Does anyone have any info on recumbant unicycles? Such as good methods to build them, or someone who might want to build one for me?
I was recently pondering, what would it be like to give a gear ratio on a recumbant to make it feel like, say a 36" wheel or something… the question is, would such a ratio make freemounting an unreasonable thing to do?
Jeff
Andrew Carter wanted to build one of these…
Try Joel Penson, an Aussie who has built one. His homepage is:
http://www.joelpenson.com/personal/unicycling/
Eric Kolb is a Deustch guy who made one before Joel did. Frank Bonsch knows the guy, I think. Frank’s homepage is:
Re: recumbant
On Mon, 3 Mar 2003 21:35:46 -0600, harper
<harper.jqz5b@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>
>Try Joel Penson, an Aussie who has built one. His homepage is:
>http://www.joelpenson.com/personal/unicycling/
>
>Eric Kolb is a Deustch guy who made one before Joel did. Frank Bonsch
>knows the guy, I think. Frank’s homepage is:
>http://people.freenet.de/unifrank/index_engl.htm
That´s right.
He is the one on http://www.unicycling.com/garage/recumben.htm
Try e-kolb@gmx.de to contact him.
Frank
Although a recumbent unicycle is on my list of things to have built (I don’t have the skills to build it myself), I think you’re thinking of the seated hand-driven unicycle.
Greg,
Thanks for the link…that’s an interesting website. Did he ever get onto you? It says on his site…
“I believe that this is the only geared unicycle of this design in the world (as opposed to a sturmey archer deisgn which I have read about a guy in America having one on the internet but have been unable to contact him).”
I’m assuming he’s talking about you…am I right?
I think he could be joining me in the 24hr in April. Gabe told me there was someone else who might be interested and it sounds like it would probably be him because he mentions Gabeon the site. We’ll see.
Andrew
is it possible to idle and ride backward on a recumbent?
You ability to ride will be a result of what you have thought. The mind is everything. If you think you can, then you will be able to do it.
hmmmmm… Recumbant Unicycle Hockey 
LOL
Joe,
Yes. Joel and I exchanged several e-mails prior to the organization of the Tasmania ride. He was thinking of doing a production run of either Frank’s design or mine for the trip. He ultimately decided that parts were easier to get for Frank’s design. I don’t know if he made any geared unicycles for the ride.
I don’t understand how Frank’s design works. Could you please briefly fill me in?
Thanks,
Andrew
Re: recumbant
On Tue, 4 Mar 2003 14:31:26 -0600, andrew_carter
<andrew_carter.jsa4y@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>
>I don’t understand how Frank’s design works. Could you please briefly
>fill me in?
>
>Thanks,
>Andrew
Hi Andrew!
You should take a look on
and then download the divx-avis from
especially the lower left one. Then it should be clear how it works.
It´s just the same principle as Greg´s design without shifting.
Frank
Thanks a lot Frank. You and Greg are both geniuses. Those CAD diagrams and animations are amazing and really interesting. I’m downloading that bottom left one now. I’m still having trouble understanding how these things work (I haven’t seen the animations yet) but if I don’t figure it out I’ll get one of my bosses at the bike shop to explain it (I’ve obviously got a lot to learn still).
Thanks,
Andrew
Wow! Those animations really help a lot. I understand it now, thanks for the links and congratulations on a great hub.
Greg,
How do you change the gear ratios on your design?
Thanks,
Andrew
In 1.5:1 mode, the ring gear is connected to the hub (wheel), the planets are connected to the axle, and the sun gear is connected to the frame. In 1:1 mode, the sun gear is disconnected from the frame and connected to the hub. There is nothing clever about the shifting scheme. The hub Frank uses could do the same thing as long as there is a tapped hole somewhere on the hub on the same side as the torque arm from the sun gear.