I bought an electric (self balancing) unicycle

Guilty as charged

Hi Goat Rider,

Nice name lol Don’t feel bad. I got an electric one too and I’m a newbie myself.

I think it’s the best way to learn if your wallet allows you to do so.

Love to see some pics in the future as well :slight_smile:

Happy riding!

I know it’s not a proper unicycle, but I just picked up this bad boy as a daily commuter.


Thing is a blast to ride :slight_smile:

I rented a Segway for a day once. It was a blast and easy to learn. I felt my muscles being used in new ways.

This electric thing you are riding is one wheel, and I think there should be some room for them here. It seems that one of these takes skill and time to learn but I have not tried it myself. I have seen a few of them being ridden around.

I am a newbie, still learning the very basics. Going to concentrate on learning this for quite a while to get half decent before I expand to learning other balance and agility arts that interest me. One of the reasons that I am attracted to unicycling is that it takes up very little space to store it, no special gear or vehicle is needed to transport it, mine all fit hidden in the trunk of my car. For a fraction of the cost of cycling and motorcycle riding, I can have the very best equipment.

While a unicycle is slower (except for Kris Holm who came in 3rd in a bicycle race against 500 cyclists) than other two wheeled options, it is much faster than walking. It is a tremendous superior workout.

Once you are pretty comfortable with using your electric rig, for a fraction of the cost, I would suggest picking up a unicycle. Start to practice with it once in a while and expand your horizons and get the additional benefits unique to pedal unicycling.

Here is a KTM electric unicycle:

Grin’s electric boosted pedal unicycle:

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Well I am one who picked up unicycling due to electric unicycles. I had interest in unicycling after stumbling on muni videos, especially the north shore shred ones, but honestly seemed too far fetched to actually be attainable fore for mere mortals, so didn’t really pursue it.
Then I stumbled on electric unicycle videos, and a guy at work got one and was talking about how awesome it was, so I had to get one.
It was a challenge, but MUCH easier to learn than the pedal one.
They are very fun and addictive, and practical too. It’s like a little electric vehicle the size of a briefcase, you can stash it almost anywhere, under a seat, next to your desk, in the trunk etc, and can be charged for next to nothing almost anywhere.
It got me hooked on 1-wheel riding, and prompted me to want learn a real unicycle.
They are different types of enjoyment for sure, but I am enjoying both. Hopefully I will be able to muni some day too afterall.

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IMHO the main reason those vehicles are not considered real unicycles isn’t the part where it’s electric but the self balancing part.

If someone made a regular unicycle with a motor where you have to keep the balance yourself, either by pedaling or by exactly the correct amount of power using a throttle or the like it would be a totally different story and I guess this thing would be a lot harder to ride than a regular unicycle.

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If someone made a regular unicycle with a motor where you have to keep the balance yourself, either by pedaling or by exactly the correct amount of power using a throttle or the like it would be a totally different story and I guess this thing would be a lot harder to ride than a regular unicycle.

@Justin_LE motorized a couple of unicycles (one of them geared!) and inspired at least one other person to build one. Here are a couple of threads.

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Awsome! Those are what I’d call a real electric unicycle.

That’s really cool, I wish I had those kind of machining/welding skils to make something like that. It’s hard to imagine how well the pedal assist would really work. The self-balancing ones work really well… very natural/intuitive.
There’s a little bit of a challenge at first learning to get on/off it, and for turning (it’s still one wheel afterall) and to learn to trust its forward/backward balancing. But the hardest part-having your body learn how to balance using the pedals has been taken care of for you.
I thought it would help me in learning the real unicycle, but it made little if any difference actually (maybe it helped with turning some?).
The pedal unicycle felt impossible at first when I got it and it was quite a challenge learning it. (Unicyclists on the other hand can pretty much ride the electric ones immediately though)
It seems like the fun in unicycling is about the challenge and overcoming it with persistence and its very satisfying when you do.
In contrast the electric one is more about just getting around and having fun. It’s a feeling unlike anything else that I’ve done, being able to effortlessly and silently glide around and carve in corners and go up and down [steep] hills, and do it at a pretty rapid pace too (the latest models will do between 30-45 MPH!) Almost like self propelled skiing maybe is the closest approximation I can think of.

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And now it’s time to refinish the deck, yes? :stuck_out_tongue:
I think your results would have been much faster had you used a larger space to figure that thing out. However, your video contained no falling down, so there’s something to be said for that!
I’ve tried several different types of electric unis. The little ones like BC Wheels seem like they would be practical as commuters, but otherwise I wouldn’t want to just be standing there for so long. I’d rather sit down. However, the standing-up ones offer more opportunities to learn tricks on them, such as spins, interesting idling and similar. Wheel walking not recommended.

