InMotion V5 electric unicycle review: How I didn’t even hurt myself testing it
The electric unicycle crowd is a pretty passionate one. It’s not rare to see you folks in my comment section, lecturing me about how your EUC goes farther and faster than whatever e-bike I’m covering that day, all for a fraction of the price. And I’ll admit, the ability to ride an electric vehicle to your destination and then just pick it up to carry it inside like a briefcase does have its appeal. So I figured I’d give the InMotion V5 a test, as it’s supposed to be a very beginner friendly wheel.
I’m actually not a total beginner at electric unicycles, but it’s been a good half a decade or so since the last time I hopped on one.
And even then, I was far from being able to teach a class on the subject, to put it lightly.
So I figured it’s about time to climb back up on the one-wheeled horse. And to do so, InMotion hooked me up with a novice wheel known as the InMotion V5.
It’s about as beginner-friendly as it gets with modest power, a low top speed, and a smaller battery to keep it lightweight.
Check out how my testing went in my video review below. Spoiler alert: I didn’t hurt myself! Oh yeah, then keep reading to see my complete thoughts on this alternative electric vehicle.
InMotion V5 video review
InMotion V5 tech specs
- Motor: 450W hub motor
- Top speed: 12.5 mph (20 km/h)
- Range: 12.5 miles (20 km)
- Battery: 188 Wh
- Wheel size: 14″
- Weight: 25 lb (11.3 kg)
- Brakes: Umm, you just lean backwards?
- Extras: LED lights, little foam pads to cushion your ankles, not much else
- Price: $599
What is an electric unicycle like?
Electric unicycles have proven to be just as convenient as I imagined them to be. It’s amazing to have a fully-capable little electric vehicle that fits under my chair. I don’t even have to worry about locking it outside like an e-bike or an e-scooter since I can just bring it inside with me.
But the convenience is only appreciable after you put in the time to become comfortable riding one. Depending on your sense of balance and mental elasticity, that may take just a few short days or several long and painful weeks.
There’s a lot of hopping off and dropping the EUC along the way. In fact, I highly recommend picking up one of those protective unicycle condom things that sleeves right over it and prevents you from scratching up your shiny new wheel.
For me, I was usually able to hop off and grab the handle, preventing mine from getting too scratched.
When it comes to learning, the best thing to do is start out in an open area like a parking lot.
Start with one foot on a platform and position the wheel up against the leg of that foot (I’m right-handed and like to start with my right foot on the wheel first). Then in one motion jump the other foot onto the empty platform and lean your whole body forward.
Now you’re 100% going to fall.
Congrats, you just had your first attempt and your first fall! Repeat that several dozen times, and you’ll be done.
Just kidding, sort of. Actually, not really. That’s pretty accurate.
Basically just keep doing that same thing, but keep these tips in mind. 1) Don’t look down at the wheel, but instead off at a point in the distance. 2) Don’t just lean your shoulders forward, but instead lean your whole body forward. If it helps, think of pushing your chest out and forward. 3) Make sure you’re standing up straight and not turning into a turtle.
Keep doing that until you can basically go straight. Once you feel like you’re rolling decently enough, it’s time to start turning. You turn by looking where you want to go. Look left, go left. Look right, go right.
I’ve read before that some people recommend starting up against a wall or fence so you can hold onto it for balance. But I found that to just get in the way since I was relying on the support instead of letting my brain learn to balance by itself.
The best way to train once you have your basic balancing down pat is to move from a wide open parking lot to somewhere with paths that have defined edges.
Walking paths in a park are best, especially ones with gentle curves instead of straight lines with hard angles at intersections. When your mind sees a boundary on either side, it just starts to move your body and steer you to stay within the boundary.
You quickly learn that steering is almost more involuntary than voluntary. Don’t try and steer left like you’re in a car. Instead, look down the curve to the left and lean slightly towards your target. Your body will handle the rest.
For me, it fortunately only took a few minutes off falling off the wheel to re-learn what I originally learned years ago from my first attempt at an electric unicycle. If this is your first time ever, then expect it to take several sessions over a few days.
It can be demoralizing in the beginning, but don’t quit. You think those dudes who walk tightropes were just born on a clothesline in the delivery room? No, they practiced until they could do it with their eyes closed. And that’s all there is to learning to ride an electric unicycle… practice!
The InMotion V5 makes it fairly easy since it just isn’t overly powerful. It’s not going to rocket out from under you, and it’s not going to freak you out with sudden acceleration. It doesn’t even weigh that much at just 25 pounds.
It even has cute little audio tips, like when you fall over it calls out, “Be careful!” Thanks, like I hadn’t thought of that.
Once I got the hang of it again, I really started to enjoy cruising around on the InMotion V5.
I could wiggle between parking meters, bollards, rows of picnic tables or just about anything else that came along my way. I could slow to nearly a crawl (though I’m still trying to figure out how to just rock back and forth in place, idling). I can roll over debris that might freak me out on smaller 8″ scooter wheels. And I can even take it up and down inclines, though I don’t have very many in Florida to test it on. The manufacturer claims it can handle an 18º slope, but I’ll believe that when I see it.
The 12.5 mph speed limit might seem like a lot at first when you’re struggling to go 3 mph, but you’ll quickly run up against it. It kind of freaks you out the first time you hit it, as the wheel speeds up slightly to gently rock you backwards while reminding you to “Slow down!”
Since the InMotion V5 is very much a beginner wheel, there’s a decent chance you’ll outgrow it and want to move up to a more powerful and faster model. That’s exactly what has happened to me now that I’ve gotten comfortable on it.
Even though you may progress pass its abilities, it’s a great way to get started in this fun world of single-wheeled electric vehicles. And at $599, it’s a pretty cheap way to test the waters, too.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.
He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.
When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.
EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.
The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.
The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.
A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.
The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.
Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.
For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.
Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:
Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.
The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.
We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”
They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.
The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.
The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.
Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.
The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.
“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.
Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus
If you’re an electric vehicle owner, charge up your car at home with rooftop solar panels. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing on solar, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –ad*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway