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Solowheel is for People Who Think a Segway is Boring (Video)

Posted by timothy on from the merrily-we-roll-along dept.

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.

12 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Millions of Years In The Making by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Finally, Peter's wheel has gone into production at last.

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    1. Re:Millions of Years In The Making by JeanCroix · · Score: 4, Informative

      That would be Thor's wheel, not Peter's.

    2. Re:Millions of Years In The Making by Spiridios · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There's a computer simulation available for those who want to try before they buy.

    3. Re:Millions of Years In The Making by kybred · · Score: 3, Funny

      I still haven't perfected the skill of omniscience. (This is of course, impossible). ;)

      How do you know?

  2. Downhill by Hatta · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

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    1. Re:Downhill by Anonymous+Psychopath · · Score: 2

      It's supposed to have regenerative braking, so going downhill will send juice back into the battery. I admit I'm intrigued. Not $1,300 intrigued, but still.

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      Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

    2. Re:Downhill by Jeremi · · Score: 2

      While you might argue that a simple model show the same energy requirement for ascending a hill as braking on the descent, I'm a mountain unicyclist and that is not at all the subjective experience.

      If your unicycle is equipped with a brake, sure.

      Without a brake, downhill is much riskier because the consequence of your legs getting tired is worse.

      On a flat surface or uphill slope, if your legs get tired you can just slow the unicycle down (or stop and hop off) until your legs recover.

      On a downhill slope, if your legs get tired you will start to go faster, eventually to the point that the pedals are turning fast enough that you can no longer synchronize your leg strokes with the position of the pedals to control your speed at all. At that point the unicycle will get ahead of you and you will fall backwards onto your ass at high speed, which isn't much fun. :(

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  3. I love this stuff by Teppy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!

    1. Re:I love this stuff by RedHackTea · · Score: 2

      According to google, it costs around $1500. The RYNO costs around $4500. I'd love to get the RYNO, but the last 250 CC motorcycle I bought was $4000, so I think $4500 is a bit steep and probably not going to interest me unless it goes down to $2000. I also think that the Solowheel should drop to about $1000. I would love to own either product, but the price is too high for what you get.

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    2. Re:I love this stuff by Beezlebub33 · · Score: 2
      So, the people riding this don't look ridiculous? I'd say it's about the same as a Segway, though neither is terrible. In a society that people wear baggy pants so their underwear shows, this is nothing.

      And get off my lawn.

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      The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
  4. Re:503 Service Temporarily Unavailable by s.petry · · Score: 2, Funny

    You are so vain! Er wait, you meant the other kind of mirror...

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    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  5. Re:Need to be two of these by sodul · · Score: 2

    just put show on top of each wheel so that you are over the center, like an inline rollerblade.