The RYNO moves in the invisible lines between the roads and sidewalks, urban parks and office elevators. Hotel lobbies, outdoor malls, amusement parks. Take RYNO just about wherever you can walk.
RYNO uses advanced motion-sensor technology
to detect even subtle input from its rider,
and reacts accordingly. Lean forward, and the bike
will accelerate forward. Lean back, and the bike
follows suit, standing up taller and slowing down.
With practice, you’ll ride the RYNO by instinct.
Adding to the look of magic, RYNO’s redundant electric motors and dual slide-out battery system are both cleverly contained within the wheel itself. RYNO’s center of gravity is low and balanced to make it easy to manage the variety of twists and turns that come your way. Walking next to the bike or shuffling through tight spots while seated is always nimble and controlled, even between parked cars.
The RYNO’s seat and handlebar relationship is taken from existing motorcycle standards – meaning when you sit on the RYNO your body will feel naturally comfortable. More importantly, it means turning the RYNO is simple – just like a scooter, look and lean in the direction you want to go. Only a subtle movement is needed. While speed means stability, with practice, you’ll have complete control of your RYNO at even the slowest speeds. When stopped, simply sit upright and use your feet to spin on a dime. Try that with a scooter.
The RYNO is a high-tech vehicle – but that doesn’t mean it’s high maintenance. Other than regular charging of the battery system and checking to make sure your tire is properly inflated, your RYNO doesn’t really need much love to stay running smooth. Sorry, but you’ll have to find other things to fix…
Ready to accelerate? It’s simple. A subtle forward shift of your body weight and the RYNO gently begins to move in the direction you want to go. RYNO doesn’t do anything more or less than you want it to do. As you trust the RYNO to accelerate underneath you, depending on how hard you lean, it will keep accelerating all the way up to 10 mph, equivalent to the pace of a very quick run. When you’re ready to stop or slow down, move your body weight back, and RYNO will slow down naturally and gradually. To slow down more quickly there is a lever actuated stop assist system that kicks the wheel out in front to sit you back and help you lean back and reduce your speed.
When you’ve arrived at your location, parking the RYNO is as easy as stepping off, deactivating the Balance System, setting the RYNO down on the built-in parking bumpers, and putting on the parking brake. If you’re parking RYNO on any sort of incline, it’s important to engage the parking brake for the safety of your RYNO and others around it.
Read and follow the Instructions for Use and Warnings.
To wake the RYNO up, place the key in the switch at the right side of the handlebar mounted display and turn the key to either “N” for novice mode or “A” for advanced mode (the bike is not in balance yet). Standing on the left side, place one hand on the handlebars and one hand on the rear frame behind the seat, lift the bike back up from the parking bumpers and hold it upright. Check to see that the bottom row of three green lights on the display are one in a steady state (this lets you know RYDE-eX has fully booted). To let the RYDE-eX software know you have the bike under control momentarily press the silver button once at the left of the display. You will hear an audible ascending tone and the bike will snap into balance. Before getting on, check to make sure by firmly pressing down on the handlebars to feel the resistance.
Once RYNO is balanced, it’s ready to ride. Swing your leg over the seat, and go!
As you get more accustomed to riding your RYNO, you’ll notice there’s four main ways you interact with the bike while it’s in motion – weight shift acceleration, the stop-assist lever, handlebar steering, and ultimately foot peg steering. Read on!
Like other balance technology products, the RYNO stays upright front-to-back. A gyro sensor tells the RYDE-EX control system to drive the wheel forwards or backwards to stay under the center of gravity. Lean forward, and the gyro tells the processor that the bike is falling forward. As a result, it will roll forward until the rider allows the bike to come back to zero. Try testing this by leaning forward slightly with your feet down and then let the bike coast back to upright. The same action works in reverse.
One thing to note is that most new riders naturally lean the opposite way to counter motion. On a bicycle for example, when you are stopping, you tend to lean forward to focus on the front tire. To stop a RYNO, it’s more like reining in a horse.
