Talk:Electric unicycle

Mobbo unycycle (advertisment)

The line about mobbo unycycle is an advertisment "Mobbo Electric Unicycle[3]: The fastest way around town. Weighing just 12KG, the Mobbo will transform daily commutes and give unparalleled independence", I think it should be removed.

It's clearly ad copy. I'm removing it. Atypicaloracle (talk) 04:01, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Pixar's robotic unicycle (Disney's Duck Tales)

Per Pixar's robotic unicycle: In Disney's DuckTales, one of the characters possessed a robotic suit that was driven by a unicycle. Does any one want to do some research on that? --Eladamry 23:04, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Proposed WikiProject: Unicycling

I've proposed creating a new project to promote and coordinate unicycle and unicycling related articles. Please comment here. -AndrewDressel 18:44, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

The Eunicycle

I was about to add something about the eunicycle to this article, but I see that all mention of the eunicycle has previously been deleted from this article. I want to avoid a revert war. So is linking from one Wikipedia article to another "spam" now, or am I confused? --75.48.165.135 10:07, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

(The reference is now back btw) PeterEastern (talk) 11:19, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Is the RYNO "True two-axis self-balancing"?

I don't see from any of the sources reason to believe that the RYNO is two-axis self balancing, I believe it is only self-balancing on the forwards-backwards direction. It has a wide tire which helps it not tip over at slow speeds, but in the videos of it, it is always being held up when stationary.129.234.182.33 (talk) 02:43, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. No references to 2-axis balancing for RYNO any more btw. PeterEastern (talk) 11:24, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Powered unicycle bike...no!

There goes my gut again seeing something being praised that is so dangerous. Oughf! There’s a reason that bikes have the handlebars on the front! There is a reason that bikes don’t have a big wheel on the front anymore! There's a reason that Unicycles only travel at walking speeds and don't venture into the street! You need something in front of you to push on when you hit something. Gee, has no one ever ridden on bike handlebars before. It is the most vulnerable feeling. You are the bumper!

I came up with the idea of a gyro stabilized unicycle in 1972 (gee,too bad Segway, Embrio, et c., all late comers). It was entirely feasible except for my vivid imagination of what can go wrong! Imagine going down the street at 20 mph and hitting a car, but even better, you are speeding down the street when the bearing, motor or software freezes! What stops you. Your teeth on the pavement! I could picture a faces slapping the pavement at about 60mph (the calculated rate of speed that the head would reach in the three foot circle down when the wheel stops abruptly! No thanks, even with the handlebars and a bumper in the front of me. I crashed my Cushman scooter at least 8 times when cars ran stop signs!! It don’t take a Rocket Scientist to see this (although I am one).

Gene Choin, Oakhust, Ca.

Forgive me for formatting your response above for clarity. I understand where you are coming from, and you have some valid opinions, but they mostly seem to be personal opinions. The think that interests me however is your mention of your 'gyro-stabilized unicycle in 1972'. If you published anything on this that is available, it might be appropriate to include it (on the understanding that it was in regard to a powered unicycle). PeterEastern (talk) 08:15, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Merchandise

I see these things occasionally on city sidewalks. Not as often as self-balancing two-wheeled boards but enough to take it beyond a theoretical concept. So, perhaps we can find sources to expand the article. Not that you'll ever get me on one of these things. My hand still hurts from breaking two bones by falling off my bicycle almost three years ago. Jim.henderson (talk) 15:11, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

Proposal to merge legal content into Personal transporter

I propose to merge the 'Use and regulation by country' section of this article into a new legal section for the recently created Personal transporter article, along similar content from Self-balancing scooter, electric skateboard and electric kick scooter. This is to avoid duplication and fragmentation of content for various devices that are treated very much the same by the law.

If you wish to discuss this then please do so on Talk:Personal_transporter#Merging_legal_content to keep all the discussion in one place.

