Marketing and reality monocoles of spring 2017
It is no secret that manufacturers and sellers can embellish the characteristics of their products so that they look better compared to competitors. Often you don’t even have to be deceived directly - you can keep silent about the exact definition and degree of importance of any characteristic or bring it under certain conditions, and unknowing buyers can easily deceive themselves. On the territory of Russia, spring is already full, the season of riding on summer gadgets is approaching, and in this publication I would like to help those who are interested in the theme of monocolos and do not know by what characteristics they are better to choose.
Classics of marketing - the girl and the goods. The original source is unknown - shops copy this photo from each other.
I am not associated with any manufacturer or seller of mono-wheels, do not advertise any of the models mentioned below, manufacturers or sellers, and express exclusively my opinion based on my own experience and information from specialized forums and sites. Being an enthusiast of monocoles as a mode of transport, I want the number of their owners to increase, and the operating experience to be as positive as possible.
One of the most obvious and important parameters - maximum speed - contains several pitfalls for an inexperienced buyer at once. First of all, there are at least three maximum speeds for one monowheel. The first is the maximum safe speed . When it is exceeded, the wheel starts beeping and tilting the pedal horizon so that the toe is higher than the heel (in the well-established terminology “lift the pedals”). Audible and tactile signals tell the user that it is dangerous to accelerate further. But due to the physics of balance, the wheel cannot brake forcibly, because then it will immediately drop the rider. Therefore, the wheel can be re-rectified and accelerated further, ignoring the warnings. Then, at some sudden and unpleasant moment, the speed of loss of balance will come. On it, the wheel does not have enough power to constantly drive up under the rider, and it will reset it. The exact moment of loss of balance cannot be predicted in advance - it is caused by random bumps, accelerations or other loads. Well, finally, if you raise the monowheel in the air and tilt, it will begin to accelerate without load. At some point, the control system will stop accelerating, give a beep and stop the wheel. This speed is called the cut-off speed .
')
In practice, the maximum safe speed is in the range from 12 km / h for very weak wheels to 35-40 km / h. This speed also depends on the battery charge. When a battery is discharged, it cannot deliver full power, and the control system reduces the maximum safe speed, for example, by a factor of two. In addition, sometimes this speed is programmatically limited on the first kilometers of the wheel, or its maximum possible value must be separately unblocked. And finally, as a rule, it can be manually limited in a smartphone application that connects to the wheel.
The speed of loss of balance in practice is checked by individual dummy heads, accelerating until the wheel drops them. For wheels with powerful motors and large batteries, speeds of around 50 km / h were achieved, but this is a very unhealthy and inaccurate matter, and in reality this speed is not indicated in the wheel characteristics.
Well, and finally, the cut-off speed, which reached a neighborhood of 60 km / h, is sometimes indicated by manufacturers. But it has no practical meaning.
Conclusion: Most sellers are adequate and indicate the maximum safe speed in the characteristics of the wheels. Usually these numbers are true. Only very old or weak wheels (as a rule, nouneym) will not be able to accelerate to the declared speed. But if you see the maximum speed in the region of 60 km / h, then they are trying to misinform you, showing a characteristic that is divorced from real driving.
Another very important parameter is how much you can drive on one battery charge. Here, part of the information is formally correct, but only for specific conditions, and some features are not directly mentioned. In stores and manufacturers, the power reserve is often indicated greater than the battery capacity in watts * hours divided by 10. That is, for a wheel with a 170 W * h battery, it can write a power reserve of 20 or even 25 km. Such mileage is physically possible, but only for an easy rider up to 60 kg in weight and a slow ride on a smooth good road in warm weather. Heavy rider, fast driving in the urban cycle with frequent stops and accelerations, ups and downs, cool weather - all these factors will reduce the maximum mileage. In reality, it is more correct to use the coefficient in the region of 0.07, i.e. on a wheel with a battery of 680 Wh, it will be possible to drive about 48 km. Also, the monocolary control system reduces the maximum safe speed when the battery is discharged to about a third (in different models in different ways). This is a logical and correct concern for our safety, because a discharged battery will not be able to deliver full power, but the comfort of driving in the last kilometers is lost. And finally, over time, the batteries will lose capacity, and the power reserve will decrease even more. Personally, without having any practical experience and not trusting “Chinese watts”, I divided the battery capacity by 20. This is a very conservative estimate, but even in cold weather I had just one third of the 680 Wh battery after the way to work and back to ~ 30 km.
