OK… me and my brother have a debate going on about the fastest speed… he says it’s 18 MPH and i say it’s 30 MPH can anyone help me out?
it’s certainly more than 18mph i think roger davies has done 28mph but i’m not sure. someone will be here soon who is sure im sure.
iain
The highest speed I’ve heard of was between 29 and 30 mph by Christian. If I hadn’t seen him ride I wouldn’t think that’s possible, given how fast and dangerous 20mph feels to me. Anyway, MANY people have gone well over 18mph.
—Nathan
What’s the world record for highest speed on a unicycle w/o gliding or coasting? 30mph seems pretty fast.
I remember (perhaps incorrectly) Christian telling me two things.
1.) The measured speed was OVER 30 mph.
2.) The experience was a pants soiling one in which he was not always in control.
Anyone know the fastest speed of someone coasting?
Daniel
You would reach “terminal velocity” at around 120 MPH. But I assume you mean riding ON the earth and not TOWARDS it.
Unless you’re tracking head down with arms tucked back. Terminal velocity increases to near 200 mph in this streamlined position.
While we’re on this topic, I remember someone saying that their personal top speed on a Coker was something like 15 MPH. That seems pretty slow, especially when I’ve gotten to 14 mph on my 24" (and offroad to boot!)
If you hit 120mph higher in the atmosphere you might go a bit faster before you hit terminal velocity because of the lowered air pressure.
Christian is the man, he is certainly fast! I went for a little ride him at eurocycle. It was fantastic, we sort of cruise at the same speed… it would be the one time I could not find my speedo but Christain was saying it was around 30 kph that we found our comfortable speed at. Faster than I thought it would be, but cool! isn’t that somewhere around 18mph.
As for my top speed, I have done 24mph but do not like going above 20mph… it scares me.
Roger
On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 13:01:15 -0500, Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com> wrote:
>To calculate wheel size, one must ride a carefully measured one turn of
>the wheel or several turns / number of turns. Measuring my wheel
>without riding resulted in a circumference that was about 2% longer
>(2839mm) than measuring when riding (2834mm). Riding appears to
>compress the tire slightly, giving a smaller than expected
>circumference.
Ken, you’ve probably made a typo in the numbers or misplaced a decimal point. The difference between those two rollouts is actually about 0.18%.
There is also unclarity in my mind about the definition of ‘speed’. I can think of two definitions for speed. One is the circumference of the wheel multiplied by the cadence, I call that tyre speed. The other is the distance covered per unit of time, I call that road speed. The two are different for (again) two reasons; for both of these, their effect is in the same direction:
- Wobble.
- Tyre compression.
The first is fundamental, and it is a philosophical question what the ‘best’ definition of speed would be. The second could be avoided by measuring the rollout while sitting on the uni. I measured the rollout of my wheels when unloaded but when I sit on them the tyre compresses and the effective wheel radius decreases. According to my measurements, the two effects combined cause a difference on the order of 3%.
Klaas Bil
Re: Fastest speed on a coker?
What do you have your cyclometer calibration set to?
Re: Fastest speed on a Coker?
Please avoid using html in rec.sport.unicycling. It’s hard to read with
html ignorant news readers or e-mail clients. I’ve manually removed the
html tags; hope I got everything straight.
>Nathan wrote:
>> *The highest speed I’ve heard of was between 29 and 30 mph by
>> Christian. If I hadn’t seen him ride I wouldn’t think that’s
>> possible, given how fast and dangerous 20mph feels to me. Anyway, MANY
>> people have gone well over 18mph.<br>
Mike Peterson <mpeters1@gladstone.uoregon.edu>
>Sorry to resurrect a thread that’s so old. I finally got a cyclometer
>(that was actually able to be sized exactly in mm for my Coker!) and was
>able to measure myself. I’ve topped 30 and can average 22 mph over more
>than a mile. I tend to average 17 to 18 mph when I’m not in a hurry.
