i got frustrated and could not find any photos, or the company’s site.
it’s called skatebike.
it is technically a flipped upside down bike section. Wheel, cranks, chain, and tubing of a bike, with a seat on the ‘now’ top of the frame with a skateboard truck (the thing that holds skateboard wheels to the deck) on the front.
I got a chance to ride one, and as a unicyclist, I could not believe how un-intuitive this thing was.
It is certainly not a ‘unicycle in training’
I was able to get it going after a while, but those front wheels are the problem. Because they are there, you can’t turn. You are basically on a bike with no handlebars and the front wheel doesn’t turn.
It comes as second nature to a unicyclist to turn whenever he wants, but this thing is really odd. Granted some of my difficulty came from a not as tight as it could be seatpost, but it was still pretty tricky.
Don’t scoff at the idea of trying one. I certainly would never buy one, but it is a vehicle in it’s own right, not a wannabe unicycle.
You’re referring to the vehicle like a LeRun, the kind you see from time to time on Ebay, right? I haven’t tried those, but a year or so ago, I acquired the vehicle shown below through Ebay. We call it the Uniskate for lack of a better term. This one is actually designed to ride with the skate truck in the rear, differently than the LeRun vehicle.
We’ve found that the Uniskate is actually difficult to ride and really does no justice to the thought of training to ride a unicycle. As unicyclists, we’ve found that it’s actually much easier to ride the thing backwards (with the wheels in front) and pull the wheels up off the ground. Rides like a unicycle that way.
I’m told that there was a Monkeys album once upon a time, or maybe just a scene (I’m not sure) that depicted the foursome riding this very Uniskate vehicle. Maybe the mighty Raphael can use his research superpowers to help find the picture.
Either way, the Uniskate cured me of buying such obtuse items from Ebay. This thing is bulky, it’s in the way, impractical, etc. etc. etc. But it’s almost one of a kind so I think we’ll hang on to it as a conversation starter.
Yes, your version would seem to be easier to ride…however, you are thinking as a unicyclist. I know the guy, and will make a point of stopping by his place to take some pics…and perhaps even video of my next ride.
It seems to be something that you could just cruise along a bike path on, except the wheel and cranks are too tiny to make that by any means practical.
Alot of work sure seemed to go into your contraption, Bruce!
I’m pretty sure our Uniskate is factory made. The seller, an antiquities dealer, told us that he had pieces of a couple more in his attic. I couldn’t even begin to remember his contact info.
I have a skate bike… and yes, it is completey different. I liked it, but it isn’t as maneuverable and it doesn’t like it when stuff gets in the way of the skateboard wheels in the front.
I got mine when I was 12 or so and used it (and my unicycle… sometimes bike) to transport extension cords, gas cans, etc. to/from peoples houses whose grass I cut because it kept my arms free. Well, someone had a C battery laying in the road that I coldn’t see… got stuck in the skateboard wheels and WHAM! I and all my stuff was spread all over the road…
I have one of these. Like Yoop said, it’s a LeRun. Pretty cool. I don’t ride it much. You couldn’t take it off road because it’s not very stable. Maybe a larger one…
I own one of these, as well as an old unicycle. I suck at the unicycle, but my skatebike I can jump curbs, ride backwards etc. Anyone not want theirs anymore? Shoot me an email at brainshatterer@hotmail.com please.
Thanks
Kersten
I have memories of the Monkees riding those things on one of their shows. I can’t remember the cycles in detail, but I remember enough to kno that they didn’t look like yours. The back wheels were bigger, and they looked more like legit unicycles with training wheels. Yours, by today’s standards, looks like a backwards skatebike.
The earliest form of skatebike I saw was called a Rodeocycle, from Motobecane. It was a classier version of the LeRun type, with a monocoque body (plastic over the frame) and a fixed gear (no freewheel). The Abrahams family brought one to the USA Convention in 1983. The funny thing about that cycle was that non-unicycling family members were zooming around on it all weekend. I tried it a few times, and never got very far before over-leaning and screwing up a turn. But I have a picture of my (non-unicycling) dad cruising along on it.
So they’re not hard to ride, but I think if you’re a unicyclist you may have to do some un-learning before you get the hang of it. I can see how the Yoopers one would be difficult, as rear steering would be really weird, on a vehicle that’s kind of hard to ride forward…
Wow, this is as bad as on my car board telling me to switch my one automatic to a manual But if someone has one that they don’t want, but I only really want a LeRun style, those others are goofy looking and the LeRun fits PERFECT in my trunk so I can get some exercise on my lunch hour. Thanks
But if someone has one that they don’t want, but I only really want a LeRun style, those others are goofy looking and the LeRun fits PERFECT in my trunk so I can get some exercise on my lunch hour. Thanks
