Tornadoes and hurricanes have the Fujita scale
The Fujita wind damage scale provides a measure of a tornado’s potential
destruction:
Scale Wind (mph) Damage
F-0 72 or less Light
F-1 73-112 Moderate; roofing peeled
F-2 113-157 Considerable; roofs torn off
F-3 158-206 Severe; roofs and walls destroyed
F-4 207-260 Devastating; strong houses destroyed
F-5 261-318 Incredible; houses moved
F-6 319-380 Unlikely to occur
UPDs need the Stone scale
The Stone UPD scale provides a measure of a UPD’s potential destruction:
Scale In a word Description
S-0 Light Rider lands on feet at a walk or jog, rider catches uni, no
damages or injuries
S-1 Moderate Same as S-0, only rider lands at a run
S-2 Considerable Rider lands on feet, often at a run, but unicycle hits
the ground
S-3 Severe Rider actually falls but is not injured; potential for
embarrassment
S-4 Devastating Rider falls badly and is scraped up or bruised; rider is
able to ride
S-5 Incredible Rider’s injury prevents further riding for some time; uni
likely damaged
S-6 Toe Clips Rider is killed, the result of poor judgment and/or unsafe
conditions
Using this scale for my first day on uni.5, I can say that I had a few
S-0’s, mainly as a result of faulty mounts. My first UPD while riding was
S-1, and I quickly hopped back on. On the bike path, I had an S-2
dismount, tho it’s likely an extension or even decent Miyata seat could
have prevented this. In Brooklyn I had a level 4 UPD while riding uphill.
I landed on the street and rolled out of the fall; I managed to roll over
my fanny pack without breaking the screen of my PDA (palm-top computer).
This is my second UPD to involve a PDA. Hmmm… Anyway, near home I had
another S-2, tho this was at a fairly slow rate.
My brothoer has had several S-5s. I believe his first was on the European
Unicycle Ride and came when his exhausted legs couldn’t stop his overfast
downhill ride. He lost control, fell forward, and saw his Coker smash into
a wall below and flip into the air. He had some badly bruised ribs and the
Coker’s small seat post was somehow bent. Recently he was laid up for over
two months when he hyperextended his foot on a fall, bruising the bone
atop his foot. This would have been an S-3 had his foot not landed in a
pothole of considerable depth.
David Stone
Co-founder, Unatics of NY
1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
@ Central Park Bandshell
1:30 start time after 11/1/01
I too had thought about the need for a coding system for UPDs and other common unicycling events. Then we could write up our trips in simple diary form and post them for the delectation of our unicycling comrades. A typical evening’s ride might look like this:
(2) 1.5 C (+7% 0.25) F!/ (3) 0.5 D B!! and so on.
The example reads:
Successfully freemounted at second attempt. Covered 1.5 miles on medium severe terrain, including a quarter mile up a 7% incline. Fell off forwards. Freemounted at third attempt. Half a mile of more severe terrain. Unintentional ballistic dismount backwards.
As for UPDs, they only come in four directions, and range from a simple step off, through ballistic, to ballistic with resultant craters of varying depth. The direction could be indicated by a letter, and the severity by the number of exclamation marks.
Does no one else out there use this simple system? We at the Roland Hope School of Unicycling have used it since Monday. To make it universal, all we would need would be agreed categories of terrain, much as climbers and whitewater canoeists have a clear grading (although the two sports’ systems are not fully integrated) and a general agreement on whether to use the internally consistent but erroneously calculated metric system, or the system which those of us on this side of the Atlantic stubbornly call Imperial, despite having no empire. (Other than the Empire at Hucknall, which is a cinema.)
Re: S-levels for UPDs
On Fri, 10 May 2002 14:02:07 -0400, “David Stone” <dstone@packer.edu>
wrote:
>UPDs need the Stone scale
>The Stone UPD scale provides a measure of a UPD’s potential destruction:
>Scale In a word Description
>S-0 Light Rider lands on feet at a walk or jog, rider catches uni, no
>damages or injuries
>S-1 Moderate Same as S-0, only rider lands at a run
>S-2 Considerable Rider lands on feet, often at a run, but unicycle hits
>the ground
>S-3 Severe Rider actually falls but is not injured; potential for
>embarrassment
>S-4 Devastating Rider falls badly and is scraped up or bruised; rider is
>able to ride
>S-5 Incredible Rider’s injury prevents further riding for some time; uni
>likely damaged
>S-6 Toe Clips Rider is killed, the result of poor judgment and/or unsafe
>conditions
I like the concept of the Stone scale. The seven categories (S-0 u/i
S-6) and the descriptions are well chosen. But IMHO the keywords
(Light, Moderate etc) tend to the overstated side. Let me describe a
spill I had yesterday as an example to make my point.