Conclusion: The power reserve figures in the stores are indicated everywhere for light Chinese who will ride on the tropical island of Hainan. When choosing the battery that suits you best, use a factor of 0.07 * battery capacity in Wh * h and round down. If you want to get maximum accuracy, you can use the online calculator . You can also assess the effect of various factors on the power reserve.
What affects the power of the engine monocolice? Mainly on the safety and convenience of driving. A powerful wheel will not reset the rider on a random bump, it can accelerate sharply and slow down, without any problems, it will drop on a steep ascent or even along a ramp. In addition, a powerful wheel can accelerate to greater speed, but here you need to know the measure, so as not to reduce driving safety - to fall from twice the speed four times more painful, because the kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the speed. Until recently, it was possible to freely engage in speculations on the issue of power of monowheels: the manufacturer could write any power on the motor case, and there were no good methods for measuring wheel power. Without special stands and devices, it was possible to estimate the power of the wheel by eye, trying to “push it through” —turn the wheel standing so that the motor tried to accelerate it. Bad wheels burned from such a test, weak ones leaned and turned off. But modern wheels have reached such power that they often could not be pushed. The situation was additionally confused by the fact that the capacities in this case are at least two types — maximum (steady state) and peak (very short-term loads). A more serious test was needed. And of all the invented options for today, the best methodological approach turned out to be from a Russian company - the seller of EcoDrift monowheels - they began to rent a dynamometer for motorcycles. Such a solution had shortcomings, the main of which was too heavy a drum load. On the test wheels began to burn fuses. But at least, many different monowheels were in the same test conditions with the ability to register numerical parameters. The full version is available here , here is an abbreviated retelling.
The process of testing monowheels on dyno. The wheel is tilted to spin the drum. Hanging wires - additional logger . Photo: EcoDrift
In the segment of cheap wheels, the situation was sad, but, alas, quite expected. The cheapest of all the wheels found, bought on Avito, burned at a speed of only 2 km / h. A monowheel by an unknown EYU firm with a 174 W * h battery could only give out 500 W of power, which can create problems even when a child is riding on it. And the cheapest model of the well-known and respected company Kingsong, KS-14B with a battery of 174 Wh, showed 1.1 kW of power. It seems that this model is minimally adequate for an adult; anything that is cheaper is unlikely to please the buyer.
Source: EcoDrift
Monocolice with a diameter of 14 inches with batteries ~ 340 W * h was brought into the next group. This segment is very popular, because ~ 24 km of run (with a factor of 0.07 above) for one charge of the battery will be enough for many, and the price is still low. There is no Kingsong KS-14C 340 Wh in the chart, the result is similar to Gotway MCM4. With the exception of IPS Zero wheels showed similar characteristics, power will not be a decisive factor when choosing.
Source: EcoDrift
The model KS-14C has another version with a battery of 680 Wh, the additional capacity of the battery made it possible to show a slightly higher power of 1.9 kW.
Another group - monowheels with a diameter of 16 inches. If we discard the nouveys and outdated models, then there will be Kingsong KS-16 with batteries of different capacities (on the chart are options with 340 Wh and 840 Wh / h), a new autumn-2016 Inmotion V8 and Gotway ACM. The graphics on the stand turned out to be surprisingly similar, and no model has a critical advantage in power.
