This is a technical note about a particular product that we usually do. I would say it’s an opinion about particular electric unicycle in conclusion to our series of articles: “Приехал Z6“, “Разбираем Z6“. Obviously, this text is as objective as possible. Everything that is described was tested by several users and received approval from foreign colleagues who started to use this electric unicycle earlier than me.
Let me start from the simple things which may not be interesting for those who just chooses electric unicycle, however which you encounter when using a unicycle.
Built-in LED headlamp blinds people. This problem can be solved. You need to disassemble the unicycle and redirect the beam of light. If you go further, you may change light-emitting diodes and headlamp will become brighter. By default, this looks more like a navigation light.
Glowing LED rings are very dim and made only for decoration during the night riding. Even in the evening when light still slips through, these rings aren’t visible and are completely useless. Thus, it’s not a navigation light, but rather an element of design.
Brake light is very informative and will assist the cyclist that is behind to understand that a Ninebot One Z rider is stopping. It starts to blink vividly and it is clear what to do for a cyclist.
Handle. In my hands it has never activated, whether it was lifting or putting it down, didn’t matter, i.e. when you put a blocked wheel on the ground, it remains inactive. You have to get used to it, if you pull the handle harder and pressure it a bit when put the unicycle on the ground it always activates. If the hand is sled forward, then the wheel most likely will not be blocked and will start to spin. Clear understanding of how to hold the handle and how to pull it off will come with experience.
When unicycle has closed pedals, pedals lean into it too tight and not in any shoes it will be possible to release them. In my case that didn’t work at all and I had to release them with bare hands. However, I was shown with one trick. If you spin the wheel sharply on one place, then pedals will most likely release themselves. Unfortunately, it requires some practice and strong hands. I could release only one pedal after several attempts. But my colleague who showed me that trick did it smoothly without any problem, so I need to practice more.
I ride during dry weather and clutch pedal was enough for me. There was a problem with feet positioning though. The body of the wheel is smooth and there are no pads to soften the touch. If you try to tighten the wheel with your feet in order to jump, the bones unpleasantly touch the body of the wheel, same applies to the top.
It is rounded and during the straight ride doesn’t cause any discomfort, however, when braking or accelerating there is a lack of wheel control. Even when you tighten the wheel feeling pain in your shin, it still slips forward or backward. Apart from that, without the pads it’s hard to control the wheel on turns, it painfully pressures the shin. Same applies for the movement start or riding with one foot. Pads are really needed.
Certainly, everyone can stick something to it instead of pads. It can be some part of a sleeping pad for instance. But many people want this wheel because of the design. But with such «upgrades» design of Ninebot Z6 or Z10 would look not so great.
By default, there are no mud flaps installed, because it would spoil design, but the choice is yours of course. If you decide to install them, you would get telescopic handle for transporting as well. There are some questions with this handle though. In unfolded state it has decent backlash and it’s hard to lean onto it because it starts to fold. That’s why it is impossible to roll the wheel on the stairs same as Kingsong KS-18L or KS-18S. But on the other hand, in the upper position handle grip is comfortable and it is easy to roll it. Especially interesting to roll it when it is turned on with mud flaps forward. The biggest advantage of the handle is that you can roll the wheel when it is turned off. Another plus is that it’s possible to park the unicycle, with this handle there is a stand behind which you can use for leaning your unicycle. At the same time, it is still not comfortable to fold or unfold the handle. Also, the handle can’t be stored inside the body, thus any drop will damage it and it starts to unfold even harder. And after receiving too serious damage, it may completely lose its functionality.
The battery indicator is informative, Z6 has 5 bars and when you see that only 3 bars left, you need to understand that the unicycle starts to lose its power. 2 bars mean that it’s time to go home because the power may not be enough already. At the same time depending on the charge left the wheel starts to restrict its speed.
