle finger to all patents and are happily operating with crypto. I paid them $2000 for their version of a Onewheel and I'll do it again when the sequel releases in a week.
http://floatwheel.co
edit: it released today
Huh, I'm not gonna buy one because I have 2-3 more bikes/ ebikes and an electric unicycle in line in front of it, but that's really cool. I don't see schematics, but I didn't look very hard. I did look at the parts section and that's cool. Looks like they might have gotten their start making kits for other manufacturers vehicles.
Most of what I know about the recalls that were done was from a Louis Rossmann video on it, and my impression so many months later was that it was a specific design issue either software or hardware that was only an issue with OneWheels.
I don't know which specific video I saw, and am assuming this one contains his understanding of events better than I can express it myself: https://youtu.be/Q_Mk-5XkSmY
Yeah, he nails it. I listened to the whole thing.
Basically exactly what I said, except for "ghosting" which is a problem where the board will ride without a user on it. Ghosting boards can be a hazard, but not to the rider
I'm probably misremembering then. I'll rewatch to get back up to speed.