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43 pointsrwfilice53 comments

It seems a little bit ridiculous that they're selling this as a "greener" and healthier alternative than a bicycle. I suppose the advantage is the size?

Absolutely agreed. Even just considering the energy it takes to keep its battery charged, I'd be deeply skeptical that this device would hold the lead for more than a few months, even if the manufacturing energy for a bicycle is higher -- and if you care about keeping the manufacturing energy of your bike to a minimum, you can buy a bamboo bike, or (even better) buy one used, something for which there is no equivalent with this device both because it's new and because I can't imagine it could hope to last 20 years the way a good bike can. And on yet another level, I'd also have to be convinced that this thing can facilitate car-free living the way bike ownership in an urban area can, which is a huge source of energy savings that bikes can bring to the table.

According to the documentation it balances front-to-back and not side-to-side and the rider is responsible for maintaining that balance. I wonder how easy that is (especially with any load like a backpack).

I think I'd rather spend the $1,800 on a really good bike. But I bet this is fun to mess around on.

Since the wheel doesn't roll side to side, I imagine it's much the same as balancing a bicycle.

Also, since the wheel doesn't roll in that axis, it would also (I think) be impossible to auto-stabilise, since there is no steering capability. Perhaps it could have weights slide around to try to balance it, but I can't see that being particularly effective.

> Since the wheel doesn't roll side to side, I imagine it's much the same as balancing a bicycle.

A bicycle moves. A stationary bicycle is impossible to balance (for most people anyway). I don't see how this would be any different. As soon as you stop you fall off?

If it were me I'd add two small wheels (training wheels? :) on springs + shocks on either side. (Make them fold in to maintain portability.) You'd have to make the spring force tunable for different people, but that should be possible by adjusting a screw to change the effective length of the spring.

When a bike stops, the rider puts their foot down to balance side to side. I don't see how that's different here. Training wheels on bikes are meant to help kids learn the proper speed and when to put their foot down, an adult who already knows how to ride a bike shouldn't have that issue.

You can put your foot down with a bike because you are holding the handlebars, and your weight is on the seat.

How would you do that here? You are standing on it - if you took one foot off you'd fall. You'd have to hop off every time you stop.

If you are athletic with good balance you could probably stand on one foot, but I doubt most people could.

Most people couldn't stand on one foot? Really? Am I that out of touch with reality?

Not even being snarky.

It's not that people can't stand on one foot, it's that if you stand on this wheel with only one foot, then you'll fall sideways before your other foot has a chance to hit the ground. Well, that's my assumption, anyway. Get on a (normal) bike, ride along, then stand up on it so your weight is on the pedals through your feet. Come to a stop, then try and get off it, from standing, without supporting yourself with handlebars or seat.

man they got this girl riding around in circles on one foot, you can't do that?

I've had an opportunity to try this contraption (or something remarkably similar) and this problem is academic: it's very much unlike a bike, but you'll learn how to stop and dismount without falling off, very quickly (haven't really tried whether I could stop w/o dismount, as I've played with it for a few minutes at most). It's similar to unicycles in this respect (note how in the videos, users ride back and forth a little bit, instead of coming to a complete stop).

OK fair enough, I've never tried anything like it - was just explaining why it wouldn't be quite as simple as "can you stand on one leg".

They show a woman being able to accelerate forwards, then slow down enough to drive backwards, all the while without having to put one of her feet down.

There are people who can do that with bicycles, and other feats of balance too.

That doesn't mean most people can do that.

> I think I'd rather spend the $1,800 on a really good bike.

For city transportation purposes, a solid, but crappy bike is much better: it's far less likely to be stolen, and a lot less stressful.

This seems like I can lug around inside buildings and whatnot, unlike a bike. I don't trust biking to a lot of places, because cretins will take whatever they can: the wheels, the steering wheel, anything that isn't bolted on, really.

You could get a decent folding bike (a Dahon or Brompton) for way less money than that, and folded, they're not much bigger than this thing. Plus they're street-legal in most places, likely unlike this thing, and you get the exercise benefits of riding.

I agree that a Brompton is a better choice. It folds up to about the same size as this uni-wheel thing. However, they are pretty expensive. Mine was pretty close to $1800. I think the cheapest one (1 speed, no lighting system) is $1000.

That's a very neat concept, cheers. I can imagine that that would have been very convenient for the commute I had this last spring - bicycle to the train station, take the train to campus, and then bicycle through the campus.

Maybe he meant e-bike? Because my city bike was under $100, can't imagine paying more. It's not especially crappy, it's just featureless and old. $1,800 would get you mid-range road bike. (or fancy singlespeed)

Not even. Get proper locks and it will be fine.

A proper bike >>>> something shitty. No comparison.

Even with proper locks, an expensive enough bike could have parts taken from it, given a bit of time. Or some asshole could give it a kick just out of spite. No way I'd leave mine around town, even with a huge lock.

Also, a high end road bike, frankly, isn't the most comfortable thing to cruise around on.

I love bikes, in any case, and there's no reason you can't have both! I have a very nice, custom made bike for actual rides, and a dumpy, rusty bike with one speed for cruising around town.

