The electrified one-wheeler space is an interesting corner of the transportation universe. It’s easy to see their appeal; they provide e-bike-like speed and distance in a far more compact package, making them a far more appealing choice for people with limited storage space at their origin or destination.
Though these one-wheelers occupy a small niche of the personal vehicle segment, they’ve developed a strong following split amongst several sub-niches. My personal favorite is the people who take their electric unicycles (EUCs) off-road racing and rock crawling, using cycles with long-travel suspension and knobby off-road tires. Emme Hall covered one of those events for The Autopian earlier this year, and it’s as fascinating as you’d expect.
Then there are the people who take their EUCs wheel-to-wheel racing, using go-kart tracks as venues for their events. These unicyles use racing slicks, with some riders even using knee sliders—the composite pucks you’d normally find on the knees of racing motorcyclists—on the palms of their hands to keep their balance.
Though the cornering speeds aren’t very quick, the races are still wildly entertaining to watch. It’s deeply impressive to see how the riders are able to manipulate their bodies to bend around corners:
This latest unicycle from InMotion, a Chinese manufacturer of electric unicycles and scooters, feels like it leans much further in the racing direction than anywhere else. It’s called the P6, and it promises some fairly ridiculous specs, including a top speed of 93 miles per hour and a 0-30 mph time of 1.9 seconds.
That top speed makes the P6 the fastest production one-wheeler on the market, as far as I can tell, besting the Begode ET Max released last year, which could do nearly 70 mph. Maybe it’s just me, but going nearly 100 mph on a unicycle seems… insane?
I suppose doing these types of speeds on an EUC is no more dangerous than doing the same speed on a motorcycle—you’re just as exposed to the outside world, and if you’re smart, you’re wearing the same protective gear. Still, something about a human body standing on a wheel, flying through the air with nothing between it and a tree or a wall, makes me incredibly uneasy. At those speeds, even a fall to the pavement with plenty of room to roll or slide can cause some significant injuries.
Going by the photos on the P6’s product page, it looks like you’ll need a good deal of experience in riding to squeeze that 1.9-second 0-30 time. Like on other high-performance EUCs, the P6 has pads on either side of the body to hold your ankles in place, allowing you to lean forward as you accelerate. Here’s how it looks in action:
Unlike the EUCs in that first video above, the P6 isn’t a pure racing machine. There’s a headlight, taillights with turning blinkers, and a deployable trolley handle, so you can wheel it around while you walk on foot. In front of that handle is a color touch screen that displays info like speed, current charge, and error lights. So you can use it as a normal commuter if you really want to.
If I were the one-wheeling type, I would use it for the range. InMotion says the P6 can manage 124 miles on a charge, which is better than some last-generation electric streetcars. That’s thanks to a fat 4,200Wh pack of batteries supplied by Samsung, connected to the single electric motor. That motor is rated at 20 kW, or 26.8 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque, which feels like a whole lot for something that weighs just 112 pounds without a rider.
Not only is the P6 quick on the pavement, but it’s also quick to charge. The standard 5-amp charger can juice the batteries in 4 hours, but there’s an optional 14-amp charger that can pump the pack 80% full of useful electrons in just 1 hour. With USB-C and USB-A outputs, you can even use it as a gigantic, wildly impractical portable battery.
Though the P6 is advertised as something meant for on-pavement performance and track use, InMotion has photos of the unicycle traversing puddles and going down stairs. Unlike some one-wheelers, this one has a real suspension setup with 3.5 inches of travel. There’s also adjustable damping, so you can tune in the stiffness depending on what kind of terrain you find yourself on.
All of this performance can be yours for the low price of $4,999 before shipping and taxes—or exactly as much as my Miata (an entire car with air conditioning, a roof, and a radio) cost me. Not saying the two are comparable (who knows if my Miata could still hit 93 mph), but it does put the price into perspective.
Deliveries of the P6 start on December 15th, meaning if you order then, the P6 could arrive just in time for Christmas. I, for one, can’t wait to see people flying up and down my neighborhood street on the morning of the 25th, testing their unicycle to see if it could really go faster than most of The Autopian’s fleet.
