Day 3

No video today, but I did have to recharge my Solowheel twice!

I finally felt comfortable enough turning that I braved the neighborhood sidewalks. At first, I just ran laps around my block. This got me used to small bumps in the sidewalk and 90 degree turns. Also, I got used to watching for pedestrian traffic instead of focusing all of my attention on my own ride. After about 20 minutes of constant riding, my feet did get a little tired. Taking a short break helped a lot. Also, spreading my feet apart a little more stopped me from levering my shins into the tops of the red pads, which had made me pretty sore over the past couple of days. (The soreness is mostly gone now, but I'm still wearing an ace bandage on each leg as a cushion.)

You can only do so many laps of your own block, so I eventually began to venture forth. I rode the mile or so down the big hill to my kids' school and back. I walk this route several times a day, but I was amazed how quickly I covered the distance on the Solowheel. I rode around a local park, then I took my daughters to several nearby parks, them biking and scootering along with me. We had a great day, and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable. I can't turn tight circles, or ride one-footed, but I can keep the wheel on the sidewalk...

And people weren't kidding about the thing being a conversation magnet. It seemed like everyone wanted to talk about what I was riding, where did I get it, how hard is it to ride, shouldn't I be wearing a helmet, etc.. Great way to get to know your neighbors a little better: Ride a Solowheel around your neighborhood on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Now I'm contemplating whether to go to sleep, or go for a short moonlight ride...

Day 2, third hour on my Solowheel

Ace bandages did the trick, and made the pressure on my sore calves much more bearable. I also realized that my feet were too close together. I opened them up by a few centimeters, so that the outsides of my feet were hanging off the platforms a bit, and this stopped the insides of my shins and ankles from getting levered into the red pads on my Solowheel when I stand up straight.

Basically, another very fun hour for me. I'm starting to feel a little more in control. At the end of today's video, I hand held the camera for a few minutes.

The morning after.

I could tell as I headed off to sleep last night that this was probably coming, but wow do my lower legs hurt. I tried to hop onto the Solowheel this morning, but I had to step right back off. The spot where the tops of the red pads rest against my inner shins and calves are lovely dark bruises covered with abrasions, and standing on the wheel poked right into those sore spots. I must have been squeezing too hard with my legs yesterday.

I've wrapped my calves with ace bandages for another try. I'll post an update later today.

Things I learned in hour #2 of riding a Solowheel

1. Keep plenty of slack in the safety band. You will be tempted to try to pull on it for balance, but this will knock you off the wheel every time. Its purpose is to keep the wheel from falling over and getting scraped up when you step off, and it makes a passable shoulder strap for carrying your Solowheel.
2. Stand up straight. At first, it seemed more natural to try to ride along in a crouch. This makes it really hard to lean forward, and so keeps you going super slow. This might sound like a good idea, but it's actually much harder to balance at low speeds than high. And it's extremely hard to stand still while balanced on a Solowheel. I would say it's impossible, but I'm sure there are people who could pull it off. Just not me.
3. Ditch the shinguards. I know my last post started with how much I thought they were helping, but I think I was wrong. This may be a personal opinion, but while they were saving me a little pain in the shins, they were actually making it harder to ride, by adding a little "mush" between me and the wheel. I'm not saying you have to use a death clench with your legs against the wheel, but keeping your shins and ankles right up against the red pads definitely helps control the twist of the wheel, which is a big part of balancing the Solowheel. Warning: Your calves and inner shins will probably get pretty sore. I might try a thin pad or neoprene wrap tomorrow. And lots of Tiger Balm tonight.
4. To do a 180 degree left turn, drop your left shoulder down and back. Once I realized this, I went from falling off every time I tried to turn around to usually staying up. A little bit of hip twist helps too.

Working on the above for an hour or so made a huge difference. Compare my riding at the beginning vs. end of the video below.

Sorry for the low light, it got pretty late on me. I also didn't have time to look for some music to add, and just decided to post as-is.

It has arrived!

I got my Solowheel today. After topping off the battery, I headed out for a little practice. The pressure on my shins and ankles was pretty painful, but luckily I'd been advised to use a little padding. After strapping on a pair of soccer shinguards, and turning them each 90 degrees toward the insides of my legs, I was much more comfortable!

The padded ankle was a nice extra, as it cushioned the pressure point on the top of my ankle bone. The downside was I had to keep rotating them back into the wheel, as they liked to roll over to the front of my shins as I rode. I think as I get more comfortable, my "death grip" might relax and maybe I can retire the shinguards at some point.

It took me a while to figure out exactly where to put my feet on the platforms. I have relatively small feet (size 41 Vibram Fivefingers, or roughly size 8 1/2 US), and my feet still more than covered the platforms, but eventually I seemed to figure out their placement. I put the balls of my feet on the leading edge of the platform, toes hanging slightly over the front. I can actually flex my toes downward in the shoes I wore today (Vibram EL-X - The best shoes I've ever owned!) so that I could almost grab on to the platforms with them.

The outsides of my feet sat almost right on the outer edges of the platforms, but I think I could move them in a bit if not for the shinguards.

The safety strap is a must for now. I would have dumped the wheel several dozen times already without it. I just have to remember not to pick the wheel up off the ground! (It goes a little nuts if you do.)

I was riding along a fence, and up and down a slight incline. Down was far easier than up. For some reason, I had a lot of trouble leaning forward on the uphills, and the wheel thought I wanted to stop. Possibly a mental/coordination issue, so I'll work on it.

About that fence. Don't try to grab a chain link fence while moving several mph. It hurts. Also, don't grab the posts where the sharp wires hold the fence to said post. That hurts more.

It's easy to start off holding onto a post or pole. It's harder to start off without anything to hold onto, but I managed it a few times.

I recorded myself for a while, to share and remember what that first ride looked like.

Music: Moiteur d'une chaude nuit d'été (Circus Marcus) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Overall, it went better than I expected. After a while, I could leave the fence. Briefly at first, and then for longer and longer rides. My camera battery died after about 30 minutes, but I kept at it for maybe 30 more. By the very end, I was able to stay on the Solowheel for a minute or two if I was lucky. Those brief rides were pure joy. It's hard to describe the feeling: a bit like a good clean glide on ice skates, a bit like soaring, and totally awesome!

Delivery progress, on a map

Just for my own personal amusement, I'm playing with the Google Maps Engine Lite today, and adding pins as the UPS package tracker updates my Solowheel delivery progress. Here's a direct link to the above map, which I will try to keep up-to-date.

The maps engine is pretty cool. It let me drop a bunch of pins, draw lines on the map, adjust the colors and labels, and share my map with either specific people, or with everyone. You can also collaborate with specific other people, or everyone, by giving them the ability to edit your map. And it's free!

One random observation: It's one kind of experience to wait for something without knowing where it is or when more info might become available, as in "we should have more units sometime in the next few weeks". It's another thing entirely to wait for something while fully informed. Even though I was given a delivery window up front, and this window looks like it will be met with a few days to spare, I'm much happier with the process now that UPS is updating me every step of the way!

Shipped!

My wait is nearly over, Inventist shipped my Solowheel today! UPS estimates its arrival at my door on Friday. I know it hasn't even been three full weeks since I placed my order, but waiting for something I'm this excited for has been rough. Hopefully, Inventist will be able to sort out their supply chain so that future customers are spared this pain!

OK, it wasn't that bad. Once upon a time, I hear people had to wait months, or even years, for certain major purchases. Seems almost unthinkable in this age of instant gratification...