I got the shirt from you in 2018. The shirt is from some unicycling event in 2008.

I recognized the shirt. That’s the “everybody” shirt for NAUCC 2018. Anyone looking at that shirt might wonder what NAUCC stands for; I’m pretty sure they didn’t spell it out. They also had a yellow version for staff/volunteers. I always try to earn one of those when they are available.

NAUCC stands for North American Unicycling Championships and Convention. Or Convention and Championships; it depends on the year. That year was really cool; the convention was in Rapid City, South Dakota for the first time, and (almost) all the mountain events were held right in the city limits, as they have a small mountain right in town! Steep, too. Thunderstorms are common in that area during the summer, and it seems the schedule (and race courses) had to be modified a couple of times due to overnight storms. Exciting!

A long XC race, called the Muni Marathon, was held outside of nearby Sturgis, and was a course of 11 miles or so, with little to no course markings. I was able to keep up with Jamey Mossengren for much of the race, in part because of confusion at intersections. Several people got lost, as black clouds were rolling in and it was getting dark. More thunderstorms, but everyone was found. :slight_smile:

Lots of riders were in tip-top aerobic shape because that NAUCC was just a few weeks after Ride The Lobster, and a lot of those racers were there. On a borrowed (from my RTL teammate Dave White) a Schlumpf 20" for the 10k, and was able to cling to third place behind Gilby and Scott Wilton for almost the whole course. They were neck and neck at the finish line, then crashed in a ditch just after it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Uh, back to topic: … There were no electric unicycles there.

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Love the story :grinning:

Enjoy it but you have to understand where unicyclist have a beef. What you have is an electric commuter vehicle. That is all good but it really causes alot of confusion especially with beginner unicyclist. You have to understand there are acres of difference between the two. Comparibly carriages and horseless carriages. My request is that you and everyone riding these things is that you let this small population of enthusiasts have their little spot on planet earth and claim the name to unicycle. While riding a trail in Pittsburgh a guy flew across a field on a powered one wheeled "skateboard at a high rate of speed. Clearly computer balanced like a segway. Mounting and Riding a unicycle is a huge accomplishment both mentally and physically and moving forward mastering skills is a badge honor. The gyroscope in our brains make it happen with lots of pain and practice without the aid of a computer. Enjoy your machine but let us have our little slice of life as unicylists… Thank you

My suggestion is spend an hour on YouTube and watch the trials, flatland, muni and long distance unicyclists I believe you will have a new and elevated apriciation for all that have taken the one wheeled chalange an have adopted it as a way of life. Maybe you too will be inspired to go analog. Best wishes

I don’t understand the reaction. We’re all earthlings riding our strange contraptions, electric or not. I don’t think we need to feel threatened - that way tribalism lies.

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Unicycling is such a thin slice of the cycling pie. I just feel we should be untitled to claim the name. It makes it easier for internet searches especially for beginners. I have no problem with the actual machines infact intrigued by them. But let’s be honest they are what they are and we are what we are. There is nothing wrong or misleading about having a differentiation in our name and description

Just as John foss said in his post there is a physical endorence aspect to “analog” unicycling 6hat is not present with an electric vehicle. The fact we are human powered as apposed to battery powered creates a consise and clear differentiation in definition and should be accepted and respected moving forward. Dogs are dogs and cats are cats. They are both pets, some people love dogs, some people love cats, but they are different and that’s ok.

I agree with what you’re saying @Bug72. I was thinking of using the term ‘electric wheel’, but ‘electric unicycle’ seems to be the common term. I too prefer regular non electric unis, but the electric thing is quite fun.

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  1. How strong are the flaps that you stand on? They seem quite thin and with too rough a beating they might break? I was thinking of the louse legs supports of my lunicycle. Even though I got a new support, I haven’t tried it since. There are only a few minuscule screws that keep the plastic top part on the metal bottom part.
  2. How is the Q-factor of the EUC? Is that about the same as on an acoustic uni?
  3. Now that you can ride it, do you use it for commuting or will it eventually just fill space in the shed? Also I reckon you’re not allowed to use them on the open road in NO, how big is the chance to be stopped by the police? I’ve only once seen one around where I live and the guy rode quite fast with it. Most people in NL are not law-abiding citizens :slight_smile:
  4. When you’ve managed to get a good speed, how do you brake? Can you ride so fast that you can’t run out of it? Also how sensitive is it to bumps. Even though the wheel has a nice size, I figure the wheel can still easily be blocked by a twig lying on the ground, sending you sprawling (don’t forget a picture when that happens :stuck_out_tongue: )