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.
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:
Geared
Coker
Unlimited size
29" per IUF racing rules
24" per IUF racing rules
20" per IUF racing rules (ouch)
Etc.
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.
To his credit, I’m going to guess that David didn’t intend to come across sounding snooty. He’s just suggesting there are several people out there who can do a pretty fast hour. However I don’t think he takes any credit as he does not intend to do all the prep involved in being officially measured. I and I assume he, give credit to any and everyone who does.
When I did my 100m Guinness record back in the 80s, it was nice because someone else was setting it all up, all I had to do was show up (and only ride for 14 seconds or so, not a whole hour!!!). Showing up did involve flying to Japan and back, but that would have been very cool for any reason.
Even if somebody does a faster record after you do, if you set a record of your own that will always be a benchmark to be proud of. All records get broken eventually…
I read this as David Stone saying that many people could easily beat the record set by Pete but that Pete went to the required time and trouble to do it officially. It is true, everyone knows it, and I sense no animosity in his words at all. He knows that most of the effort is in setting up the event and few would do that. Why are you jumping down his throat, Pete? Perhaps you misread his post.
By the way, in a race, the only biting being done would be you biting David Stone’s dust as he ate sushi and talked on his cell-phone while easily trouncing you on a standard Coker. He might stop, idle, and pirouette occassionally to let you catch up but just as a teaser.
My response to Dave (which I stand by) was not about my attempt. Just like the bicycling world, some guys are always asserting that this rider or that rider (or themselves) could break the record. Well so what? The record is what it is.
Does this mean that if I ride a 20" unicycle for 24 hours (I won’t but imagine I did) and do all the required paperwork, then send it to the IUF, I would ‘officially’ be recognised by the IUF as the holder of the 20" 24 world record?
But it’s not at all like biking. In biking, there are a very very small number of people who are anywhere near the hour record, and have been since relatively soon after the record started being kept. Whereas when the unicycle record was below 15mph, there are quite a few people who’ve ridden 15 miles in an hour, including some under race conditions, like Christian Hoverath in the Dusseldorf Marathon, who averaged just over 15mph for 1hr 40, and others who’ve just had to get somewhere 15 miles away and were in a hurry. Now it’s looking like it’ll get to more unachievable levels, where only really hardcore people can beat it, so it’ll be more about being the best athlete than organisational skill.
I think some of the Japanese riders would well be capable of 30km/hr on a Coker, but I didn’t see many Cokers in Japan so maybe that’s a moot point.
Yep, as far as I know 25.6km is the distance to beat. It was my fastest hour during the 24hr record attempt. I mentioned in the submission letter to Guinness that it was ridiculous for the hour record to be 14km or so when their own 100mile record had a faster average speed.
Because each lap during the 24hr record was documented- they recognised the fastest hour as the hour record. From memory I was averaging about 25km/h for 3-4hrs before I started cramping up (I was actually going for the 100mile record).
I know the 25.6km can be beaten by many people, with or without geared unicycles, so I’m glad that someone is making a dedicated attempt. I said to Zach that the hour record would be easier than the 100mile IMHO- as it means averaging more than 25.6km/h for one hour, instead of 24km/hr for over 6 1/2hrs. I think he’ll get around 27-28km, but maybe even 30km with a couple more practice runs and a tailwind If he gets’ the hour record, I think the 100mile record on May 19th will be achievable too- he’s a marathon runner so should be just as good on the longer distances.
So then what several of you are saying, is that we should wait until the record gets to an “unachievable level” before we honor it? And only the “elite” of unicycling get to say what that level is?
Well I for one honor Ken and his current records, and anyone who brags that they can go faster under the same circumstances are doing just that.
Ken, like many true sportsmen, acknowledges that there are other good riders in our glorious sport (there are), and that his record stands to be broken some day. Hmm, sounds alot like bicycling to me.
I think at 9mph or 13mph or whatever, it was just silly given the existance of cokers, the equipment had moved forwards, without the records being updated. The very fact that Ken, who whilst he’s obviously one of the fittest riders in the world, was aiming for a different record, could break the hour record by mistake really shows that. It’d be fantastic to see how fast he can go if he goes for the hour record on purpose.
It’s like I for just under a year was the person who’d ridden the most distance in a 24 hour muni race, true it was probably a record, but I, and everyone else knew that there were several people out there who could beat that one easily, especially given I only rode for about 16 hours or so due to injuries. That was only a record because I was the first person to be bothered enough to give it a go with a coker, rather than because of my fitness or athletic ability, hence why it was completely blown away by the next person who tried it (Ken, doing 109 miles to my a seventy something).
