What is the highest drop someone has successfully ridden away from? On the
universe video a drop that looks like about 10ft is attempted but the
unicycle breaks.
Has anyone made it over 9ft?
o o Peter Bier o O o Juggler, unicyclist and mathematician.
o/|\o peter_bier@usa.net
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RE: Highest drop successfully negotiated
> Has anyone made it over 9ft?
Yup. I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, but it was a long time ago, about 100
years! You can see a picture of this feat on the cover of the October 1974 issue
of the Unicycling Society of America Newsletter (back issues available:
http://www.unicycling.org/usa/merchandise/)
The guy’s name was Sebastian Paul Newhausen, though he performed under the name
S.P. Merrill. I glanced at the article last night, and it was fascinating. Now I
wish I’d brought it to work to give you more facts. This guy, with a partner,
were famous around the turn of the century for a trick they used to do on a
tandem bike. They rode it down a big ramp, hit a trip bar that made the bike to
a complete forward flip, then landed on a continuation of the downhill ramp in
complete control. I’ve seen illustrations of this feat, which were inaccurate
because they show the bike flipping backwards which it did not do.
Sebastian was also an inventor. Apparently one of the things he invented was the
first freewheel for a bicycle, the design for which he sold to his two friends,
the Wright brothers. It came on the market ten years later.
But the trick we’re talking about is a drop. The picture on the cover of the
newsletter shows a purpose-built stairway, which looks like it’s about 12’ tall
(well over twice the height of a man standing under it). It has a small platform
at the top, and Merrill would hop his unicycle up the stairs and ride off. Later
they changed it to a stairway held up by a single pole, which was knocked out by
a clumsy clown while Merrill was supposedly performing on top. The audiences
would freak out when the stairway fell, but then they would see that he landed
right side up and rode away.
The unicycle was a handlebar type, with no seat. I can’t imagine how heavy the
thing must have been, to be able to withstand the drop. But he hopped it up all
those stairs. Wow!
Whenever you wonder if a trick or feat has been done before always start at
Vaudeville. If you can’t find it there, then you can start thinking it might
be original…
Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com
“Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.” – Forrest Gump
RE: Highest drop successfully negotiated
Hi,
That’s an awesome feat, especially with an old iron uni with handlebars for a
seat. I was a bit confused by the description of the landing- was it
transitional at all?
As far as I know a drop that I did last summer is the highest one so far. The
takeoff was a 45 degree slope of highly consolidated sand, off a cliff and onto
a soft 35 degree sand landing. Basically I got on about 6 feet back of the lip,
and rode down and off. We measured from the takeoff to the landing point and it
came out at just under twenty feet. This was the hypotenuse of the drop though,
and I think that it was probably actually around 15 feet or so. I tried it a few
times and successfully landed and rode away once.
The drop should be featured in the video Kranked IV.
-Kris.
— John Foss <john_foss@asinet.com> wrote:
> > Has anyone made it over 9ft?
>
> Yup. I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, but it was a long time ago, about 100
> years! You can see a picture of this feat on the cover of the October 1974
> issue of the Unicycling Society of America Newsletter (back issues available:
> http://www.unicycling.org/usa/merchandise/)
>
> The guy’s name was Sebastian Paul Newhausen, though he performed under the
> name S.P. Merrill. I glanced at the article last night, and it was
> fascinating. Now I wish I’d brought it to work to give you more facts. This
> guy, with a partner, were famous around the turn of the century for a trick
> they used to do on a tandem bike. They rode it down a big ramp, hit a trip bar
> that made the bike to a complete forward flip, then landed on a continuation
> of the downhill ramp in complete control. I’ve seen illustrations of this
> feat, which were inaccurate because they show the bike flipping backwards
> which it did not do.
>
> Sebastian was also an inventor. Apparently one of the things he invented was
> the first freewheel for a bicycle, the design for which he sold to his two
> friends, the Wright brothers. It came on the market ten years later.
>
> But the trick we’re talking about is a drop. The picture on the cover of the
> newsletter shows a purpose-built stairway, which looks like it’s about 12’
> tall (well over twice the height of a man standing under it). It has a small
> platform at the top, and Merrill would hop his unicycle up the stairs and ride
> off. Later they changed it to a stairway held up by a single pole, which was
> knocked out by a clumsy clown while Merrill was supposedly performing on top.
> The audiences would freak out when the stairway fell, but then they would see
> that he landed right side up and rode away.
>
> The unicycle was a handlebar type, with no seat. I can’t imagine how heavy the
> thing must have been, to be able to withstand the drop. But he hopped it up
> all those stairs. Wow!
>
> Whenever you wonder if a trick or feat has been done before always start at
> Vaudeville. If you can’t find it there, then you can start thinking it might
> be original…
>
> Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com
>
> “Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.” – Forrest Gump
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RE: Highest drop successfully negotiated
> That’s an awesome feat, especially with an old iron uni with handlebars for a
> seat. I was a bit confused by the description of the landing- was it
> transitional at all?
All I’ve got is a still photo of him in mid-air, and the description that he
rode away. How he was able to walk after repeated performances, etc. is left up
to our imagination.
However the reason Bill Jenack was writing that article at the time he did was
because Sebastian had recently passed away (in 1974) at the age of 99.
I’d say he holds the record for landing a drop onto a hard flat surface. But
it’s impossible to guess the exact height from the picture (my guess is 12-14’),
or if there was anything soft, like a mat, at the bottom.
Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com
“Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.” – Forrest Gump