-- PeterEastern (talk) 13:59, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

Merge complete. PeterEastern (talk) 13:52, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Information about living people

We should remain mindful of the guidance given in WP:BLPSOURCES relating to information relating to living people. I have just removed an uncited claim about a living person made by an anonymous contributor on the grounds that it was uncited and also it untrue potentially libellous. I would encourage that contributor, who clearly has a lot of information to bring to the subject to register as a contributor to WP and to take care in future to ensure any information or claims relating to living people that they add are impeccably sourced, are relevant, appropriate and offer a balanced view of the subject. PeterEastern (talk) 19:01, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Simeray/Chen licencing agreement

I am unhappy about the source relating to the licence in 2011 between Chen and the Simeray brother which links to a scan of a document in a dropbox of unknown ownership. I have no reason to believe that this is not genuine, but also no solid evidence that it is genuine. I would ask the person who added this (who has not yet signed-up to WP) to see if they can find a reliable secondary source relating to this agreement. If we don't have a better source for this in 48 hours I will removed it as per WP:BLPSOURCES and WP:BLPSPS. I am not removing it immediately because of the level of circumstantial evidence that supports it. PeterEastern (talk) 19:37, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Ok, problem solved. I have uncovered reference to these events in a patent application by the Simeray brothers from 2015 which although not secondary sources, are sufficient for a statement about the disagreement and the existence of the licence agreement to my mind. I suggest that the reference to the licence agreement can stand given this supporting information. PeterEastern (talk) 20:07, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Lewis Hamilton riding an Ninebot One Electric Unicycle.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. Community Tech bot (talk) 09:06, 5 July 2018 (UTC)

Change title to Electric Unicycle (EUC)

I just purchased an EUC from ebay. Did several days of research a few hours each day. Never did I see notice these devices called self-balancing unicycle. Always electric unicycle. Should the title be changed? Some example sources:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/ElectricUnicycle/
• https://forum.electricunicycle.org/

Daniel.Cardenas (talk) 00:45, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Split

Historically, most powered unicycles have not been self-balancing; they are a topic in their own right, with an interesting history (which relates more to robotisc and control systems than transport) and deserving of their own article. -- The Anome (talk) 12:40, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

I don't think that's true. Do you have any notable example of a powered unicycle with no tilt feedback control? I only know of the one Grin tech's owner made, but I expect this is the only instance anyone has made. It's a very niche topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C1n6XAypag Habanero-tan (talk) 04:22, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Proposed revisions

• Intro

Turning requires a rider to coordinate how much to lean for balance and how much to twist and|or tilt an electric unicycle to steer.

• Operation

The physics is not that similar to bicycles or motorcycles, which lean and|or steer due to relative difference in the direction of front and rear wheels, while on an electric unicycle, the rider twists the unit, called yaw steering, using body momentum and|or tilts the unit, called tilt steering, that causes it to steer due to camber effect (which doesn't exist on bikes, since camber effect at one tire would require the other tire to skid sideways). Despite the physics being different, there is a similarity that above some minimal speed both become stable, although the side to side self-stability of an EUC, is not as strong as it is on a bike. Finding a reference for this may be difficult, other than it's common knowledge among most of of the community, and is mentioned in a few videos about electric unicycles, but not well explained. counter-steering is common to bikes, pedaled unicycles, and electric unicycles. Yaw steering is mostly used at slow speeds, while tilt steering is mostly used at or above stable speed. Both yaw and tilt steering can be used at the same time, depending on rider preference. Rcgldr (talk) 16:11, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

"As of 2022, no commercial human-rideable unicycle has lateral self-balancing capabilities."

