Just curious if this has been done or is possible. I was wondering if anyone has attached a freewheel (or unicycle variant thereof) onto the uni.
Everytime street vids and stuff come out when watch the transfers and rails there is a pause where you have to stop the unicycle before hopping the rail, whereas with a freewheel you could center your pedals without stopping.
Of course, this would mean no backward riding, idling, mid-ride hopping around, oh, and no brakes. Oh hell, forget it, bad idea.
Has anyone put actual brakes on a freewheeling unicycle? I’m curious if it’s possible to learn to use the brakes for balance; applying pressure where you’d usually use your legs for correction.
It seems to me that the freewheel unicycles that have been invented would be similar to coasting, and one with a brake like you’re suggesting would be similar to gliding. Like using it for balance. But then it would probably wear down really fast…
It is extremely hard to rolling hop on the SWAT coaster unicycle. I have tried it a few times and can only get about six inches, and I usually fall when I hit the ground.
Brakes
I have been thinking of the brake idea, and I have come up with a few ideas.
Mount a break lever to the side of the seat and squeeze it with your thighs to control the pressure. This is good because it is out of the way. This is bad because no one has done it before, it could hurt you on a fall, and most people stand up and grip the seat with their thighs when they ride it. The latter could be solved by running the brake at very low pressure, possibly.
Let the break lever hang freely by a long piece of brake cable. This is good because it allows you to have both arms for balance, as well as being able to control the brake more accurately with your hand. This is bad because the handle and cable could be ruined after a few falls (as seen in the coaster video in the SWAT gallery. Go there if you want to see it).
Attach the brake lever to the bottom of the seat. This is good because it is like a normal brake setup on a unicycle. This is bad because you will only have one arm to balance with when you need to brake. It would be a lot harder to ride.
Use your shoes as a brake on the tire/rim. Bad idea. Don’t try it, trust me.
I don’t think that the brakes would help you balance at all. They would help you to be able to freemount it, and also be able to help you control your speed when going downhill. It gets pretty fast pretty quickly.
Actually, if you go very slow, you won’t engage the one-way bearing system, and the cranks will lock, and you can go backwards. At least with mine you can. It is quite hard.
Let me know what you guys think of the brake ideas.
Yes it has been done and was very difficult to ride. Sarah ??? brought one to UNICON in Seattle, I believe it was a 16" wheel. I didn’t ride it but Ben gave it a go. Seems the lack of control of or pressure on the upswing of the rear pedal caused the difficulty. If I remember right, it did have a coaster brake which threw in another world of problems.
But as with anything, with practice comes perfection. I’m sure one could learn to ride a free-wheel hubbed unicycle eventually.
I think you’re on to something. Perhaps a flywheel / clutch could somehow be introduced here to disengage the cranks when the wheel rotates above a certain speed.
Or, instead of a brake lever, attach a clutch lever?
A while ago i saw the SWAt green (16") coaster unicycle and i want one, or if it cant be bought just an explanation as to how it works so i can try to make one. When i saw it on a video on the forums a while ago it looked like they were pedaling- was this for balance or was there some drive system between the pedals and wheel. In other words does the SWAT coaster unicycle work like a conventional unicycle when ridden uphill? and only coast when the pedal revolution is more that the pedal revolution?
Any help would be good,
Mark
EDIT: sorry that last bit didnt make sence.
is there any connection between the pedals and the revolution of the wheel or is pedaling done purely to keep balance.
You pedal to get it going, and then you can coast for a bit until you lose speed, and then start pedaling again. I have never used it to regain balance, only speed…which I guess could affect balance, but ok.
It is a little bit different than riding a normal unicycle uphill, as you can apply no back pressure on the cranks.
I like that idea. Any idea on how you would make it work?
Klass Bil you hit the nail on the head with the uphill thing. However i would really like and explanation (possibly from digitalattrition- because he has ridden one) as to the workings of the hub/unicycle as a whole so i could investigate making one, that would be fantastic
Thanks,
Mark
There are some commercial freewheel hubs that would work for making a freewheeling unicycle. The Coker Wheelman has a freewheeling hub that should work well for a freewheeling unicycle. I don’t know if the hub used in the Wheelman is available separately. You’d have to contact Unicycle.com and/or Coker to find out.
There is also the Razor Scream Machine that comes with a freewheeling front axle suitable for a unicycle retrofit. Razor isn’t the only company making the Big Wheel ™ style trikes like that with the freewheeling front wheel.
Then there is the option of rigging up something yourself from a bicycle hub. find a good rear hub with a good strong axle (14 mm or larger), slip on some bearings, weld on some cranks, and make it a unicycle. You might even try using a coaster brake style rear hub.
A better quality freewheel mechanism will make it easier to ride. Cheap freewheel mechanisms have more play and don’t engage as fast. The better freewheel mechanisms engage faster but are more expensive.
hey. to describe what it feels like when riding the SWAT coaster uni, it is like riding an impossible wheel except not as hard because you have the seat keeping the wheel upright instead of it sliding on the insides of your legs. i learned how to ride both the impossible wheel and the coaster wheel in a matter of hours with the help of joel showing me how to use his impossible wheel. im still looking for the right hub to use to make one but hopefully will find something simillar to the SWAT setup. i also like seeing that the SWAT team has finally gotten the coasting down, now i know what i looked klike trying to ride it:D
I use ieSpell for IE and SpellBound for Firefox. However, they don’t guarantee that I won’t misspell words or make typos that get through the spell checker.
I normally don’t correct the spelling in quoted text, but I made an exception in that case.
Your name is a very odd one for us in the U.S. That double “a” and an “s” is not a letter combination that we see or would consider correct. It’s far to easy for us to misspell your name.