>Although this seems to be a little higher than most for the top speeds,
>how does everyone do on their averages?
Those are great speeds on a Coker! Congratulations, Mike!
However, in my opinion, top speed doesn’t mean much, since it may last
only a few seconds. It is also an anaerobic sprint activity and thus
lactic acid builds up which actually reduces further performance. Speed
over a mile is more meaningful, but other than to just see how fast one
can go in a mile, what is the practical value of that statistic? These
are both very dangerous competition benchmarks for Coker riders due to
the speeds (much faster than one can run out a fall) involved; I
wouldn’t recommend participation in either one due to saftey issues.
In my opinion, average speed over one hour is a far more meaningful
statistic for Coker riders. Almost all of us probably ride at least an
hour when we go on a serious training ride. No one can really complain
that it is too long, because they can’t spare the time. Bicycle riders
have a 40km in an hour benchmark; 25km (almost 15 miles) in an hour makes a
good benchmark for Coker riders. It is a good aerobic stamina test.
The speeds (not much faster than one can run) involved are relatively
safe.
Has anyone gone more than 15 miles (a bit more than 25km) in one hour?
I asked this question a few months ago, but as I recall no one answered
affirmatively.
Potential bike computer pitfalls:
Be caution of maximum speed readouts from bike computers; many people
have reported their computer recording maximum speeds which they know
couldn’t possibly be correct.
To calculate wheel size, one must ride a carefully measured one turn of
the wheel or several turns / number of turns. Measuring my wheel
without riding resulted in a circumference that was about 2% longer
(2839mm) than measuring when riding (2834mm). Riding appears to
compress the tire slightly, giving a smaller than expected
circumference.
Sincerely,
Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com>
Re: Fastest speed on a Coker?
On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 13:01:15 -0500, Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com>
wrote:
>To calculate wheel size, one must ride a carefully measured one turn of
>the wheel or several turns / number of turns. Measuring my wheel
>without riding resulted in a circumference that was about 2% longer
>(2839mm) than measuring when riding (2834mm). Riding appears to
>compress the tire slightly, giving a smaller than expected
>circumference.
You’ve probably made a typo in the numbers or misplaced a decimal
point. The difference between those two rollouts is actually about
0.18%.
There is also an unclarity in my mind about the definition of ‘speed’.
I can think of two definitions for speed. One is the circumference of
the wheel multiplied by the cadence, I call that tyre speed. The other
is the distance covered per unit of time, I call that road speed. The
two are different for (again) two reasons; for both of these, their
effect is in the same direction:
- Wobble.
- Tyre compression.
The first is fundamental, and it is a philosophical question what the
‘best’ definition of speed would be. The second could be avoided by
measuring the rollout while sitting on the uni. I measured the rollout
of my wheels when unloaded but when I sit on them the tyre compresses
and the effective wheel radius decreases. According to my
measurements, the two effects combined cause a difference on the order
of 3%.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
I go a sort of ok speed on my Coker… - Roger Davies
Re: Re: Fastest speed on a Coker?
With all due respect…
Philosophy Shmilosophy.
If you’re racing your Coker against a car, and when you get to your max speed and they’re still with you they yell their speedometer reading out the window at you for encouragement, what is the number they’re yelling?
TB
"Putting the “oup” in “newsgroup”…
Re: Re: Re: Fastest speed on a Coker?
Thank you for the example because that refers precisely to my point. A car has no wheel wobble to speak of - or something is terribly wrong. So they are yelling your road speed (in my terms). If you have calibrated your cyclometer on a straight (and loaded) rollout it measures your tyre speed. The difference is (in my experiments) about 3%. Shmilosophy? You may call it that but I wouldn’t.
Klaas Bil
Re: Re: Re: Re: Fastest speed on a Coker?
Deal… 
The way speed is usually measured in sports competitions is by timing something over a measured distance. This is how it’s done for runners, race cars, and bikes. This gives the rider the freedom to zig zag all they want, or not, as whatever “speed” is contained in those motions it’s irrelevant to getting from A to B.
