After riding my trusty Solowheel Glide 3 for over 450 miles, I finally decided it was time for an upgrade. Researching the world of higher-end electric unicycles was quite daunting. There seem to be tons of good options for long-range, high-powered wheels on the market:



Kingsong has the 18XL

Gotway has the Monster and the MSuperX

Ninebot has the Z10

Each one of these wheels has its own unique selling points and sets of strengths and weaknesses.



The Monster has some of the best specs on the market but is MASSIVE with no trolley handle.



The MSuperX is as fast as “the dickens” but lacks a good trolley handle and is seen by some as less safe and comfortable as its competitors.



The Ninebot is beautiful and futuristic looking, but is extremely thicc and no longer receives servicing from its parent company in China



The Kingsong is not as unbridledly quick as its wild brother the MSuperX, but has a solid list of features (including BT speakers and two USB charging ports!) and the nicest trolley handle of the group.



After doing some careful research, browsing the forums, and talking to the venerable Jason from eWheels.com, I was ready to make my decision:





Meet the newest wheel in my stable, the Kingsong 18 XL.



First Impressions



Taking this bad boy out of the box was an exciting, daunting, and at times challenging task. For those of you who have never seen this thing in the wild, it's a BIG wheel. In addition to its sizeable bulk, weighing in at 53 pounds, this wheel is no easy task to lift. I consider myself to be a fairly strong dude, I rock climb three days a week and have no problem busting out a set of 15 pull-ups, but I found lifting this wheel any higher than a foot off of the ground to be a herculean task. If you are looking for a wheel to take up and down a flight of stairs on a daily basis, this might not be the wheel for you.



(Thankfully my commute has bountiful escalators)

Once out of the box, I was struck with the fantastic look of the wheel and the high quality of the finish.



The Look



I opted for the sleek “black matte” option because I like to get my wheels dirty, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed with my choice. Compared to my garish Glide 3, the 18XL looks like a sleek piece of military hardware. The black sides, chunky footpads and sizeable handle all give the impression that the 18XL is all about business. In fact, the only indication that this piece of hardware might have some association with “fun” is the brightly gleaming LED “gills” on the sides.

One of the side effects of this “business” look is that I get far less attention than when I ride my Glide 3. When commuting on my Glide 3, I constantly have people asking me questions about it because it looks like a fun children’s toy with its wildly-undulating LED raindrops. Commuting on the 18XL is an entirely different ball game. I rarely have anyone stop me on my commute to ask about the wheel, and gatekeepers (bouncers, public transit officials ect.) are less likely to try to stop me from bringing it into places with me. I attribute all this to the businesslike look of the wheel, but it might just be the fact that it’s difficult to ask me questions when I am clipping along through the city at 25 mph…



The Ride



You know how your dad, uncle (or grandpa for our younger readers) always reminisces about the gigantic cars they had growing up? Cars so large that driving them around was more akin to captaining a large sea-vessel than riding in a car? Well if the Glide 3 was a VW Beetle, the 18XL would be a 1970 Lincoln Continental.



(Image for our newer readers who do not remember a time when tanks were road-legal)

Everything about this wheel is big:



-The lean/effort needed to get it moving

-The effort needed to turn it

-The physical size

-The weight

-The dent it will make in someone’s quarter panel if you bounce into a car on your commute

-The top speed

-The range

-The smile on your face when you hit 30 mph

Needless to say, it was a BIG adjustment for me to learn this wheel coming from the 30 pound Glide 3. I had to relearn my turning radius, starts and stops, and absorbing bumps at speed. Some of these things were much easier on the Glide 3 such as the quick turns and starting and stopping, but other things were a LOT easier.



It should be assumed that the larger 18 inch wheel would be much stabler and comfortable at speed, but I had no idea just how much better it would be. Riding this wheel in a straight line was akin to sitting in the driver’s seat of a big rig and putting the pedal down. Where other wheels are constantly bouncing around and reacting to the road, the 18XL owns the asphalt. The 18 inch wheel is most at home above 15 mph and is quite adept at absorbing most bumps, jolts, and gravel that the road can throw at you. It is almost unsettling how separated you feel from the riding experience as you simply lean, and let this wheel roll over whatever might be in your path. It is also extremely easy to take off-road and dropping off even the highest curbs is a cinch!

