recumbant plans?

General
1

I was wondering, would anyone have some advice to offer on how to make a
recumbant unicycle? My roommate (a mechanical engineer) has taken an
interest in unicycles (the design, anyway, I haven’t gotten him riding
yet) which I think I’d like to exploit.

So, any experience, or just theories would be excellent. (I’ll worry about
the riding part later, though)

Jeff Lutkus

Free e-Mail and Webspace - http://Unicyclist.com

2

I can offer one suggestion to add to the design of Eric Kolb:
http://www.unicycling.com/garage/recumben.htm

That would be to protect the chain at the front. His uni was tried by many
at UNICON VIII in 1996, but the chain would hit the ground with every
dismount. Also you can look at this design and decide if you want a more
reclined body position.

Note, the more reclined you are, the more difficult it will probably be to
steer. A recumbent uni, after its notoriety for being unusual, would
probably be best suited for long straight rides. Spinning on it would be
quite the trick!

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com

There can be a fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.” – scary
reality-check for unicyclists

> -----Original Message----- From: owner-unicycling@winternet.com
> [mailto:owner-unicycling@winternet.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Lutkus Sent:
> Sunday, July 22, 2001 3:53 PM To: unicycling@winternet.com Subject:
> recumbant plans?
>
>
> I was wondering, would anyone have some advice to offer on how to make a
> recumbant unicycle? My roommate (a mechanical engineer) has taken an
> interest in unicycles (the design, anyway, I haven’t gotten him riding
> yet) which I think I’d like to exploit.
>
> So, any experience, or just theories would be excellent. (I’ll worry
> about the riding part later, though)
>
> Jeff Lutkus
>
> _____________________________________________________________
> Free e-Mail and Webspace - http://Unicyclist.com

3

I only watch two newsgroups, this one and alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent so
this thread has had me schemeing since it first surfaced.

Question to Mr. Foss or anyone else who was able to ride Eric Kolb’s
contraption (may I offer - bent-uni?) What if you engineered a mount for
the wheel that allowed it to lean slightly from side to side? The lean
could be controlled by a seat mounted lever of some sort. Another idea
would be to mount the wheel rigid and have the seat able to lean with
spring tension to re-right it.

Another idea I came up with but don’t think will work because of weight is
to control the lean of the wheel by twisting the crank/sprocket and having
that link to a leaning wheel. I can’t figure how to do that without
getting way too complex. I think it would have the same affect as leaning
the seat so overall isn’t practical.

My two bits…

RossB

PS - Wanna see a really fast two wheeler? I love this machine - 53 mph
drafting another bent with a fairing.
http://www.haluzak.com/horizon.html

John Foss wrote:

> I can offer one suggestion to add to the design of Eric Kolb:
> http://www.unicycling.com/garage/recumben.htm
>
> That would be to protect the chain at the front. His uni was tried by
> many at UNICON VIII in 1996, but the chain would hit the ground with
> every dismount. Also you can look at this design and decide if you want
> a more reclined body position.
>
> Note, the more reclined you are, the more difficult it will probably be
> to steer. A recumbent uni, after its notoriety for being unusual, would
> probably be best suited for long straight rides. Spinning on it would be
> quite the trick!
>
> John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com
>
> There can be a fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.” – scary
> reality-check for unicyclists
>
> > -----Original Message----- From: owner-unicycling@winternet.com
> > [mailto:owner-unicycling@winternet.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Lutkus Sent:
> > Sunday, July 22, 2001 3:53 PM To: unicycling@winternet.com Subject:
> > recumbant plans?
> >
> >
> > I was wondering, would anyone have some advice to offer on how to make
> > a recumbant unicycle? My roommate (a mechanical engineer) has taken an
> > interest in unicycles (the design, anyway, I haven’t gotten him riding
> > yet) which I think I’d like to exploit.
> >
> > So, any experience, or just theories would be excellent. (I’ll worry
> > about the riding part later, though)
> >
> > Jeff Lutkus
> >
> > _____________________________________________________________
> > Free e-Mail and Webspace - http://Unicyclist.com