I was going up a hill and hitting a bump. The trail was unpaved and
covered with gravel and stones up to about an inch. I fell forward on
my wrists/hands. I had no armour on me. My left hand quickly developed
some small blood blisters and was in one place somewhat sensitive to
pressure (and still is). I would not describe this as a “Devastating”
UPD, would you? “Considerable” is what I think I would call it.
My throw at keywords (recycling some of yours):
S-0 Minimal Rider lands on feet at a walk or jog, rider
catches uni, no damages or injuries
S-1 Light Same as S-0, only rider lands at a run
S-2 Moderate Rider lands on feet, often at a run, but
unicycle hits the ground
S-3 Embarrassing Rider actually falls but is not injured;
potential for embarrassment
S-4 Considerable Rider falls badly and is scraped up or
bruised; rider is able to ride
S-5 Devastating Rider’s injury prevents further riding for
some time; uni likely damaged
S-6 Fatal Rider is killed, the result of poor judgment
and/or unsafe conditions
Klaas Bil
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“Li Hongzhi, CFD, Lexis-Nexis”
Re: S-levels for UPDs
That’s a great scale! On the uni.5 I never had any worse than S-1. On my
Coker though, I had a S-4+ (Rider was only able to ride after a long rest,
and only very slowly and not far). On Muni rides we have S-3s all the time,
but I try to avoid the higher numbers at any cost.
I just love your wording: “Rider is killed, the result of poor judgment
and/or unsafe conditions”!
—Nathan
“David Stone” <dstone@packer.edu> wrote in message
news:mailman.1021406407.15741.rsu@unicycling.org…
> Tornadoes and hurricanes have the Fujita scale
>
> The Fujita wind damage scale provides a measure of a tornado’s potential
> destruction:
> Scale Wind (mph) Damage
> F-0 72 or less Light
> F-1 73-112 Moderate; roofing peeled
> F-2 113-157 Considerable; roofs torn off
> F-3 158-206 Severe; roofs and walls destroyed
> F-4 207-260 Devastating; strong houses destroyed
> F-5 261-318 Incredible; houses moved
> F-6 319-380 Unlikely to occur
>
> UPDs need the Stone scale
> The Stone UPD scale provides a measure of a UPD’s potential destruction:
> Scale In a word Description
> S-0 Light Rider lands on feet at a walk or jog, rider catches uni, no
> damages or injuries
> S-1 Moderate Same as S-0, only rider lands at a run
> S-2 Considerable Rider lands on feet, often at a run, but unicycle hits
> the ground
> S-3 Severe Rider actually falls but is not injured; potential for
> embarrassment
> S-4 Devastating Rider falls badly and is scraped up or bruised; rider is
> able to ride
> S-5 Incredible Rider’s injury prevents further riding for some time; uni
> likely damaged
> S-6 Toe Clips Rider is killed, the result of poor judgment and/or unsafe
> conditions
>
> Using this scale for my first day on uni.5, I can say that I had a few
> S-0’s, mainly as a result of faulty mounts. My first UPD while riding was
> S-1, and I quickly hopped back on. On the bike path, I had an S-2
> dismount, tho it’s likely an extension or even decent Miyata seat could
> have prevented this. In Brooklyn I had a level 4 UPD while riding uphill.
> I landed on the street and rolled out of the fall; I managed to roll over
> my fanny pack without breaking the screen of my PDA (palm-top computer).
> This is my second UPD to involve a PDA. Hmmm… Anyway, near home I had
> another S-2, tho this was at a fairly slow rate.
>
> My brothoer has had several S-5s. I believe his first was on the European
> Unicycle Ride and came when his exhausted legs couldn’t stop his overfast
> downhill ride. He lost control, fell forward, and saw his Coker smash into
> a wall below and flip into the air. He had some badly bruised ribs and the
> Coker’s small seat post was somehow bent. Recently he was laid up for over
> two months when he hyperextended his foot on a fall, bruising the bone
> atop his foot. This would have been an S-3 had his foot not landed in a
> pothole of considerable depth.
