Is it just me or is that wheel hub off centre?
Inspired by Tom Miller I’ve been debating making one of these, there’s all sorts of plush horses.
I am by no means an expert but, yes, the hub does look off center. That would probably explain why it also looks like the rider is bobbing up and down. Maybe it’s intentional to simulate actually riding a horse.
Yes, it is definitely off center. The trick is using a variety of different spoke sizes.
I have one that Ken Adelman made. It was hanging around U Games for people to try. Ken wrote a program to generate the spoke lengths.
corbin
They’re called kangaroo unicycles and they’re really rare
no, a kangaroo uni has the pedals next to each other instead of 180 degrees off.
the whole joke is that it’s supposed to be a carousel horse. some even have the pole going up the middle
and as mentioned, a kangaroo is different, however, some/most kangaroos also have an off center (eccentric) hub in order to make it easier to ride.
A pole up the centre is an amusing idea. I was thinking this would be more for jousting. Never ridden an off centre unicycle (or bicycle for that matter). I wonder how far off centre it needs to be to give the look without being really difficult to ride.
How can a horse be a kangaroo? The off-center wheel is called an eccentric cycle.
Here’s an eccentric kangaroo (yes, a kangaroo can be eccentric).
Wow thats kinda cool John, I’m thinking that with the hub off center, and the cranks parallel at just the right spot, it just might work fairly decent.
Joeseph Campbell and I almost paralled the cranks on my uni on purpose, just so he could try it. That guy’ll ride anything with one wheel. But we didn’t try it.
Now there’s a thought. Instead of a horse, I’ll have to find a kangaroo. Switch the crank arms so they are set like a kangaroo and of course the off centre wheel.
Mind you, I’m not sure how many would find that amusing, and I bet it would be very difficult to ride.
I had an eccentric unicycle wheel built for me recently. The hub was offset 65mm from the centre. It goes up and down noticably with every every revolution, but the offset could have been greater. Steve Pavarno also has an eccentric unicycle and I think the offset on his is greater than mine. The guy who built mine said he could have gone up to 80mm offset (24" wheel in a 28" frame.) I’ve also got a rocking horse saddle - I should try it out on my eccentric unicycle.
Eccentric kangaroo unicycles do exist - there’s a video somewhere of one of these been ridden. I think Jeff Lutkus was the rider.
The kangaroo linked on my web site has a very off-center hub; it would be quite a pain to ride with the pedals at regular orientation. With the both cranks together to give the push, it was kind of cool to ride. A big push to lift up the “uphill” part, then downhill while the pedals come up the back.
In fact, an off-center hub kind of makes a kangaroo setup easier to ride. Just make sure you have the pedals in front for the “uphill” part of the revolution…
lol, john, you obviously never read my posts : P I’m hurt.
The off-center wheel is called an eccentric wheel.
And an excentric-unicycle with the pedals assembled with 0 degrees difference to each other (in stead of 180) is called a kangaroo.
This is me with my eccentric unicycle. I have been using it as a kangaroo also.
Funky. Like the uni Leo. Well, that will give me something new to create in the shop this coming winter. 