Oops apologies i assumed all non pedal moving was called coasting on a freewheel unicycle.
My aim is to ride along a trial and stop pedaling but roll down an inclined section without pedaling, Do you call that gliding or freewheeling ?
Did the vimeo video work for you ? If so you will see that when i stop pedaling i fall backwards slightly which i can catch by using the brake but this obviously slows down the glide.
I am happy with my control apart from this falling backwards that is happening , I just wondered if anyone else encountered this or has any tips how to deal with it.
I am not sure there’s a word for that. It’s just “riding down the obstacle”
But I am now unsure of what you are trying to achieve. As per what toutestbon and I understood, you were trying to learn how to coast without the brake. But it now seems that you’d “simply” want to ride down obstacles without pedaling but using the brake, right?
If the later is right, then it’s hard to tell what’s wrong in your position based on the video you’ve submitted. On a flat section, it is normal that your speed quickly decrease when using the brake. However, on an inclined section, you should be able te keep your speed if you correctly manage the power you apply through the brake. That’s probably the most difficult part there: being able to apply the right amount of power through the brake. I don’t think there’s any tip other than riding a lot to become accostumed to your brake…
I haven’t done any slacklining since last summer, but for me the line need to be slack. But the length and tension of the slackline are all part of the progression.
I have a whole bunch of slacklines at home (oops), and my favorite was a 40m-long tubular slackline (25mm) that I rigged with a primitive kit 3m high in the trees to get close to 35m in length and at least 2.5m in sag.
Just talking about it makes me want to do it all over again.
I’ve been doing some reading about freewheeling unicycles, and out of curiosity I was looking at what kind of hubs people were using to build them. In particular I looked through the hubs in the FAQ under drift trikes and dedicated unicycle hubs.
After doing some digging myself, I stumbled upon this OATH freewheeling hub (which I looked into after finding a freewheeling front wheelset for a drift trike). The forum search function didn’t return anything for this hub in particular, so I assume it hasn’t been discussed here yet. Any thoughts on this hub?
To differentiate it from fixed wheel gliding I’ve always called it brake coasting. I named it after Beau coasting which is done by braking on a fixed wheel unicycle with feet off the pedals (popularized by Corbin Dunn and named for Beau Hoover). Brake coasting was one of several skills I highlighted in my second tutorial video, originally published almost ten years ago (August 30, 2014):
Did you manage to get it into a frame in such a way that the disk brake would be functional?
Maybe there’s enough adjustment on a standard disk caliper mount to get the bit of angle required to match the fact that the frame would no longer be parallel to the disk?
It’s a real shame that Bicymple don’t appear to have made any more hubs, but I can understand why not as the cycle industry has faced serious supply/manufacturing/cost issues over the last few years and it’s not like it would ever be a high volume item.
I have it set up brakeless at the moment (no disc tab on the cheap 20" frame I used). I would imagine adding the brake would be pretty easy, even on a 20" wheel, stretching the frame out makes it about a degree and a half off straight (and would be less with larger wheels). I imagine caliper mounts can probably tilt more than that.
Concerning the terms “coast” and “brake coast”, it’s easy to tell them apart once you know what they mean…
But there is often confusion, even though the feelings and level of difficulty are not the same.
When I discovered and learned the “brake coast” on a fixed unicycle, it was incredible and I didn’t care if the term used was the right one. Now that I know how to coast on a freewheel unicycle, I don’t see things the same way (maybe I am a purist).
Most freewheel unicyclists practice muni downhill (with a brake), they don’t do a trick when they ride down the mountain without pedaling. They shredded the mountain.
Controlling balance with the brake, like using the foot to glide a fixed unicycle, makes me prefer the term “brake gliding”.
In any case, whether it’s the term coast or glide, their meaning in everyday English is similar and not specific, right?
When we talk about these unicycle figures in French, we don’t use a French translation, we talk about “coast” and “glide” because they have a specific meaning in unicycling.