Onboard cyclometers are good for training and comparison from one ride to the next, but are not real good for comparing one to another. To do so accurately, calibration must be very accurate on the part of both riders. It would (should) not be used in setting speed records, or racing.
All of that said, there are a few “recognized” existing records out there. We race 10k fairly regularly, though I don’t know what the record is. That should be researchable, and the fastest time is probably from one of the last three UNICONs. Hopefully their 10k distances were all accurately measured. This can establish for us a 10k speed record.
I remember reading a thing from 1888 or so, in which a guy went out and established speed records in one mile increments all the way up to 14.8 or so. This was how far he got in an hour. In 1888! His wheel size is unknown, but was probably in the range of common bike front wheels of the day.
The IHPVA (International Human Powered Vehicle Association) keeps speed records for various types of pedal powered vehicles. In 1986 or 7, Floyd Beattie went to their meet in Indianapolis and set a “sprint” record, using their 200 meter speed trap. To establish a record, you must ride the course in both directions, and then the two times are averaged to eliminate wind effects. He was riding on a brand new 45" Tom Miller big wheel, that had just been assembled so he wasn’t yet used to it. I don’t remember the details, but his times meant a speed of about 23 mph. That’s the only such record I know of for top speed over a short distance. Even Floyd knows it wasn’t that fast, and I’m sure he could have gone much faster after getting acquainted with the cycle.
Floyd Beattie also did an hour record on a velodrome. He was a purist about the whole thing, and only drank the water he carried with him, refusing to pick up any he hadn’t brought along. Anyway, he used up all his water pretty quick, got dehydrated, and then had to “retire” in the last few minutes to heave ho. He covered something like 14.89 miles, about the same as the guy in 1888. This is from memory; not sure about the exact numbers other than that it was real close to 15 miles.
Of course we know the 100 mile record is 6:44, which is amazingly fast over such a long distance. That one is also supposedly the world record for longest unicycle ride without a dismount (Takayuki Koike, 1987).
The Budweiser Rocket Car, making a run at the land speed record in 1982 or so, went up onto its single front wheel for more than 100’ when shockwaves formed on the rear part of the car. That’s the world’s fastest powered unicycle. 
Brett Bymaster has done gliding at speeds over 20mph, which is pretty dang scary. He says he has approached 25, but I don’t know if he ever quite got there. That’s just dangerous. Someone in Germany, maybe Arne Tilgen (?) has gone over 40 kph gliding, while being towed by a motorcycle.
Possibly the fastest glide I ever saw was done by Yuichiro Kato at UNICON IV in 1988, at the world’s first-ever Gliding competition. He went flying down that hill at an unknown speed, his pedals a blur, until he lost it and went sliding about 10m on his hands and knees. Fortunately that was also the first year UNICON required everyone to wear kneepads and gloves! He was unharmed. His second run was much more conservative, and he didn’t win. The winner of the contest was Fuyuki Tsuchiya, who now works for Miyata and the JUA, and may be one of the hosting persons at UNICON next summer.
Coasting? You just don’t go fast. I’ve never seen anyone coast faster than they do in one of our flat-ground coasting competitions. To do it downhill would be spectacular to watch, but very dangerous for the rider.
So, I believe what I’ve heard about Christian Hoverath. He’s probably the fastest unicyclist on earth, but it’s unofficial. He’s got to do some kind of repeatable speed trap record for it to be a “real” record. 30mph? I’m not going that fast…
Good stuff John. According to Brett’s (now dead) High Speed Gliding page, he’s gone 25.5mph gliding.
In case you’re not really sure what gliding is, vs coasting, check out these photos of Brett and John: http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/skills/glide.html
John, remember that time at Tahoe when Brett decided to glide down that steep hill by the cabin before we left for Mr Toads? No safety gear, no nothing, in seconds he was FLYING down that hill. I think he said that run felt like under 20mph, so I’d hate to see 25.5.
—Nathan