I also remain skeptical about GPS max. speeds. My own Garmin 305 is all over the place, with plenty of “fantasy” spikes in the results after any ride. But Christian was using a wired cyclometer, which still lends more weight to his record. But any way you look at it, anything in the 45 km range is absolutely koo-koo.
I wonder how fast I’d have been willing to go if Cokers were available back in the 80s when I was fearless. Though I could pretty easily crank my 45" big wheel up to 35-37 km/h on the flat, I never really pushed it beyond that even then. I think it’s because I was aware of the consequences of failure. In a crash the cranks would bend for sure (this happened a lot), the handmade axle might break, not to mention what would happen to the rider, and then the wheel had this annoying habit of running you over.
My training for Ride The Lobster last year was changed drastically by my shoelace crash/broken collarbone in Oct. 2007. After that, I was less comfortable pushing the unicycle beyond running speeds. 27 km/h was plenty fast for me. Though I could hit 29-30 it made me very uncomfortable, and if you’re not feeling confident it’s not safe to ride like that for extended periods. So my training was mostly about trying to maintain a 25 km/h average, and improving on the climbing. In the end, I think my weakest area was riding downhill. I never got good at riding fast with the brake on…
I agree that the directly recorded max speed as such is rather useless. One spurious location point because of poor satellite reception can give a very high max speed.
My Garmin eTrex Vista gives a file of individual speed points (and more). I routinely load this into Excel after every ride, in a set of dedicated spreadsheets. One of the results is what I call a “realistic max speed”, which is basically judged on consistency with the lower speeds. Outlyer points are thus eliminated and I do trust my max speed derived this way.
…i did a couple of tests on low speed, had also a 10km ride in 20.16 min. that means almost an average of 30 km/h…on the race on sunday, with the bike in front i had a max. speed from 40km/h (also recorded by the bike), there i had 22 minutes for a 10.4 lap (windy, an uphill in that, an d after i did two downhillruns)…so i guess i can hit the 28mph…
I have a lot of experience riding with a GPS and looking at it for my current speed. I’ve found that overall it is less accurate than a cyclometer, but that if you can hold a constant speed over a long time like 30 seconds or more, you can get a reasonably accurate reading. Of course you have to ignore the spikes that happen once and a while. I have seen GPSs read speeds that completely match what my experience tells me I’m riding. I KNOW what 19, 20, 21mph feel like (speeds up around my usual max). I remember back in my Coker/125 days a particular floating feeling that happens to me around 18 to 18.5mph, and how it changes as I go faster.
For instance, take Christian’s amazing ride back in 2001. He was NOT surprised at the reading from his cyclometer because he KNEW it was quite a bit faster than he had ever ridden before. He told me that he was absolutely blown away by the speed and the fact that he didn’t crash. Also, that once he had done it, he really didn’t want to do it again - too scary. This is a guy who was VERY familiar with speeds around 25-26mph. I have ridden with him down hills a couple of times where we are going say 18 or 19mph and then watched him take off and suddenly be going 25mph or more. His style was like nothing I’ve ever seen since. So I believe his speed (within +/- some amount - same as all other speeds measured like this including my own). I don’t know what the error bar is on this. Probably as much as 10%? Certainly more than 5%.
As for Turtle, it’s pretty much the same case even though I don’t know him personally. None of these speeds are exact, but he’s a fast rider on a fast cycle. I can believe 28mph +/- some delta without being there. The fact that he had two speedometers agreeing makes it even more believable - hardly anyone else ever has that.
Now I really want a geared 36" uni. I’m sure I would just kill myself because I would be too fast:p One day I really want one, or at least try one, but I would want to buy one after I tried it. Anyway, I can’t beat my 34.5kph, I did 34kph once, I’ll have to try again, I just dont want to fall at this speed.
Doubling up on the devices should help, in terms of one GPS and one cyclometer, but doubling up on GPS devices might just duplicate the data (that would make for interesting tests).
The problem with all of this is we’re just hitting what may be ultra-brief speeds, possibly downhill with a tailwind, etc. They’re cool to talk about, but they don’t amount to much. It’s far more meaningful to compare consistent results under consistent conditions. For example, the IHPVA uses (or used to use) a 200 meter speed trap. I’m not sure about this part, but I think they used to have you ride through it once in each direction to eliminate any wind or slope effects. Then the times would be averaged. From this you’d have a number you could compare with other riders around the world.
