[SOLD] Blue Shift for sale

[harper]

I have been thinking lately of letting Blue Shift move along to a home where it is likely to be ridden by someone rather than hang from a hook in my basement. I am approaching 70, have had both knees replaced, tore my left Achilles 18 months ago and pulled my right Achilles six months ago. High-stress torque changes from a geared unicycle and high-speed spills onto joint replacements is not in my future best interest. I have not ridden this unicycle in a few years and the last time it was ridden at all was by Irene Genelin in October of 2019.

This unicycle has a rich history as can be gleaned from an advanced search of the forum using dates prior to 1/1/2004 and search phrases “geared unicycle”, “uni.5”, SH uni.5", or “Blue Shift.” The uni.5 hub has a number of firsts to its credit: first geared hub developed especially for a unicycle, first geared 24" unicycle, first geared 29" unicycle, and first geared Coker. The story of the hub development, the first unicycles built, first rides, the trip of the uni.5 around the country so that a number of riders could try it out, and the availability for testing by all participants at NAUCC 2002 and Unicon 2002 is all in the forum archives.

The first thread I posted on the topic is here. Also, some of the background for the project can be found on my website: Greg Harper - Home

I have and can provide the complete as-built drawing set in AutoCAD 2k2, .pdf, and .ps formats for the hub, frame, and seat rail adapter.

Blue Shift in its current configuration as pictured:

One of the two original uni.5 hubs modified with sintered bronze top hat planet bushings and a hardened PH-4 stainless steel axle square tapered for cotterless cranks

Lightweight, elegant, blue-anodized aluminum Steve Howard frame custom made to accommodate the gear change hardware of the uni.5 hub

Velocity Dyad 700c rim

Schwalb Big Apple tire (this tire is so big it rubs on the crown if inflated to 50psig so a smaller cross-section tire would be more appropriate)

Blue-anodized, triple-drilled Kooka cranks (the middle hole was mis-drilled on one crank and is crooked)

Blue-anodized Primo pinned platform pedals (great alliteration, that)

27mm aluminum seat post with Steve Howard tilt adapter

Air saddle made from a blue Miyata saddle

Small box of hub tools and extra hub hardware

Full disclosure: This unicycle has scratches on the pedals, cranks, saddle bumpers, and fork legs characteristic of unicycles that hit the ground at speeds greater than 15 mph.

[29erKay]

Mr Harper, your BlueShift unicycle is a true work of art and engineering. Good luck with your sale I’m sure someone is going to give it a good home.

[nathan]

Greg, nice to hear from you. I still remember the excitement of receiving your geared 24" uni back in 2002, March I think. I rode that back and forth to work a few times, and called it a ‘24" Coker’. Great times. I don’t remember who I sent it off to, but I loved the idea of that uni, cruising all over the country with different people testing. Best of luck to you and I hope the Blue Shift finds a good home.

—Nathan

[harper]

Nathan-

It appears from the schedule (here) that you sent it off to Salt Lake City, probably to Michael Grant. That was a fun project. It was David Stone’s idea.

[johnfoss]

Sounds like an auction is in order. I’m in. Maybe Santa Claus will be nice to me, along with the silly hat on top of my avatar. I’d like to open the bidding at $1000.

BTW, I also rode this cycle, in an earlier configuration, when it was touring around the country in a custom-made crate. Looks like this was July of 2002. It’s host in the Sacramento area was John Hooten.

[Uni2ONE2]

Great idea, John!

[harper]

John-

What a generous offer. I tried to contact you before I started this thread to ask you how you might recommend I go about this but apparently you’re not set up to receive PMs or whatever they’re called now. I couldn’t find an email address or phone number for you although I thought I had both at one time. I knew if you ended up with this unicycle it would become a part of what is perhaps the closest thing to a unicycle museum in the US and I’m sure that Jacquie would be thrilled to have you add to the clutter in your garage.

My primary goal, however, was to get it into the hands of somebody who would ride it or that it would somehow be ridden by someone rather than be stored in my basement. I was worried that although you are as familiar with the history of this and many other projects as anyone (particularly the advancements made in early MUni development), that it might not be used. I realize that you are about 10 years younger than me and are still much more able and likely to ride it than I am.

Karen likes the idea of it potentially becoming a historical piece in our tiny, little community. That appeals to me as well. If you’re really interested and think that it would be ridden occasionally as well, let’s work something out.

Thanks for your response and your interest.

–Greg

[Eric_aus_Chemnitz]

Sorry guys to hijack the thread. But despite I knew the unicycle, I had never heard the story of it traveling around the US in a special made crate before. Are there any photos of this journey?

How is the Steve Howard tilt adapter looking?

[harper]

Eric-

Any photos that were taken during the tour and posted on the forum were lost because they are too deep in the archives or they were put into someone’s photo album and none of those have yet been recovered. So, links to photos in the posts about the journey that you can find (uni.5: prior to say 9/1/2002) will be broken. I have a set of 30 photos I took of the crate and its contents as it was returned to me with all of the graffiti on the outside and all of the gifts on the inside. There was some funny stuff in there. I stuck the photos on my website: Index of /gharper/Uni-5Return Let me know if you can’t access them. The unicycle received upgrades several places. Some groups added various cranks, saddles, and pedals, and unicycle.com took the wheel apart and rebuilt the hub into a custom wheel with a high-end 24" tire. Doug Massey included a dial indicator so people could measure the backlash as it accumulated miles.

Some people were needing share confirmations to access the photos on GoogleDrive so I put them on my website accessible from the link above.

[harper]

I sold Blue Shift and it’s moving to the UK. Hopefully the Brits will wear it out.

[johnfoss]

Oh bummer, I was too slow! Been very busy around here (non-unicycling stuff). I hope it will provide joy and education for many a rider wherever it ends up.

Here are two photos of Blue Shift as it appeared on July 8, 2002 in Granite Bay, California

That was a fun little gathering of John Hooten’s Troop 121 Unicycle Brigade (Troopizi), and I wish I’d taken pictures of the crate and more pictures of people riding it!