Near the indicator there is a button. In order to turn on or turn off the wheel, it’s enough to press it shortly. Long pressing will turn on a headlamp. However, it’s easy to accidentally press the button and the wheel will turn off, of course that won’t happen during the ride and you won’t crash. But when you don’t ride, these accident turns off are really annoying. The button is a certain drawback.
Application. Personally, I haven’t tried it. You can set pedal resistance, maximum speed and two other speeds to instantly switch between them, you can turn on brake assist function. The settings are very useful. Unfortunately, I didn’t check brake assist. I think even without it, the wheel brakes very good and I didn’t have any problems. Though some users complained about having problems with default braking and that brake assist really helped them. Personally, I ride with default settings except for maximum speed which I set 35 km/h.
I almost forgot about the hole for inflation a tire. There is a stem extender in the default package, but it’s not comfortable and has no valve. If you try to use it, the wheel starts to vent the air. I tried a brass extender from Ninebot A1/S2 and to my demise this extender didn’t fit. Another problem was that nipple of Z6 spins even after you attach the extender, this is a real problem because it’s hard to unscrew the extender from the spinning nipple.
You could write the entire book about Ninebot Z tire comparable in terms of volume with Leo Tolstoy’s «War and Peace». At first when you ride it, the first impression you have – it is very interesting. In my case with Ninebot Z6 it was also very emotional.
First stage, showroom of Ecodrift company. Not too much space, so the speed it no more than 10 km/h. It rides very smooth. Everything what you imagine and not imagine about that wheel isn’t correct. It turns amazing, runs so smooth that you want to do it again and again. The only drawback was «clambering» on the wheel. The wheel coverage is very hard and it’s difficult to mount the wheel with one leg. But after several turns you do not even remember that. First thought is «yea! Ninebot managed to prove that he’s a king of electric unicycles».
But you need to ride it like that for a kilometer or more in order to lift the speed restriction. My colleagues took a wheel from me and I had to wait until they unblock it. It didn’t take too long. After unblocking was finished. I stepped on the wheel again. This time it felt completely different, it felt totally uncontrollable. You want to ride straight, but since it avoids little bumps on the road, you are in constant struggle with the wheel. Ninebot Z6 doesn’t feel like extension of your feet, it feels as if you are above it and try to struggle with it. It felt like a zig-zag ride.
But this is not the only problem. The real problem starts when you try to turn. It feels like it’s not going to turn at all. You pressure on it to turn, but it doesn’t let you do that, and you constantly feel how the wheel yaws and self-controls. It feels as if the wheel simply doesn’t listen to you.
OK, let’s go further, there are more than enough bumps ahead. We have a wide tire, I wonder how it will ride on the washboard. The first thought is that it feels like you are jumping on the ball. It ran smoothly on the lawn, soil and sand. But you know what I did next? I took KS-18L and it ran exactly the same. I didn’t compare the pressure on the tire, I just took Kingsong which was inflated enough and ride the same route. There was only one place which raised questions, it was sand where Kingsong went into a skid. While on Ninebot I passed the sand without any problems. Of course, it’s all about straight ride, but when it comes to turns, KS-18L was much better and more usual.
Also, I think it was easier to brake on Z6 than on KS-18L. I thought that it was because of the brake assist function, however later I found out that it was turned off. I tried to brake sharper in order to show to my college that pedals are going up. He told me that it is not noticeable. And after the third attempt during the brake, pedals went back, and the wheel «concaved», that feels really unpleasant. I was certain that I’m going to fall, but the wheel managed to stabilize, most likely because I stopped to pressure it making it braking onto the floor. My colleague suddenly exclaimed that it concaved. I was surprised that it was actually real, not in my imagination.
I do not know why there were not enough power even to brake. Whether it was programmed restriction or simply due to the small battery capacity, but I started to be afraid of riding it, I stopped to make any sudden maneuvers.
That’s how my first day of testing went. There were many thoughts after, I watched foreign videos with riding and discussed it with my colleagues in chat. And you know what? My curiosity has prevailed. I made a research of opinions about Ninebot Z driving. I tried to compare them with my impressions, but that was not enough. So, I continued testing.
