Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - unicycle like whoa - enjoy

this movie is just absurd

http://www.xtremeride.net/webisodes/vol17/uni.mov

I guess he coudn't afford the rest of the bike!

Crazy stuff.

That **** is nuts! He's like the illegitimate bastard child of the north shore and the big apple circus

thats pretty impressive.
looking at some of those bridges though, i wonder if i could even cross them with two wheels.

i tip my cap

i dont know whats going on, but maybe unicycles are on the rise. i saw some guy cranking up the hill in central park last night on a GIANT unicycle.

i like his getup, i cant get down with that music however

Awesome. It looks like it would be hard on your nuts though...

pretty sick!
but it does not look like much fun...
I saw a bunch of these guys at Downieville last year. Must be a new trend.
Perhaps the hipsters will riding/walking em next year.

OT; anybody here going to the Downieville classic? I'll be volunteering.

My nuts hurt after watching that. You think he has suspension on the seatpost, or is he landing all those drops on just the pedals and holding the 'cycle under him with his hand on the saddle?

The music cloys.

i dont know whats going on, but maybe unicycles are on the rise. i saw some guy cranking up the hill in central park last night on a GIANT unicycle.

I've seen that guy around manhattan a few times.

And I've seen the guy in the video on tv before (I think Ripley's). They filmed him unicycling along the edge of a cliff which, according to the narrator, is rarely visited by mountain bikers because it is too dangerous (and it certainly was, the ground was sloped toward the drop!).

I remember that clip, of him riding next to that cliff. This is way cooler though. I can't believe the drops he takes. Must have balls of steel...

I suspect the next innovation in municycles will be a reverse torque clutch for landing big drops. Under forward power it would never slip, under normal reverse loads it won't either, but under extreme reverse torque of the type you experience landing a big drop on a downhill or while going forward, it wolud offer limited slippage.

This would avoid severe backlash on the legs. But then I'm not a municyclist, so maybe it's not a problem.

I remember that clip, of him riding next to that cliff. This is way cooler though. I can't believe the drops he takes. Must have balls of steel...

Actually before they filmed him riding the cliff, they showed some clips that looked like they came from that video. But your right, this was way cooler than the cliff, even if the cliff was more dangerous. He does some seriously technical riding!

I suspect the next innovation in municycles will be a reverse torque clutch for landing big drops. Under forward power it would never slip, under normal reverse loads it won't either, but under extreme reverse torque of the type you experience landing a big drop on a downhill or while going forward, it wolud offer limited slippage.

This would avoid severe backlash on the legs. But then I'm not a municyclist, so maybe it's not a problem.

That would make the muni go out from under you. All front/rear balance is controlled by leg input to the crank and relative wheel speed. Imagine trying to balance a baseball bat vertically on the palm of your hand, you move the palm in the direction the bat is falling. You steer toward the fall, you ride out from underneath the fall.

Landing is not so much a "backlash" to the legs. The drop is absorbed by the knees because you stand up off the saddle while airborne, then compress the knees and start pedaling a split-second after impact.

Do you actually ride one (I'm not being confrontational, I'm trying to understand if you're speaking from experience or also surmising)? I understand the principle of balancing a uni, but I also understand that when you land that hard, it may be difficult to keep the cycle under you. This is the same principle at work that makes it hard to keep your feet when you take a running leap off a drop. Sure, you can hit the ground with your legs braced forward to stick the landing, but often people will land too upright or even leaning a little forward, throwing them from their feet nad into a roll.

A high reverse torque clutch would maintain normal control except under extremely high reverse torque loads at which point it would act as a high-drag freewheel.

what i dont like is there is only 1 wheel to put your spoke cards in

what i dont like is there is only 1 wheel to put your spoke cards in

And if it's radially laced then you can't even stick your spoke cards in there to begin with!

I can see it now: some guy tearing down a hill yelling, "Look out! No handlebars!"

And if it's radially laced then you can't even stick your spoke cards in there to begin with!

At least uni riders don't have to stay up nights worrying about radial lacing on drive side vs non-drive side.

I saw some guy on a unicycle last night downtown. Crazy ****. A couple years ago, I saw three guys (one of 'em maybe 10) doing similar stuff on the trails behind my house. It was crazy to watch.

Do you actually ride one (I'm not being confrontational, I'm trying to understand if you're speaking from experience or also surmising)? I understand the principle of balancing a uni, but I also understand that when you land that hard, it may be difficult to keep the cycle under you. This is the same principle at work that makes it hard to keep your feet when you take a running leap off a drop. Sure, you can hit the ground with your legs braced forward to stick the landing, but often people will land too upright or even leaning a little forward, throwing them from their feet nad into a roll.

A high reverse torque clutch would maintain normal control except under extremely high reverse torque loads at which point it would act as a high-drag freewheel.

It's OK, I understand you're not being confrontational, same here. :)
I've owned uni's for almost 20 years, and ridden them off and on when the mood strikes.
I don't have a "real" muni, but I can handle a picnic table drop or a couple stairs on my normal one with a fairly wide tire at medium pressure. I understand your logic about the clutched hub, but I have to say that in my experience, that hub setup would not offer any benefit. The slight "roll" that the clutch would offer would be hard to predict and difficult to react to in that split second landing period. You'd be surprised how far off balance you can be on the landing and still have the ability ride out. In other words, you don't have to "stick" the landing perfectly vertically to stay upright.

If you slow down the thought process of the moment after landing a drop, it's like: "Boom, stop for a split second, which way am I angled?, ride it out in the direction you need to go...." IMO, if the hub had even a slight amount of clutched torque in it, you'd lose that split second moment of decision upon landing, because you'd have to react to another factor affecting your balance. It's a decent idea, but I don't feel that this is the right application for it.