I guess my response hasn’t changed since we discussed this a year or so ago. To me, there is little point in setting a record that is meant to be broken unless the record-setter is hoping to generate interest in the record itself. So in that case, you’ve done a good thing in taking the time and having the patience to deal with Guiness. By setting an official record, you’ve gotten us to talk about it, and some of us are inspired to try to break it officially. I guess that’s like saying that I respect the record-breaking but not the record.
But…
I know that if I’d been the one to set the record for Guiness, I would have made it clear that I knew it was destined soon to be broken and that I had only done it for fun.
It’s hard to sense each other’s feelings and intentions from email, online forums, and so on, so I certainly don’t want to try to read too much into someone else’s words.
…even those words. As noted, I have no plans to follow Guiness’s requirements and conditions. In fact, the best hour I’ve ridden was under much-less-than-ideal conditions during the Long Beach Island annual ride. I started off riding casually with my brother and then decided to ditch him (he was on a 29") and to ride the rest as fast as I could. When I stopped a little over an hour later, my cycle computer said that I’d averaged 15.5 or 16 mph or so, but a lot of that was on a skinny bike path, and some of it was riding along a sidewalk with the occasional pedestrian. I’d love to know how far I could have gone in a velodrome under ideal conditions – probably 16.5 or more – but I was in top form back then (commuting 80-100 miles a week on my Coker with 110mm cranks), and I’m sure I’d do much worse now.
So I’m not disparaging the record attempt, but I look forward to the day when the record itself is more impressive — so that most of us can think about it and say, “Man, that record is going to stand for a long time” instead of, “Oh, I could break that if I felt like it.”
Just checked in again and saw your post Dave. I agree with you 100% actually! And I apologize for my remark to you personally. We are both talking policy.
Like we discussed a year ago, the only way we can push unicycle racing and records is for folks to step up and do it. I never said I was the best, but as far as the world sees us, the speed number is the number and that’s it. So why wait around for superman to show up and notch it up several mph when every mph will be progress for our sport? Whether done seriously or for fun.
Last May the IUF adopted Prop 13 which established that it will define and track world records. This is but the first step to some sort of governing body that will define the “absolute” speed records, and any other limited classes it wishes to define. And that’s how it should be. Unicycling shouldn’t have to wait for Guinness to define our sport. So we look forward to guidance from them, and whatever they will (hopefully soon) declare to be the various world records.
One more thought on this wonderful topic. My attempt was done on my own 36" GUni. Ken used a 36" direct drive. Zach is on a 45". I was trying to show the capabilities of a GUni, especially for a newish rider (at the time I had learned to unicycle only 15 months prior). I still believe that a good rider on a geared 36" will some day hold the record. With the proliferation of Schlumpf units, we should see more riders on GUnis. The equipment competition between a large-diameter direct-drive and a geared up 36" is what interests me alot.
Until then, best of racing luck to Zach if he does another attempt in May!
Zach is a great ambassador for the sport with all he’s done!
Agreed. I like Foss’s idea of having records for various wheel sizes and uni styles. I think that the fastest times will all be on geared 36" wheels. Zach’s 45 is too unstable a ride and too light a wheel, IMHO. I’d rather geared Coker with 110s – that could really cook! I still think that 20 miles in an hour is feasible, if not downright easy (not for me, tho!) on that setup. Certainly some young stud in good training could pull that off, no?
Come on, you young studs! Step up and set this record for good (well, for at least a few years).
Yesterday, Zach told me that he “just” heard from Guinness that the
official one hour record info is:
“Ken Looi (New Zealand) covered 25.6 km (15.907 miles) on a unicycle
in a 1 hour period at Basin Reserve Cricket Ground, Wellington, New
Zealand, from 5 February 2005”
I personally think it’s quite unthoughtful of Guinness to let Pete
Perron think he held the one hour world record, while he actually
never did. Pete made his attempt on February 26, 2005 (three weeks
later), and stayed under the abovementioned 15.907 miles. But maybe
I’m missing something?
On Tue, 11 Apr 2006 10:59:16 -0500, GizmoDuck wrote:
>If he [Zach - KB]
>gets’ the hour record, I think the 100mile record on May 19th will be
>achievable too- he’s a marathon runner so should be just as good on the
>longer distances.
Wow. RESPECT. Two guys who joggled (juggled 3b cascade and ran) sub-3:10 marathons just to qualify for Boston going up against eachother. That’s amazing. It seems like whoever drops more is the loser.
4/17 is the race, I wonder if it will be covered that day on TV. Doubtful?
If he gets’ the hour record, I think the 100mile record on May 19th will be achievable too- he’s a marathon runner so should be just as good on the longer distances.