These two Cokers exist 3 hours from each other. We should plan a big ride-off with lots of Seattle and Vancouver riders. It would be a gas to have a geared unicycle weekend followed by copious qunatities of beer and unlikely technical discussions.
I think Kris was clocked going 20mph (32kph) on his in a radar gun trap. He asked the cop to measure his speed. BC cops are pretty accommodating. I’m a pretty good story embelisher so that could all be wrong.
I’d almost be willing to drive up for that!
I’m very interested in how a geared 36er compares to a geared 26er. I’m particularly interested in knowing if you get close to the state of nirvana reachable on a standard 36er. I like the idea of cruising at 15mph without spinning like a maniac, but not really interested in face-planting at that speed.
20 MPH doesn’t seem that fast for a geared 36er. You know…considering it’s Kris. Then again, that was probably just his cruising speed.
Almost. Come on, Mike. Bring the 26 and I’ll bring BlueShift. California is only a couple of states away.
Yeah, go to Oregon for the Shakespeare festival and keep going for the unicycle festival.
Thanks, john, I don’t know what the differences between those gears are, but it made sense.
Well, I COULD use the vacation.
I give you…PURPLE PHAZE!!!
Purple Phaze all in my brain
Lately unis just don’t seem the same
Tried short cranks but I don’t know why
'Scuse me while I speed on by
Thats one sweet paint job! Lets see a full pic.
David
This is all i have right now. My digi cam sux.
That’s a nice painjob 
, co-ordinated with the pedals even!
Hey, what cranks are those? They look quite solid despite the triple drilling.
forged daVincis, drilled for 130/150/170.
Wow, awesome paintjob!
How much were those cranks? Can you get them just for unicycles?
Daniel
they’re actually tandem stoker cranks i’ve had for a while and seemed perfect for this project while i figure out the final crank length. the spider screws in to the crank, so it’s removeable. prices for forged cranks these days are likely high due to made in America…i have no idea how much.
i’ve also gotten cheap cranks from recycled bike parts and drilled them to whatever i need, but i’ve never tried doing triple drillings. if i did i wouldn’t consider making pedals holes less than 20mm apart.
by the way, the more i ride a geared 36, the more i like it. it was unknown territory 2 weeks ago when i started, but already doing freemounts no worse than my direct-drive, and getting better at low speed manuevering. and i’m no great rider, i started uni 13 months ago. i’ll eventually try gearing more than this 1.5 overdrive.
folks, this is absolutely the future of road unicycling. if anyone knows a company willing to make these, i’d be happy to talk. i can see putting a jackshaft on a single-leg frame too.
Borrow someone’s camcorder and give us some Geared-Coker P0rn… I want to see it in action!!!
Maybe this is elemental for someone with more mechanical savvy, but do you still get the flywheel effect that Coker riders talk about, or do you feel like you are continually exerting yourself while pedaling? It would be nice to just put the unicycle in cruise control.
I finally got a link to some photos of der uber-Coker that Kris Holm has in Vancouver. Byron Watt provided the photos. There are some shots of Kris riding it and of me and Mike Rocks getting James Hargrave started on it. This was before a MUni ride at SFU in June of 2004. The shots are high-res and you can zoom to see some detail of the unicycle. Dave Stockton built a wheel on an AirFoil rim around the geared hub. Kris cleverly set up a bolt attachment for the torque arm. I would really like to get these two unicycles together to ride side by side before Pete gears up any further. The backlash in Pete’s sytem appears somewhat larger but the friction in the short chain drive seems to damp the backlash substantially and my theory is that it would be less noticeable. His design is extremely simple, clever, and flexible.
I have never ridden a coker, let alone a geared one, but I figured since no one else has answered this, I’ll have a go.
I got about 30-45 minutes today to play around on Mike Scalisi’s geared 26’er, and I noticed that after a while you could get used to riding it, although it still took a tad bit of concentration and a deep understanding of the obstacles you were approaching. As far as I could tell, you definitely can’t completely zone out, but it still doesn’t require absolute concentration.
I am considering making a geared 26’er with a KH spline on it for strength. I like how the chain drive design uses readily accessable components (relative to the geared hub), so I think I’m gonna try and make a simple version of that. Also, it’s nice how the play is in the chains, so if it begins to wear it’s easy to fix, whereas play in the gears in the hub is much more difficult to fix.
unisk8er, excellent work on your uni! i would like to try it, but alas, i live too far from anyone (i think) and have little time to commute.
Harper: your internally geared hub: can i buy one, how much for one, what spokes do you use, and how strong is it (i weigh 155 lbs., and will probably use 140 mm cranks, if i get adept at it and decellerate quickly, will i annihilate the internal guts of the hub?)
Unisk8er, that goes for you as well, how does your machine’s transmission fair at high accelleration and decelleration? flexing? breaking? spontaneous combustion?
Hmmm I think you’re in the right direction
but there is still the need for changing gears
two suggestions :
and why have two chains? could a hub with a hollow and large diameter encompassing all that be made ?(I’ve been looking in that direction for months : main problem: the bearings!)
bear (dreaming)
Just wondering if you’ve looked into patenting this,
bacause i think you should…