>
> David Stone
> Co-founder, Unatics of NY
> 1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
> @ Central Park Bandshell
> 1:30 start time after 11/1/01
>
Re: S-levels for UPDs
Mikefule.4nvzo@timelimit.unicyclist.com writes:
>I too had thought about the need for a coding system for UPDs and other
>common unicycling events.
>
>(2) 1.5 C (+7% 0.25) F!/ (3) 0.5 D B!! and so on.
>
>The example reads:
>Successfully freemounted at second attempt. Covered 1.5 miles on medium
>severe terrain, including a quarter mile up a 7% incline. Fell off
>forwards. Freemounted at third attempt. Half a mile of more severe
>terrain. Unintentional ballistic dismount backwards.
>
>Does no one else out there use this simple system? We at the Roland
>Hope School of Unicycling have used it since Monday.
My first thought was that you were joking, but I can see the eventual
utility of this system for certain kinds of riders and certain kinds of
rides. After you’ve tested the system for a few months, you may decide to
adjust some aspects of it, at which point it’ll probably make even more
sense. I can’t see the system equally describing the rides of two wildly
discrepant riders (say, a near-beginner vs Nathan Hoover), since Nathan
isn’t going to experience some of the troubles with dismounts and other
features of a ride.
David
Co-founder, Unatics of NY
1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
@ Central Park Bandshell
1:30 start time after 11/1/01
Re: S-levels for UPDs
klaasbil_remove_the_spamkiller_@xs4all.nl writes:
>My throw at keywords (recycling some of yours):
>S-0 Minimal Rider lands on feet at a walk or jog, rider
>catches uni, no damages or injuries
>S-1 Light Same as S-0, only rider lands at a run
>S-2 Moderate Rider lands on feet, often at a run, but
>unicycle hits the ground
>S-3 Embarrassing Rider actually falls but is not injured;
>potential for embarrassment
>S-4 Considerable Rider falls badly and is scraped up or
>bruised; rider is able to ride
>S-5 Devastating Rider’s injury prevents further riding for
>some time; uni likely damaged
>S-6 Fatal Rider is killed, the result of poor judgment
>and/or unsafe conditions
>
>Klaas Bil
Bil’s keywords are more appropriate, of course. I was merely using most of
the words from the Fujita scale, but naturally there are serious
differences bw tornadoes and unicycling (tho not at the highest levels of
the scale!).
If we ignore the keywords and focus on the ‘requirements’ (comments,
actually) of each level, the levels make more sense.
David
Co-founder, Unatics of NY
1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
@ Central Park Bandshell
1:30 start time after 11/1/01
Re: Re: S-levels for UPDs
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by David Stone
My first thought was that you were joking, but I can see the eventual
utility of this system for certain kinds of riders and certain kinds of
rides. After you’ve tested the system for a few months, you may decide to
adjust some aspects of it, at which point it’ll probably make even more
sense.
David
>>> I still think I was joking! ;0)
having said that, yes, a slightly less flippant system really could be used to record or describe rides. What might be genuinely useful would be a consistent way of grading terrain. In canoeing/kayaking, a guide will say ‘Grade 3’ and all canoeists will know what to expect. In climbing, a climb might be VS, or E3(4c) and all climbers would know more or less what to expect.
If I wanted to describe a route to someone who might like to ride it, but wouldn’t want to drive 50 miles to find the route too simple or too difficult, then an agreed scale of difficulty could be useful.
The references to gradients and distances would be useful too.
So, I repeat, my original post on the subject was intended to be vaguely amusing, but I agree there is something to be said for considering some serious applications. Has this been done before? I’d be surprised if it hasn’t.
Mike
Re: S-levels for UPDs
On Wed, 15 May 2002 09:00:37 -0400, “David Stone” <dstone@packer.edu>
wrote:
>naturally there are serious
>differences bw tornadoes and unicycling (tho not at the highest levels of
>the scale!).
You must be referring to the Uni-Cyclone!
Klaas Bil
“Seems that quotes are quite fashionable these days” - Bruce Edwards
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“ie.org, Blenheim, WWSP”