Top graphic images: InMotion
Where we these things when I was younger and healed easier?
That’s exactly what I think every time I see something like this.
On the other hand, some perfectly amusing things from my youth are now illegal, so there’s that.
I am quite happy they didn’t have these when I was younger. The elites are just trying to find a plan to make a profit off of killing millions because there are too many people
I wonder what speed and standing position were assumed to reach 124 miles range? The human body is not particularly aerodynamic, and proper riding gear definitely won’t help.
Just what we need, another high speed ride that doesn’t require a license.
I am sure that in most places it technically does require a license. Its power and speed are multiple times above what is allowed for an e-bike or e-scooter in my state, 750W and 28mph max. The vast majority of these are used illegally.
There’s a guy in Riverside, Ca that is pretty active on Insta. I’ve seen him IRL, the dude is good on that EUC. Look him up @nitehawk951
I wonder what the braking distance from 93 mph is? Also, what happens with a cross wind gust at 70+ mph, is there enough gyroscopic stability to counteract that sort of thing?
I would say it depends on where the brick walls are. I don’t think any of these reached a third of the top speed. Just live WWE it ain’t real but still has amazing members
Well, it beats dealing with the airlines
The weight is what gets me, damn. I have an electric scooter for short trips and it only weighs 50 lb. Of course it has 1/3 the speed and less range, but the delta between them is still more than I would’ve expected.
Emergency rooms have a nickname for people that ride motorcycles. “Organ donors.”
This just takes it to another level.
There wouldn’t be anything left worth donating.
George Miller was originally a medical doctor and after becoming friends with Byron Kennedy in the early 70s he and Kennedy came up with the story for Mad Max drawing on what Miller saw in his work in emergency rooms in Sydney; many of his patients came in from crashes, with many of the worst cases being motorcyclists.
Yeah, Mad Max is pretty much a cinéma vérité documentary of life on the road in Australia, lol.
Thank you for this! I enjoy learning about things like this.
I believe it is donorcycles
At least it’s very unlikely someone will be on one of these drunk. At least, for more than a minute.
This has more horsepower than post-war Beetle
Waiting for someone to ride one of these across the country. Because that person will not be me.
I’d prefer the one wheel sitting cycle
Hard nope for me. Tried out a one wheel on a soft grass field a year so ago, did not go well.
No desire to be a Jackson Pollack on the pavement.
When I drove the medical car for MotoGP we had two MDs and a paramedic on board. I’d recommend similar accompaniment for this thing.
I know a guy who designed his own and built it from a parts catalogue. Does 70 mph. He programmed the balancing systems himself. He also made a set of armor for himself to wear while riding it.
As a testament to the sort of economy we are living in, he was at one point homeless, living out of the thing plus a backpack. He has two college degrees.
Boy, that is a Lot of faith in your own engineering abilities.
I didn’t build the one-wheeler. My friend did. I don’t have the balls to dare to try to ride it. I hate falling down and getting hurt.
I did make a recumbent trike with a PMDC motor in the rear wheel that performs similarly to said unicycle in a straight line. It’s 10 kW. I trust it. I love doing donuts with it. It used to be a velomobile when I had a body shell on it. It is currently being upgraded to AWD and will have hub motors in the front wheels also, because I want to drag race Hellcats.
It doesn’t take any balls to build it, it is the riding it that requires equal parts courage and stupidity
When it comes to riding the vehicle, I like to think of myself as being at the more “stupid” end of the scale graphing both courage and stupidity. So I prefer something I know how to clown in. That is exactly what my friend has done, and I respect that.
He just prefers a different type/experience of vehicle. The main drawing point to him is the maneuverability of the unicycle. He’s taken it into grocery stores just for the fun of it, respectfully and at walking speeds or less, and often without issue. No one suspects its capabilities in the grocery store because they haven’t seen him flying down four-lane state highways on it passing up the car traffic.
I have and it is quite a sight.
He also takes it on bike trails, but doesn’t endanger other people on them. Going passed other trail users, he goes walking speed or slightly above. Riding conditions dictate speed otherwise.