First of all, I checked the stiffness of other wheels. I took Kingsong 18 with comfort pressure for me (around 2.8 bars). After that I tried Ninebot Z6 and I quickly realized that Ninebot Z6 is stiffer. I started to check the pressure, the result was confusing, the wheel had a pressure less than 1 bar. Before that, head of our service took that wheel and during his ride he always thought that it was too stiff. Obviously, the problem is in the tire itself, it is too stiff. I also I noticed that when you ride it on any bumps, it throws you from side to side. And I understood that it looks like 2 wheels unicycle, as it may sound weird, but there is a type of unicycles with 2 wheels. Such unicycle has one engine to which two rims are attached for 2 tires. It is easier to learn how to ride such unicycle but it is not comfortable to ride it because of the turbulence.
Excellent, we figured out the problem. If you do not inflate the tire, Ninebot Z rides sort of like a 2-wheel unicycle on solid tire, i.e. it is not smooth. I didn’t to drive it as 2-wheel unicycle, so I remembered recommendation which I read on some forum that in order to start to ride on Z6 you should inflate the tire at least to 2.4 bars. I tried and inflated it to 2.5. At first, I thought that nothing had changed. But it took around 2-3 minutes of active turns to start to feel the changes. Turbulence was gone. The wheel started to feel more like a unicycle rather than 2-wheel unicycle. It became possible to maintain good speed without fear of losing control. The wheel started to be more comfortable to control.
But there still was the unpleasant effect of turns, when it felt as if the wheel wants to throw you out. I started to analyze this problem. At minimum speed Ninebot Z turns very easily, I could make even 360 degrees turns on the wheel with less than 16 inches diameter without catching the ground with pedals. At the same time, I didn’t need to lean the wheel too much. On high speed I bend with the wheel and it feels like it’s going to throw me out. I check photos and videos of foreign colleagues, the solution is obvious, they lean similar to motorcyclists.
On the motorcycle we briefly steer counter to the direction we actually wish to travel to get the desired lean angle for a turn. To some extent it reminds position of yachtsman who controls his yacht. Everything is simple, Ninebot Z has higher maneuverability than other unicycles, at the same lean angle Ninebot Z tire starts to turn by lower radius.
What it gives us? Well, in order to turn on Z series on high speed, you shouldn’t steer the wheel. Surprising? All you need is to lean to the direction you travel trying to keep vertical position of the wheel.
This is completely new style of wheel riding. There were no wheels before where the such style would allow to ride. Here everything is different.
Now we come to practice. What shall I do? I relax my feet, the one which is inside the turn radius and it basically stops to take a part in the process. Then I concentrate on external feet, I bend to in my knee and keep the wheel in vertical position and start to turn. Essentially, I start to «hang» on my external leg, and «miraculously» I make an entirely smooth arc.
So, what do we need for stable management? First, we need to inflate the tire so that the wheel will stop acting like Inmotion V3. Second, on the turns we need to keep the wheel in vertical position. Minor lean on the turn is suffice. And third, we need smooth ground.
Yes, all that works only if you ride on good and smooth asphalt. But once you encounter any bumps, then this technique ceases to work. I completely understand what’s wrong with it. Ninebot installed wide motorcycle tire, which holds high pressure and at the same time is designed for good roads. It seems like it is considered that it can cross little puddles, but that’s it. There is no way it can ride off-road. On the tire it is written that 190 kg is max load. At the same time, we got used to ordinary tires with max load 70-90 kg. This max load is very low, but we know that such tires excellently perform and their softness provides comfort comparable to bicycles. While max load of Ninebot Z tire is too excessive. Unless you ride a bike, excessive stiffness is not required. Even heavy wheel of Ninebot Z weights around 27 kg not 100-200-300 kg like for bikes. Even if that tire would be installed to a motorcycle it would not allow to ride off-road, let alone small bordures or top of the trees. This tire doesn’t fit that unicycle. All sense of that tire is in its softness and comfort like a favorite sofa. But we got completely different thing, a tire for moto tracks which is proposed to use for sidewalks, cobblestones, bordures, etc. That doesn’t work.
