Self-balancing Unicycle V3 - Get a little balance in your life
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,857 words · ~9 min read
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I'd say it's pretty normal for a new product to arrive and for there to be a
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bit of a learning curve for me before I can use it well enough to be able to do
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a review what's not normal is for the aforementioned new product to be a
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freaking battery powered unicycle that takes longer to learn than anything that
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I have ever covered before on this
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channel well almost longer whole room water cooling part s the stunning
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conclusion is actually in the pipeline so drop a like if you're excited to
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finally see the end of that particular
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Journey Corsair delivers real Mech or
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nothing with their new strafe mechanical keyboard featuring genuine german-made
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Cherry MX key switches click on this keyboard here to learn more let's start
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with the unboxing experience inside the package I found the self-balancing
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unicycle or sbu version 3 an alternate
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seat height sh sh a charger a set of keys and finally the manual take my
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advice leave everything in the Box except the manual read it cover to cover
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twice before you even consider plugging in the spbu let alone powering it on it
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contains a wealth of critical tips and tricks like never lift the S spu off the
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ground while operating it or it'll spaz the crap out and spin it full speed
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trying to balance itself oh and my personal favorite if you're too cool for
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safety gear then you are too cool for the sbu because this thing is flat out
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dangerous in the hands of an irresponsible person who is going too
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fast for control without appropriate safety gear which isn't to say it can't
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be ridden safely it's just that the S spu is less of a you know child's
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electric toy and more of a tool or a vehicle so it needs to be treated as
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such let's take a tour it features aluminum alloy construction to keep
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weight down to allow for its 122w internal battery pack the single
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metal rimmed Tire should be inflated prior to use for best results closer to
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the rated maximum will result in better rolling efficiency and easier twisting
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for balance but a bit less cushion as you travel uh more on that later on the
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sides of the wheel are two folding footrests at the very top is the
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cushioned seat that can be bolted to either the longer or shorter shaft in a
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few minutes to accommodate different Rider Heights I used the shorter one
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then at the base of the shaft is the power input jack power button and the
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lock that overrides the power button lock your s spu if you have kids or a
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particularly dextrous pet rabbit all
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right so I think I've talked enough about that let's move on to actually
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using the thing the first time out I got geared right the crap up I wore my
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motorbiking equipment except the helmet and there is a good reason the S spu's
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top speed is 20 kmph not as much of a
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problem on something like an electric skateboard but as someone who has fallen
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off one of those at that speed in the past I realized that from a sitting
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position the tumble would be much more difficult to control so I took it really
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slow like Glacier slow some good tips
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here also in the manual don't grab onto
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the seat you'll fall over pretty much instantly you steer by and balance by
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twisting not by leaning you want to look to the Horizon rather than on the ground
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and front of you you want to put your arms out for balance like a tight RPP
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Walker and don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away I hit my first
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Milestone moving about 10 ft in a straight line without putting my feet
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down on the first day but it actually wasn't until my second and third
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attempts that I really managed to start using the S spu's speed control it's
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super intuitive lean forward to go lean
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more to go faster and then lean back to slow down using its regenerative break
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stop and even eventually go backwards if
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you go too fast the S spu will correct you by leaning itself back until you
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aren't able to lean forward anymore I read about this in the manual and it
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sounded like the kind of thing that causes an accident but the first time it
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happened it didn't throw me off at all literally or figuratively by the fifth
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outing I was feeling pretty comfortable on the S spu fall starts still happen
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sometimes because much like with a bicycle it's considerably easier to
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balance while you got some forward momentum but at this stage I had gotten
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to the point where I could go out on a walk with my family and move at the same
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speed as my wife with the stroller so we could actually carry a conversation
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instead of me just scooting ahead because otherwise I'd tip over on the
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sbu so that's all there is to it I guess
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um should you buy one it's certainly cool it samples data at an impressive
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1,000 times per second from its accelerometer and Gyro and uses its
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torque tastic electric motor the same
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one that tackled the local Hills as if they were nothing and not that I could
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find one can apparently drive up a 30% grade to automatically correct forward
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and backward balance relying on the user to balance side to side it draws
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attention like few things I've ever seen before and I was the kid in high school
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bearing in mind this was 15 years ago before everyone in their Grandma was
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doing it with the fluorescent pink spiky hairo so when you're rocking it and
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looking cool on the S spu people are definitely noticing that
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and when you're still learning or you wipe out accidentally people notice that
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too so it's one heck of a double-edged sword of a conversation starter but back
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to that question should you should you buy one the answer unfortunately is in
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my opinion not unless you really want to
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spend this kind of money on something that in my mind is effectively a toy
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wait a second lonus you said earlier that it's not a toy and aren't you the
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very person who argued that the zboard electric skateboard a similar Gadget in
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many respects was actually justifiable yes I did say those things
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so let me clarify it's not a toy in the
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sense that its power Innovative design and build quality vastly exceed that of
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any toy I've ever seen but it is a toy
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in the sense that it's just not very practical I'll give Focus designs this
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the fact that it can be operated in the rain makes it usable more days out of
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the year than my zboard and for the type of vehicle it is the S spu's speed and
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range are astounding an average male could travel quickly about 15 km One Way
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charge it for a mere hour and then get home 15 km again but the main thing
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stopping me from recommending the S spu is that I can't think of any reason that
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I would want to ride it that far and for
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that long it's just not comfortable nor
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is it easy enough to use for me to consider it a relaxing mode of
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transportation I've got a few hours of riding under my belt and I am able to
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use it but I can tell you it would require a lot more work to trust myself
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anywhere near other people and much worse than that even once you master it
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the sbu has no shocks or suspension
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system whatsoever so every bump on the ground is basically like being punched
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between the hands so while the people riding these things backward solving
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Rubik's cu Cubes at the same time is proof that with more practice they are
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easier to ride the comfort factor is the big reason why if given the choice I'll
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take a standing electric vehicle for my daily commute versus the
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sbu yeah I can't think of a segue So speaking of absolutely nothing
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Squarespace simple powerful beautiful websites whether you want to create one
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about like you know the tricks that you can do on your sbu or whether you want
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to create one about you know sbu Rel
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accessories that you want to sell or whether you just want to create like a
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portfolio site whatever kind of site you want to create they've got 247 support
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via live chat and email it starts at only $8 a month you get a free domain if
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you sign up for a year they've got a whack ton of beautiful templates and
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easy to use tools like seriously it's so easy to use that when edzel put some
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frankly quite racist stuff in the contact or in the r team page of our
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website I was able to go in and fix it without waiting around for him to fix it
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just in case anyone actually saw it seriously our new guy he had something
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in there about how he can barely speak English I'm like really dude really so I
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pulled that down thanks to Squarespace um I don't remember what I
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was saying about that anymore so guys basically you're going to want to visit
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squarespace.com and use offer code Linus
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to save 10% on your new beautiful
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website that is not offensive or could
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be offensive I guess I don't know that's ultimately up to you because the choice
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is yours so thanks for watching guys if you
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disliked this video bam I think you know what to do but if you liked it do go
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ahead hit the like button get subscribed
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maybe support us by you know I don't know buying a cool t-shirt like this one
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giving us a monthly contribution through our Forum or changing your Amazon
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bookmark one with our affiliate code that kind of stuff all helps us out a
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lot once you're done doing all that stuff and you're looking for something else to watch if you want something a
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little more conventional than this we actually just put up a review of the LG
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G4 which you can check out by clicking that little I in the top right corner
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and I guess uh that's pretty much it thanks again for watching and I'll see
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you again next time it's going to be my new
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catchphrase it's probably never been done before
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oh