a person with short legs and a long trunk…would that effect the way they ride a unicycle? Especially free mounting?
Long trunk?
short legs and long upper body.
Yes, it would have an effect. They would need to adjust the seat so that their feet could reach the pedals.
I do not think there would be any other profound effect. W all use our upper body to compensate.
Scott
Unless the ratio is way, way off (say, 1:2), one wouldn’t really notice any adverse side effects.
In a way yes: I happen to be built that way but it affects only the way I go down steep slopes: It’s difficult for me to have my favorite “chimpanzee attitude” and grab the handle of my seat. that’s why I put a long bar on my muni. Free mounting is only a problem on 36" (but probably for other reasons).
Couldn’t resist
I think so. I reckon the length and weight of your legs, like crank length and wheel size effects your speed a little bit. Small legs must be faster to spin since they weigh less but would have a bit less power for really steep climbing. Short legs would effectively seem bigger for a coker, eg with the seat right down the wheel takes up most of the leg, but with a taller rider the top of a 36 wheel only reaches the knee or below- so different leverage forces would apply.
Because we can only experiment with our own legs there is no way of comparing directly the different experience of short and long legs within a short space of time, and just comparing riders with different leg lengths won’t be completely reliable since everyone’s abilities are diverse even with the same length legs. I know there is a difference but I’m not exactly sure what it is, and it doesn’t matter too much since you have to make do with what you’ve got anyway.
My thought about short/long legs is what would be the most efficient cranks to use? shorter cranks for shorter legs?
I think short is good generally, but it depends on the type of riding and your personal preference. There comes a point where with short you can’t seem to get enough power to spin fast enough anyway.
Ken Looi and Corbin have both got short legs and are fast, I’m not sure how short/long their cranks are.
With geared or mountain unicycling the tendency seems to be slightly longer cranks, and for freestyle short is good. Trials I dunno maybe medium- I’ve got 125s but don’t do trials.
If you feel like your legs are flailing in massive circles causing extra wobble- like mine did when I got my Wilder 24" with 170mm cranks, then your cranks are probably too long. I’ve got 114s on my 36" and I sometimes miss the extra power of the 125s for high winds and steep hills.
I think you can get used to certain crank sizes too, making a new crank size seem hard at first cos of muscle memory or existing strength or whatever.
It is hard to know what you are comparing when you say shorter- what do you think is regular length? What wheelsize are you using? Do you feel efficient or inefficient with the cranks you currently use?