At sufficient speed, this isn't true, and I have yet to find a reference that claims that lateral self-balancing never occurs regardless of speed. At sufficient speed, usually around 8 mph (less for some electric unicycles), depending on camber effect response to lean angle, an electric unicycle becomes stable and laterally self-balancing (within reason and assuming the rider doesn't interfere with this self-balancing). I'm not sure where to look for a scientific article about this, but there are videos of riderless electric unicycles self-correcting, similar to this video of a dog on an electric unicycle that stabilizes once the dog stops moving. [1]https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MBtSQHT3CCo . In this video where the middle screen shows a Ninebot Z10 with a 4 inch wide tire, the camber response to tilt angle is so strong that the Z10 is tilted much less than the rider. [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsXW4OKnmWc&t=314s . Similar to the fact that the steering geometry on a 2 wheeled bike tends will cause the bike to self-correct for lean once at sufficient speed, the camber effect response to lean on an electric unicycle will cause it to self-correct for lean (for reasonably small lean angles due to imbalance) once at sufficient speed. Rcgldr (talk) 09:14, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

It means at a standstill. It's implied that way, because forward-back is actively stabilized at a standstill. Therefore the lateral sentence refers to the same concept. For lateral, only small robots [3] have that feature. Feel free to rephrase that sentence to clarify, if you think of a better phrasing. Habanero-tan (talk) 17:09, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

@Habanero-tan: There's no mention of "standstill" in that statement. I don't see how this significantly differs from the self-balancing of bicycles or motorcycles at sufficient speed. Bicycle_and_motorcycle_dynamics#Self-stability, and "Between these last two speeds, if they both exist, is a range of forward speeds at which the particular bike design is self-stable" Bicycle_and_motorcycle_dynamics#Eigenvalues. Other than youtube videos where it is obvious that riders are essentially standing still allowing an EUC to self-balance at sufficient speed, I'm not aware of any scientific references that support or dispute a claim of self-stability at sufficient speed. In this video, while ridging an EUC, a girl swings her backpack around, puts her cell phone in the pack and swings it back on, demonstrating how stable an EUC can be. [4]. Rcgldr (talk) 07:47, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

I agree that this is the clear intention. Maybe something like "has powered lateral self-balancing capabilities"? Retswerb (talk) 08:20, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

@Retswerb: - The two current phrases are: " ... with side-to-side (lateral) stability being provided by the steering motions of the rider, similar to bicycle and motorcycle dynamics. As of 2022, no commercial human-rideable unicycle has lateral self-balancing capabilities ...". In my opinion, the second statement about self-balancing should be removed. Electric unicycles do become stable at sufficient speed, but I'm not aware of a reliable source for this, and "similar to bicycle and motorcycle dynamics" is sufficient. However, "steering motions of the rider" should include that those steering motions are tilting and|or twisting an electric unicycle. Tilting steers due to camber effect, and it's the most common way to steer. Twisting is mostly done at slow speeds, and requires momentum to sustain it. The amount of steering response to tilt depends on the tire, as explained in this video. It starts off with a layman's explanation of camber effect, but then mentions force ... weight shifting rather than tilting, and it's not until 3:48 into the video it states tilting. A link to this video should probably be included somewhere in the article or at the bottom under the "other" section. Rcgldr (talk) 08:32, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

It's dated blanket statement of a claim with no citation... be bold and remove it. Retswerb (talk) 08:42, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

Merger discussion

Request received to merge articles: Eunicycle into Electric_unicycle; dated: May 2023. Proposer's Rationale: Same topic. Discuss here. Habanero-tan (talk) 18:39, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Support - Eunicycle is unsourced and appears to be a variety of Electric unicycle that is non-notable on its own. Retswerb (talk) 06:40, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Support as per Retswerb they both are similar and one page could cover both topics. Paulpat99 (talk) 23:51, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

Eunicycle is already mentioned in the Electric Unicycle article. There should be more mention of Focus Designs SBU V1, V2, and V3 models, and the switch from belt drive to a hub motor. There's a video of Trevor riding one of the SBU models. As mentioned in the Eunicycle article, the ones with seats are steered similar to pedaled unicycles, mostly by twisting them to steer, since the seat limited how much they could be tilted. Once the seats were removed, the electric unicycles could be tilted much more, allowing for tighter turns at low speeds, and may be required for high speed riding. Rcgldr (talk) 01:37, 3 November 2023 (UTC)

There is not referenced content to merge, but I've added some see also's, external links, and redirected to the relevant section where much of the text is already (also uncited). Klbrain (talk) 17:56, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

  Y Merger complete.