Source: EcoDrift
Well, the last segment - monocolice with a diameter of 18 inches. Only two worthy candidates are Kingsong KS-18 and Gotway MSuper V3. In terms of power, the clear winner is the MSuper V3 + modification with a huge 1600 W * h battery and an operating voltage increased to 84 volts. But nothing is for nothing - this model is one of the most expensive and heavy.
Source: EcoDrift
It is curious that the factory models of monowheels do not realize their full potential, because manufacturers put not the most powerful (but cheaper) batteries. On lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, the power of the same monowheel (both Gotway ACM) has noticeably increased.
Source: EcoDrift
And finally, the test bench dispelled the myths that were pumped around the wheels of the Solowheel. It is from them that the history of modern monocoles began in 2011, but now, six years later, Chinese manufacturers have overtaken them. The forums for a long time did not abate disputes over the allegedly enormous power of the 18-inch Extreme model, but the bench tests put a fat point on these conversations - a miracle did not happen with a battery less than 200 Wh, and Solowheel Extreme showed only 1.3 kW of power . Another model, Kingsong KS-14D, came out after the publication of the graph of 14 inch wheels, and its results were added here.
Source: EcoDrift
Conclusion: The cheapest models cannot be powerful, and among the market leaders, power, as a rule, is not the most important factor of choice.
On the monowire market there are two factors. On the one hand, the concept of an ideal monowheel has not yet been settled, new ideas and technical solutions are emerging. On the other hand, while the business is not very profitable, firms can switch to other devices or go bankrupt. As a result, models of 2015 and older are already morally obsolete, and unscrupulous sellers can sell illiquid stocks, feeding them as modern models. In spring 2017, three firms are leaders of the monowire market (alphabetically) Gotway, Inmotion, Kingsong. Other manufacturers noticeably lag behind the "big three". Airwheel is stuck in the design of the Solowheel copies (where almost all Chinese manufacturers started). In the spring of 2016, Russian distributors became generous with advertising by Varlamov, but even then there were many models with noticeably better performance. At the end of 2015, Firewheel began to drastically reduce quality , and now the manufacturer has been virtually forgotten. IPS, as it turned out , overestimated the power of its engines, and no longer produces new models. They say that something new is being prepared, but so far there is no more specific information.
Ninebot made the trend setter and the most beautiful monowheel of 2015, but then switched to segways and mini segways. The result was a funny chain - the creator of the original segway, the company Segway bought Ninebot, and the major investor in Ninebot is Xiaomi. Ninebot seems to be doing quite well, but it seems that she is no longer interested in the monowheels. Rockwheel once made interesting models, but is now on the verge of bankruptcy. In early 2017, they released a new wheel, but there are a large number of complaints about design, construction, safety and reliability, and I definitely will not recommend it to beginners.
The market leaders are following models:
Gotway
From left to right: Luffy, MCM4, ACM, MSuper V3, Monster
To date, the company has the largest selection of diameters monocoles. 10 '' Luffy, which appeared recently, checks the relevance of the segment of very compact monowheels. 14 '' MCM4 looks outdated without a built-in retractable handle and headlamp, but you can ride it. 16 '' ACM differs angular design and, again, the lack of a built-in retractable handle (do not think that I find fault, these pens are very convenient, and screwed by hand spoil the view). 18 '' MSuper V3 appeared in the fall of 2016 and is probably the best monowheel with a diameter of 18 inches. But for speed, power and power reserve you have to pay size, weight and price. And finally, the 22 '' Monster expertly checks how big a monowheel can be without losing practicality.
Inmotion
From left to right: V5, V8
Inmotion, on the contrary, makes monocolos in only two diameters, but, thanks to a very nice design and good characteristics, they are popular. A feature of this company are the buttons for turning off the wheels under the handle so that it does not unwind in weight. The 14 '' V5 with modifications (V5 +, V5F, V5F +) is probably the main drawback - the lack of versions with large batteries. A 16 '' V8, which appeared in the fall, turned out to be very light, cute, but a replaceable battery, in my opinion, is not a particularly useful idea, and there are no versions with large batteries, again.
