Ride two - each strapped to one of your legs. This is the latest craze from Paris …
Of course there is a video (featuring both off road and freestyle riding). Lovely soundtrack. Guess how old this movie (and the innovation) is!
That looks awesome, do they still make them?
that is so weird, yet so fascinating.
That’s awesome. I’ve only ever seen old illustrations of those things, and a (obviously very old; maybe older than those) pair Al Hemminger picked up at a flea market. They seem like they would go over rough terrain, including urban pavement, better than something like a skateboard.
The thing we always wondered, which was not addressed in the film, was how do you slow down and stop?
I guess you could just put one wheel at an angle and drag it.
Personally I wonder how it would be riding just one of them wheels strapped to a leg. This could add a new vehicle to the unicycling sport - somewhere between UW and the Impossible Wheel.
And believe it or not, the film is from 1923.
I wonder if that car tire above would fit on my muni 
i cant get the video to work… 
video wont work for me ethier
As long as they weren’t out of control fast, the basic sharp hockey turn would we one way to slow down. It’s basically a lean back, lean in move–sometimes combined with an outrigger with one leg, that both slows you down and switches direction. Watch a hockey game and you can see this move quite frequently after someone misses a puck they were going for.
And when that fails, just fling 'em sideways and pray.
Ever try a hockey stop on roller blades? It won’t work (unless there is a tonne of practice) there’s much too much friction. Its almost instant. I’d bet they would either bend their toe or heel down on to the ground. Thats my guess.
David
It looks like they have a method of stopping. Put one foot in front and place your heel down to slow, it might just be me though… At about 0:40-0:60 you see men off roading, and they seem to be using this technique.
Have to agree with Darchibald. Several inches of steel blade on ice is going to be very different from 1" or less of rubber on pavement. You could definitely drag one foot behind the weight-bearing one, but this would seem to put a lot of wear and tear on the tire. Also though it would work, I don’t see it as a real positive method of stopping. I think you’d have to live without one.
I’ve always assumed this was one of the reasons we don’t have those foot-wheels today. Inline skates are probably lighter and easier to handle, and possibly less likely to trip you because of all that hardware between your feet.
In the film (which I forgot to guess the age of; I was going to say around the 1920s), the guys show great control, but you never see them going very fast; nothing much to stop from. Turning stops would seem to be the easiest method, but only work if you have someplace to turn.
Yes, this has been done on unicycles. Josue Barreto has one; a single 20" wheel that sticks to his leg. It’s like a one-footed BC wheel. Pretty cool. Only I could never get it going because the leg clamp always pressed right against my shin bone. Ow!
Heelys? I guess they may have come up with the idea of one wheel per foot instead of two. The skate shoes have been around at least 20 years. I’ve seen Heelys before. Didn’t realize the wheels did not retract inside the shoe for normal walking. This keeps it from being as high of a platform shoe, and you can still take off the wheel for walking. But skating around while holding your toes up doesn’t look real comfortable…
Hi goldenchicken,
but the riders don`t have any problems with posts/shims/frames 
You know what I mean …
Roland
Re: Another wheel in a shoe…
i have a pair of heelys and they are really fun to do rolling jump self mounts they rock like 40 buck i remcomoned every buying them!
POW