Hey, i made this for a school project and thought i may as well share it here. its basically a unicycle frame, but the legs are telescopic so you can adjust the height to suit anything from a 24" through to a 36" wheel.
The seatpost was welded straight on due to not enough time to weld on a seatpost tube etc etc, but it would have been much nicer to have an adjustable seat height aswell.
the frame is fairly good at what it does. its not the best piece of equipment in the world but it does the job.
and yes, there are MANY fundamental flaws. The frame is basically completely useless because to switch between wheels youd need another wheel which you would probably already have a frame for anyway. if you have it set on 36" height its perfect, but if you move it down to 24" height, the seat is way too low and you cant move it up without moving the frame up, which is then defeating the purpose of having the telescopic legs.
Just thougth i’d post a pic of it here, might interest somebody.
I see potential. There are times that you want to change wheel sizes and carting around a spare wheel occupies less space than a spare unicycle.
The idea is sound. If you can make it so that:
The telescopic action is smooth and doesn't need hammering.
The wheel is easy to replace. Is there such a thing as a quick-release uni wheel?!
Handlebar needs to be detachable. Who uses one on a 24"?
Adjustable seat height (obviously)
Change the relationship between the hub, crankset and frame. Ideally, the cranks would form part of the frame and wouldn't need changing. I really don't know how you'd do this but I reckon it would make it more viable.
I'd get a 36" to commute to work on but-for 2 very steep hill sections that I doubt I'd be able to cope with on such a big wheel. Imagine there were a backpack designed to hold a wheel of various sizes up to 36". I ride along on my 36" until I reach the steep stretch, then inside of a minute I've dismounted, adjusted the frame and seat height, swapped my wheel and stowed the 36" on my back. Away I go on a 24" or 29" to get up the hill and repeat at the top.
The other benefit is that by developing easy removal of parts, you could make it worth while to store the uni in dismantled form and potentially making more efficient use of storage space.
It's a limited market, but it could be fun to develop.
Yeah i remember reading somewhere a while ago about when the UDC 36" Unicycle was going to come out and people were replying with “what a useless machine, it will never take off” and “I wouldn’t buy it, it’s hideous.”
The weird thing is, i stay remember those phrases.
But now look, people are riding cokers and so forth. So Owen’s idea may well go into mass production someday and i can’t wait till that day comes.
The weird thing is, i stay remember those phrases. 