Has anyone thought about suing some sort of tether to keep your uni from flying down a hill/cliff if you fall off. I was just taking a look at some moab pics, and i was thinking “what a shame if one of those perdy munis were damaged.” Now I’m thinking about what would happen if your muni brought you down with it.
Anyway, any thoughts on this?
-David Kaplan
Re: Muni Tether?
I’ve seen munis fly 100-300’ down cliffs/slopes at least 3 times. Luckily it
seems to be less common that it’s the rider who takes the flight. Although
there was one time where my unicycle was left on the trail and I took a 60’
fall into a gully in the 100% pure dark - scary but I didn’t hit anything
until the bottom, just slid down at high speed. You should’ve heard my
riding partner Brett’s call, “Are you ok?”
In the normal case (unicycle goes far, rider falls onto trail, or even ends
up standing), a tether would be great. The difficult thing would be to
design one that didn’t interfere with riding and mounting and dismounting.
Probably possible, but I’ve never tried it. Let us know if you come up with
anything.
—Nathan
“UniDak” <UniDak.1ujua@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:UniDak.1ujua@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> Has anyone thought about suing some sort of tether to keep your uni from
> flying down a hill/cliff if you fall off. I was just taking a look at
> some moab pics, and i was thinking “what a shame if one of those perdy
> munis were damaged.” Now I’m thinking about what would happen if your
> muni brought you down with it.
> Anyway, any thoughts on this?
> -David Kaplan
What about those retractable dog leashes? Tape the tigger ‘squeezed’ so it can always go out, throw the handle in your camelbak, and lash the ‘dog end’ around your seatpost.
IN THEORY, it seems like it would work
Re: Muni Tether?
Sofa <Sofa.1v3qy@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:<Sofa.1v3qy@timelimit.unicyclist.com>…
> What about those retractable dog leashes? Tape the tigger ‘squeezed’ so
> it can always go out, throw the handle in your camelbak, and lash the
> ‘dog end’ around your seatpost.
>
> IN THEORY, it seems like it would work
That’s kind of along the same lines as I was thinking originally. But
then I remembered the only time I took a friend’s dog for a walk with
one of these things and how long it took to untangle when the dog went
for a run round some bushes (I hadn’t really been paying attention).
One thing to remember is that one of the best ways of absorbing any
impact from a fall is to roll. You might end up with the tether
wrapped round
your body/legs/neck/uni. The idea of fixing the uni to you so that you
don’t lose it sounds good, but in the event of a wipe out I’d rather
sacrifice the uni rather than the risk the chance of rolling around
with it adding to my injuries.
Maybe we need something equivalent to a ski break (those wee things
that pop down when your boot comes out of the binding), something that
will stop the wheel from turning when you loose contact with the uni.
Possibly a spring loaded piston at the bottom of seat post that
presses against the tire when a pin attached to a tether (attached to
you) is pulled out. That way you’re more likely to be seperated from
your uni when you fall. On the other hand your uni still has the
possibility of bouncing away by somersaulting wheel over seat or
spinning around the seat post axis, but at least it will stop “ghost
rides.”
Have fun!
Graeme
(above address is defunct, try graemeATgpdodsDOTcom, anti-spam
address, you know what to do!)
Re: Muni Tether?
.
UPD fall down- body stops. Uni reaches end of tether- snaps back into face- Bad 
Re: Re: Muni Tether?
Then what happens when you are standing and riding?
-David Kaplan
RE: Muni Tether?
I read the discussion on tethers with some interest. But I can only picture
the worst-case scenario, where the unicycle is hanging from the tether and
you’re hanging from the edge of the cliff. That’s why my next MUni will be a
Wilder with a nice, lightweight aluminum frame! 
> Maybe we need something equivalent to a ski break (those wee things
> that pop down when your boot comes out of the binding), something that
> will stop the wheel from turning when you loose contact with the uni.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but every time I’ve seen a cliffside
retrieval in-the-making (a unicycling heading downward sans-rider), it has
not been rolling along on its wheel. It’s either sliding on its side, or
tumbling and bouncing end over end (or a combination of both). So I don’t
think the ski brake idea will be effective.
The tether stands a better chance, though as somebody mentioned, if you take
a forward tumbling dismount, you could end up wrapped up in your cord with
your unicycle tagging along for the ride.
For now, I’ll take my chances and hope to catch the unicycle, but mostly
worry about catching myself on those cliffs…
Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com
“How many America West maintenance personnel does it take to change a
bathroom light bulb in a 737?” Based on what I saw on the way home from
Phoenix recently, three!
Tether idea
I use a snowboard tether. They are short (won’t hit wheel) and are used for preventing losing a snowboard on a ski lift. I hook it through the hole on my seat handle and clip it to the metal part of my belt buckle. If you hook it to a fabric belt loop it will rip it off. I just use it for basic trail riding to catch the muni if it slips out. If your doing real hard stuff it would probably be a safety hazard however. It’s also great for hooking it to a fence to hang, and I’ve used it as an improvised work stand on trails.