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Solowheel is for People Who Think a Segway is Boring (Video)
Shane Chen is an inventor who likes to make all kinds of things. For instance, he designed the frame and invented a special reflective surface for the screen you see in the background of the video below. But many of his inventions have to do with transportation, especially the kind of transportation that doubles as personal thrill ride, like a sail for paddleboats and an electric surfboard. At this year's CES, I spoke with Chen's daughter Ywanne about his latest rideable invention, which is for obvious reasons called the Solowheel. Her father's the one you can see demonstrating the device in the background; you can see trickier riding in this YouTube video. She says that of all her father's inventions, this is the one that came together most easily: his first stab at a powered unicycle just worked, and since then it's been polishing the experience and getting it to market. And "to market" isn't a dream; for about $1800, you can have an experience that's a bit more intense than a Segway. The Solowheel can climb hills of surprising steepness, as long as the rider is up for it. Coming down looks more challenging, though.
Finally, Peter's wheel has gone into production at last.
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Going downhill on a regular unicycle is harder than going uphill too. Up hill you just apply brute strength to climb as hard as you can. Down hill you have to brake with your legs keeping the unicycle at just the right speed so it stays under you.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I just got a Solo Wheel - it's harder to learn than you'd expect by looking at the videos (way, WAY harder than learning to ride a Segway, which was pretty much instantaneous for me.) But it's an absolute blast once you do learn, and the one nice day that I've ridden around in public, I had dozens of strangers coming up to me and asking all sorts of questions.
I really want one of the RYNO Motors gadgets next - planning to ride one of those all over Burning Man.
And this thing looks like a blast as well, but those treads look dangerous as hell!
You are so vain! Er wait, you meant the other kind of mirror...
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Looks like they need moore wheels for teh internetz!
Get a better mic timmy. That was like voices from the fishtank. Interesting interview though and a cool toy. The young lady should lift her lips a bit more though, looks like she's trying to hide her teeth.
two grand in the uk, but if it can climb a serious hill on grass it could be a blast for older walkers who dread the 200ft climbs along a coast walk...
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
Looks like the wheel that caveman guy rides around on in the comic 'B.C.'
Maybe it isn't, but to me that thing looks like it would be prone to face plants.
www.solowheel.com slashdotted.
Solo server, solo core, solo thread, eh?
A Segway will throw you off in the snow. I've seen the people playing with them on wet grass, and if it slides to where he wheels have different traction, it doesn't understand and can give orders to the wheels that endanger the riders. But with a single wheel, it should work. The issue would be traction and getting stuck. Segway has offroad tires available, though I still wouldn't want to risk a Segway on snow, so get this thing with snow tires.
Learn to love Alaska
Wouldn't work, the person's centre of gravity is supposed to be over the Solowheel's center.
just put show on top of each wheel so that you are over the center, like an inline rollerblade.
shoe not show (damn autocorrect)
Now I want to cosplay as Gizmoduck with one of these. That would be some awesome cosplay.
It would work if it were reconfigured to be like the
orbit skates.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
I live in Japan and while I have a hybrid light car(K-car Japanese Standard), I try to save money by walking(when it's raining/snowing) or riding my bicycle(on sunny/cloudy days). However, honestly, I don't exactly enjoy bicycles(nothing wrong with them, just personal preferences). Motorcycles are great but I'm not comfortable with the idea to share the road with cars that weight at least 10 times more and a segway is way too overpriced(and fugly). If you lived about 5km( 3 miles) from your work, would you use it daily instead of a bicycle? How usable the Solo Wheel is for daily life? Do you consider it just a toy or an actual transportation mean for short distances?
It was " Slashdotted "
* Carthago Delenda Est *
At African trade shows, speaking to African journalists. Next question.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
The Inventist website has a bunch of cool inventions by this guy!
http://inventist.com/
Did you see the girl awkwardly put her hand in her pocket?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfv1FhdaBBk
my sig
Try http://solowheel.info for some basic information, http://www.youtube.com/SoloWheela for videos
Does not help me in the snow.
It does not help much, but it's fun. See Riding the Solowheel in the snow
Very usable for daily life.
I own one of these and I use it 4x each day to travel 1.5km from home to work and back. Was doing this ride by bicycle for twenty years and I wanted a change.
At first it was a challenge, I had to stop to rest halfway. Now, with enough practise, it's simple, effortless.
I prefer the Solowheel to the bicycle for this distance although it takes a bit more time.
I carry the Solowheel along in the train when I have to visit customers, even if they're near the train station. It's a bit heavy for me to carry, so I ride on the platform in the train station and just walk a few steps...
Riding the Solowheel feels much more natural than the Segways, which I also considered as an alternative to the bicycle.
Search Solowheel on youtube. Or follow the link in the summary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeMSqUpWMMU reminds me so much of this game.
You are all a bunch of idots.