A pain penalty, Allegiant, Back in the slog

Saturday morning Cindy again was teaching a spin class and I again used that time to head outside to get shit done like weeding and weed whacking.  I also attended to several other outdoor things that caught my eye while I was circling the grounds. Of course it was hot and humid as hell.  When I came inside I jumped in the pool with my shorts on.  Sadie enjoyed an extensive session of splashy splash.

So I had told Cindy for a few days that I had ordered a surprise for her.  She had been trying to guess what it was and of course I would neither confirm or deny her guesses.  It was not supposed to show up until Tuesday but during the day Saturday I got a notice it was actually going to show up that day!

We had a few errands to run but I was worried to leave the house as the package required a signature.  I wound up printing out a note and signed it, hoping that would be sufficient for the Fedex guy if he showed up while we were gone.  On our way back we saw a RING movement notification.  Cindy checked it and saw it was indeed the FedEx guy.  She was able to talk to the guy via the doorbell and verified he could leave it with the note.  He said he could and told us he would put the box in a plastic bag since it looked like it was ready to rain.  It was a cool practical use of our in house tech.

The surprise was in a generic box so Cindy still did not know what it was.  I told her I bought another robotic vacuum cleaner which did not excite her in the least.  When I opened the box and pulled out the Ninebot One electric unicycle she was more receptive as it was one of the things she had guessed it may be when I first mentioned the surprise.  I thought the Ninebot One would be a nice compliment to the Segway Minipro.  Sure it is a one wheel device but I figured our Minipro riding ability would help fast track us to learning how to ride the Ninebot One.  Before making the purchase I watched a ton of videos of others riding it as easily as we zip around on the Minipro.  Sure I figured it would be harder to learn than the Minipro but not exponentially so.  Wow was I wrong.

We originally were planning to see the new Star Trek movie Saturday night but the arrival of the EUC (electric unicycle) changed our plans.  We rented Allegiant on demand and took a break during it to go outside and ride around on the new toy.  The movie does not require any in depth review, it’s a middle of the road B flick that was half decent.

So my first testing of the One was indoors.  This is a self balancing wheel, like the Segway Minipro however it only balances front and back, not side to side.  Just getting onto the wheel seemed crazy.  I wound up holding myself up on the counter while I mounted the wheel. Once I got on it I could feel the forward and back balance kick in but I also felt like the second I left go of a support structure I would fall over.  When I was able to make it from the counter to a wall and then a table I was hopeful that I was already getting the hang of it.

When we went outside I got myself next to the fence and used it as support as I clumsily moved along it, thinking again I was making some significant progress.  Of course I could only got a second or two at a time until I had to reach for a fence post.  I was still holding onto something to mount the wheel, I had no idea how others were able to just hop on.

As expected Cindy had more luck than I did as her lower center of gravity and good balance served her well.  Before we started Cindy applied a bunch of protective foam to the bot which is included to protect it during the training period.  In very short order a lot of it fell off.  Very early on I realized there was absolutely no way I was going to keep the One unblemished as we tried to learn.  Just a few spills in the driveway had already scuffed and scratched it’s body.  Thank goodness it appears to be built to withstand the abuse.

So anyway we decided to abandon the safety of the fence line and headed onto the driveway.  At first we used the garage broom as an auxiliary support to keep us upright.  It sort of worked but really did nothing to help us learn how to truly balance on the single wheel.  Cindy then started trying to get up on the wheel sans broom.  She was trying to hop on the pedals while holding the handle on the wheel with one hand.  She had some limited success but when she would try to release the handle to stand up she would fall off.

She then got brave and tried just hopping on it, like we have seen in the videos.  You basically put one foot on UEC and let it lean slightly in the the opposite direction that your foot is on.  You then hop the other leg onto the other pedal and hopefully immediately start rolling forward.  It looks incredibly simple when you see somebody that is good with the wheel do it.  In real life it is much, much harder.  Cindy did manage to do it several times, traveling as far as 10-15 feet before falling off.  I was impressed.  When I tried to do something similar I would not be able to get moving at all and fall immediately.

