Treker

Since this is a road story, I thought it might be of interest to the group.

Interesting item developing out of Nova Scotia. Officially dubbed 'Ride the lobster", on Monday, with $10,000 in cash prizes, qualifying teams with a total of 105 athletes - riding big-wheel unicycles designed for speed and distance - are expected from Canada, the United States, Britain, Denmark, Germany, France, South Korea, Singapore and New Zealand. It's being billed as the unicycle TDF.

1 wheel, 800km, 5 days which includes a 23km time trial on the third day. Teams will carry a portable GPS with their respective positions available on the Internet.

Details at www.ridethelobster.com

Pedaleur

Why? Last I heard, Nova Scotia was in Canada.

Yoshi

It's in Canada alright, French Canada.

Treker

I suppose in referring to it as the TDF of the unicycle world, they're implying that it's the biggest race of the season.

dur4ce

A friend of mine is going to do the ride on a 36" unicycle with a geared hub. He can keep up 20+ mph with no more difficulty than on a road bike.

-Steve

Asian Sensation

20mph??? damn, i'de be scared

botto 

incorrect.

at least, not since the middle of the 18th century.

StephenH

"He can keep up 20+ mph with no more difficulty than on a road bike." The 20+ mph I can see. The "no more difficulty than on a road bike" is highly doubtful.

If I remember right, the geared hubs have a 1.5:1 ratio, and they're using 36" maximum wheels. So that's a 125 RPM pedaling. Is that what it takes to do 20 mph on a road bike?

Yoshi

I'm sorry that you were born without a sense of humor.

dur4ce

I never got into unicycling, so you are right. I can't say that it is "no more difficult" than on a road bike. All I know is that he has kept up with me for long periods when I was averaging 20mph and he was not dying. Also, rpm cannot be directly correlated with effort.

-Steve

Asian Sensation

that's still pretty damn impressive and i find it hard to believe.

I believe RPM's can directly correlate to effort... the faster you spin the more effort it takes, unless you're going downhill on a fixie.

TheJackMove

The concept of a peloton of unicyclists is frightening. I wonder if they have aero unicycles for the TT.

BTW, did you notice the team named "West Coast Cokers"? Now I know what Boonen can do while he is taking his minibreak.

ridethecliche

Your position on a unicycle is nothing like it is on a roadbike...

botto 

oh, is that what that was? an attempt at humor?






feel better now?

bubbaeck

FYI Coker is a brand of 36" unicycle... and yeah unicycles = 100% non aero

Tunnelrat81

You probably already know this, but "Coker" is a reference to the 36" wheeled Uni's that touring unicyclists almost exclusively ride. https://www.cokercycles.com/

I've ridden them, and they are frighteninly fast for a unicycle. Easy to ride if you can ride a Uni, but fast enough that you could hurt yourself during a high speed UPD (Un-Planned-Dismount, term used in the Unicycling forums)

I've never had an interest in Tour Unicycling, but I've done a decent amount of mountain unicycling, which is a blast. They had a Muni (Mountain Unicycling) weekend a few years ago here in the Santa Barbara area that I went to, and had a blast riding down nasty trails with a bunch of other nerds. People had flown in for it. I was on a 200 dollar Unicycle and out of the 30-40 people who were there, I was clearly on the cheapest equipment, by a margin.

-Jeremy

Yoshi

It wasn't a particularly funny joke I admit (and I never intended it to be anymore than an obvious play on words) but seriously, you were totally that guy. You know which guy I speak of.

botto 

nope. not a clue. is this also an attempt at humor?

Yoshi

No, this isn't an attempt at humor. You were that guy who always has to point out technical inaccuracies in any statement, even jokes, even when the person making the statement is obviously aware of the inaccuracy.

But enough of this pointless bickering and thread derailing. Back to the Unicycle tour de France that takes place in [non-French] Canada.

fordfasterr

Awesome. I would like to do this type of race.


=)

Voodoo76

On a positive side. Your elbows and hands would be freed up for use in the field sprint

Ryon

Yeah, he came with us last week for hill climb repeats. He did 1900 feet of climbing in under 2 hours and didn't die. He's also entered a mountain bike race on his uni... when there was no uni division... and did NOT finish last!

The other day we were going down a slight hill and he wanted to see how fast he could max out at. I was right next to him to corrorborate the reading... he did 26.2 mph! He pedals sooooo fast! Gonna be rooting for him. 1 up for Anteater Cycling!

dur4ce

Zot! Zot!

-Steve

steveyo

I bet his name is Chuck.

The race (I rode in it) was incredible.

Anyway, for a racer's point of view of this race, see my write-up:
https://home.nycap.rr.com/rduhan/RTL2008/

Treker

Steveyo: Very nice.