I was in Nottingham today, and saw a 12 inch (12.5?) uni in a shop window, so I went in and asked to look at it. They wanted £75 for it, and I wasn’t keen to spend that much on a novelty item.
It was set up badly with a tyre that was almost flat, the bearing caps loose, the cranks on the wrong sides, and one pedal cross threaded!
The seat post was very short.
I was wearing big clumpy hiking boots, and the pedals were the size of postage stamps.
Given that I can freemount a 20 or a Coker with almost 100% success, I can ride for an hour without dismounting, and idle absent mindedly, I was startled to find that I couldn’t freemount or idle the 12!
After being reduced to an assisted mount for the first few attempts, I was able to idle briefly. Later, I managed a freemount.
It was a strange feeling - almost like being back to the old days of practising basic skills in a car park.
With the right shoes, and the uni set up properly, I have no doubt it would have been a bit easier - although perhaps a longer seat post would in some sense be “cheating”.
I’m glad I tried it. I now sort of almost half want one. A pocket unicycle.
The difference between a 12 and a 16 was astounding. The 16 I once rode was a poor substitute for a 20. Irritatingly small. The 12 was different enough to be a whole new experience. 1/3 the size of a Coker!
Evan bought a 12" then he got bored of it in 10 minutes and now I have it. I origionally wanted it for my 3 year old sister but she is still too small. It was fun for me for about 10 minutes too. People laugh at me when i ride it though.
To help me assess this helpful advice, I need an attention span calibration, please.
You get bored in 10 minutes on a 12 inch unicycle.
How quickly would you get bored:
Reading Jane Austen?
Drawing a picture of a dog?
Watching the news on TV?
Playing solitaire on your PC?
Practising scales on a bassoon?
Listening to George W Bush making a speech?
Peeling grapes?
Stuffing mushrooms?
I can then compare your answers to the standard figures on British and International General Attention Span Scale (BIGASS), compare it to my own BIGASS, and estimate how long it would be before I got bored riding a 12 inch unicycle.
Haha, well it’s not that I have a short attention span, its just that there isn’t very much you can do on a 12". It isn’t practical for anything. It is really slow and turns suck because the pedals are so close to the ground you hit them if you lean into a turn. It is just a novelty thing that you can’t do much with. If you enjoy riding around in circles for hours going slower than a dead turtle then you may really enjoy it.
Here is my test thing:
Reading Jane Austen?____________I don’t even know what that is.
Drawing a picture of a dog?_______Until my picture is done.
Watching the news on TV?_______Depends what they are talking about but not more than a hour. I’m 15, I don’t like watching about new medicines or law suits but I would probably watch if something blew up or something along those lines;)
Playing solitaire on your PC?_______One game, however long that takes.
Practising scales on a bassoon?____never
Listening to George W Bush making a speech?_never
Peeling grapes?__________________Why would I peel grapes?
Stuffing mushrooms?______________I don’t like mushrooms.
So…I wouldn’t recommend a 12" for an adult unless you want to ride it in a parade or if you are a performer. It is probably like most people that own giraffes, they are cool for a couple days then they go in the garage and collect dust.
Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Tell me you’re being ironic! Jane Austen, brilliant satirist, and some say the inventor of the novel? Jane Austen, creator of some of the most memorable characters in English literature? Jane Austen who held up the society of her day to ridicule so subtly most of them didn’t realise they were being ridiculed? She wrote only six novels, but that was enough to put her up there with Shakespeare (you’ve heard of him, right? Tell me you’ve heard of Shakespeare).
Fair enough. I personify offerise no argumentation over that particularised subjection.
Ha, Yeah I have heard of Shakespeare. I have had to read some of his stuff too which makes me think I should know who Jane Austen is…but I don’t. Well I guess I kind of do now.
Two members of our club can ride a 12" uni with a custom 6’ seat post while wearing stilts. No not both at the same time. Regular 12ers are fun for raceing.
if you had a seatpost long enough to have your legs strate, imagine how easy unispins would be. and hopping o n the wheel. someone should level test with a 12" it seems if you could ride it then testing would be super easy.
i have a 12 inch uni that ive had since i was 4 and thats the one i used to try to ride and something just sparked my interest over this/last summer…i still have it…the other day the tire on my lx was flat so i rode a half mile up to walgreens to get some fix a flaty and i got more attention riding that thing then i do riding my lx backwards…it was fun and tiring at the same time
The tyres on 12" unicycles are always a bit soft, because they’re rated to something silly low like 12PSI or something, so you can only really make them a bit less soft before you get worried.
There’s apparently no point having a longer seatpost because then it’s just like a normal uni.
You could probably come along to the University on a monday night if you wanted another go on one that is a bit better set up.
I stidied two of the six novels at school: Mansfield Park and Pride and Prejudice. I often found myself chuckling as I read them, and thought I must be strange. Not once in 4 years of Eng. Lit. did a teacher mention that it was meant to be funny.
Austen was a satirist. Most of her characters are people you have met, but exaggerated just enough. (Mrs. Bennett is my grandmother.)
The comedy comes from the way that they contradict themselves either by saying one thing and doing another, or by saying one thing, then saying the opposite a moment later. P&P isn’t just a soppy love story in costume. The setting may seem strange to us these days, and the idea of a “good” (as in wealthy and socially accpetable) husband as a woman’s only goal in life clashes with our modern ideas. However, read it as observational comedy.
joemarshall wrote:
> The tyres on 12" unicycles are always a bit soft, because they’re rated
> to something silly low like 12PSI or something, so you can only really
> make them a bit less soft before you get worried.
The one I’ve just bought for DD’s 4th birthday is rated to 30psi, which
is near enough the same as both the Coker tyre and the Gaz on my Muni
Now that I’ve mentioned it I guess I’ll have to provide a picture. She
loves purple, so I’ve decorated it with purple holographic tape that I
bought from Beard:
<URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/z-DSCF0005.JPG>
Her birthday is next weekend, so she hasn’t seen it yet. Unfortunately,
even if I shorten the seatpost (which will allow me to get the seat
about an inch lower) and screw wooden blocks to the pedals, her legs
still won’t be long enough to ride it yet
Oh, and Roger, I love the unicycle.com badge on the front, and I’ve left
it on, but it was a real pig to decorate round!
At the swedish unicycling convention last summar i had a go on a 12", with a long seatpost making it quite riddikulus to look at, you chould sit with allmost stright legs, making about none progress forward at all.
A laugh to wheelwalk though! My feet allmost hit the ground as i did it!
I got a 12" uni a couple of months ago, just because it looks so rediculous when I ride it. I set the seat as far down as possible just to increase the effect. Because the pedals were so close to the ground and were hitting the all the time I took off the original 110mm cranks, took a set of 127s and cut them down to 76mm (3") now I can do more than just go straight ahead without the pedals bumping.
I also tried riding it with a 400mm seat post. I like it better riding down low.
Ahh, sweet little purple 12inch. Shes a very lucky girl Danny.
[QUOTE=Danny Colyer]
Now that I’ve mentioned it I guess I’ll have to provide a picture. She
loves purple, so I’ve decorated it with purple holographic tape that I
bought from Beard:
And here it is next to my 20":
<URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/z-DSCF0007.JPG>
Tell me you’re being ironic! 
