Hi guys
I’m finally ready to go ahead for the giraffe purchase. Will be doing mainly long distance so i would like the ability to gear the beast… Which bike an which gearing mechanism do the pros reccomend??
Many Thanks
Dylan Eave
i’m not a pro, but giraffes aren’t made for distance, you’d be much better off with a coker
if it was a geared up giraffe it would be alright. but it would be more of a novelty thing.
geared 29er would be much better my friend… contact florian and get one…
right after you rob a bank.
i’d prefer a geared 29er to a coker, but the coker is cheaper, but still expensive
if you robbed a a bank i would want sometihng a little faster than any type of unicycle
no, you’d have to rob a bank to get enough money to pay for the unicycle.
not rob a bank with a unicycle as a getaway car, that would just be stupid
it would be kinda cool though. i dont think the cops would suspect a unicycle
Use a giraffe to rob a bank and juggle wads of money to draw the attention away from your face and confuse everyone.
Later on the news. Wanted: a very tall unicyclist.
OK… So about the gearing thing…
Geared giraffe will just look so cool. The cocker look just dont do it for me. 
Is there a hub availalbe that could simply be added to a giraffe without serious mods?
Re: Juggle Money
I’d be limited to three wads…
the hard part is converting it so you can peddel backwards and forwards without too much slop, cause the bikey ones only go forwards.
there’s a way to do it, but i can’t remember
The simplest way to gear up a giraffe is to replace one of the sprockets with something larger or smaller depending where you’re gearing from. However, it’s going to be a lot more finicky and difficult to ride than a coker, which will basically roll over anything. You might want to look into ‘penguin’ giraffes, short giraffes which generally have high gearings for speed. Also look into some longish cranks over short ones if you’re going to be gearing up, it makes more difference than you think!
is it going to be like a jack-shaft kind of thing? (i think that’s what they’re called anyway?)
like the purple phaze and that other one?
OK… Penguin bike
I like the penguin idea… Maybe like 4 or 5 foot… This “sloppy hub” where and and what should i start looking for one. Can the gears be changed manually on such a hub???
<<<Crank size does seem important… I spose it will greatly influence torque… tau= (Dist. from crank)(Force Applied)
Biger crank, would that not essentially counteract gearing up of the giraffe??
I geared my five foot Torker TX 1:2, and it was hard as hell to ride (125mm cranks, 40" theoretical wheel), and I also own a Coker, which is no problem at all. Higher gearings on a giraffe make them nearly impossible to mount, as stopping the wheel and braking it using the weight of your body is neccessary for the mount. You may have better luck with longer cranks. I would recommend 2-3 feet, with cranks just above the wheel, for the easiest riding machine.
I’m not sure what you’re referring to with a ‘sloppy hub’, but the unicycle-oriented geared hubs available now are quite expensive and obviate the need for a giraffe. If you’re going to go geared, all you’ll have to do is swap out one of the sprockets on your unicycle. A square-taper bike crank set can do the trick, as can a replacement bottom sprocket, which are often of the type found on older single speed bikes. Definitely the cheapest way to get a speed machine, but again not the most comfortable nor the easiest path to go…
If you want a geared giraffe and you can’t afford a Schlumpf, you should make a hub with sprockets on both sides. This will give you an effective two gears. In fact, you could get four gears if you re-purpose a double-chain giraffe with different sprockets in all four locations. Run the chain on one side only, and switch the wheel around to make the 3rd and 4th gear changes. Sure it would be a pain to change gears, but it’s been done.
Walter Nilsson rode a 2-speed giraffe across the United States in 1933 to win a $10,000 Ripley’s Believe it or Not prize. He probably changed gear for the hills, and otherwise left it in the higher gear.
I used to ride my Schwinn Giraffe with what I believe was a 28:48 gear ratio. That made it very difficult to freemount, and a lot of work to ride. But I do remember doing a 4-minute mile on it once, after several tries. That’s 15 mph; pretty fast for a giraffe with 20" wheel! Also you could use a bigger wheel on your giraffe.