I’ve been following this thread for quite some time now and I couldn’t get the idea of a 20" free wheel unicycle out of my head.
After years (!) of fantasizing, it was finally time to make it a reality.
Looking at the price tag of the Pipifax hub I had second thoughts immediately.
While reading this thread, I stumbled upon this idea of combining the drift trike wheel from Rideminded and monster fatty frame from einradshop.ch.
This might juuuuuuust work out. Maybe.
But given the price of 200 bucks for both components, I couldn’t resist the urge and try to build THE ULTRA LOW BUDGET FREE WHEEL.
So I took one for the team and placed the orders. For science!
Both shops shipped super quickly.
The frame is built for a bearing space of 120mm but the drift trike wheel has a space of 118mm.
This is not a problem, because the frame is flexible enough to compensate for this.
Now comes the tricky part: the bearings of the wheel have a diameter of 42mm (so far so good…) and a width of 13mm.
That’s one mm more than the specs of the frame.
Even using a proper bearing puller, I couldn’t for the life of me remove those bearings. They wouldn’t move not even the tiniest bit.
Wrote an e-mail to customer support: I turns out those bearings were put ont the hub using special tools. They are not meant to be removed. Ever.
So replacing with standard bearings was out of the question.
I was not amused. The frame has a space of 12.5mm to hold the bearings. To make those parts fit, I would need to remove 0.5mm of steel.
So I grabbed a dremel and spent half an afternoon with dremeling away at the frame and the frame brackets until there was enough space for the 13mm bearings.
Oooof. The rest of the assembly was a walk in the park.
I couldn’t resist the fancy purple pedals, but one could also go super cheap on all other components.
It is done. The proof of concept: A free wheel for approximately 250 bucks (without the need to assembe a wheel) is possible.
At some point I might replace the cranks with longer ones, as those on the wheel are only 90mm long.
Now the only thing left to do, is learning how to ride this beast. I don’t plan to add a brake. Wish me luck!
TLDR: I built a super cheap free wheel using a drift trike front wheel and a swiss fatty frame, but it involved quite some tinkering.
Is it possible? Definitely, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
As geared unis are called gunis and their type and size can be abbreviated as G36er for example, could freewheel unis be called funis and their size be abbreviated as F36er? Would that make sense?
Or would it be confused with a fixed unicycle?
I am pretty sure the FG for a freewheel geared 36er actually stands for Find Gravity, because that is the most likely result of attempting to ride one…
It would be amazing to get such a hub! I am sure it wouldn’tbe that hard to master for someone that is used to geared unis and freewheel unis.
I personally would like to get a geared freewheel hub. However, the only hub that exists is the Schlumpf hub, which I wouldn’t trust for a freewheel. As it loses grease, the rotor and the pads would be contaminated, which would be a serious issue on a freewheel.
Maybe we could go with FW36er, as in “Free Wheel”… oh wait, no that doesn’t help.
On geared freewheels, there exists (/existed) the JR Game Changer, but good luck with a 3.8x geared freewheel. @waaalrus looked to have had a hard enough time, but maybe adding a brake would help.
On the contamination of the disk brake on a Schlumpf is that actually a problem? It seems that it would be a problem on a fixed wheel just as much as it would be a problem on a freewheel though. On either you can just get off if your brake starts to become ineffective.
I know about this hub, but I don’t find it handy. I mean, you can’t expect to use it in “real life”. It may be great for indoor fun tricks, but you can’t use it for muni or road riding
When I refer to geared unis, I usually talk about unis with multiple gears that you can change on the fly.
It is much more a problem on a FW (freewheel) that on a FW (fixed wheel). It seems that Schlumpf grease does not make the brake totally ineffective. It simply decreases its power. On a fixed wheel, well, you can ride with it. On a freewheel, it would be suicidal to hope riding down a hill at 30+ kmph while having a weak brake.