BTW, for short-length city transportation (5-10km) folding kick scooter is better, than bike. You can always fold it and bring it inside. And you are still 2-3 times faster, than pedestrian.

I think kick scooter was my best purchase this year :)

5km is quite a long time to be on a kick scooter.

It's feasible, with some training. The first time I have done this, I thought my legs were going to fall off the next day - kick scooter riding is more tiring than riding a bike. After about a week, I was able to do a 6 km commute on a scooter without a problem.

That is around 30 minutes of leisure pace kicking, 20 minutes if you are in a hurry. The key is to change kicking leg every 5-10 kicks.

I drive 200mm wheel scooter, so one kick sends you a long way, if you are on a good and plain pavement.

Longboards are also a nice, compact option for short distances around town.

A backpack is possible, but a messenger bag swings around too much.

I prefer this electric unicycle, with a seat: http://focusdesigns.com/

The segway was also supposed to change the world - and then it was too expensive.

I'm disappointed to see that this too is far far too expensive. It needs to be under $250 to even have a chance, but they are asking for $1,795!!

Under $250?! I'd say around $500. I don't know if I'd trust it if it were under $250, not with the manufacturing technology I know of today.

It's a microcontroller, a hub driven motor and a lead acid battery. You could probably churn these out quite cheaply if you so desires.

LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate), not lead acid

The whole is more than the sum of the parts. The first Mustang off the line costs millions of dollars, but not because that car has millions of dollars of parts in it rather because making the car is more than just bolting the steel together.

These guys didn't grab an Arduino from Amazon and wire it to a pawn shop unicycle.

This is basically a Segway, which is essentially an electric wheelchair with higher spec motors and battery.

All of the above sell for more than $1000 dollars, probably because that's just what the hardware costs :-(

Likely, the problem is over engineering. Segways and electric wheelchairs will often run for several years without needing new parts, and are expensively engineered to not catch fire.

In reality, Segways and the OneWheel are toys for most people. You can buy a toy remote control car for much less than a bomb disposal robot, because it's far lower quality. I think a toy quality device for toy grade use would have a bigger market.

This is interesting but then again the price point doesn't seem to help break the do-I-look-like-a-dork image[1]. Also without the handle wouldn't it feel that you're not in control of the machine? To me it would. At least the Segway has a handle.

Then again, I'd rather see this product through the lens of tomorrow. When we'd have more Teslas and Segways out there these unicycles too will find more acceptance. Fossilization of fossil fuel ones should kind of pave way for this type of hardware. Good luck to the guys building it!

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/segway.html

This thing was on Shark Tank. They got $300,000 for 33% of the company from Robert and Kevin. I'd link to the video, but I can't find it. It was on episode 7 of season 4.

http://sharktankblog.com/business/self-balancing-unicycle/

Interesting section on illegal Chinese copies.

http://solowheel.com/about-illegal-solowheel-copies/

Their 'illegal Chinese copies' page has a Youtube video that demonstrates the failure mode at speed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOOXBFvKAQM

I wouldn't want to get anywhere near this - even a small obstacle in the road and you'll see that same failure mode, every time. Good luck jumping off, their trained rider who's expecting it barely manages.

I like the 10 mile range, but the 24lb weight makes it difficult to lug around.

Boosted Boards, by comparison, weighs 12-15 lbs and has a 6 mile range.

I'd much rather spend that much money on an electric bike where all the tubes are slightly oversized and have li-ion batteries inside them and a fairly well hidden/disguised electric motor somewhere. Nobody thinks twice about being seen on a bike. Plus there's the "I can pedal a very small amount and double the range" factor.

It's very compact. It's more compact than a folding bike. It also has a much faster transition time. I wonder how the cost benefit compares with a folding scooter? Hill climbing would be an advantage over a folding scooter. How much of a benefit would that be in a city?

Why are people wearing a helmet? It only gets up to 16km/h (10mph), and it just adds like 10cm to your height. Humans can run up to 44 km/h and Ive never seen them wearing a helmet.

It really makes the product look dangerous.

I bet it's classified as an electric bike....and lots of places require helmets for bike riders.

...or you need to use it on the road, in which case a helmet will protect you if you get buzzed by a car (or worse).

This seems to have come out over 2 years ago so the price may be far too high.

I do wonder whether it would have been far more successful if they'd created a snazzy Kickstarter video and required people to pre-pay for it.

A few months ago, the company had a Kickstarter for a follow up product that doesn't require the balancing.

Ah! I saw one yesterday near Prospect Park, Brooklyn. I was driving and couldn't stop to ask about it. Now I know.

Looks like a trip.

Why do they call this the greenest solution? What's different than other electrically driven vehicles?

Looks like a GausWheel for people who don't want to move in order to move.

24 lbs?! How does the girl in the video lug it so effortlessly in her office?

24lbs is nothing. Not something you can swing about for hours, but certainly no problem carrying up stairs.

I wonder how stable this thing is for someone 2m tall like me?

"She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself." - disappointed it wasn't this Solo; but still: seems much better than an electric scooter (for moving around in the city, at least).

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