Hi
U-Turn did this for me a few months ago. He did a bang-up job… my apologies to him for not sending this out sooner. :embarrassed:
The brake is touchy but now I can go down the steep hills.
Since the wheel is big the odometer needs two sensors on it.
The wheel really moves… but my favorite thing to do on this wheel is to still stand it from a circus idle. The Big Wheel is Semcycle’s 43 inch cotterless with 6" cranks. The seat is a comfy leather air miyata seat from unicycle.com.
I personally like it better than the Cokers because its easy to turn and lighter… and is also more of a challenge.
I wouldn’t want you to think for one minute, not even one second, than I am in any way at all jealous of you for owning such a magnificent and elegant machine because that would give you far too much satisfaction.
Mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter mutter
deadlydes:
Well when I had 5.5 inch cranks I went faster and was able to keep up with bikers… but just barely. I am not a speed demon. You really have to watch the bumps at high speed. Putting shorter cranks I would of course be able to go faster but lots of control is lost and up hills are too hard and down hills are too scary.
I swapped out the 5.5 because they were aluminum and could not take the stress too well. The 6" cranks the Muniac had on hand and had no use for them.
I have to admit sometimes a coker is better when a road turns to gravel or has a bit of ice and snow.
Ask U-Turn about the brakes… I just pull up it and pray it works when going down the steep hills.
He did some custom work on them to get it to fit. Unfortunately he could not ride the product as the seat does not go down any further with all the new gadgets.
http://www.semcycle.com
in the states it had to be shipped by train as it exceeded the UPS size limit. I had to take it take out the box to get it to fit in my VW (Jetta). (oooh I never noticed that before… UW drives a VW ).
I now have a Cabrio and the soft top is convenient for taking the big wheel somewhere.
Mikefule: Thanks. I am really glad to a shot of myself with the Mr. Bubble shirt on. Its shows my state of mind when I am on 1 wheel.
Its a 43" wheel. Coker is 36".
Coker has a pneumatic tire, where as the Sem is a solid rubber similar to many wheel chairs… similar to about 80 lbs of pressure but with no grippy bits. (It has a squirrelly idle so I can only do a circus idle with it… the normal idle is too hard for me).
The Sem 43" is semicustom, I guess, as it is a low quantity sale item. I heard Sem does not sell it through unicycle.com since it is not a “high” profit item. He also makes a Penny Farthing with it… (I would love to try one).
The version I have has cotterless cranks. Sem also sells a cheaper cottered crank version but my exerience tells me that cottered cranks are going to give you problems especially with all the torque you’ll be applying…
To mount it I hold onto the wheel and jump up. Others can simply hop on… I am not there yet.
I was learning to go backwards on it… I like to do it next to a fence because I am not the bravest… You cover a lot of ground with each revolution.
In a normal idle, the midpoint position for the cranks is vertical, and you rock the pedals back and forth, crossing the vertical position at the center of your motion. If you picture the bottom pedal as a pendulum you can visualize this.
A circus idle is where the midpoint position for the cranks is horizontal, so as you rock back and forth on the pedals, they are crossing the horizontal position every time (one foot is always forward). Basically the cranks are 90 degrees to a normal idle.
I hope this makes a little bit of sense, I know there’s videos of it somewhere to make it clearer.
I can’t do it, but it’s supposed to make things like juggling easier because the extension of your legs is about equal for each leg instead of having one high and one low.
