Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai Question

system · June 26, 2003, 4:08am

Hello Guys and Gals,
I’m going to throw this question out there to see if you know what this
contraption is called. (now it’s not a unicycle but who knows you may have
seen it before.)
I just saw Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai last night on the Bravo Channel and
one of the performers was in this huge two wheeled thing (for lack of a
better term).
The wheels had to be at least 6-7 feet tall and where connected side by
side by one central axel. The central axel and 2 wheels basically looked
liked this I-O-I (top view) The performer was located in the middle with his
waist inside the O shaped part. He wheeled around the stage by using his
feet and then lifting them to glide around. He was able to spin 360 degrees
either on the horizontal plane or vertical plane. It was by far the coolest
looking way to get around.
Hopefully that desription helps and someone out there nows what it is
called or if it was just created for that particular show. Thanks for your
time…

JJuggle · June 26, 2003, 4:16am

Re: Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai Question

Can’t really answer whether or not the thing has a name, but it was made by someone who specializes in unicycle construction. Check out this thread.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

U-Turn · June 26, 2003, 5:09am

As far as I know it was created for that show only. I’m sure that Tom Miller would be glad to make another!

system · June 26, 2003, 6:53am

Re: Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai Question

Thanks for the info

“JJuggle” <JJuggle.pmofz@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:JJuggle.pmofz@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> Tymm wrote:
> > called or if it was just created for that particular show. Thanks for
> > your
> > time…
> Can’t really answer whether or not the thing has a name, but it was made
> by someone who specializes in unicycle construction. Check out this
> ‘thread’ (http://tinyurl.com/fbcf).
>
> Raphael Lasar
> Matawan, NJ
>
>
> –
> JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists
>
> I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in
> the past’s fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid
> centuries of warfare. - Howard Zinn, -A People’s History of the United
> States-
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> JJuggle’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/24
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/26337
>

muni_guy · June 26, 2003, 6:58am

That sounds like a large dicycle. Sem (Semcycle) has one of these in his garage. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of it, but it’s really cool.

Sem’s dicycle has a recumbant type seat hanging from the axle. His is even geared and one break to either wheel allows you to steer the thing. One of the really neat things you can do on it is get up a lot of speed and pull both breaks … the seat and you end up doing a full loop around the axle.

Carl

system · June 26, 2003, 2:33pm

Re: Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai Question

On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 08:58:22 -0500, muni_guy
<muni_guy.pmw2z@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>That sounds like a large dicycle. Sem (Semcycle) has one of these in his
>garage. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of it, but it’s really
>cool.

I have a link on my website to a site that had a picture of this, but
the link is dead now. I’ve searched my internet cache files for the
pic but to no avail. Oh well this doesn’t help at all

In the Semcycle dicycle the suspension of the rider seems different
from what Tymm described.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict

“No two crotches are alike. If they are, I don’t want to know about it. - John Foss, on seat comfort.”

monociclos · June 26, 2003, 3:47pm

Rotterdam E.J.C.

I have two pics, i don´t know if you are talking about this but you can make horizontal “loops” it was really fun!

monociclos · June 26, 2003, 3:50pm

This is the other one!!!

I have put some lines to make it easier to understand.

andrew_carter · June 26, 2003, 11:26pm

You’d better be careful making claims like that in a unicycling community.

Andrew

john_childs · June 27, 2003, 1:23am

Here is a picture of the wheeled thing from Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai. My VCR made an especially poor recording (the cable signal must have been poor) so the video capture frames look really bad. Lots of noise in the signal. I even did some post processing and the capture frames still look bad. Sorry about that.

He controlled it by running with his feet on the ground and by putting his hands or feet in to the spokes.

It was made by Tom Miller from The Unicycle Factory.

U-Turn · June 27, 2003, 6:07am

Thanks, John! That Sem dicycle is neat, too.

john_childs · June 27, 2003, 9:09am

What’s not obvious from the pictures is that he is strapped in a harness that allows him to go upside down without falling on his head. He can hold on to the spokes with his hands and feet and do a graceful roll. The routine was well done and looked very good.