200 meters is still short enough to hold a pretty high sprint speed through it, but long enough to eliminate freakish bursts of speed. Also, possibly it’s enough to get more consistent results from our usual measurement tools. However for it to be truly accurate, it should be done with a timing system.
I’d agree that the kinds of claims on this thread are only anecdotal and can’t be directly compared with each other very well - but I’m sure that all these examples are of people’s peak speeds while going down an ideal slope for their spinning comfort level. A flat sprint would be a completely different skill, and certainly not nearly as fast as a hill-assisted burst of speed.
I think we have to just accept brief peak speeds (however well measured, and personally I think that cycle computers can be very reliable for max speeds, even if you only achieve it for a couple of revolutions) for this area of discussion. There are plenty of other ways to race in controlled conditions; this is the place for shaggy-dog stories and wide-armed-fisherman’s yarns.
My own yarn is of a day when I got 25mph as a personal best (I usually peaked at up to 23), and was in a reckless mood and ended up hitting 26.7mph; which felt scary and well beyond ‘controlled’ and not something I’ll ever try to repeat. On my Geared 36 I have not gone beyond 24mph yet, but that feels much more controlled.
Sam
Speed (mph), Name, Location, Unicycle, Crank size
29-ish, Christian Hoverath, ungeared Coker, 125mm
26.8 mph, Jan Logemann, Remscheid, Germany, Geard KH36, 125mm
26.7 mph Sam Wakeling, Wales, UK, Ungeared 36, 114mm
26.1 mph, Corbin Dunn, Los Gatos CA USA, Geared KH36, 150mm
25.9 mph, (41.7 kph), turtle on “turtle’s V”, Gearded 29", 125mm
24.2 mph, Lars Lottrup, Nivå Denmark, Nimbus 36, 114mm
24.2 mph, John Moriarty, Sarasota FL, 24" Schlumpf muni, 125mm
24.1 mph, Roland Kays, Albany NY, Geared KH36, 165mm
23.5 mph, David Stone, Lobster, 29" Schlumpf, 125mm
22.9 mph, Scott Wilton, Madison WI USA, Nimbus 36, 114mm
22.6 mph, Spencer Owen, Nottingham UK, Schlumpf 29, 127mm
22.1 mph Tyler Nail, California, ungeared UDC 36er, 125mm
22-ish, John Foss, 45" Unicycle Factory Big Wheel (28 pounds), 6.5" cranks
21.75 mph (35.0 kph) Geoff Houghton, Ashland, Oregon, USA Florian Green
36" with Schlumpf, 165mm
21.43 mph (34.5 kph) Jacob Flansberry, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Nimbus Night Rider 36", 137mm.
21.43 mph (34.5 kph) Nathan Hoover, Kenya, Schlumpf KH 36, 150mm
21.1 mph, Øivind Stuan, Trondheim Norway, Nimbus 36, 125mm
20.8 mph, Steve Relles, Delmar NY US, KH36/Schumpf, 165mm
20.8 mph, Nathan Hoover, Norway, Hunter 36, 125mm
20.2 mph, Samuel Farmer, West Sussex England, Qu-ax 36, 114mm
19.9 mph, Peripatet, Jacksonville FL USA, KH36, 125mm
19.0 mph, Joe Sowul, Anaheim CA USA, Nimbus Nightrider 36, 125mm
17.5 mph, John Foss, Max. indicated speed on 24" with 125mm (multiple repeats)
17.0 mph, Rob Northcott, Somewhere on Dartmoor, Mongrel 36er, 145mm
15.5mph, Bob Griffiths, Shrewsbury Cycle Track,UK, Coker 36, 150s
12.8 mph BrianP, Ocala FL US, KH24 w 150s
The idea of “controlled” when riding a unicycle is already a bit of a stretch. The rider must intentionally start to fall and then compensate by pedaling. We are always executing a “controlled” fall when we ride.
Which is why I’m fairly happy (though I make no claims to speed-demonry) with my standing in the list… the burst I’m claiming was several seconds of flat ground riding rather than these people who cheat with their elevations and their changes ;D ;D ;D
I kid, of course, and would enjoy having hills in my vicinity that weren’t caused by strip mining or rock quarrying, though I’ll gladly take the trails that are available because of those
According to my odometer/speedometer, I hit 16.6 MPH today going down a modest hill and felt more-or-less in control the whole time. It was on a 36" with 125 mm cranks. I realize this is not fast compared to the speed demons on the list. I can picture going a bit faster on one-speed 36", but it is hard for me to picture going a lot faster.
