Wheelies news since 2013

Tuesday 26 January 2016

We are FUN!

Some of the people asked me what does the Wheelies really represent? I basically respond with one word "FUN". Why? Because our activities not only help in creating strong social and family bonding, we also help reduce the carbon footprint. Most importantly, we are safe! Join the Wheelies today! Majulah Singapura
































Irresistible Inmotion V5+

V5+ is an elegant and of solid build quality, given it is made on ABS+PC material. This wheel is also a head turner from head to toe. Most buyer would probably have fallen into the impulse buying trap on the first look. V5+ is indeed one of the best looking wheel in the market now, if not the best. While the looks counts, we believe that other factors of the wheel should be considered too. So besides the looks, does V5+ have what it takes to dethrone Ninebot from the throne? We attempt to find out.



WEIGHT
11.5 KG
SPEED
18 km/h
BATTERY
Samsung 288 Wh
DISTANCE
 40 km/h
CHARGE TIME
Approximately 210 mins


Features

Inmotion V5+ is probably the first wheel in the market that has an innovative handle button. This is actually a very well thought feature which is extremely useful. For most of us carrying the wheel up/down the stairs/kerbs, we usually switch the power to prevent the wheel from going into free spinning. However, with the innovative handle button, all you need it to hold on the handle while you are carrying and the wheel will not go into free spinning. This relieves the rider from the hassle of switching the wheel on and off.

The innovative app that allows you to communicate with your wheel via bluetooth is interesting too. It comes with many interesting features such as anti theft lock, odometer, plotting out your routes, customisation of messages, speed limitation etc.

Ergonomics

This wheel is design to solve most of the problems reported in other wheels, if not all. The padding on V5+ is a genius.  It's soft cushion allows you to make contact with your shin calf, providing the comfort for you.

The flap at the bottom of the casing allows us to easily pump our wheels too.

Pedals

The pedals is large and high. This allows the rider to make sharp turns without scrapping the floor. The anti-slip grip on the pedal is extremely useful during wet situations.


Riding Experience

Riding it for the first time, I kind of like the feel immediately as the wheel is slim and this makes it easy for us to grip the wheel. Unlike some of the wheels out there, the wheel is quiet and does not produce much noise when moving. It also has a smooth gyroscope as there is no jerking or free play when moving back and forth.

The 450Wh rated motor also ensure there is enough power within the wheel to avoid situation where the rider overlean, causing the wheel to powercut.

We also put the wheel through a slope test. With a 450wh motor, it has no issue of scale up the slope of the slope of a multi-storey car park (subject of testing weights about 78Kg). We can ride it without worrying the power cutting on the wheel.

Efficient battery consumption and the speed limit allows your mileage to be max out. Based on a test of a 75kg adult on the V5+, the wheel can travel to about 36 km before it ran out of juice. While it fall short of the manufacture claim of 40km, its still a very impressive range. Do note that the mileage do varies based on the weight of the rider, the speed, the terrain, temperature etc..


OUR VERDICT

Overall, the Inmotion V5 is proving itself to be worthy of the throne. It's chic design and well thought features makes V5 an eye turner. While it does not have a bluetooth speakers on the wheel, the cool app all but make up for that lost. If you are looking for a better wheel to replace your existing wheel, you might have found your answer in V5.

RATINGS


DESIGN
5/5
FEATURES
4.5 / 5
PERFORMANCES
4 / 5
BATTERY LIFE
4 / 5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4 /5

V5+ is available at the Wheelies store 

* The tester is a pioneer in the electric unicycle industry and have tested and review more than 100+ different type of wheels in the market since 2013.

Friday 22 January 2016

The Wheelies in Chingay 2016


The Wheelies, as of September 2015, has officially accepted People's Association offer to be part of Chingay parade 2016. We are proud to be associated with Chingay. The Chingay is the largest show in Singapore and also the largest street performance and float parade in Asia, with live broadcast to 11 countries around us. This will be a perfect opportunity not only to for us to showcase electric unicycles to the audience in Singapore, but also to the world.


