I was Youtubing ultimate wheels and saw a 36" UW. I was thinking of making one myself just to give myself a new challenge. Of course, I will still ride my regular uni and learn new stuff, but a new challenge is what I’m looking for.
On this one particular video from “No Training Wheels Required”, does anyone know the measurements of the inner part of the wheel…the bars…that is on that 36er? I will be looking to manufacture one in the near future. I would need how far the bars are off the center of the rim, and the distance from the intersection to where the pedals are mounted. If its too much of a problem, I will figure it out with a smaller rim before I spend the money for the 36er rim. Any and all help would be greatly appreciative.
The one you’ve seen was made by Brian MacKenzie. There are a couple of threads on here about it I think, but it’s probably worth PMing him about it - I’m sure he’d let you have the details.
The UW belongs to Brain Maceknezie, you might like to ask him how it was made. Steel 36 rims should be available very cheaply from anyone who has upgraded, I’d give you mine if the postage wasn’t so much. You might do well to draw a diagram and mark exactly which measurements you require, or to be honest if you get the inner diametre of the rim I’ve no doubt you could work it out from some basic trigonometry.
On Brian’s UW, the center-center of the bars he mounted the pedals on are 330 mm apart, for a “crank length” of 165 mm. I’ve never tried an UW, but I think 165 mm might be a bit too long - my 24" Muni is really hard for me to ride SIF w/ 170 mm cranks.
just1wheel.com has made a 36" UW (I believe also w/ effectively 165 mm cranks). I don’t think they plan to manufacture it, but will prob do one custom. I can’t find it on their sight right now, but it looked a lot cooler than Brian’s.
I thought it’d be cool put the bars like the ones on Brians closer together (one a bit more than the other) and get several “crank length” options.
Mal Bird in Australia also has a 36" UW. He posts here as onebyone. I would think that an effective crank length of 165mm is on the long side and would contribute to side to side wobble. I’d suggest 150mm. You could, of course, build your UW with several pedal holes, so that you have the option of several different effective crank lengths.
Why not something bigger? I have a picture of Tom Miller (The Unicycle Factory) riding a 46" wagon wheel ultimate. The danger with the larger wheels is what we call, in parking garage language, “severe crotch damage.”
I tried Brian’s 36" ultimate several times but was not able to get it going. I’ve ridden 20" and 24" ultimates but am not good at any size…
ANY distance, or a long distance? George Peck used to head out onto his local, mountainous trails on an ultimate MUni. At Unicon II (1986) we had an ultimate wheel endurance contest, for longest time without a dismount. The winner was convention host Ken Fuchs, with a time of 16 or 17 minutes.
When we race them at NAUCC, the distance is 30 meters, which is about 100’. That’s far for me, but I’ve made it several times. Fast riders, like Brian Hansen, can do it in about 6 seconds or so.
Bad choice of words. I meant long. Both w/ and w/o breaks.
I heard from someone who heard it from someone else who rode an UW A LOT and had tree trunks for legs (I don’t remember who said it). It was in a thread about one of those uphill races steveyo does, w/ the suggestion that the guy could finish on one.
George Peck moved on to offroad ultimate wheeling after he wanted a harder challenge than offroad unicycling. I think he has put some serious distances in on an ultimate wheel. See the dvd “Wheel of Justice” if you want to watch some of his footage.
I’ve played around on a 36" ultimate wheel just by taking off the frame off of a 36" unicycle. (Actually I had ordered a wheelset and hadn’t got the frame built up yet, so riding it as an ultimate was the only option). I had 125mm cranks on at the time which were rather hard to get going on. Once you were up to speed things were fine with short cranks but longer ones are probably preferable to make starting easier.
Dave Bagley, from NY/NJ area, is a monster UW rider. I’ve ridden trails with him (on a Long Island Muni Weekend) and he rode a UW on the trails. The races I do (Whiteface Mtn. and Mt. Equinox) are both over a hour, even for most bicycles, so it would be a heck of a long ride on an UW.
OT: I recently made a 26" UW, but I haven’t made more than 4 revolutions on it yet.
Onebyone here, thanks Tony.
My next project is an UW with varying crank lengths. I based my 1st 36" UW on Brian Mackenzie’s design and his suggestion of 165 crank length. I went for an upgrade compared to Brian’s and used Cromo tubing and it was fitted to aircraft standards (I used to be an aircraft fitter in a past life) so looks just like a bought one. I also turned the pedal…holder …things. with free machining steel and tapped them etc. I paid a local welding teacher a slab of beer to weld it. Slab in Australia =s 36 cans:)
I still try to and ride it occasionally and can get some distance on a good day. Some younger riders have taken to it from time to time and some can ride it as long as they want. I envy them, I will never get to their level but who cares. I love messing around with the thing.
I will attach a pic.
Cheers
Mal