It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap
Atop a solo wheel for fun
‘Cause tramps like us, baby we were born for one
COTD
This might be the most ridiculous thing I have read this week, and I keep up with the news.
Two things about this occur to me. The first is how the heck do you mount/dismount these things? Do you need a chair or something every time? How does that work? The second is that this would make for a killer Gizmoduck cosplay.
A friend of mine who built his own carries a metal pole. He uses that for mounting/dismounting, as well as balancing it for cornering around tight spaces, or to keep moving at low speed while cars are stopped at an intersection.
So, he’s wearing armor and carrying a lance? Good knight!
It’s shown in the video at the start of the race.
Like any unicycle, or bicycle for that matter, you just accelerate and lift your foot. On these, they just lean forward (which causes acceleration) as they lift their foot, and they’re off!
Blatherin’ Blatherskite!
I’m pretty sure that dismounting could take care of itself.
https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/Costumed-DuckTales-hero-storms-through-SF-on-15720593.php
I’ve seen these guys before! One of those weird videos you find at 3 AM on Youtube. Like a glimpse into the future. They have to be nuts riding those things. But that doesn’t stop you from searching online to find out how much they cost and then you spend the rest of the night trying to convince yourself not to buy one.
The other competition you need to check out are those non-powered carts racing in South America on regular mountain roads. Most of the time it is 2 people, probably hand-built carts and they are hauling butt down these mountain roads as they shift their bodies to make some of those tight turns. Looks so much fun. Related to these carts are those longboarders in Europe racing down the Alps through some quaint ski towns. They are even crazier than the South American guys since there is literally nothing around them if they crash and they are mere centimeters from the ground.
I have this theory that these (well, not the 90+mph ones) were what segway prototypes were. There was *so* much hype… people saying it was going to be bigger than the personal computer, bigger than the internet… and then recanting when the production unit finally dropped.
But it can kind of see it–a briefcase size transportation device to connect the last couple of miles easily could have changed things. But first it was the goofy segway, I suspect because they couldn’t make it safe for most users without the handlebars; and then it was the toys, half of which caught fire. Now there’s solidified thought that these can’t be serious transportation devices, reinforced by the swarms of EDM pumping, RGB LED flashing riders zipping around for fun. But they are now hitting the range and charging numbers of serious transportation.
The problem with the Segway was that there was no place to ride them legally.
I know a cameraman who loves filming from one.
How does one spell ‘lunatic’ in Chinese?
♫ “Dumb Ways to Die”♫
AU needs an update.
So you’re tellin me that one could now do an Oppo Rally on just the 1 wheeled vehicle?
Only experience with these is the group of three 20-somethings that cruise my neighborhood in a pack while pumping house music.
It looks exhilharating, but I’m someone who tripped and tore my rotator cuff and bicep when I landed on the ground, so not for me.
I can literally not conceive of having the core strength to ride one of these at anything other than walking speed. 93 MPH? Do they mention that a sense of invulnerability is a prerequisite?
Motorcycles are just training wheels to these people.
The ad campaign says “Not for the old.”
I think “Not for the sane.” would be more accurate, but then again, I’m old. 😉
I remembered it wrong!
“But I repeat myself”
They’re not going to live long enough to get old.
“Hope I die before I get old” Done.
Not my generation
There are old one-wheelers and bold one-wheelers, but no old, bold one-wheelers?
I ride one of these and I’m 51. I ride for fun, but also for the last mile of my commute. It’s super fun and easy to get on/off the bus. The fastest I go is 30mph though, which is plenty fast. It feels like I’m downhill skiing everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong, I use a Lime scooter all the time, but I wear a helmet and those things are capped at 15MPH and I STILL get nervous. I think “nervous” is healthy. But the amount of confidence I’d need to have in a piece of equipment AND the road, to travel at 93MPH?! Definitely a young person’s game. Or, like, Mel’s character in Lethal Weapon. (Riggs, I think?) As long as you’re not riding on my sidewalk, go for it!
That sounds cool. I’ve reached an age where I can barely stand on one foot with my eyes closed for 10 seconds, so I won’t be attempting this.
Me too Canopy! 🙂