Besides kicking of the parade with a series of stunt performances on the wheel, The Wheelies is also part of the local circus act contingent in the main parade. There will be at least 5 main performances. The dates for the performances are as follows

- 15 Jan 2016 (rehearsal)
- 23 Jan 2016 (Full dress rehearsal)
- 24 Jan 2016 (rehearsal)
- 30 Jan 2016 (NE Show)
- 18 Feb (Full dress rehearsal)
- 19 Feb (Chingay Parade 1) - GOH PM Lee
- 20 Feb (Chingay Parade 2) - GOH President Tony Tan

Electric unicycles coming together at such scale on national TV on LIVE TV is unprecedented. The task is not made easier given there were many other groups involved. Even before the actual rehearsal, the Wheelies organising committee has been busy meeting up in November to plan for this show, experimenting with different moves and sequences to ensure they are feasible and spectacle for the show based on the perimeters given. Working with the other 7,000 participants meant that we can't leave anything to chance. There must be a detailed plan and everything must be working to plan.


We started canvassing for volunteers in October and we had close to 50 volunteers coming to us all wanting to be part of the show. From our volunteers, we have participants as young as 7 years old to as old as 55 years old. There is a good mix of woman and children too in the group too.


We started our rehearsals in December 2015, coming together every Sunday to work on the chronograph. The number of internal and external rehearsals meant that the participants had to sacrifice their personal time from their family and work to be part of this. The long hours of practising and standing under the hot sun didn't make it an attractive proposition too. Kudos to the participants, there were zero complaints. The enthusiasm coming from the participating members is amazing. Not only their tiredness are not shown on their faces, the sense of motivation and dedication is evident in all of participants during all our rehearsals. The openness of the session allows everyone too to voice out and improve on the sequence so that we can be at our very best for the show.


The first show for Chingay is another 8 days away and Team Wheelies preparations are in full swing. The euphoria of participating in the Chingay is getting to everybody and we are training very hard to make sure we put up a good show for you. Please support us by cheering us on. Go #Teamwheelies



 

Monday 18 January 2016

A story of two wheels

Currently, the Wheelies have more than 3,700 members and you will be surprised many of my members owns two wheels. You must be wondering why is there a need for them to get another wheel? Office wheel, leisure wheel? The answers are right below











Saturday 16 January 2016

Don't turn us away during car free day

With the proliferation of usage of personal electric vehicles (PEV) in Singapore, it’s a common sight to see people in office wear on their PEVs going to office, buying groceries or a family just having a fun outing together at the beach. In short, PEVs has captured the attention of the nation and they are here to stay.




As Singapore's largest electric unicycle group, we were naturally excited when URA announces there will be a car free Sunday in Singapore starting 28 February. A car free Sunday is similar to the car free day held around the world. Held on the 22nd Sept every year, a Car-Free Day encourages motorists to give up their cars for a day. It encourages people to reduce their carbon footprint by using other greener methods of travel.

Car free Sunday (Singapore) will be held on the last Sunday on every month for 6 months. The proposed route is 4.7km long, comprising full road closures around the Padang and partial road closures along Fullerton Road, Shenton Way and Robinson Road.

Proposed Routes

We have been propagating for the longest time for the electric unicycle to solve the current strain on public transportation, roads and parking. Besides being a green alternative for cars, it is also low cost and affordable for us, with many of the models costing below $1000. Being portable, it makes it easy for us to trolley around with us and keep in between our legs when we are on public transport and uses it for our first and last mile transportation needs. While we are advocating all the benefits (including health) that a green transport like the electric unicycle brings, we hope that the authorities don't turn us away come 28 February 2016.

As we look forward to our very own car free Sunday next month in our own backyard, we will look back at a KL car free day clip The Wheelies participated in. Enjoy!



Friday 15 January 2016

Review of Airwheel Q5

Q5 is an updated model of the aging Q3. While the older model of Q3 gives an impression of cheap materials being used, the latest duo wheel addition to the Airwheel family gives an impression of sophistication with its space age and capsule design.


WEIGHT
11.5 KG
SPEED
18 km/h
BATTERY
Sony 170 Wh
DISTANCE
15 km/h
CHARGE TIME
90 mins

According to the product description, Q5 provides the ease of learning with an improved gyroscope system with claims to be 0.03 seconds ahead of its competitors. A support stand affixed to the pedal that can be used when the power is not turned on. A quieter system with its magnetic levitation technology.

When we put the wheel to the test, we can definitely feel the vast improvements made with the gyroscope as opposed to Q3, which is rough. However, while its improvements over Q3 is clear, we would think that the wheel still fall short of competition.

We also put the wheel through a slope test, Q5 has no difficulty in wheeling up the slope of a multi-storey car park (subject of testing weights about 74Kg). We can ride it without worrying the power cutting on the wheel. What we like is the LED lights that is integrated in Q5. This definitely makes night riding safer due to improve visibility of the wheeler. The support stand is also useful too when we bring our wheel around..