Remember, if you just relax and sit up straight, the bike will always drive the wheel back under you. You can literally walk forward on your feet and the bike will follow you by staying under you.
To help the rider accentuate the effect of leaning back to stop, the RYNO has a handlebar mounted lever that is software controlled. When the rider pulls on the lever it tells the RYDE-eX controller to drive the wheel forward an additional five degrees of tilt angle. This sits the rider back in an attitude that allows them to slow the bike more aggressively. This lever is not a conventional brake! It does not stop the bike or take control of balancing the bike away from the rider. The rider is still responsible for stopping the bike at the rate that they desire. If you ever get uncomfortable, quickly lean back while grabbing the stop assist lever firmly. Never pull the stop assist lever while leaning forward.
To stop the bike even more aggressively, a technique can be used to combine using the brake assist with a stance where the rider stands up on the foot-pegs and sticks their hips way back while pulling hard on the handlebars. Caution is advised during this maneuver to listen and feel for the system warning you that you are exceeding the safe performance window. Said a different way, because the bike must always stay in balance, the bike can only stop as fast as the performance window will let it. With an experienced rider, the RYNO can stop on level ground from 10MPH with a 180lb rider in about ten feet.
Note, if the rider overpowers the balance window while braking, it’s possible to pull the bike back so hard that you end up standing on your feet on the ground with the bike in front of you. If the bike tips back more than 45 degrees, it will drop out of balance. If it gets tipped over less than that, it will want to right itself by backing up. Just be aware of this and step back while keeping one hand on the handlebars.
The handlebars are only part of the geometry that gives the rider control over one wheel. The forks are connected to the frame through a steering pivot, similar to the front of a bicycle. The handlebars are connected to this pivot. It’s like riding a snowboard down a ravine. If you just relax, the slope on both sides keeps you in the center.
You’ll need to do some hip twists at some point. Most new riders over-think steering by muscling the bike into a turn using shoulder strength. Steering requires almost no energy at all, it’s all in your hips and how you sense where the patch of rubber on the tire meets the road. When you get good at it, all you’ll do is just look in the direction you want to go and the bike will just go there.
Unlike a two-wheel bike, there is no back wheel to counter the steering force. What you’re doing is swinging your own body weight left and right over the tire. It might seem like it’s backwards but your body will calibrate to it.
Start by just going in a straight line with your feet down and the seat at the lowest position. Get really comfortable and relaxed at it. Then try and round-off a corner or do a big wide sweeping arc. Just like riding a bicycle, feel free to touch your foot down or even drag your foot a bit to get the bike to turn. The better you get, the more you’ll be able to keep your feet on the foot pegs. I used to go to the basketball court at the park and ride around in circles under the net to see how close I could keep the tire on the painted line. You’ll get the basics pretty quick, and after a week or so, you’ll be really good at it.
The foot pegs are an integral part of the steering system that can be used by advanced riders. By standing on one foot peg or the other, a rotational twisting moment is imparted on the steering pivot causing the wheel to change direction. As you continue to integrate more of your full body into the riding experience you’ll discover how useful the foot pegs are to steering. When the rider is in a seated position most of the steering is done with the handlebars and hip twisting. For example, when the bike is ridden on a non-level surface: Where the road is slanting to the right the rider can put some additional downward pressure on the left foot peg to counter the tendency of the bike to drift to the right.
Standing on the foot pegs allows the rider a tremendous amount of freedom to navigate rugged terrain. It’s easy to feel the tire under you as if you are water skiing. Bank right or bank left and the bike responds. If you drive down into a low ravine it’s easy to drive back up the other side or over obstacles simply by leaning forward and standing on one foot peg or the other to steer. Another analogy to the feeling of a full body steering experience is like piloting a wave runner water craft. You use handle bars, the tilt of foot pressure to get the hull to carve into the turns and shifting your weight forward and back. With the RYNO though, it all is very subtle, and happening under 10MPH. It’s an easy-to-learn dance of balance and poise.
