Originally posted by showard I was going for bright red but the hard anodized frame turned out plum colored.
I thought the plum was tasty! Red is cool (heh) and all- but has a certain “I’m going through unicycling-mid-life-crisis” feel to it. I AM, mind you- I just don’t want to broadcast it so loudly. Uuummmmmmmm- Plum![B]
It’s not that the color is all that bad - it’s the matte finish I don’t like. [/B]
‘Ornamental’ anodizing will PAINFULLY reproduce the surface texture before treatement- meaning that it will not hide or cover any imperfections. I never had any bead ‘frosted’ work turn out shiney! You can get some real tasty effects by masking a polished piece and bead blasting. Try using anything as simple as masking tape to tube rubber, depending on the pressure and what is used as ‘sand’ (garnet, aluminium, etc). It would be easy to apply a badge to the neck or ornament to the crown this way. You can also have dye decals printed- or just use rubber stamps (some actualy screen print!!!).
Was there any noticeable change in part size on the hard anodized pieces?
If you could get a good sample of the Hard Anodize Green colour, you could import it into a program like Photoshop and mix it with pure colours to predict the finish colour. Of course, you could also just anadize a test strip :), but PS would let you mix a wide range of colours on your time, instead of the folks doing the anadizing.
“John Foss” <john_foss@asinet.com> wrote
[a bunch of nice stuff about Steve Howard’s new Muni]
I’ll add that I rode the cycle last weekend a bit and liked it. I borrowed
it for a longish steepish uphill to see if there was any twisting or other
bad feeling in the frame, and there wasn’t. Felt like nothing - just rock
solid. I didn’t end up riding it much more than that, but I like the look
and it seems to work great. We’ll have to see how it holds up long term.
After a long hiatus including a relocation from Arizona to Washington, I am relearning to unicycle. I still have a nice selection of uni’s to choose from but one has always stood out from the rest. Since somehow ending up with it at the conclusion of UNICON 11, it became my daily rider.
There have been questions as to how well the SH MUni would hold up long term so I’d like to report that the frame is in excellent shape with just some slight oxidation. Certainly, it hasn’t had the stress that serious MUni riders would have subjected it but it was my daily rider for quite a few years. Here’s a pic I took earlier this week. If I had to part with all my other uni’s except one, I guess you know which one I’d keep!
So where are the other SH MUnis and how are they holding up? Harper?
As far as I know, that is the one I used to own. Of course, I don’t know how many of the scalloped frames Steve made in red. I think Steve had one himself. Mine went to Miles Blackwood some time ago. I saw Miles on my birthday ride this year but failed to ask him what the status of the SH MUni was.
Thanks, Joe. After I get more of my balance and stamina back, I’ll PM you to find out more about the uni scene up here.
Greg…guess using my old handle of “ZaphodB” doesn’t help much identifying me. I’m Keith formerly of the Arizuni club. The SH Muni I have was originally with John Foss. He donated it for auction at Unicon 11. Like many others during that Unicon and the preceding NAUCC, I drooled while John showed it off. I had recently gotten my Pashley and was stable enough on it to make it through the Iron Horse Tunnel ride and other events. I then had my sights set on getting a Coker. The SH Muni auction promised to create quite a bidding war that I was only interested in watching. Well the last day out there at the park wore on and a lot of people left before they finally got around to the auction. I don’t recall what the auctioneer requested as a starting bid but the response was…crickets. Couldn’t believe it. He then went through all of the obvious superlatives about the SH Muni and once again…crickets. So I raised my hand figuring that sometimes that’s all it takes to get the bidding going. As soon as someone else improved on my opening bid, I would be out. It just didn’t happen! Suddenly it was mine, they couldn’t take a check, and I was racing down into Northbend in my car to find one or two ATMs to come up with the cash. I no longer remember what I paid but my sense is that it was $400. Whatever, it was a bargain. All the way back to Arizona, I kept looking back into the back seat to see if I was just imagining the whole thing.
I believe you had one of the other of the last batch of three frames that had the “ornamental” anodization vs the earlier few where Steve tried “hard” anodization that he wasn’t happy with (color wise).
Anyway, great to be riding again although at my age I’m being very conservative. Course I’m not nearly as old as you, my friend!
So that’s why I never can find you when I go to Scottsdale. I’m going there in December (10-14 or so) and I suppose I won’t see you then, either. Good luck keeping up with Joe. He’s a beast.
Looks like you’re in for some choice weather down there. Wish I’d thought of stashing a uni with a friend in Tempe! That Miyata 24 isn’t too useful up here in the woods anyway.
Oh look, she is still so beautiful! You took good care of her. Looks like you upgraded the pedals to some ones like I still have on my old Wilder Muni. And the old “hat” on top of the seat because that’s how we used to make them more comfy.
Square taper axles are now a rarity on the trails, at least among uni-nerds. Great to see she is still in one piece. Thanks for retelling the story of the auction, which I barely remember. I only remember wishing I’d just donated some money to Unicon and kept the uni!
Here’s the photo from the old link above; the Ofoto website is long gone now, and I still have to upload most of my pre-2003 pictures to Smugmug…
Yeah I’m thinking I’ll reinstall the original cranks and pedals. Those Odyssey “shin shredders” earned their nickname with me years ago on a group ride (kleenex and duct tape til the end of the ride and then ER for stitches). Still, I’ve never had a problem with a foot slipping off with those.
Seat is an air saddle conversion using a tube from a kid’s bike and a Roach cover. Did a number of those back in the day and still really like them!
Thanks so much for your decision to donate it to Unicon! It was truly bizarre that I ended up being the only bidder but you made one unicyclist really happy. As the favorite of my uni’s, it gets the honored position of always being in the back of my vehicle for opportunistic rides whereas the others (e.g. Coker, Miyata Flamingo, Yuni, Pashley, etc) hang in the ceiling of my shop.
As a Sacto guy (high school, CSUS), next time I cruise back down to the valley, I’ll let you know when I’ll be on the American River Bike Trail if you’d like to ride it again.
Definitely do! That sexy picture of the uni next to the running water is taken at William Pond Park, near the bridge that the bike path takes over the river.
I came to the Sacramento area in 1994, and done a ton of riding on that bike path.
This thread is a really fun blast from the past! I’m still riding my Steve Howard and Telford unicycles. My Howard is set up with a 19 inch trials wheel; my Telford is a 24x3 muni. Both are incredibly sweet!
Rob, my brother-in-law, had a lovely Steve Howard, but lost it in the Napa Fire last fall. It was reduced to a puddle of shiny aluminum.
I’m rooting for everyone at the California Muni Weekend! I can’t make it this year–the day-job thing is becoming a bit inconvenient.
Is your SH one of the aluminum ones like the pics above? I know Steve also did some industrial looking perforated frames that almost look like erector set parts. Those are quite appealing to me and would love to see more photos.
Does anyone know if there were any other frames by SH?
