Fastest speed on a unicycle

General
21

Don’t get me wrong, I know some people really can go that fast.

My top speed on a 36er seems to be limited by sheer cowardice as much as anything else. I can spin faster with similar length cranks on my 26" muni, so that’s not the limit (although my favouring longer cranks doesn’t help with top speed, but I hate the feel of shorter ones).

Apparently a long handle helps with the feeling of “I’ll fall off if I hit an ant” at higher speeds, but I haven’t got round to trying it yet - it seems I’m happy cruising around at 13-14mph most of the time anyway (mostly on gravel/easy xc - I’m not really much of a road unicyclist (that’s what bikes are for)).

Rob

22

It’s amazing how fast a lot of people are on the ungeared unis! My max speed was about 22mph on my ungeared Nimbus 36, with 125s; many of you are faster than me at ungeared riding. I’ve also hit 22mph on my geared 24, but I think my cyclo computer is reading 1-2% higher than it should.

MuniSano - It also would be interesting to see what people’s times are over distance; we could start a thread for that. It is more difficult to do, as you have to have everyone using the same distance and the same conditions to make it comparable. We also do have times over distance recorded from unicon events.

–corbin

23

I devised an interesting max speed test, where I flip my touring handle 180 degrees so it’s pointing backward. then I attach my small videocam between the bars, and positioned so it is filming the cranks, tires and part of the foreground simultaneously. Also in a corner of the shot is my GPS, which will be recording throughout the test. I’m going to try it over a 1/4 mile of flat paved ground and see what my max speed will be. :smiley:

24

Anyone else having issues getting a reliable topspeed on longer rides with a bike computer? I regularly find aberrant values, like speeds there is no way I reached. I placed the magnet so it’s not in front of the sensor during idles or mounting, but I still seem to be getting weird readings once in a while. When it’s way off chart, it’s easy to spot, but I’m never really sure if that new top speed I reached is just an artifact or not. Distance and average speed are quite accurate though.

25

Speed (mph), Name, Location, Unicycle, Crank size

29-ish, Christian Hoverath, ungeared Coker, (more info needed)
26.1 mph, Corbin Dunn, Los Gatos CA USA, Geared KH36, 150mm
24.2 mph, Lars Lottrup, Nivå Denmark, Nimbus 36, 114mm
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-ish, John Foss, 45" Unicycle Factory Big Wheel (28 pounds), 6.5" cranks
21.1 mph, Øivind Stuan, Trondheim Norway, Nimbus 36, 125mm
20.2 mph, Samuel Farmer, West Sussex England, Qu-ax 36, 114mm
19.9 MPH, Peripatet, Jacksonville FL USA, KH36, 125mm
17.8 mph, Steve Relles, Delmar NY US, Radial 36er, 125mm
17. mph, Rob Northcott, Somewhere on Dartmoor, Mongrel 36er, 145mm
12.8MPH BrianP, Ocala FL US, KH24 w 150s

I added info (already posted) for me, Foss, and Christian Hoverath, about whom we need more data. I believe Christian’s time to be fairly accurate given his incredible skill (level 10) and other observers’ reports about his riding.
Foss, you’re nuts for going that fast on that thing! Wow.

26

gps! ^^^^:)

27

Haha! Yeah right! And he did it with 89mm cranks, going uphill with a 40mph headwind! :roll_eyes:

28

Yes, it’s not too much of a problem, as long as the rest of your computer is working fine (odometer, time, distance so far… etc.) then it shouldn’t be a problem, sometimes on my long rides I’ve had top speeds ranging from 34.6 mph to a crazy 224.8 mph, which I of course done with ease :wink:

29

What wheel circumferences are you people using on your cycle computers? (GPS-users obviously don’t need to worry about this)

I have my cycle computer set to 2775mm (loaded rollout predicted by an Excel spreadsheet I don’t quite remember where I found) for my setup with TA tyre, 70kg rider and 35psi of pressure. I haven’t taken the time to verify this rollout number in practice, but there may be some of you who have?

With regards to the top speed being strangely off I usually reset my top speed while riding whenever I feel like going for a record (using a cheap Sigma BC1200)

30

Inaccurate reported top speeds are a problem both with GPS tracking and with reed-switch cycle computers; even on bikes, typical cycle computers will record spurious speeds when you go over bumps in a certain way–this phenomenon is probably worse on unis. Not to mention cycle computer calibration problems. That’s why speed records are handled by timing over a specified distance; it’s easier to measure distance and time than it is to measure speed.

I don’t normally ride with a computer or GPS. In training for RTL, I recorded a criterium lap at 18mph (calculated by distance/time) in strong winds. The back stretch was a lot slower than the front stretch, where I must have been well over 20mph. Beau Hoover, on an ungeared 36 with 102s, had a max speed slightly higher than mine, as he was coming around to pass me when he wiped out. (He still has the scars).

