Red Menace 36 update

Do you have anymore pics or videos of the Red Menace? You should have painted it green, the color of envy, because I need one of these beasts!

Latest look:

RedMenace.v5.side.a.jpg

That thing looks sooo cool. Really nice job!

To say this is cool is an understatement. I would love to visit sometime and try it out. I borrowed a 1.5 geared Hunter36 for a while this summer and managed to get pretty comfortable with the 54" equivalent gearing, at least on flat and down. Uphills really take effort. But man does it love downhill.

I didnā€™t see the whole weight in the thread - Pete have you weighed it?

ā€”Nathan

that is a work of art.:slight_smile: itā€™s great that people like you are pushing the bounderies of this sport even furthor then they are.

Iā€™m curious as to what kind of cranks those are? they sort of look like CF but that to me dosenā€™t really seem like something that would be used for cranks hmm.

I think Seattle could get behind that concept. :slight_smile: Ideally we could pick a time of year where we could get a good turnout, and coordinate a few different types of rides, uni touristing, etc.

Very nice, sir. Gold Star.

Great solution: pedestrian technology, applied cleverly. Tell me, will you post detailed drawings? Also, Iā€™d like to see step photos of the wheel being freed from the bearings and chain drive. As pictured, how much does it weigh?

Now go chase down some impala- there really should be a spear-rack.

Total weight with disc brake setup is 19.8lbs (9.0kg). Cranks are FSA carbon pro. Saddle is custom Wallis Design.

Sorry but I build by sight only, and have no plans to disassemble it anytime soon for pics or drawings. However, hereā€™s a repeat post of the business end:

Nathan, do try to visit up here sometime, youā€™re just the kinda guy to take The Red Menace to a new envelope. Iā€™d be happy to set it up with the 1.96 for ya!

Actually you know what the coolest would be? Bring it to Ride the Lobster and/or UniCon next year! 1.96ā€¦wow sounds almost scary. Over 70" effective!

ā€”Nathan

Yeahā€¦it has been whispered about here in Seattleā€¦that there is an obligation, perhaps even an exectation, that the Seattle Area Riders will field at least one team. Iā€™ve been hesitant due to devoting 2 weeks of vacation already to Uninam. But RTL is uniqueā€¦itā€™s like the gumball ralley for unisā€¦if you get the call, you need to go.

Current whisperersā€¦TB, Bruce, Steveā€¦weā€™d need an alternate and a support person at least. The geared uni would need to come along. That would allow Pete to take my breakfast shift, so I could have time for extra hash browns to fuel up for the long afternoon.

Connections

Are the disc brake and sprocket at hub cold connected? It almost looks like screw heads or rivets protruding from the break side. Is the hub stock, or modified stock- or custom built? Are the multiple holes in the gear cage to accommodate different sized gears, or for tensioning? Your tolerances are sooooo tight. Beautiful, beautiful work- like a giant clock.

Yet another year goes by, and yet another bump!

Geared riding has really taken off in the past year or soā€¦ Gigahats off to Unisk8r for making something so awesomeā€¦ itā€™s a pretty huge contribution. Even if itā€™s only one, it proves itā€™s totally possible and doableā€¦ gives us something to look forward to.

Iā€™ve always heard stories about the Red Menace, but for some reason I never found this thread until now. Itā€™s quite breathtakingly beautiful!!

Would it be possible to make it be able to disengage the jackshaft drivetrain and re-engage a 1-1 lock-in to make the cranks lock directly to the hub, to enable shifting between 1:1 and whatever gear ratio is selected? Seeing how the Schlumpf hub shifts its drive plate thing back and forth between the planet carrier and the hub housing, I donā€™t see why it wouldnā€™t be possible with this design, either, but I could be missing something important. To make this shiftable back to 1:1 would be absolutely epic.

And UniSk8r, though I donā€™t know your name (my name is Chuck, btw :)), would it be possible for me to come to Redmond some time to ride your unicycle? I donā€™t know offhand when Iā€™d be free to come up, but I really, really, REALLY would like to, if youā€™d let me. Iā€™ve been wanting for quite some time now to ride something geared higher than 1.5, and this looks, quite frankly, amazing.

If you decide to head up this way Chuck, give us enough notice to plan a decent group distance ride. Probably we could turn out all the RTL Puget Sounders, as I think Joe is probably just about ready to get back on the horse (if he hasnā€™t already), and we could easily get another handful of locals to come along.

Lots of low traffic farm roads around here, where there will be little risk of you getting pulled over for speeding.

Hahahahahaaa, riiight :-p

Yeah, Iā€™d love to come up some time. Pretty much as soon as I get my motorcycle frame augmented to hold my uni rack. Then I can do an Ironbutt ride and another half an ironbutt the day after, and Iā€™ll be in Washington! Ugh, thatā€™ll be a long ride. But itā€™ll be sooo cheap! About $60 worth of gas to get to Seattle from San Diego! :smiley:

What if it was in mid to late December? Is that enough time? Hopefully Joeā€™s healing up wellā€¦ the sooner he can ride, the better. I bet he misses itā€¦

I have family all around the Seattle area, and in Spokane, and some other places as well, so I could make it a quadruple whammy trip, with some 2-wheelinā€™, one-wheelinā€™ and family-seeinā€™ā€¦ and hopefully some mega-geared one-wheelinā€™ too :slight_smile:

Edit: w00t, 300th post!!

Hey Chuck, yā€™know Corbin got a Prius, and that got us to SD and back for only about $50 in gas. We should all pile into that thing and do an extended weekend in Seattle, eh?

Yeah! Then Iā€™d only ride up to there, and we could all hop in for a much more comfortable and social 900 miles. This should be something to think aboutā€¦

Sorry for the threadjack, by the way; this isnā€™t a thread that should get jacked.

Iā€™d really love to ride this unicycle at some point, even if only for a couple of minutesā€¦ but this is getting more about a trip up north. Maybe we should go to PMs?

Please post a vid. It would be awesome to see it in action. Also, have you tried it with a bike saddle?

Wow, why didnā€™t anyone think of that sooner? That is an awesome idea Chuck.

I donā€™t see why it wouldnā€™t work.

And I love the brilliant simplicity of the jack shaft design.

it would be a little complicated, but iā€™ve just imagined a reasonable design engage-able and disengage-able with simple allen screws, so no shift-on-the-fly, but still reasonable.