I’ve been thinking about a 48" UW for a while now and would like some feed back.
What I’m thinking of doing is building a big wheel with a solid rubber tire about 48" and then building a seat that rides on the tire like a mono rail or a roller coaster wheel on it’s track.
It would be a unicycle without a frame.
Can any one see a flaw in this plan?
Dose any one know of a other uni like built like this.
Cheers Dave
What would keep the seat from falling off sideways? Would it have guides extending down some? I assume the saddle would have a double roller system to keep it stable on the wheel right?
I’m interested to see if you can pull it off. I think the lateral stability of the saddle might make it very difficult to ride, though I think is possible.
Are you planning on using a spoked or disc rim?
Daniel
EDIT: I don’t think it should be called a UW because it will have a seat. I also think it would work if you used a disc wheel, and use four rollers. Two would be under the seat and one each on each side of the wheel to prevent the seat from leaning. Was that what you had in mind?
Yes the seat will ride on 2 rollers that sit right on top of the tire there will be 4 more rollers under the seat that grip the rim from below holding the seat in place and keeping it straight.
I’m going to make a wood disk and then cut pannels out of it.
I’m a carpenter and much happier working with wood.
Dave
Edit Is it the lack of a seat or the lack of a frame that makes a UW?
Methinks it’s the lack of a seat mostly, because what makes it an UW is that you have no control over the wheel itself, aside from with your feet. With a seat, it won’t wobble back and forth.
You could risde on just a frame, but it would probably hurt a lot if it went side to side.
Ok, I spent about four and a half minutes on MS Word to draw this out. The diagram on the left is what I think you are thinking as far as the roller configuration. Note that there would be another roller immediately behind the ones pictured. The diagram on the right is what I am thinking about as far as the rollers go. Again, there is another roller behind each of the ones shown.
Dang, the image didn’t attach. 2nd try…
That is sort of what I’m thinking. Only the roller that is on top of the wheel is wider and dips in the center and the guide rollers run at 45 degrees.
Dave
I think what you’re building doesn’t qualify as a “UW”, but it’s quite different from a conventional unicycle as well.
You should come up with a new unique name. Like IW (Incredible Wheel) or RCW (Really Cool Wheel) or BDTMMCVW (Boy Does This Makes My Crotch Vibrate Wheel).
a UW has niether a seat nor a frame. You’re designing a unique frameless unicycle with a seat. (UFUWAS).
…the possibilities are endless.
I vote for Ufuwa!!
Re: 48" Uw
“Ottawa Dave” <Ottawa.Dave@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote
in message
news:Ottawa.Dave.1iifxl@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com…
>
> I’ve been thinking about a 48" UW for a while now and would like some
> feed back.
> What I’m thinking of doing is building a big wheel with a solid rubber
> tire about 48" and then building a seat that rides on the tire like a
> mono rail or a roller coaster wheel on it’s track.
> It would be a unicycle without a frame.
> Can any one see a flaw in this plan?
> Dose any one know of a other uni like built like this.
>
> Cheers Dave
>
Well worth a go: I think that your top wheel will require some thought: it
will be carrying all the on-seat weight, which may well be much less than a
standard uni. It will however have a quite small contact area with the
tyre, so solid tyre is probably your only option here. Obviously the tyre
will be smooth.
You need to think about frictional and other effects tending to move the
seat forwards as you ride, and these would increase the more the tyre
deforms to take the weight. I suppose that if the seat’s main function is
to cut down the L/R wobble of a UW, rather than as a place to sit
comfortably, then this has a fair chance of working. An imaginative idea.
Best of luck with it.
You are also not allowed to do this without the mandatory video submissions
to RSU
Nao.
Re: 48" Uw
From the sound of it, this will not be unique. I’ve seen a pic of
something similar made in China (and I think ridden in a Chinese
circus). It was gold-coloured. I think John Childs has posted a
picture before.
It’s impossible to get old when you ride a unicycle - John (what’s in a name) Childs
Re: Re: 48" Uw
Here’s the picture of the hoop wheel giraffe. The picture is by Lars Lottrup and was mentioned in this thread. It appears that Lars has reorganized his web site or his gallery and the pictures are no longer in the same place. I can’t read his site and I’m unable to find the pictures of that unicycle.
In order to reduce lateral movement or twisting of the seat, would it be possible to use two lines of bearings on top of the wheel, and another two under the rim against the disc like your second diagram? Would this provide a smoother ride? I can see how much more difficult this could be though.
Re: 48" Uw
On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 04:46:32 -0600, “john_childs” wrote:
>Here’s the picture of the hoop wheel giraffe.
That’s the one. Now that I see it again, I realise it is different
from Ottawa Dave’s idea. The Chinese one is a giraffe, and Dave’s
envisaged contraption has pedals at the centre of the wheel.
So Dave’s concept may be original indeed. I was too quick in saying it
had been done.
It’s impossible to get old when you ride a unicycle - John (what’s in a name) Childs
It’s a frameless unicycle, or an ultimate wheel with a seat. I think the seat de-ultimatizes it, but at the same time makes it a more functional and more comfortable thing to ride. More sensible too.
If you put rollers on top of the tire, they will roll over whatever the tire gets on it. This will probably be fine most of the time, but if your tire starts picking up grit & stuff, this may be transmitted up to the seat, or possibly foul the seat rollers. If you use well-made wheels with some give, like inline skate wheels, this probably wouldn’t be any problem.
Obviously his tire will be solid rubber, unless anyone know where to get a 48" tire. One of those would definitely be cool though… 
I imagine you would want to minimize the friction of your seat rolling up on top of the tire. Otherwise you might get funky moments where the seat tries to spit itself out from between your legs. If a rock ever got wedged in there, it could cause a sudden dismount because your seat would suddenly pitch forward.
Your design will probably work great to prove the concept, and for a novelty ride. If you later want to make something fancier, you might try something more along the lines of a wheelchair wheel. Use the side rims, with witch you would normally push it, to run your rollers on. Since these rims don’t touch the ground, they shouldn’t pick up any dirt, so you can use smaller rollers. With a hard steel surface, it should roll very nicely.
i think john foss is onto something. make the base rollers of the seat really wide and have a frame attaching them to wheelchair style things on the outside. you’d have to compensate the Q-factor accordingly though or you’d be rubbing you legs on these the whole time.
Hi John,
You make some good points about the wheel. I was thinking of useing inline skate wheels for the rollers that run on the side of the disk like you sugest and a large fan belt for the rubber part of the wheel. The seat could then be suported by wide automotive pullys. A brush behinde the seat could sweep the tire to cut down on upd’s caused by crap picked up by the tire.
I agree that it’s probably not a UW at this point. How about calling it a Mono Wheel.
Cheers Dave
Mono Wheel… hmmmm… i like it go for it dude
POW