Kingsong
From left to right: KS-14C, KS-16A, KS-14D, KS-18
Kingsong has a rather distinctive design and the obligatory presence of columns in the mono-wheel. Not to say that this is a very important function, but here you do not need to purchase a separate Bluetooth speaker, and it can be very pleasant to ride in a quiet park with atmospheric music. 14 '' KS-14B and C are probably the most budget wheels, there is a version with a large battery of 680 Wh, except that the retractable handle will have to "collective farm" on its own. In the 16 '' KS-16A model, the most ergonomic design was implemented, in my opinion - one diagonal extendable handle passes through the center of gravity, and for it you can either lift or roll the wheel (there are two handles for MSuper V3 and V8). The same decision is repeated in the fresh KS-14D model, which appeared in Russia at the beginning of 2017. And finally, the 18 ″ ’KS-18 is so high that the seat comes with it, and you can, if you want, go not only standing, but also sitting .
The most rational way to decide on the choice of the monowheel is to write out your wishes and limitations, and already on their basis look for suitable options. How much money are you willing to spend the most? What is your mileage between charges (usually for one day, if you are not ready to charge the wheel, for example, at work)? Is there any especially liked, necessary or undesirable functionality (someone might hate LED strips on the sides or adore music)? The choice is wide enough, you can find what you like best. It is also useful to look for mono-classists in your city (and in large cities they probably already have one) - they can share experiences, assess the course of your reasoning, show your wheels and greatly speed up learning to ride. Well, if you cannot meet in real life, then the largest community of enthusiastic mono-wheels lives on the electric transport forum in RuNet.
Mono-wheel is a very compact type of transport that can fit on any bus, can travel on average faster than a bicycle, does not need bicycle parking (so it will not be stolen from there), requires a minimum of maintenance, spends one kilometer of electricity on three kopecks and is controlled by body position that there is a feeling that you are floating above the ground by the power of thought. The combination of such characteristics, in my opinion, is an unequivocal application for the monowheel to become the transport of the future.
Classics of marketing - the girl and the goods. The original source is unknown - shops copy this photo from each other.
Required disclaimer
I am not associated with any manufacturer or seller of mono-wheels, do not advertise any of the models mentioned below, manufacturers or sellers, and express exclusively my opinion based on my own experience and information from specialized forums and sites. Being an enthusiast of monocoles as a mode of transport, I want the number of their owners to increase, and the operating experience to be as positive as possible.
Max speed
One of the most obvious and important parameters - maximum speed - contains several pitfalls for an inexperienced buyer at once. First of all, there are at least three maximum speeds for one monowheel. The first is the maximum safe speed . When it is exceeded, the wheel starts beeping and tilting the pedal horizon so that the toe is higher than the heel (in the well-established terminology “lift the pedals”). Audible and tactile signals tell the user that it is dangerous to accelerate further. But due to the physics of balance, the wheel cannot brake forcibly, because then it will immediately drop the rider. Therefore, the wheel can be re-rectified and accelerated further, ignoring the warnings. Then, at some sudden and unpleasant moment, the speed of loss of balance will come. On it, the wheel does not have enough power to constantly drive up under the rider, and it will reset it. The exact moment of loss of balance cannot be predicted in advance - it is caused by random bumps, accelerations or other loads. Well, finally, if you raise the monowheel in the air and tilt, it will begin to accelerate without load. At some point, the control system will stop accelerating, give a beep and stop the wheel. This speed is called the cut-off speed .
')
In practice, the maximum safe speed is in the range from 12 km / h for very weak wheels to 35-40 km / h. This speed also depends on the battery charge. When a battery is discharged, it cannot deliver full power, and the control system reduces the maximum safe speed, for example, by a factor of two. In addition, sometimes this speed is programmatically limited on the first kilometers of the wheel, or its maximum possible value must be separately unblocked. And finally, as a rule, it can be manually limited in a smartphone application that connects to the wheel.
