Christmas on Halloween

I got a very surprising Fed Ex shipping update yesterday indicating my new MSuper EUC which was originally estimated for Wednesday was going to show up Monday instead!  I had been following the shipment closely which made this even more surprising since early Sunday morning the wheel was still in the UK.  Later Sunday I saw it’s location had been updated to Tennessee so I assumed the Wednesday delivery was going to stand.  I was amazed when I saw it was on the truck for delivery, kudos to Fed Ex.

Cindy freaked me out a bit when she sent a picture of the FedEx missed delivery sticker on the front door.  The box required a signature and Cindy was out running errands.  She saw she just missed the truck so she actually went out and found the guy and signed for the wheel for me which was awesome.

So of course as soon as I got home I dug into my new toy.  The first thing that struck me was just how heavy the wheel is, weighing in at right around 45 pounds.  Since I have done a ton of research before making the purchase I mostly knew what I needed to do right away, put air in the tire and start charging.

Gotway like Ninebot is a Chinese company, however they are MUCH smaller with a staff somewhere around 40 people.  You can immediately tell the difference as Ninebot has tailored their vehicles to be more suitable for the American market with design and safety features that are regulated.  Gotway has not been around long enough to start polishing their product line to that degree and it shows.  However what their wheels lack in sophistication they make up for in power, speed, and range, at your own risk of course.  The manual was entirely in Chinese and the phone app that is used to communicate with the wheel is primitive compared to what Ninebot provides.

So I pumped up the tire and threw it on the charger for a little bit.  It arrived with only 30% battery charge so I wanted to give it a little more juice before my initial test ride.  The sun was starting to set so I pulled it off the charger after maybe 25 minutes to give the wheel a short test.  Cindy was outside with me as I was able to hop on immediately and take off.

I  felt like I was transported back a couple months ago as far as my skill level goes, it felt so different than the Ninebot One.  The most immediate difference was the firmness setting on the pedals.  By firmness I mean how much forward and backward lean is required to control the wheel.  I almost felt like I was on a bed with worn out springs, it felt much softer than what I am used to.  Luckily this is one of the many configurable settings for the MSuper.

The other thing I noticed was because of the fatter tire, higher profile, and increased weight, the same moves I would use to turn the Ninebot were not sufficient to turn the MSuper.  I will have to do a fresh set of experimentation with optimal foot/leg placement for the new wheel.  None of these things were unexpected, I knew it was going to feel different than my 9B1, I just didn’t realize it would feel THAT different.

I threw it on the charger overnight so I will have a fresh battery to play with this evening.  I plan to take it to the school parking lot to get practice on the MSuper.  It will take some time for me to get the same level of confidence as I have on the Ninebot One but once I do I think the MSuper is going to be simply an awesome experience to ride.