OUR VERDICT

A first timer to electric unicycle will feel intense and rigid if they are riding an unicycle for the first time. However, the self-balancing mechanism of Q5 does make it much easier for first timers since its a duo wheel system. While Q5 represents several improvements over Q3, go for better wheels out there if you have a bigger budget.

RATINGS
DESIGN
3/5
FEATURES
2/5
PERFORMANCES
2.5 / 5
BATTERY LIFE
1.5 / 5
VALUE FOR MONEY
2/5

Thursday 14 January 2016

When electric unicycle meets his father

An unicycle is a single wheel bicycle. Unlike a bicycle, an unicycle don't have any handlebar and is single wheel. Thus the riders must learn how to balance using their abdominal and leg muscles.

The first US patents for an unicycle was published in 1869 by Frederick Myers and it is not until 142 years later when the world first saw an electric unicycle in 2011 with Solowheel. The key difference between a electric unicycle and a manual one lies with the self-balancing gyroscope and the Lithum-ion battery which powers the electric unicycle without having the rider to pedal.


Both type of unicycles trained your balancing, concentration and coordination and also work out your abdominal and leg muscles. While the electric unicycle is assisted with a gyroscope that help in most part of the balancing, a manual unicycle requires much more balancing skills. Below is a table of their differences:



MANUAL


ELECTRIC

Pedal powered

Battery powered


Seated

Standing


Riding with weight on the seat

Riding with weight on the standing platform


Takes on average 12-20 hours of guided training to learn

Takes on average 1-2 hours of guided training to learn


Intense cardiovascular activity


Low to Moderate cardiovascular activity



Brake by leaning forward and reverse direction of pedaling

Brake by leaning back



Need to learn how to balance in all directions

Gyroscope assists you to balance forward/backward. Only need to know how to balance left and right


On average weighs about 5 kg


On average weighs about 14 kg

For an electric unicycle, in holding your upper body forward of your legs and in an extended position, you work the deepest abdominal support muscles necessary to transfer forces from your feet up through your arms. Electric unicycling allows you too to develop local muscular endurance through holding your quads in a flexed position, as well as some rotational flexibility and strength in pulling turns.

Electric unicycling is moderately aerobic: You are moving large muscle groups enough to elevate your oxygen consumption during twisting and turning. While it helps riders trained up a good core, riding a unicycle is an effective way too to get in a low-impact workout for those with damaged knees and legs,  yet providing you to keep your heart rate between 50% to 85%.. It can be done anytime. It can be a ride to the MRT and/or work place, or out to grab lunch and / or groceries. 

For more information about electric unicycle, you can visit www.thewheelies.sg/shop


Monday 11 January 2016

A wheeling marathon by Frederick

The Wheelies have invited Fred, a fellow wheelian, a friend and a electric unicycle enthusiast to share his account of his experience of journeying 100km around Singapore just on his electric unicycle. Video, photos and content are produced in full with permission from Fred on our blog. Kudos once again for his dare to dream spirit and we are inspired!


100km begins right here …



Whoever says that Singapore is a boring place is probably more concern about the destination one is heading than the journey itself. As in life itself… the daily living journeys that we all part take are just as important as the result we achieve at the end isn’t it? It is thru’ these journeys that memories are developed…the good, the bad and the ugly… All are life changing in some ways.



I did not have any music playing to kill time on this anticipated long journey. I find it ironic, that Singaporean often complains about the lack of time… yet, we try to kill it whenever we do have it. I don’t need the distraction of music; injecting forms of imaginations which befuddle me from the surrounding. I really wanted to fully enjoy the whole journey as is. The sound of branches cracking beneath me, the thumping of the metal drain covers as I wheel over, the scream of the insects, the bellowing of the wind, and the chances of interacting with any passer-by.

I always like long drive and have done many times in my car. It allows me to enter a state of deeper thinking and self-reflection, free from various distractions, choosing to go where I want to go, and usually to places less traveled. Wheeling seems to be more effective in engaging most of my senses. It quietens my over active and easily restless mind… I can really engage quietly in my thoughts. I find it hypnotically therapeutic.



In fact, I discover wheeling in my EU (electric unicycle) put me in the driver seat more than driving my car…. Cos in my car… I am still “driven” by the rest of the moving vehicles and the traffic rules. I couldn’t stop as and when to appreciate the surroundings. Whereas in wheeling, I control where I want to go, how I want to ride, in the direction that I determined at that moment how I felt it should be. A film director without a script… the story is written as I wheel. It was wonderful break from the hectic work life.





