Having never ridden an impossible wheel before, I have absolutely no idea how possible this is, but has anyone ever ridden down a hill on an impossible wheel using one hand as a brake on the tyre as you would do with your foot when gliding?
Andrew
Re: Downhill impossible wheel gliding?
On Fri, 21 Mar 2003 19:55:27 -0600, andrew_carter
<andrew_carter.ko6iq@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>Having never ridden an impossible wheel before, I have absolutely no
>idea how possible this is, but has anyone ever ridden down a hill on an
>impossible wheel using one hand as a brake on the tyre as you would do
>with your foot when gliding?
In the spirit of Harper’s suggestion in the Sore knees thread:
can I borrow your hand when I give this a try?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
You make a good point. How about just duct taping your hand before trying it? 
Andrew
I think hockey tape would work better, duct tape is so slipery. but I think it would work better to make a BC with a magura and really slippery pads.
On gentle hills you do not need to brake when riding an impossible wheel. In fact I would recommend this as a great way to learn to ride an impossible wheel. Get some one to tow you so that you have help starting off and then release your hold on them so you carry on down the hill by yourself. It is nice to have the slope eventually decrease so that you can dismount at a lower speed and in control.
As to gliding on an impossible wheel, I have not seen that done yet. I’m guessing its possible though as it would be a matter of combining skills people have already shown are possible. I’ve seen Jamie Mosengren (sp?) and others using their hands to glide on normal unicycles (Without gloves!) and I’ve also seen people propel themselves on an impossible wheel by leaning over and hand wheel walking the wheel to keep it turning.
Re: Downhill impossible wheel gliding?
On Fri, 21 Mar 2003 19:55:27 -0600, andrew_carter
<andrew_carter.ko6iq@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>Having never ridden an impossible wheel before, I have absolutely no
>idea how possible this is, but has anyone ever ridden down a hill on an
>impossible wheel using one hand as a brake on the tyre as you would do
>with your foot when gliding?
In the spirit of Harper’s suggestion in the Sore knees thread:
can I borrow your hand when I give this a try?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
How would you start off using this technique?
Klaas,
You’ve been posting two of a lot of your posts lately. I’m sure someone’s already said this but I’m just telling you in case they haven’t. I don’t know what causes it.
Andrew
I agree it is annoying, and worse yet: I do it on purpose! In most cases when this happens, it is because I posted once on the newsgroup, and then reposted on the forum. The purpose of the forum repost is to extend the readership by about a factor of eight! I do this ONLY when I have assessed that the link between the two is down. This has often happened over the last 1 or 2 months, for a period of hours to more than a day. AFAIK, Gilby had to stop using the stable news server that he used before, and is still searching for a stable solution.
This also causes my post count (at least in my own statistics) to be higher. This is an effect I do NOT like. Rest assured, I am not trying to beat you (as if I could…).
Let me make it absoluty clear that I am not blaming Gilby. He obviously has to work under the constraints of a free service and he’s doing a terrific job.
As it happens, the double post in this thread is not my fault, somehow the system replicated that. That happened a lot quite a long time ago. It seems to be some system quirk. It occasionally happens for other people’s posts too although some seem to be more prone to it than others.
Klaas Bil
One way is to start by placing one foot on the impossible wheel. Next lean the wheel so that it is resting on the calf of the foot already mounted. You can now use both hands to link hands with your tower. This means you have two points to pull on when you step up with the other foot.
Step up with the other foot and get your weight evenly spread so that the wheel is no longer resting on your calf but is centred. Note that this is likely to require a fair bit of upper body strength on the part of you and your tower.` The impossible wheel is very unstable and to avoid falling off you’ll exert a lot of effort on your tower.
Once you are relativiely stable and relaxed a little get the tower to run backwards so that they pull your forwards, still with both arms linked. Eventually try and let go of your tower and continue onwards.
After some practice you can got from the two handed tow to the one handed tow. This allows the tower to grip the opposing hand so that they can tow standing to one side (much safer when the impossible wheel goes flying!)
tower (toe’er) n, 1. a tall structure, as built by Canadian National (CN) or the folks from Babel 2. A person who tows
Try reading the first three paragraphs of Peter’s post with the first definition strongly cemented in your brain. What? What tower are you talking about? Is there some part of his impossible wheel that sticks up? What is he holding on to?
Then paragraph four came into sight and everything became ok.
But, man was I confused.
Later,
Eli.
Klaas,
That’s fair enough. I wasn’t at all annoyed by the multiple posts, I enjoy reading your posts.
Peter,
Thanks a lot for that, it sounds like a really good way to learn. I’ve ordered some cheap pegs to put on an old wheel so I’ll try it out hopefully this week.
Andrew
I have a 24" B.C. Wheel, and I think I’ve tried the hand-braking technique before, but never in a serious way. This means I don’t remember putting on a glove and doing it for any distance.
To do it on my 24" means to be crouched down and out of the normal “stable” riding position, which makes it more difficult and less useful as a “fun” technique.
Instead, you can squeeze your legs together, with some shin guards or volleyball kneepads turned toward the inside, you can brake with those. That I’ve definitely done some, but not enough to work on solidifying the pads and the skill for “normal” use.
Depending on your wheel and foot size, you might also be able to do some braking with your heels. But if they got into the spokes, that would be bad. I’d stick with the legs.
You can also leg-brake by letting the wheel lean into one leg, rather than trying to squeeze. I think that’s the way I did it when I played around with the B.C. and hills. At that time, I also had a pair of ski poles, with bits of old tire taped to the ends so I could use them both indoors and out. These are not much help when going down the hill, but are awesome for going up–because with them, you can!
Ah yes. The perils of writing advice late at night. A minute after I sent that I realised just how confusing it was going to sound. Next time I will restrain myself until I’m less tired.
Hei
I didn’t know that the pegs on the wheel rotate, it should have been obvious though. I am kind of eager to try one now.
Its a lot harder to ride an impossible wheel then a unicycle isnt it?
Ive never ridden a real impossiable wheel, but have tried (who hasnt) taking my wheel off the uni frame and trying to ride it…
I found it … impossiable 
Well, they’ll rotate until you put your feet on them. There’s no frame to stop them. I think I’ll put some sort of grippy tape around them.
Andrew
Watch out! Plain (round) BMX pegs on a wheel are like standing on rollers. Your feet will have a tendency to roll right off them.
Most B.C. (impossible) wheels have some sort of peg that hangs a little below the axle, or a pedal rather than a peg, right on the axle. David Winston, for example had pedals (or something similar) level with his axle. But they were flat on top, so his feet wouldn’t roll off.
On mine, I have cold-rolled steel tubes about 2" below the axle. The tubing is about the same size as handlebars, so I put on some BMX grips to protect floors and improve foot grip.
Ya, Samuel, that isn’t what you would call an “impossible” or “BC” wheel. When you take the frame off the wheel and try to ride the wheel with cranks and all, you are actually trying to ride a very difficult version of an Ultimate Wheel.
I think that the term “impossible wheel” shouldn’t exist. Whenever someone says it, I’m not sure whether they are referring to a BC wheel or an ultimate wheel. Some people use this term for BC wheels, while others use it for Ultimate Wheels. Why can’t we just say BC wheel or UW? The “impossible wheel” makes everything confusing. 
i must admit, i have taken the front wheel off my bmx and tried it, although only for a few minutes after fixing a puncture (something i now need to do again, so i may have another ago). It is rather hard, mainly as i had no-one to act as a tower, so just getting on was hard enough.
Does that make it much easier to ride, having the tubes lower than the axle?
What does BC stand for?
Thanks,
Andrew