Returning to the bumps, imagine that you control a wheel only with one foot, and it comes across a bump which makes it become a bit unbalanced because the tire is too stiff and the wheel reacts on any bump. On the other side of the wheel body there is a foot while on the other side there is nothing. The rider has nothing to control the wheel hops. He can’t control the wheel at any direction. In our case there is also no pad that could at least improve the situation. While riding classic models we can always tighten the wheel body with our feet or even our knees and make the wheel to do what you need, for instance to brake, to accelerate or to stabilize holding the wheel from yaw. With Ninebot Z6 it won’t work out. It feels like you are inexperienced again and have to learn everything from the scratch. Such relaxed riding will be fine for the parks or riding at slow speed on sidewalks. But this is top-notch, heavy and fast wheel. It needs to have more aggressive ways of riding with good control.
With sadness I lower the pressure. The wheel became softer but now turbulence returned even when you ride straight, while turns are not so smooth once again. I elevate the pressure; the wheel starts to run better again.
Another thing I tried was to ride on cobblestone paves and lawns. I went to the park with pretty hard cobblestone, where a kickscooter with 8-inch wheels it’s very hard to ride. On KS-18L and KS-18S you run smoothly on that cobblestone. If the pressure is around 2.8 bars, with my 90kg weight you have no problem riding at all. Ninebot Z of course doesn’t run same bad as a kickscooter, but I can’t call it comfortable riding with 2.4 bars pressure. Every stone feels very well in the feets.
Now I go to the lawn with branches scattered around it, the terrain isn’t flat at all. The situation repeats itself. On Kingsog KS-18L it’s much more comfortable to ride, no turbulence at all. Ninebot Z doesn’t steamroll, relying only on its heavy weight. The tire doesn’t take a part in that process whatsoever.
So now I make my own conclusions regarding the myths about electric unicycle Ninebot One Z.
Myth number one, it doesn’t turn. The wheel turns too well which creates an effect of «throwing out» a rider on the turn. You need to keep the wheel in vertical position.
Myth number two – the wheel is too stiff and you need to lower the pressure. When you lower the pressure you only make worse bad controlling. In order to control it smoothly, you need to elevate the pressure. For a rider with weight around 80-90 kg, minimum pressure required is 2 bars, and 2.4 bars are even better. By elevating the pressure, you make the wheel more stable and more controllable.
Myth number three – you need to ride 100, 200 or 1000 km in order to get used to that wheel and you will control it without any problems. This is not true. You can learn how to turn quickly if you solve first two myths and take a correct posturing. But this posturing will never provide you the same control as in classic models. Even if you attach the pads, different posturing will not help you to entirely control the wheel.
Myth number four – this wheel is good for off-road. This wheel is for good for stable terrain. Such tire doesn’t allow us to ride on unstable terrain. And if you try it you will quickly realize that, the stiffness is too high. For off-road you need a tire either with good protector or very soft tire. The examples are around us, take any fatbike for instance.
Now when all myths related to that wheel were busted, we have the main question. Why do we need that wheel and what conclusions we can draw?
The wheel is certainly made not great from point of control. All drawbacks are so obvious that every rider may notice them even without deep understanding, since he feels them while riding that unicycle. Of course, his initial conclusion may sound far-fetched, but overall, he will be entirely correct – the wheel is badly controlled. It is not designed for a common rider, even an experienced rider will have to make lots of extra action to control it. All these actions are excessive for the wheel which is designed as simple to use.
