Onewheel Plus Charge and Ride Setup First Ride

As many of you may already know if you have been following me lately, I seem to have a strange attraction to vehicles with only one wheel. I have been riding my EUC for a while now and really enjoy it, I still do in fact very much. Along with the EUC there is another electric vehicle that has only one wheel and ironically it is called the Onewheel which is a brand name from the company Future Motion originating out of California.

Both of these devices have their pros and cons as they are the same in many ways and also different in many ways, but that is for other videos to discuss. One con for the Onewheel system is a much lower range especially in the older models, my Onewheel Plus is limited to around 8-10km total distance that I can ride with the stock battery. In this video I talk about the Charge and Ride setup which is an option owners of earlier versions of Onewheels may want to consider to extend their range and lesson range anxiety if you have an original Onewheel or a Onewheel Plus. There are a few early version of Onewheel XR's that this mod can also be done to, but if you have hardware version 4208 on your XR, this is not possible, so check your XR first before attempting this mod.

I don't want to drag this on as this post is far from a complete tutorial but rather an example of how the Charge and Ride setup works for me in real life with the slightly different system that I am using. Most Charge and Ride setups utilize an external Battery with a Solar Charge Controller where as I am using a 250 watt 277wh Portable Power Station connected to my original charger along with an adaptor cable that removes the 3rd pin connection from the XLR connector used with the Onewheel. By the way the number 3 pin on the XLR cable is not actually used for charging but rather it informs the Onewheel that a charge cable is connected and not to turn on. If you remove power to the 3rd pin for the Onewheel versions One and Plus, you trick the board into thinking it is regening rather than charging and so it stays on while charging.

If you plan on doing this Charge and Ride Mod, do so at your own risk as there are risks involve: as in overcharging your battery, damaging your charge port, having your backpack catch on fire and I am sure many others... For me using the Charge and Ride setup on my first test ride, I was able to get 14km range only using 46% of the battery with a 40% regen factor. This 14km ride only used about half of my Power Stations battery so I expect I should be able to get close to 25-30km range using this setup.

Onewheel vs EUC Which is Better

Onewheel vs EUC Which is Better? The great debate! If you own a Onewheel, then you probably think the One Wheel is the better machine. If you own an EUC (Electric Unicycle), then you probably think the EUC is the best! What if you own both?

So I'm not going to give a definitive answer here as both PEV's (Personal Electric Vehicle) have their own strengths and weaknesses. In this video I try and cover the Pro's and Con's for each PEV and let you decide which one is the best for you!

Here are some strength and weaknesses for each Personal Electric Vehicle:

• Speed for sure goes to the EUC as some can go as fast as 100kmh, mine does around 70kmh, compared to a Onewheel, where max speed is typically 30+kmh if you are brave.

• Battery life again goes to the EUC as many are capable of 100km to even as high as 200km! A Onewheel tops out at 30-40km and that's for the latest and greatest GT version, older versions can have a limit of around 10km.

• Size and weight would in most cases go to the Onewheel as they typically weigh around 25-30 pounds with the GT version weighing in at 35 pounds. Earlier versions of EUC's did weigh around the same but the trend for EUC's is to "go big or go home" with some larger faster units weighing in over 100 pounds. My personal Kingsong S22 weighs in at around 75 pounds but has some big ass batteries in it giving me a range of up to 100km.

• Portability: I would say it ties in to size and weight but I portability is more about carrying the PEV around and stashing it in a trunk or under a seat. Again earlier smaller versions of EUC's would be comparable to a Onewheel here but since most of the new much larger more popular EUC's are now the norm, I would have to go with the Onewheel in terms of portability.

• What about power: Kind of like speed, but power does not always equal speed, it often represents how much torque a motor has which is usually measured in Watts. Most Onewheel's have a 750 Watt motor and so do some smaller lighter EUC's. You can however get an EUC with a motor capable of 3500 watts that have a peak watt output of up to 6000 watts, that's crazy I know! This power means you can climb almost any hill on an EUC while Onewheel's do have their limitations when it comes to hill climbing.

• Coolness Factor: I would say both are equally cool so this one's a draw.

• Fun Riding: And this one again is a draw for me as both are fun in their own way. When riding a OneWheel I am more relaxed and just having fun while on the EUC I switch in to intensity mode as the speed and acceleration kind of takes ahold of me. I guess it really depends on the day as to what PEV I feel like riding and what kind of trip I plan to make.

• Price: A Onewheel can cost anywhere from around $1000US for a Pint up to $2200 for a GT, that would be new prices but Onewheel for sure do hold their value. On the other hand you can also get an EUC for even under $1000US but they also go up to well over $4000US for the latest and greatest high speed long range EUC's. So considering average price to buy new and resale value I would give the win to the Onewheel here.

• Terrain you can ride on: The EUC has this category in my books, many new EUC's even have suspension giving them the ability to ride even on extreme Mountain bike trails and do crazy jumps. On the other hand the Onewheel is not as functional off roading as an EUC, but you can ride trails and hop off curbs and even take small jumps if you are a more experienced rider.

Hopefully that gives you a good idea on a Onewheel vs EUC and Which is Better. It really comes down to what your needs are and what you plan on doing with one of these very awesome PEVs...