The speed of loss of balance in practice is checked by individual dummy heads, accelerating until the wheel drops them. For wheels with powerful motors and large batteries, speeds of around 50 km / h were achieved, but this is a very unhealthy and inaccurate matter, and in reality this speed is not indicated in the wheel characteristics.
Well, and finally, the cut-off speed, which reached a neighborhood of 60 km / h, is sometimes indicated by manufacturers. But it has no practical meaning.
Conclusion: Most sellers are adequate and indicate the maximum safe speed in the characteristics of the wheels. Usually these numbers are true. Only very old or weak wheels (as a rule, nouneym) will not be able to accelerate to the declared speed. But if you see the maximum speed in the region of 60 km / h, then they are trying to misinform you, showing a characteristic that is divorced from real driving.
Power reserve
Another very important parameter is how much you can drive on one battery charge. Here, part of the information is formally correct, but only for specific conditions, and some features are not directly mentioned. In stores and manufacturers, the power reserve is often indicated greater than the battery capacity in watts * hours divided by 10. That is, for a wheel with a 170 W * h battery, it can write a power reserve of 20 or even 25 km. Such mileage is physically possible, but only for an easy rider up to 60 kg in weight and a slow ride on a smooth good road in warm weather. Heavy rider, fast driving in the urban cycle with frequent stops and accelerations, ups and downs, cool weather - all these factors will reduce the maximum mileage. In reality, it is more correct to use the coefficient in the region of 0.07, i.e. on a wheel with a battery of 680 Wh, it will be possible to drive about 48 km. Also, the monocolary control system reduces the maximum safe speed when the battery is discharged to about a third (in different models in different ways). This is a logical and correct concern for our safety, because a discharged battery will not be able to deliver full power, but the comfort of driving in the last kilometers is lost. And finally, over time, the batteries will lose capacity, and the power reserve will decrease even more. Personally, without having any practical experience and not trusting “Chinese watts”, I divided the battery capacity by 20. This is a very conservative estimate, but even in cold weather I had just one third of the 680 Wh battery after the way to work and back to ~ 30 km.
Conclusion: The power reserve figures in the stores are indicated everywhere for light Chinese who will ride on the tropical island of Hainan. When choosing the battery that suits you best, use a factor of 0.07 * battery capacity in Wh * h and round down. If you want to get maximum accuracy, you can use the online calculator . You can also assess the effect of various factors on the power reserve.
Power
What affects the power of the engine monocolice? Mainly on the safety and convenience of driving. A powerful wheel will not reset the rider on a random bump, it can accelerate sharply and slow down, without any problems, it will drop on a steep ascent or even along a ramp. In addition, a powerful wheel can accelerate to greater speed, but here you need to know the measure, so as not to reduce driving safety - to fall from twice the speed four times more painful, because the kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the speed. Until recently, it was possible to freely engage in speculations on the issue of power of monowheels: the manufacturer could write any power on the motor case, and there were no good methods for measuring wheel power. Without special stands and devices, it was possible to estimate the power of the wheel by eye, trying to “push it through” —turn the wheel standing so that the motor tried to accelerate it. Bad wheels burned from such a test, weak ones leaned and turned off. But modern wheels have reached such power that they often could not be pushed. The situation was additionally confused by the fact that the capacities in this case are at least two types — maximum (steady state) and peak (very short-term loads). A more serious test was needed. And of all the invented options for today, the best methodological approach turned out to be from a Russian company - the seller of EcoDrift monowheels - they began to rent a dynamometer for motorcycles. Such a solution had shortcomings, the main of which was too heavy a drum load. On the test wheels began to burn fuses. But at least, many different monowheels were in the same test conditions with the ability to register numerical parameters. The full version is available here , here is an abbreviated retelling.