This sad story would be ended if I wouldn’t face absolute misunderstanding of other riders, they didn’t want to hear the truth. Most of them do not want to hear any negative feedback about Ninebot Z. Even those who didn’t buy or pre-ordered it start to bring the opinion of foreign riders who praised that wheel. One of such positive feedbacks was from an English person. He drove on Z10 only around 60 km, fell on the stable terrain which was near the main road. Yet he was very positive about that wheel and said that it gives a fantastic feeling of stability, that it can ride everywhere, that after it he couldn’t stand on its old 16-inch wheel. And such opinions are all around, claims that low center of gravity gives better stability comparing to other wheels and perfectly rides through bordures and that other wheels are overshadowed by this wheel, etc. And the less a rider rides this wheel, the more emotional and joyful his feedback about Ninebot Z is.
What is the secret? I think you understand what I’m trying to say. Obviously design which caught everyone’s attention. People want to see in this wheel something close to ideal and normally nobody searches drawback in ideal. Of course, after time will pass everything will settle down, some people will change the tire and see that wheel from the other perspective. Or maybe Ninebot itself will do that, after listening negative feedbacks, like they did before when they changed the design of the handle that was not really good in the initial version. But currently this wheel became a subject of debates and discussions, and everyone thinks that it is he who understands everything. And that he will manage to rein in that beautiful yet vicious wheel. When reading feedbacks people don’t want to notice negative sides which are mentioned by others and listen only positive feedbacks that are based on nothing but emotions about possessing such a beautiful wheel.
We did the open test drive of Ninebot Z6 where everyone could come and try it. Nobody didn’t manage to handle it properly. Everyone had problems with control, everyone noticed high stiffness. Actually, it was pretty obvious seeing how they were thrown from side to side on the cobblestones. At the same time 1/3 of the people noted that they liked the wheel and that they want to buy it. And for complacent, they just used standard excuse that «you gotta get used to it».
When there was a test drive of KS-18L, everything was the opposite. The main advantage of the wheel was recognized ergonomics, people were saying «it feels like I ride that wheel my entire life». And it didn’t cause any arguing. If a wheel is comfortable, if it feels like you understand it and it fits you like «house slippers», that means engineers and designers did the right job. But here we have a wheel that can’t be controlled comfortably, that is very stiff, that has stiff tire, and all the logic crumbles, the wheel is still liked because you just supposed to get used to it. People can’t say honestly that it is a bad wheel, and at least a tire should be substituted with something else.
This wheel already found its niche, and in that club, there will be enough fans of it. Especially because of the newcomers, to whom Nineboy Z will be the first electric unicycle. For that I can thank Ninebot, thanks to their developers, electric unicycles caught more attention from people that hadn’t even thought about buying an electric unicycle. Stylish design, appearance, tire, that looked for them more attractive than their segways or kickscooter Ninebot ES2. Thanks to Ninebot Z the whole market of electric unicycles has grown and by the summer 2018 three new great unicycles emerged: Inmotion V10F, Kingsong KS-18L and Gotway MSuperX. And each mentioned model is better than Ninebot Z. The delay between Z series release was beneficial for other players.
And in conclusion I want to share my thoughts about how top electric unicycle should look like:
- The heaver the wheel, the higher the point of contact between wheel body and foot should be. It shouldn’t be the same shape as an IKEA cabinet, thanks to the height of the wheel user feels the weightless and it is easier for him to ride.
- The wider the tire, the softer it should be. There is no sense to tolerate wide tire unless it has good comfort, otherwise it’s much better to install narrow tire which would be much better to control.
- The width of the tire can be excessive. For now, we know that 3 inches like on MSX, it’s very good tire. Currently I don’t see any sense to install wider tire. In case of Ninebot Z, 4 inches turned to be excessive and create extra turbulence;
- There should be pads for feet on electric unicycle. They are required for feet comfort, improved control (brake/acceleration), improved control of the wheel (it is comfortable to tighten the wheel to prevent turbulence), and some lower pads for jumps and other extreme tricks;
- The wheel with weight more than 20 kg shouldn’t use nominal power 51.4 V, which has to be compensated by bigger amount of copper, bigger magnets, thick wires and huge radiators. The wheels that work with nominal power 72 V and higher are more effective and light, which significantly reduce problems with carrying such wheel.
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