I just shot the following letter of intro. to a couple RAAM organizers. Lets hear what they say. I’ll post the reply (if I get one!)
Sorry about the, “. . . dominated the race.” line to those of you 1:1ers who were blazingly fast!
Greetings from Minnesota,
I was among 105 distance unicyclists who recently completed an international relay-style stage race in Nova Scotia. http://www.ridethelobster.com/ The organization was fantastic and the event was challenging. It left many of us wishing for more distance racing opportunities.
Unicycles are almost ‘by definition’ fixies and the speeds are constrained by maximum pneumatic wheel diameter and crank arm length. However, the recent swiss invention (by Florian Schlumpf) of a geared unicycle hub (ratios of 1:1 & 1.5:1) has given the standard 36" travelling unicycle an effective diameter of 54". Roll-out, in high-gear then, is about 4.2 meters and we can comfortably sustain riding averages of 15+ mph. Still a fixie, but faster.
About 15 of us, who were the early-adopters/owners of these geared hubs, dominated the race. A team of 4 or 8 unicyclists on guni’s (geared unicyles) could, I believe, complete this race within the time frame that your bicyclists are on the road.
RTL: fastest speed reached (note: redwelly/Sam Wakeling is the current distance record holder for fixed gear (1:1) unicycling in 24-hr - 282 miles).
Would this departure from the ‘two-wheeled standard’ for cycling in RAAM be considered for inclusion in upcoming iterations of the race? Would you consider permitting a unicycle team?
Sincerely,
Dan Hansen
NE Mpls, MN
612-245-2511