The process of testing monowheels on dyno. The wheel is tilted to spin the drum. Hanging wires - additional logger . Photo: EcoDrift
In the segment of cheap wheels, the situation was sad, but, alas, quite expected. The cheapest of all the wheels found, bought on Avito, burned at a speed of only 2 km / h. A monowheel by an unknown EYU firm with a 174 W * h battery could only give out 500 W of power, which can create problems even when a child is riding on it. And the cheapest model of the well-known and respected company Kingsong, KS-14B with a battery of 174 Wh, showed 1.1 kW of power. It seems that this model is minimally adequate for an adult; anything that is cheaper is unlikely to please the buyer.
Source: EcoDrift
Monocolice with a diameter of 14 inches with batteries ~ 340 W * h was brought into the next group. This segment is very popular, because ~ 24 km of run (with a factor of 0.07 above) for one charge of the battery will be enough for many, and the price is still low. There is no Kingsong KS-14C 340 Wh in the chart, the result is similar to Gotway MCM4. With the exception of IPS Zero wheels showed similar characteristics, power will not be a decisive factor when choosing.
Source: EcoDrift
The model KS-14C has another version with a battery of 680 Wh, the additional capacity of the battery made it possible to show a slightly higher power of 1.9 kW.
Another group - monowheels with a diameter of 16 inches. If we discard the nouveys and outdated models, then there will be Kingsong KS-16 with batteries of different capacities (on the chart are options with 340 Wh and 840 Wh / h), a new autumn-2016 Inmotion V8 and Gotway ACM. The graphics on the stand turned out to be surprisingly similar, and no model has a critical advantage in power.
Source: EcoDrift
Well, the last segment - monocolice with a diameter of 18 inches. Only two worthy candidates are Kingsong KS-18 and Gotway MSuper V3. In terms of power, the clear winner is the MSuper V3 + modification with a huge 1600 W * h battery and an operating voltage increased to 84 volts. But nothing is for nothing - this model is one of the most expensive and heavy.
Source: EcoDrift
It is curious that the factory models of monowheels do not realize their full potential, because manufacturers put not the most powerful (but cheaper) batteries. On lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, the power of the same monowheel (both Gotway ACM) has noticeably increased.
Source: EcoDrift
And finally, the test bench dispelled the myths that were pumped around the wheels of the Solowheel. It is from them that the history of modern monocoles began in 2011, but now, six years later, Chinese manufacturers have overtaken them. The forums for a long time did not abate disputes over the allegedly enormous power of the 18-inch Extreme model, but the bench tests put a fat point on these conversations - a miracle did not happen with a battery less than 200 Wh, and Solowheel Extreme showed only 1.3 kW of power . Another model, Kingsong KS-14D, came out after the publication of the graph of 14 inch wheels, and its results were added here.
Source: EcoDrift
Conclusion: The cheapest models cannot be powerful, and among the market leaders, power, as a rule, is not the most important factor of choice.
Small educational program by manufacturers
On the monowire market there are two factors. On the one hand, the concept of an ideal monowheel has not yet been settled, new ideas and technical solutions are emerging. On the other hand, while the business is not very profitable, firms can switch to other devices or go bankrupt. As a result, models of 2015 and older are already morally obsolete, and unscrupulous sellers can sell illiquid stocks, feeding them as modern models. In spring 2017, three firms are leaders of the monowire market (alphabetically) Gotway, Inmotion, Kingsong. Other manufacturers noticeably lag behind the "big three". Airwheel is stuck in the design of the Solowheel copies (where almost all Chinese manufacturers started). In the spring of 2016, Russian distributors became generous with advertising by Varlamov, but even then there were many models with noticeably better performance. At the end of 2015, Firewheel began to drastically reduce quality , and now the manufacturer has been virtually forgotten. IPS, as it turned out , overestimated the power of its engines, and no longer produces new models. They say that something new is being prepared, but so far there is no more specific information.
