What a beautiful machine.
I worked hard at my own hour record on a Coker a couple of years back. Pedalling absolutely flat out for an hour on a uni is hard work requiring commitment and concentration. To fall at maximum speed in those conditions is worse than most other UPDs, because you have no margin for error, and BANG! it just happens.
My record (Coker, 150 mm cranks, 1 hour) was 20.83 km.
Yes, that’s the one. Pete Perron broke the Guinness World Record for distance in One Hour on a unicycle on February 26, 2005, using his geared 36" (I think it was called either ‘purple phaze’ or ‘outta phaze’ by that time). The distance was 14.278 miles.
what is involved in getting such a thing set up to be official? i know a rider who could possibly give the hour and 100 mile records a go. how would we go about making his efforts official?
World records
Absolutely everthing you need to know is on the guiness web site-
in particular how to make a record attempt (more details are at)http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records4/Checker/Intro1.asp
Except what standards Guinness wants for the record attempt.
General standards would be similar to the UCI one hour time trial methods for bicycles. A short closed course in a loop. Carefully measured. You ride for an hour. When the hour ends you complete the lap you were on. The distance on the last lap is then calculated by extrapolation assuming a constant speed for that lap. Add up all the laps. Add on the calculated distance for the last lap and you have your result. An experienced track (UCI) official to officiate would be a bonus.
I thought Pete Perron’s record was broken.http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41667&highlight=guiness+hour+record
okay. thanks guys. i might start planning this. not that i’m that fast but i have a friend.
Surely some mistake. That’s only 10.25% better than my best ever (assuming my measuring equipment to be accurate). I am not and never was that good.
That thing is a beast…45 inches…geez
What’s the biggest unicycle ever created and ridden?
What size are those cranks?? They look super short; like maybe only 89’s or less!
I am absolutely amazed by the possibility of someone riding 27+ km in an hour. The concentration required is certainly beyond me. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to ‘run-out’ a UPD at that kind of speed when your too tired and too focused. I hope he can repeat his attempt and make his goal.
That’s cos the previous record was done on a 26", so was there for the breaking by anyone who bothered to organise the timing, rather than a hard challenge for a fast rider on a 36", let alone on a geared 36". Pete was obviously the first person to do so, followed by whoever did the 15.87 mile record, who must be a pretty nifty rider, given they presumably weren’t geared up.
Joe
Hmm, I think it would be fair to separate the record into geared and ungeared.
If I recall, the record was not set on a 26. The original Guiness record was done on a 24" and was quite impressive. Last year, the record was broken by someone who simply followed the Guiness rules and regs and rode a geared Coker fairly quick. But the record that he set was something several of us had already accomplished earlier-- just not officially. I’ve ridden over 16 miles in an hour on an ungeared Coker, and I could easily break that record now on my 29" Schlumpf guni. But taking the time and organization (and finding the velodrome) to break the record is sth I simply can’t do now and don’t care enough about.
I think the realistic goal for this record will be set by a fully recovered Ken Looi when he gets on his updated Schlumpf and rides 20 miles in an hour. That’s my guess for now.
monkey man i believe the largest wheel eevr built and ridden was the 48incher of sem abrahms.
There’s a place called Rideable Bicycle Replicas that sells a 52". I don’t know if the 48" from Sem Abrahms was a pneumatic tire though. The 52" from RBR is a hard tire (ouch).
I don’t know about separating the categories into geared vs. non-geared. It’s really about effective wheel diameter. As an extreme example, if rider “A” does 15 miles in one hour on a 24" and rider “B” does 15 miles in one hour on a 36", then rider “A” has completed a MUCH more impressive feat. Seems to me it’d make more sense to do categories based on effective wheel diameter. IOW, a 24" geared uni, geared to an effective 36" would compete directly against an non-geared 36".
On unicycling.org, go to “been there, done that”. There is some interesting pictures of strange unicycles. One of them shows a guy riding a unicycle with a 73 inch wheel! He’s got blocks on the pedals so he can reach them. That seems to be the record for wheel diameter.
At the time last February 2005 when I rode The Hour, the current OFFICIAL Guinness record was still the 1997 record of about 9mph by ?? on a std. 24" (it’s in the 2004 Guinness Book). I asked them about Stefan Gauler’s record in late 2000 when he went over 13mph on a 26er, and they did NOT recognize that because he did not have a closed course that was entirely witnessed and documented.
So last Feb. Ken Looi rode his 24-hour record at the same time as me. He was on a standard direct-drive coker. My understanding is that while he only put in for the 24-hour record, that because we both submitted our record attempt paperwork at the same time, Guinness declared Ken to be the OFFICIAL record holder. In one of his 24 hours, he went more than my 14.3 miles (I averaged over 15mph but ending at 57 minutes due to fall). So KEN LOOI is currently the Guinness 1 and 24 Hour world record holder. And yes, he is amazing, just read his report on what he had to deal with during his ride!
When Zach prepared by asking what the record is, I would assume Guinness told him that Ken is the record holder. And I have to add that in their official communication, they only told me my distance was beat, but never told me what Ken’s official Hour record was?
At any rate, The Hour for unicycling should be just as revered as it is for bicycling. Lots of bicyclists (incl. Lance) are fast, but it doesn’t matter unless you try it.
And David S. you can bite me - I don’t see you attempting it under controlled conditions as required by Guinness!
I urge anyone communicating with Guinness to ask that they PUBLISH the Hour Record, either on their web site, or in the book. They do NOT publish all records in either format, as they don’t have enough room. But they will if there are enough requests.
Pete Perron
That is very impressive…good luck to him for next time!!
Also, that there is one awesome looking unicycle. I’m not completely surprised it broke, though q-:
The separations would be the absolute record, followed by slower records set by whatever subsets of unicycling that people submit records on:
I just got issue #107 of the JUA News (Japan) On the cover is an article that appears to be a new record for the 100m sprint. Except I can’t read Japanese! The photo shows a guy, and a girl, and a unicycle with very skinny tire in front of an electric clock stopped at 11.69. The Guinness record is 12.11 seconds by Peter Rosendahl. This was set on a 24" Miyata with 125mm cranks. The uni in the picture may or may not share those dimensions, which are the IUF regs for 24" racing. This event is from a standing start as well. The cycle pictured may have a nominal super-skinny 26" tire that measures out to 24" or less, or may be larger. The cranks may be shorter than 125. Or the article may be about something else, but the time is consistent with a new 100m record.
NOTE: Guinness does not care if their 100m record is set by a racing uni that meets the IUF racing spec. That would be another area where separate records could be maintained.
Largest wheel:
Yes, largest I ever heard of was Immense (or Intense?) Hortense, built by Dave Moore and ridden by Steve Gordon. I’ve also seen a picture of Sem Abrahams riding it with big block pedals. The inseam length required to ride that thing must be pretty major! I have ridden Goran Lundstrom’s 63.5" wheel back in 1983, which was the largest at the time:
http://www.unicycling.com/garage/bigwheel.htm
I’ve also ridden 56" and 50" wheels, as well as my own 45" wheel that I’ve had since 1982.
My own 45" wheel was originally intended for me to take a shot at the 100 mile record, which I never did. During the year I was waiting for it to be built, that record went from 10:37 to 9:20 and I lost interest. With the current record at 6:44, I’m only interested in watching.
BTW, the unicycle shown above does indeed have a solid tire, which makes for a harsher ride, though the Semcycles are less-harsh than mine. They are also lighter, which would make for a better speed machine.