Arne told me his previous record was 45kph and he was excited to hit 46kph at RTL - maybe that was on day 2 if I remember right. He also said he is convinced that 50kph is possible. He’s only been riding the Schlumpf 36 since January so I believe he can learn to go quite a bit faster than 46kph.
After all, in terms of wheel speed, if you can pedal a regular 36 to 33kph (about my max speed ungeared), then the same cadence results in 51kph on the geared one since the exact ratio for the new hub is 1.545:1 not 1.5:1.
Dan, you were also incredible on that geared machine - you looked so natural and comfortable.
After a few days free of time in Kanada, we´re now back in Germany.
I checked my speedometer, it saved mostly all trip´s in Nova Scotia on hard disk. Sometimes I forgot to switch it on…
My reached top speed was on day two at a downhill 45,2 km/h (28,2 mph).
My best average was 29,7 km/h (18,56 mph) over a short trip 6,8 km) at the last day. The downhill at kellys mountain was not so fast. My teammates wanted to bring me home alive
I feel not very scary at this speed, but maybe it´s because I trained to fall and I wear helmet, kneepads, wristguards, ellbow pads and shinguard´s (because it makes sure, that the kneepads stay in the right position).
I have fear if there are cars or other obstacles around me, I can´t controll by myself.
on an empty and closed road downhill, wearing a complete protection set, it must be possible to ride faster than 30mph (or more than 50 km/h).
Me and Jan are used to ride with short cranks, so we rode with 125 on our 36 Schlumpf Unis. Johannes rode his Guni with 140 all the time. For climbing of course longer cranks are better. Our “Hardcorehilluni” was a QU-AX ISIS with 145 mm cranks, we used it only two times.
We will check it out, if we find a good (and save) location to do it
It was a great time with all of you, thanks for being part of it.
Thanks Nathan. It’s one of the beauties of a 36 guni - kind of makes one look and feel superheroic. Over the course of RTL I developed a much more acute sense of this guni than when I arrived in Nova. As my confidence grew, my speeds increased. Kind of helped, I imagine, that I’ve not yet had a significant UPD with it.
I have no idea of high or average speeds attained. Damn good thing for us @ Surly Speed Goats though, that you and Beau weren’t rolling Schlumpfs M-F – you certainly seemed w/in shootin’-distance of us pretty often even ungeared. Great riding yourselves!
You’ve the mind and the equipment for safe(ish) speed trials Arne! Go for it, and let us know what’s possible. Cheers to you and your teammates and best regards to your sponsor, Florian - his invention sure has had an energizing effect!
hi i was on mi completely stock 09 nimbus 24 muni with a cycle computer and the 150mm cranks that came with it and on the flat i hit 20 kilometres an hour and then got the wobbles and fell off but is that an ok speed for a 24 stock
Hey, you gotta spin pretty durn fast to hit 20km/h on a 24" muni! I’m assuming you were on pretty long cranks, too. Fastest I’ve ever hit on a 24" with 150mm is around 23 km/h; I know of some others who have maybe done 27 or 28km/h (John Foss, right?)… but that’s the fastest I’ve EVER heard of anyone riding faster than that on any 24" at all. And, I’m assuming John Foss had very short cranks to spin faster.
20 km/h on a 24 is definitely up there… that’s a pretty fast spin. As you ride, you’ll get faster, too, so you won’t have to worry about falling off when you try to go fast.
It’d be great if those who reference speeds/distances would also list the MPH equivalent since so many people-including Americans-post almost all speed/distance info in metric only. Thanks!
Sorry Terry but I don’t think that the majority of us want to go through the effort of calculating mph every time we post a speed or convert stuff to miles when we want to talk about distances.
I don’t care if there are more Americans than non Americans on these forums actually I would be surprised if there was but as an international forum I think that Metric as a truly international system of measurement is more appropriate.
When you come across a speed in km/h you can do what I do when I come across a speed posted in mph and mentally (or with a calculator) convert it into a number that is meaningful to you.
No need to assume, Mr.UNIversal said his cranks were 150 mm.
John Foss was undoubtedly on what the IUF calls a “standard” unicycle (wheel diam of max 24", and crank size minimum of 125 mm). The world champion at the last Unicon, Seisuke Kobayashi, did 100 m with a standing start in 12.69 seconds also on a “standard” unicycle - that’s equivalent to an average speed of 28.37 km/h. His top speed must have been even higher!
The USA (I mean the country, not the unicycle society) officially adopted the SI system many years ago and never revoked that decision, so it’s about time you are going to live up to that. Besides, many speeds on this forum are only expressed in mph which gives the converse problem for metric people. But hey, for one time: above speed of 28.37 km/h is 17.63 mph.
Fastest I’ve ever seen anyone ride a 24"/125mm cranks for any sustained distance is Hiroki Shigeno at the Unicon 12 10km limited race. He did it in 28.22. So a shade over 20km/hr. I remember former hour record holder Patrick Schmid chasing hard the whole way…I think he came in just over 29min. It was quite a fun race to watch.
A couple decades ago, they tried to switch over to “Liters” instead of Gallons at US gas stations, and it was a DISASTER and huge failure! People HATED it, and it was discontinued almost as fast as it started!
However, we do have Liters of pepsi, and you can buy tools, nuts & bolts in metric also, but that is offered primarily so you can make adjustments, repairs, etc to items that were not MADE IN THE US for the most part. Will the US make the switch to metric as our STANDARD anytime soon? Fat chance! I would say it’s 99mm-1mm, lol!
I think he’s right about that Terry, just as I don’t want to convert to metric every time I talk about MY speed or distance. I notice that you don’t seem to want to do that either, based on your history.
Ok no problem thanks! At least this forum is in one language! Oh well, I’ve got to get up in about 11 hours/39,600,000.00milliseconds. The drive is 118 miles/189,902.59 meters. I’m feeling like I can ride well especially now with CF components, my MUni now weighs only 14.6 lbs/6,622.45grams, and I should be able to hit 10mph/268.22meters per minute with no problem! And the whole thing shouldn’t cost me much more than $100/74.2995 EUR!
Oh yeah, the weather’s supposed to be great for cmw this Saturday! Topping out at only 75 degrees/23.89celsius! And Iron mtn is a great place to ride! We’ll have about 50 acres/202,342.82square meters for MUni fun!Wow, that really was easy and convenient!
Yeah I use the converters often. It was just a little request. And as you can see in my last post, I did “do the same”; I was just having some fun with it.
I guess I just kinda got used to some people listing both:
I did a 34km/h (21.25mph) yesterday on a flat road (36"fixed Nimbus with 152mm cranks and a tubeless setup)
I suppose shorter cranks will definitely give me more speed, but where I live there is a lot of hills and since I don’t have money for a geared hub, the 152 should do!!!
As you ride, you’ll get faster, too, so you won’t have to worry about falling off when you try to go fast.