(Gotta have the fly kicks to match the fly wheel)

The footpads are also HUGE! My size 9.5 (US) feet fit well within the footprint offered by the pads, and the stock grip proved to be well suited to keeping my feet planted exactly where they were. On the Glide 3, I would have a bit of my heel and some of my toes hanging off of the front and backs of the pads, which was a little disconcerting at higher speeds. The pads on the 18 XL inspired confident riding at 20+ mph by isolating my tender feet from the dangers of the road.

One grievance I had with my pads early on was how difficult it was to fold them out. I literally had to lean down and use four of my fingers to pry the pad away from the side of the wheel before they would clack down with a thunderous sound (a lot like a gunshot. Less-than-ideal in urban environments). Thankfully, after loosening some key bolts and applying some WD40 in a few strategic spots, I was able to ease up the action on the pads.

The Speed

This wheel HAULS. What it lacks in maneuverability and weight, it more-than makes up for in the sheer, car-like speed. When I am riding this wheel, I often find it is much safer to take a lane on the road rather than riding on the sidewalk. A 30 mph top speed is plenty fast enough to hang with cars in the city, and is not often a speed I find myself reaching (I feel much more comfortable cruising in the 25-27 mph range).







Speaking of high-speed cruising, thank god this wheel is as big and stable as it is! It feels solid like a rock under your feet, even at the highest of speeds. You can even hit speed bumps or fairly large potholes with confidence, though make sure you see them and get your knees ready first! The only times where I have felt unstable on this wheel, were situations where I was hitting multiple large bumps or troughs in the road and started to repeatedly bounce on the pedals, losing control. I have never actually fallen off of this wheel while commuting, but have had a couple close calls with repeated bumps.

The Range



This wheel is ALL about the range. Everything about it, from the weight, ergonomics and speed are put together to make the ultimate long-range commuter. I have ridden this wheel for several longer-range rides with my local EUC group that sat around the 50 mile mark, but have never stretched the batter to it’s full ~60 mile range. I even bought the optional fast-charger from eWheels.com (charges SO FAST) so that I can top it off when I stop for food, so it is never ridden straight from 100% to 0%.

The closest thing to a range test that I was able to do was taking the wheel out the next day after a 40 mile group-ride and riding an additional 6 or so miles until the battery was at 20%. These rides were all at ~20 mph and I never sensed a diminishing of capacity in the wheel’s performance like you get with other wheels *cough* InMotion *cough*.



Long story short: your body will tire out long before the 18XL does.

The App

I felt like Theseus in the labyrinth searching for my damn alarm and pushback settings. During my quest, I had to download several different apps, navigate some sketchy “illegal device” warnings and even learn a little bit of Mandarin before I finally threw in the towel.

(Get used to decoding nonsense like this and relying on the online community to help you decipher what actions you need to take to get the app to work correctly.)



Thankfully, I snagged my XL from Jason at eWheels, who was able to send me special step-by-step instructions and even jump on the phone to quickly help me troubleshoot some of my issues. He even had special versions of the app hosted on his website to circumvent all of the tomfoolery that King Song makes you go through to make your wheel work.



For those of you who don’t know him, Jason is one of the foremost experts on the current EUC market and one of the only American businesses that has relationships with the Chinese manufacturers. Buying a uni from Jason means that you have access to someone who can help troubleshoot and find replacement parts for your wheel, even if it means talking to the manufacturer directly. 10/10 would buy from him again (and in fact, I did. Be on the lookout for an upcoming review on the MCM5!)



The official King Song app is a dumpster-fire (which we are learning is the industry quality standard for EUC apps) but thankfully, you only need to log into it once, set your alarms and tiltback, and then you can move into the WheelLog Promised Land. For those of you unfamiliar with WheelLog, it is a community created app that can make most changes to your wheel as well as tracking charge, temp and current, written in plain English with no annoying security measures in place.

(It's just so slick and gives you all of the information you need. Cannot recommend this app enough!)

The Long in Short

If you are looking for a light wheel to ride to the bus, pop into your trunk every day, or nimbly dodge through slow-moving pedestrians on the sidewalk, I would look elsewhere.



If you are looking for a wheel to replace your car, take you further than you have ever thought possible on a PEV and want to enjoy some nice safety/usability features that the other “Big Boys” don’t have, then this is the perfect wheel for you.



Special Thanks to Adam of @magicrobots who provided photography and videography for this review and Jason at ewheels.com for providing ample support to make my 18XL ownership as pleasant and hassle-free as possible.