Whatever happened to the GPS data from RTL, anyway? Wasn’t that all supposed to be posted somewhere? I’m sure I was above 20mph on the downhill/tailwind section on the last day, but I don’t know how much above 20mph.

31

I don’t have a very fast max speed, but I do have a pretty good average. I guesstimate my max is probably mid-high 30’s (km/hr), although back in 2005 I was much faster downhill than I am now, probably up to ~40km/hr. I know that because one of the riders was riding really really slowly and assured me he were doing 30km/h on his cyclecomputer. This was on an Unguni 36"/110’s.

Fastest I’ve ever seen anyone go downhill is Arne at RTL. I think he definitely had the fastest MAX speed of anyone at RTL. He went past our team like we were standing still. It would have been in the mid-40’s.

32

And forgot to add, the fastest I’ve ever seen anyone go downhill on an Unguni was probably Dustin Schaap flying past us on his 36" Unguni/90mm cranks in the Marathon at Unicon 13. It would have been well over 40km/hr.

33

i believe dustins fastet speed on unicon 13 was 39.7 on his speedo

there is a picture of him showing it somewhere

34

IIRC Arne said 46.5kph/28.9mph. Is that the right number? Maybe it was 46.0? The all time highest speed I know of was Christian Hoverath on a ungeared 36 at 47kph/29.2mph. This was years ago (2001 on EUT) and only documented by his cyclometer at the time. It still sounds incredible now even though some geared riders are going nearly that fast.

I learned long ago not to try for speed records. I am really happy now cruising at 20-22mph on my geared 36. I went 20.6 back in 2003 on my ungeared but it felt scary and right at the edge. Now, it’s casual.

—Nathan

35

Max speeds might be fun, but I never pay much attention to them. It’s the avg speed that counts. No point being able to hit 40km/hr downhill if you can’t sustain 25-30km/hr for an extended period, or if you have to walk up a hill.

It would be nice to see Christian racing again…someone get him to Unicon XV! He’ll love the course.

36

Ok, that’s for smooth paved roads; Now let’s get some top Coker MUni speeds on rough terrain…not easy XC! Whole different ballgame there. :smiley:

37

Thanks for adding me to the list! Crazy yes; that was a different time; a different century. When I had two intact collar bones too. In those days we revved our 24" wheels up to crazy speeds because that was the only race in town (and only once a year at that). I could hit 17.5 on the 24" (with 125mm cranks!); why not a lot faster on a 45" wheel?

But today, or last year actually, hitting 18 mph is pretty scary on the Coker with short cranks, and my long-term average is probably more like 14.5 or so.

“Burst” speeds aren’t particularly meaningful. All of us have probably hit some pretty high speeds in emergency situations; such as when we’ve gotten too far forward while riding fast. But what does it mean? More meaningful is being able to hold a high sprinting speed over some kind of fixed distance. The IHPVA uses 200 meters, which should work for us.

To be accurate, it has to be a timed distance ride, as Tom said. Cyclometers and GPS can both give bogus maximum speed numbers, so none of that can be trusted for momentary speeds. If you device has a setting to take the average of, say, any ten revolutions, that would be more meaningful.

So to compare accurately, we should do a 200m speed trap, which the rider must ride in both directions within one hour (to eliminate wind advantage). That’s how they used to do it for land speed records (motor vehicles) anyway.

Not that I doubt the numbers being posted. I’ve seen most of those guys ride!

38

I have a hard time believing someone approached 30mph on an ungeared 36er…I am sure Christian is an amazing rider, but sometimes cycle computers mess up…I guess I would have to see it to believe it. I am with Ken though, high speeds don’t really matter unless you can average it for a while. It is kind of hard to prove these things too as cycle computers and gps units are not perfect.

When I think of the fastest speed on a unicycle, I think of Arne’s highest speed on his geared 36 with 125s. I think it is what Ken listed above.

As for me, I have a hard time believing my own top speed, and even though my gps says I have gone higher, the highest speed I trust based on graph info is 25.7mph on my geared 36 with 150mm cranks. I would like to do more testing with multiple ways of measuring speed at some point.

39

Depends.

This sounds much like the debates we had on my college track team about who was a “better” runner: the sprinters who had faster top speeds or us distance junkies who could do it long enough to actually get somewhere.

Sure, top end dash speed may not mean anything or be particularly practical, but that’s not why we care about it. It’s just a cool brass ring to grab for. Like building a car with just a bit more horsepower than your buddy’s, a truck with slightly bigger tires, or a girlfriend with bigger chesticles. These things aren’t practical except in contrived scenarios, but damn, they’re cool.

40

I think I have to see a girlfriend with chesticles first before I decide if they’re cool.