Ninebot made the trend setter and the most beautiful monowheel of 2015, but then switched to segways and mini segways. The result was a funny chain - the creator of the original segway, the company Segway bought Ninebot, and the major investor in Ninebot is Xiaomi. Ninebot seems to be doing quite well, but it seems that she is no longer interested in the monowheels. Rockwheel once made interesting models, but is now on the verge of bankruptcy. In early 2017, they released a new wheel, but there are a large number of complaints about design, construction, safety and reliability, and I definitely will not recommend it to beginners.
The market leaders are following models:
Gotway
From left to right: Luffy, MCM4, ACM, MSuper V3, Monster
To date, the company has the largest selection of diameters monocoles. 10 '' Luffy, which appeared recently, checks the relevance of the segment of very compact monowheels. 14 '' MCM4 looks outdated without a built-in retractable handle and headlamp, but you can ride it. 16 '' ACM differs angular design and, again, the lack of a built-in retractable handle (do not think that I find fault, these pens are very convenient, and screwed by hand spoil the view). 18 '' MSuper V3 appeared in the fall of 2016 and is probably the best monowheel with a diameter of 18 inches. But for speed, power and power reserve you have to pay size, weight and price. And finally, the 22 '' Monster expertly checks how big a monowheel can be without losing practicality.
Inmotion
From left to right: V5, V8
Inmotion, on the contrary, makes monocolos in only two diameters, but, thanks to a very nice design and good characteristics, they are popular. A feature of this company are the buttons for turning off the wheels under the handle so that it does not unwind in weight. The 14 '' V5 with modifications (V5 +, V5F, V5F +) is probably the main drawback - the lack of versions with large batteries. A 16 '' V8, which appeared in the fall, turned out to be very light, cute, but a replaceable battery, in my opinion, is not a particularly useful idea, and there are no versions with large batteries, again.
Kingsong
From left to right: KS-14C, KS-16A, KS-14D, KS-18
Kingsong has a rather distinctive design and the obligatory presence of columns in the mono-wheel. Not to say that this is a very important function, but here you do not need to purchase a separate Bluetooth speaker, and it can be very pleasant to ride in a quiet park with atmospheric music. 14 '' KS-14B and C are probably the most budget wheels, there is a version with a large battery of 680 Wh, except that the retractable handle will have to "collective farm" on its own. In the 16 '' KS-16A model, the most ergonomic design was implemented, in my opinion - one diagonal extendable handle passes through the center of gravity, and for it you can either lift or roll the wheel (there are two handles for MSuper V3 and V8). The same decision is repeated in the fresh KS-14D model, which appeared in Russia at the beginning of 2017. And finally, the 18 ″ ’KS-18 is so high that the seat comes with it, and you can, if you want, go not only standing, but also sitting .
Selection of monocolice
The most rational way to decide on the choice of the monowheel is to write out your wishes and limitations, and already on their basis look for suitable options. How much money are you willing to spend the most? What is your mileage between charges (usually for one day, if you are not ready to charge the wheel, for example, at work)? Is there any especially liked, necessary or undesirable functionality (someone might hate LED strips on the sides or adore music)? The choice is wide enough, you can find what you like best. It is also useful to look for mono-classists in your city (and in large cities they probably already have one) - they can share experiences, assess the course of your reasoning, show your wheels and greatly speed up learning to ride. Well, if you cannot meet in real life, then the largest community of enthusiastic mono-wheels lives on the electric transport forum in RuNet.
Conclusion
Mono-wheel is a very compact type of transport that can fit on any bus, can travel on average faster than a bicycle, does not need bicycle parking (so it will not be stolen from there), requires a minimum of maintenance, spends one kilometer of electricity on three kopecks and is controlled by body position that there is a feeling that you are floating above the ground by the power of thought. The combination of such characteristics, in my opinion, is an unequivocal application for the monowheel to become the transport of the future.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/402299/
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