The other day I had a little crash on my Coker (perhaps I should say off my
Coker) that I had never experienced before.
I had just finished congratulating myself on climbing a hill that I had been
unable to climb until I lost a little weight and got a little stronger. I
chose a way down the hill that I did’t think would be too tough when to my
surprise I did an unplanned dismount. Normally the Coker will roll a couple of
feet and fall over. This time the Coker continued on down the hill ahead of me
dragging its seat.
I evaluated the situation and realized the busy intersection at the bottom of
the hill may create a problem. Then the uni veered a little to the right and
made for a very new looking little sports car. Using my inferior speed afoot I
managed to catch up to the uni and strike it with my left hand which caused the
wheel to crash into my left knee (big pain). Fortunately the wheel made a
U-turn, then fell over. Breathing a sigh of relief I gathered up my dignity
and my unicycle. I remounted just as a very nice looking young lady rolled
down a car window next to me and said, “nice catch.” Being ever the gentleman
and old enough to be her father, I said, “Thank you,” and rode on happy that I
didn’t have to explain to anyone how I managed to put a big dent in their car
with my big wheel.
I am thinking of putting a tether on the uni like the surfer dudes do, but I
doubt I will. It looked like an event unlikely to reoccur. Has any one else
had their uni travel unusual distances sans rider?
Perhaps cokers need a kill cord like outboard engines:
A small length of string is clipped onto the riders belt, if rider upds the string would pull a pin releasing a brake onto the wheel.
If the string was the curly plastic used by surfers/keychains it would be short enought not to be in the way whilst riding and long enought to dismount normaly due to its elastic properties.
When rider upds a pin similar to a hand grenade would be released and a spring would push a brake onto the wheel below the seat post. This would work in the same way the hand granade pin releases the lever, the lever acting as a brake.
jmille2788@aol.comnojunk (j.d. miller) writes:
>
>I evaluated the situation and realized the busy intersection at the
>bottom of
>the hill may create a problem. Then the uni veered a little to the right
>and
>made for a very new looking little sports car. Using my inferior speed
>afoot I
>managed to catch up to the uni and strike it with my left hand which
>caused the
>wheel to crash into my left knee (big pain). Fortunately the wheel made a
>U-turn, then fell over. Breathing a sigh of relief I gathered up my
>dignity
>and my unicycle. I remounted just as a very nice looking young lady
>rolled
>down a car window next to me and said, “nice catch.” Being ever the
>gentleman
>and old enough to be her father, I said, “Thank you,” and rode on happy
>that I
>didn’t have to explain to anyone how I managed to put a big dent in their
>car
>with my big wheel.
>
>I am thinking of putting a tether on the uni like the surfer dudes do,
>but I
>doubt I will. It looked like an event unlikely to reoccur. Has any one
>else
>had their uni travel unusual distances sans rider?
I wrote about one of these experiences last year. It’s happened 3 times,
and each time was scary. Once it shot into oncoming traffic (I was on the
cel phone at the time, which may have been part of the problem). Another
time it was stopped short of smashing a stroller by the foot of the
infant’s mom (I was riding slowly in the park, so that wasn’t something I shouldn’t have been doing – just bad luck). And another time it aimed
itself for a couple out for a stroll (again, the woman knocked it down,
again it wasn’t going too fast).
Fool wrote:
> When rider upds a pin similar to a hand grenade would be released and
> a spring would push a brake onto the wheel below the seat post. This
> would work in the same way the hand granade pin releases the lever,
> the lever acting as a brake.
Nice idea, but imagine the consequences of the pin being pulled by
accident (perhaps because the cord catches on a knee, a heel or a twig)
while riding.
>On 10 Nov 2003 02:26:24 GMT, jmille2788@aol.comnojunk (J.D. Miller)
>wrote:
>>Has any one else
>>had their uni travel unusual distances sans rider?
>I don’t have a Coker and my smaller unis don’t do this. But I’ve
>gathered from many posts that Cokers are infamous for rolling on their
>own.
Coker’s do have far more angular momentum than unicycles with smaller
and lighter wheels, which cause them to stay upright longer. However,
in most UPDs, they usually fall over almost as quickly as the rider.
I suspect that it is rare that they travel more than 5 meters after an
UPD, unless the speed was over 25 kph (15+ mph). Also, having a hill to
go down would definitely extend the range of a riderless Coker.
I have a strange vision of someone falling off their coker, just managing to stay on their feet and stop… but then being yanked off down the road by the unstoppable riderless machine…
Mine this past weekend was the reverse…after gaining speed on a (mild) downhill and going upd straight off the front (at the fastest running speed I have ever managed without wiping out), by the time I slowed down and turned around, my Coker was headed right for me, saddle scraping in front like a cowcatcher! I managed to side-step as it went by, and as if it had a mind of its own, it then started turning like it was going to come back around…alas it was just finally flopping over and spinning about the pedal as it gasped its last attempt to show its rider who’s boss!
This should be a competitive event, like a uni javelin throw.
Riders could mount with their maincaps unscrewed, gain speed, and then dismount to the back taking the seat/seatpost/frame, so the wheel would roll on unencumbered.
We actually did this at NAUCC this summer, though not as you described.
The phenomenon, when applied to regular unicycles on hills, is called Unicycle Bowling. This happens when the cycle gets away from you, usually on a hill, and it keeps on going, even if it’s tumbling end over end.
At NAUCC we did the uphill and downhill races on a big, steep hill of relatively soft grass. What a perfect place to “bowl” some unicycles, under relatively benign conditions? So for this event I had people ride up to a line as fast as they wanted, and dismount, seeing how far the unicycles would go down the hill.
A surprising number of people happily put their unicycles at risk and entered this informal contest, where fortunately only one unicycle was damaged to my knowledge (bent seat post).
What we learned from this event is some relatively obvious facts:
Heavier wheels rolled better than lighter wheels
Shorter cranks rolled better than longer cranks
Larger wheels rolled better than smaller wheels
So based on the above, the best-rolling cycles were either 20" Trials cycles with fat tires, and MUnis with heavy rims and tires. The regular-sized rim/tire wheels did not roll as well. There was one ultimate wheel, which out-rolled everything else.
A Coker should be able to bowl farther down a hill than nearly any other unicycle, due to the large and relatively heavy tire. Obviously this would not be a good idea. Aside from the possible danger to people and objects down the hill, the cycle could get damaged in relatively proportion to how fast it gets going.
But it was fun doing it as a one-time thing at NAUCC!
I would, however, advise anyone thinking of attaching a unibilical cord to their belts to make sure that the belt in question is fastened securely. I can only imagine that chasing half-naked down the street after your uni AND your ripped-off trousers will only add to the embarrassment.
>> Coker’s do have far more angular momentum than unicycles with
>> smaller
>> and lighter wheels, which cause them to stay upright longer.
>> However,
>> in most UPDs, they usually fall over almost as quickly as the rider.
>> I suspect that it is rare that they travel more than 5 meters after
>> an
>> UPD, unless the speed was over 25 kph (15+ mph). Also, having a hill
>> to
>> go down would definitely extend the range of a riderless Coker.
>This should be a competitive event, like a uni javelin throw.
>Riders could mount with their maincaps unscrewed, gain speed, and then
>dismount to the back taking the seat/seatpost/frame, so the wheel would
>roll on unencumbered.
Or, just use the Coker wheel set as an ultimate wheel. Riders could
start mounted, ride up to a line where they must jump off to the back,
allowing the wheel to continue forward at high speed.
can anyone relate?
