Monster wheel

I just came back from a 10 days trip to China yesterday night. It was really a fantastic trip personally especially given the exhaustion of Chingay 2016. It has been a non stop wheeling and EUc factories visits for this trip. While many of the factories were a total waste of time given the crap products they churned out,  one of the visits to Dong Guan captured my attention. The factory made good products and one the product they manufactured is a 26 inch monster unicycle which they called M1. The wheel looked exactly like Ryno Motors of the United States which had it's first prototype in 2008 but the sales didn't really take off for the company.

Specs of M1

• Batteries Genuine: Panasonic Lithium-ion, 340WH 67.2V 
• Range per charge: 25-30 km (Depends on weight of driver & road condition) 
• Max speed: 40 km/h 
• Max climb capability: 18° Motor: 1200W 
• Charging time: 120-180 min 
• Charging voltage: AC 90-240V, 50-60Hz Working temperature: -15~45°C 
• Max Load: 125 kg G.W./N.W.: 60/46 kg 
• Tyre size: 26" with Headlight and horn

M1 looks like a motorcycle cut into half but the controlling the wheel is very much the same as your unicycle. It comes with a handle and a seat for the rider but there are basically no acceleration throttle on the handle or brake levers except the on / off button on the handle.

While I have more than 3 years of electric unicycling experience under my belt, M1 was a totally different beast for me. I struggled to have any momentum with the wheel for the first five minutes as it is not really easy to balance. You really need to use the hips to balance and I am sure manual unicyclist would do better here. 

From the video, you can see I struggled to keep my balance or go to the intended direction. I also had difficulties braking too, resulting in me almost hitting the guard post.

After 10 minutes of trial and error, I managed to get used to riding the wheel. While its not perfect, I am glad to be able to use the wheel with a short learning curve.

Likes

• Macho factor
• Stable Wheel
• Unique look like a half motorcycle

Dislikes

• Hard to control
• Difficult to brake
• Too huge to be used on pavements in Singapore
• Heavy at 46 kg
• Probably going to be the first unicycle that get ban in Singapore