There were several thrilling moments. Like the part thru an 800m-1km stretch in Ulu-Sembawang at about the 25km mark. It almost ended my trip that early due to me forgetting to fix my headlights. I didn’t have enough battery to do a detour but the road ahead is undisputedly …. Scary. In my thoughts, the effort and time that goes into the planning of this trip didn’t justify giving up on the entire 100km trip, for that moment of 1km of intense fear and doubt in pitch darkness.

So, I suck it up and wheel on excruciatingly slow, with only 2-3 feet of visibility in front of me in order not to trip or run off the track. It would be a traumatic experience if I ever slip and fall in the middle of nowhere, encase in pure pitch darkness. I made it out eventually… and am not in the hurry to repeat that again anything soon.



So what was I thinking about for the 9hrs 21min journey?… Loads! From pondering if I should take up the invitation to do a PhDs, doing scenario planning for work, critically reflecting on recent events, conjuring my next design ideas, what should my next personal challenge be…. to the deeper things in life…. Like… “Why do grass smell like piss when they’re wet?”



Since this is a blog on “Wheelies” perhaps it would be appropriate to share the moments when I was thinking about the Wheelies group which occurred somewhere on the stretch from Yishun to Orchard.

I would not consider myself being with the group long enough to be a “know-it-all”, however, in my view, one obvious attribute, and I felt, it’s most valuable group asset, is how open and inviting the members are to everyone. There was no evident of hidden agenda, nor do people being selective in choosing who they want to include, and that collective embracing attitude from the more senior members to newer members is something I find rare from my encounter with other interest groups.

I find this element precious in current times, where the hustle and bustle of work and the dog-eat-dog world get infiltrated into our personal life, the coldness and selfish protectivism mentality, that this “ME” attitude are now so prevalent in Singaporean that we only engage in activities and make friends that focus in benefiting ourselves.

The Wheelies however, have kept it fairly pure in their simple intention…. which is a gathering of friends that enjoys wheeling and the drive to make electric unicycle towards greater acceptance from the public. There were no bureaucratic institution of chairman or committees members… nor any hieratical relationship among each other. As such, everyone come in as equal and is able to exercise their expertise, contribution and leadership as and when situation calls for.

As witness in the time with this group, the interactions via various activities have spun off many potentially long term friendships among themselves. I find it more and more difficult to develop lifelong friends as ones ages. Believe me… I am OLD… enough to say that. It is even rarer to have the opportunity to develop good friendship with people of different background, age and gender without ulterior motives.

It is my personal hope and desire, that as the group positively attracts and increases in numbers, these very core qualities that fuel its success would continue to replicate itself to other members in their own ways.


I also thought a lot about the use of electric unicycle in this trip. How odd it is that people seem more approachable when you wheel… it’s like Tony Stark is just human till he don on the Ironman Suit. I got a few cars that horned at me and giving me a thumb-up as I wheel along the pavement or stop at the junctions. Strangely because usually if a car horned at you when you drive, ones would expect the gesturing of the middle finger instead and not the thumb.



I manage to catch a few chats along my trip with passer-by, pedestrians and cyclist. The conversations aren’t limited to inquiring on the contraption beneath my feet. At times, it spill off to other subjects too. It raises question within me as to why is it that we cannot engage such chat without the wheel; and why are strangers and myself more friendlier to each other and not when I am not wheeling. Perhaps it’s the novelty of moving on one wheel escalate me to the sort of “performer” and augmented a “celebrity” aura that helps breakdown the scepticism in human interactions. Maybe I will leave this to ponder in my next long wheeling trip….



Unplanned, the journey ended at the national stadium instead of Sentosa’s Siloso Beach, which was the initial plan to see the moment of sunrise. It was also unplanned that as I was filming the sunrise over the city afar, round the running track… the apps announced distance clocked …. 100km. It was a fitting end. The end of my journey, the start of a new day…. and a victory lap.

Now that I have done a 100 km of wheeling, and distance shorter is like…Waking up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet… and going back to bed again… The distance may be short… but it does give you the much needed relieve…



Probably the first 100 km journey ever made on a electric unicycle in Singapore. Enjoy!

Interested to get started on electric unicycling? Get yours at our webstore – http://thewheelies.sg/shop/



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