Well Cindy had a bad wipeout as she was trying to build on her riding distance.  She lost her balance in a way that caused the wheel to shoot out from under her.  She kicked the wheel out with such force that the Ninebot continued rolling on it’s own.  I had to quickly snag it as it was rolling towards the road.  Cindy landed hard on her hip and arm.  That was enough for her.  Both of us were not wearing any safety equipment which in retrospect is not smart at all.  Neither of us expected the One to be this treacherous to ride.

So once Cindy called it quits I felt obliged to keep plugging along.  I used the pillars by the front door as supports to steady me to get on the wheel.  I then would launch myself out into the front yard, the grass would be more forgiving on both my body and the Ninebot when it would fall.  I had some limited success with my best ride taking me right to the edge of mound, some 30-40 feet away.  I knew that I needed to be able to get on the bot without holding on to something so I did a few attempts at that as well.  I was able to get on it although each ride was 10 feet or less.  My shins/ankles were killing me by the end of the session.  If you would like to see the footage of some of the session you can see it here.

If I am being honest I was sort of bummed out.  I had these ideas in my head that the Ninebot One would be the perfect companion for the Segway.  I envisioned both of us being able to learn to ride the EUC relatively easily and enjoy doing so.  Well after our first session reality set in.  If I was ever going to get decent on the One I was going to have a long, painful, and potentially treacherous road ahead of me.   Because I dropped a good chunk of change on the bot I felt obliged to see it through however.

On Sunday morning neither of us felt up to running from our bumps and bruises from the Ninebot.  I told Cindy I would like to go to the track however to do more EUC training.  Cindy was done with the Ninebot One for the immediate future but despite my aches and pains I felt like I had to press on.  We brought the Minipro along for Cindy to ride on safely.

Once we got there we discovered that Sadie finds personal transport vehicles very interesting.  She seemed to love chasing Cindy around as she zipped along.  So I had some moderate success sprinkled in during the training session that was dominated by falls.  I have not figured out how to gracefully stop without just jumping off the bot.  I had one particularly nasty fall where I was up one second and crashing down on my side a split second later.  I came down hard on my hip and elbow but was back up and riding again a couple minutes later.

I had one ride that was probably in the neighborhood of 75 feet or so which of course ended with me jumping off the bot again and letting it tumble.  My training session ended when the bot hit the ground hard enough and at the right angle where the battery pack ejected it self.  I needed tools to fix it so we stopped it there.  My Ninebot One that was new and pristine less than 24 hours prior now looked like it has been through a war.  It was pretty crazy.

In addition to the various bumps and bruises I suffered I found that overall trying to ride the EUC was hard work.  I was sweated through my shirt.  Part of that is the total body engagement needed for balance and part of it is what happens when your body is asked to be thrust into a situation where it does not know how to react.  Forcing myself to get on the One again and again, knowing each time I was probably going to wind up falling off definitely tests my fortitude.

During the afternoon  a horrendous storm blew through.  Up until this point we had survived rainy season without a major return of standing water on the property.  Well that streak ended yesterday, by the time it stopped raining we had ponds everywhere.  This is the part of the summer I absolutely hate where the ground is permanently soaked and every day has heat and humidity levels in the 90’s.  It sucks, plain and simple.

When the rain stopped and the driveway dried a little bit I decided I needed to continue the painful training.  I again had some limited success with more failure.  There is no doubt I am making progress but it is slow.  I just hope I get to the point where I can ride the One safely before either the bot is destroyed or I am.  The afternoon session ended when I fell in a way that sprained my right ankle slightly.  The fall also wound up sending the Ninebot into a puddle of standing water where it landed on it’s side.  Thankfully the bot can endure mild exposure to water.  I hosed off the dirt and propped it against the wall to dry.

It seems like my dreams of Cindy and I swapping between the Segway and One are not going to happen.  I am going to have to be the one to learn the wheel if I want to have any use come of my purchase.  I had Cindy get me some additional body armor at the local Sports Authority going out of business sale to aid me in gaining that expertise without winding up in the ER.

If you want to see how to install an ejected battery back into a Ninebot One you can do so here.