Not wanting to hijack Pete’s thread (where I first posted my intentions), I thought it made sense to post a new thread regarding my desire to attempt to break an “official” existing Guinness world record.
John Childs recent post (on the “New Hour Record” thread) about Stefan Gauler having set an “official” hour mark on a giraffe and Pete Peron’s recent submission to Guinness to set a new “official” hour mark on a (geared) Coker has inspired me to attempt to break Stefan’s record on my geared giraffe, being that the technological advantage of the gearing should hopefully equalize Stefan’s greater skill level advantage.
I intend to attempt my record in about I month at the Kissena Velodrome in Queens. Any volunteers willing to provide guidance and/or help me with the paperwork would be greatly appreciated!
On the technical side, I would like to install an odometer or some kind of computer on my ‘raffe so I can easily determine my distance and speed during training (when not at the velodrome)… and I haven’t ever even done this on my Coker (or any other unicycle) yet.
While I have two gearing possibilities on my ‘raffe (I have a different size sprocket on each side of the hub):
31.0” equivalent wheel size, and
37.5” equivalent wheel size
I think I’ll be a lot better off going with the 31” equivalent wheel size because it is a LOT more manageable to ride and a LOT easier to freemount (hopefully I won’t fall off, though, because freemounting could cost me a bit of time if I don’t nail it on my first attempt).
Stefan’s distance was 16.048 KPH, or just under 10MPH… so 10MPH would give me the record (assuming it was judged to be official). I have no idea how fast I can go on my geared giraffe for any length of time, so getting an odometer or some type of computer is essential for me to determine if my aspiration is even realistic.
I’m not sure if it would make it into the Guinness category- unless you go further than Pete on his geared Coker. It will probably be too much of a niche for Guinness to put in a separate “hour record on a giraffe unicycle” record.
I suggest that you make contact with the IUF and see what relevant rules you should adhere to for the record attempt. As far a generic rules go- for my 24hr Record- I had to get an independent surveyor to measure the inner circumference of the track with a theodilyte- but I think a meter wheel will probably do.
There had to be at least 2 independent withnesses with 2 separate stopwatches and each lap completed was countersigned by one of those officials.
There were also other stuff that needs submitting like newspaper clipppings, letters from “people of standing in the community”, photos etc etc
> On the technical side, I would like to install an odometer or some kind
> of computer on my ‘raffe so I can easily determine my distance and speed
> during training (when not at the velodrome)Â… and I havenÂ’t ever even
> done this on my Coker (or any other unicycle) yet.
FYI, you can install a GPS unit on your wrist to measure speed and distance.
If you can’t get the cable all the way down to your wheel, you might want to consider putting the sensor on your crank. Then you just have to figure out how far the wheel travels per crank revolution.
Whatever happened to the one hour giraffe record? Is it still 16.048 km? I took my/Abram’s geared giraffe out today and hit a peak speed of 15.6 mph (25.1 kmh) which makes me wonder how far I could take it in an hour. Maybe 12 miles (19.3 km) in an hour if I trained a lot.
This giraffe (affectionately known as the Penguin Giraffe) has a 20" wheel geared up to 40" and is much lower than Stefan’s – the seat is just a few inches higher than a Coker’s.
We haven’t heard much from hardcorecokerrider in a while, but I don’t think he went for the record. The giraffe hour record should be set a lot higher than it is. I rode a geared giraffe with a 26" wheel (belonged to Skipii on the board), geared up pretty high with 170mm cranks and I could crank that up very fast for quite a long time.
I agree that the record needs to be higher. 16 km is probably reasonable for an ungeared 20" giraffe, but if there is an unlimited category then the record should be much higher.
A geared up 26" wheel giraffe sounds cool – it’s probably a lot more stable than my geared up 20". On the other hand, part of the attraction of the geared up 20" is that it looks like a totally normal giraffe, and yet it can keep up with the Cokers with a slower cadence!
