Hi Everyone,
I'm TimD, a dad in his 40s who's been looking forward (without knowing it) to this kind of technology to be readily available. I first saw a guy riding down Oxford Street, London a few months ago on what looked like an Airwheel X3. He seemed to be mingling with pedestrians without any trouble. I wondered how he controlled it thinking that he may have a remote controller in his hand. He even stepped off his wheel and stepped back on again with complete ease. My reaction like many others was "What is that?" and "I want one!".
I didn't go up to the guy on the wheel but made it my mission to search for it on the net, entering keywords such as unicycle, electric, mono, wheel etc. Before long I saw sites for Airwheel, Solowheel, IPS, Mobbowheel and plenty of YouTube videos. After a short while of justifying the cost to myself I took the plunge and ordered an X5.
It took weeks to arrive but was definitely worth the wait. I knew I wasn't going to master it instantly and chose to have it delivered to my work address in London where there's a decent bit of floor space to practice. On the day the unit arrived I waited for everyone else to go home and then I unpacked the device and gave it a try, propping myself up against a bank of cupboards. To start with I was a complete clumsy idiot lurching about and falling off all over the place (and that's despite being an ice skater). However after about an hour I was starting to get the hang of going a few meters without needing to hold onto anything.
I remember some advice I picked up "gently lean forward and trust the wheel". It seemed to do the trick. That very same night I embarked on a 10 mile trip back home from work. I didn't have much confidence so I waited until it was late at night when not many people where around. I got most of the way without much mishap but then the battery gave out so I had to finish the journey off by bus.
Anyway to cut long story short I now have a 340WH Q3 and that easily lets me commute all the way in & out of work. The 10 mile trip each way takes about 1h20m by wheel (an hour by metro, 50 mins by bicycle or 2.5 hrs by foot). I now have far more confidence and am fine with the attention that the wheel brings.
I know there are other users out there who are equally enthusiastic about these devices and I'm interested to find out how others get on with theirs, as well as their opinions and feedback from general public.
There's a video of me on the X5 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVz4y7Ro1YM
I started an Airwheel (+ other makes) forum at:
http://mywheel.freeforums.org