What a mighty fine idea. I have had a theory about just bolting a motor onto a
uni as is - since motorcyclists can ride for 100’s of miles on one wheel - why
can’t this be done ?
Stuart’s Idea is, however, I think better, ideally the more you pedal the more
assistance you’d get.
And if it was sophisticated enough you could idle and have complete control.
Sounds good. Also sounds some ‘not very cheap’ electronics/servo motors would
be required.
>Has anyone tried powered unicycling?
>I am specifically thinking of servo control or power assisted pedalling, >similar in concept to servo power assisted car steering.
>Stu Swift.
> Ps. This could be achieved using a measurement of applied torque through the > pedals driving a motor pressed against the tyre. >Pps. If anyone wishes to try this I can help with the theory.
IOU wrote in message <3.0.5.32.19990604091833.009107f0@mindless.com>… >What a mighty fine idea. I have had a theory about just bolting a motor onto a >uni as is - since motorcyclists can ride for 100’s of miles on one wheel - why >can’t this be done ? >
A motorcyclist needs the front wheel to be spinning to gain the required
stability (usualy done buy a small electric motor) and they can’t stop.
>What a mighty fine idea. I have had a theory about just bolting a motor onto a >uni as is - since motorcyclists can ride for 100’s of miles on one wheel - why >can’t this be done ? >
Has anyone attempted to mount a Sinclair (of C5 etc. fame ) electric bicycle
motor to a unicycle? This appears to be attached to the front fork somehow and
drive the wheel by means of a roller powered by a rechargeable battery. I have
only seen an advertisement in the newspaper, and it sounds like the sort of
thing you would be embarrassed to admit to having on your bike for its intended
purpose; but for a project on a uni it may be a laugh. Sounds right up your
street Simon… However 70 uk pounds seems rather a lot to spend on
something that negates the whole purpose of cycling !
> > Has anyone attempted to mount a Sinclair (of C5 etc. fame ) electric bicycle > motor to a unicycle? This appears to be attached to the front fork somehow and > drive the wheel by means of a roller powered by a rechargeable battery. I have
A company in California called ZAP, for Zero Air Pollution, makes a similar
system. The only complaint I’ve heard about their product (from a dealer selling
a different brand of electric bike motors) was that if the tires got wet the
rubber drive wheel could slip against the tire. It seems to me that the slippage
might make it more workable on a unicycle.
The motors have regenerative braking so once you get to the top of the mountain
you can charge your batteries on the way down.
Sure, it’s hard to imagine a practical reason to do this but it’s appealed to me
for a long time. One good reason to do it is that Zap has a program where if you
get media attention on your Zapped bike they will give you $100 toward
purchasing their products. It’s hard to imagine not getting coverage if you were
zipping around on an electric unicycle.
They make another really cool product, the Zappy, which is a folding
electric scooter.
> > Remember, you need instantaneous control over a unicycle wheel *in both > directions* to do anything but accelerate until you run out of speed or road. >
What if you took two motors and mounted them on a rocker thingie so that only
one was able to contact the tire at a time. the rocker thingie would have a
lever on it so if you push forward the wheel is driven forward and if you
pull back on the lever the rocker thingie rocks so the backward drive wheel
is in contact with the tire and the wheel is driven backwards. how about it,
could it work?
Even assuming you only wanted to go in one direction, and you had a really good
mechanism for controlling the power of your motor, you’d still need to have
pretty sophisticated body balance. When you’re falling to one side, recovery
isn’t simply a matter of leaning your body more in the oposite direction, it
also involves pushing harder on the pedal on that side so that you can make the
unicycle go upright again. Also, when you’re falling backwards, you would need
some kind of brake so that your body can catch up with the wheel. Without
foot-pedal force input, you can’t directly stop the unicycle forward motion and
allow yourself to catch up.
Hrmm, this all seems really complex, but a lot of fun. You could always just try
doing a wheelie on a bike with one of the motors attached!
nic
On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, John hoy wrote: > On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, John Foss wrote: > > > > Remember, you need instantaneous control over a unicycle wheel *in > > both directions* to do anything but accelerate until you run out of > > speed or road. > > > > What if you took two motors and mounted them on a rocker thingie so that only > one was able to contact the tire at a time. the rocker thingie would have a > lever on it so if you push forward the wheel is driven forward and if you pull > back on the lever the rocker thingie rocks so the backward drive wheel is in > contact with the tire and the wheel is driven backwards. how about it, could > it work? > > jh
However 70 uk pounds seems rather a lot to spend on