Searching on ebay.co.uk, I found someone selling ‘unique’ stand up unicycles. He has ten of these ‘unique’ items, so at best, they are ‘decique’.
As far as I can tell from the pictures, they are normal 20 inch (approx.) unicycles, but with handlebars instead of a seat post and seat.
The handlebars look suspiciously like they were ‘borrowed’ from one of those fold up aluminium scooters that were so fashionable a year or so ago, and went down in price from £200 to about £10 over the course of the summer.
Riding one of these things would be similar to riding seat out in front, but I guess you’d have more control. It would be tiring.
I believe (from general readding and hearsay) that the first unicycles had pedals and handlebars, rather than pedals and seat. If so, then the idea has come full circle.
Have any of you ridden one of these things?
The present price is about half that of a cheap beginner’s unicycle, so I was tempted, but having bid for 4 other items tonight, I thought I’d better restrain myself.
Does anyone out there have one of those scooters? If so, can you check if the handlebar stem is the right diameter to fit a standard unicycle?
Some stuff is “unique” because one is enough, and nobody wants it. In this case, somebody apparently manufactured a lot of them, to lower the price, in hopes they would be something.
onewheeldave wrote:
> I’ve just done a search and the link is: -
>
> http://tinyurl.com/ig78
>
> They look interesting, I’ve often wondered why some of the really
> early unis had handlebars instead of seats, it’d be interesting to
> have a go on one.
Hey, I know that one.
Ride an Ordinary bicycle (the one with the big wheel, not the modern Safety
or Recumbent bikes) and if you break too hard your rear wheel comes up off
the ground. If you’re a mortal, you then fall, and quite hard. If you’re a
god of balance, though, you’re unicycling, sort of.
Chop an Ordinary bicycle in half (the one with the big wheel) and you have a
unicycle with handlebars instead of a seat, much easier to do one wheel
with.
I saw one of these in someone’s unicycle slide show on the Internet about two years ago, the person wasn’t riding on it. If I ever get the chance I would like to weld together some tubing and make a set of handlebars for my Schwinn, it looks like a fun parade gag!
A handlebar uni addition is very easy to make if you only find tubing of the same diameter as your seatpost and can wield some welding equipment. Stick handlebars from a dumped bike inside/outside the tube and get welding. (Fun things for unicycle.com to sell?)
I really don’t think you should have yet another wheel standing about just to have one of those toys.
If they are so cheap, buying those freaks and put seats on sounds interesting. You could always get some “3 for 1” savage seats and sell to your enemies.
By the way, I’ve never been a fan of those silly 20" wheels anyway:
Wow! That picture of the Coker wheel with handlebars looks so cool! And it’s got to be more comfortable on the wedding tackle - if not on the calf muscles. Love it!
UPD’ing or just dismounting backward should be real fun! assuming you are sitting on the handlebars. Another thing to do is to ride a regular unicycle and push the handle bar unit ahead of you. If you remove the pedals, it’ll look like you are riding a bike.
My guess is that it’s similar to riding seat out in front. It should be easier with the handlebars in that the handlebars are designed to be held, whereas the seat isn’t.
Riding seat out in front is technically easy, but physically exhausting. On my 20, I’m good for a couple of hundred yards/metres and a little bit of idling, seat out in front, but my legs know when they’ve done it!
From a safety point of view, as most high speed UPDs are forwards, I’d have thought the handlebars would be a risky proposition.
From a looking cool point of view, though, i reckon that Coker with handlebars looks the business. All it needs is a massive chromed headlight…
I have a handlebar unicycle. Actually its just a set of swept-back handlebars (shaped like a flattened W) and a stem of 22.2mm diameter which I insert into my 20" freestyle frame. The frame has a long seat tube so the handlebars are at the right height. If you had the handlebars any lower than regular seat height you’d hit your thighs on the bars as you pedal. [If I had a digital camera, I’d post a pic of it!]
Actually riding the handlebar unicycle is harder than seat out in front, as where you hold the bars is not directly above the wheel. Hence the forces involved are different. For this reason I find it a lot easier to ride the H-bar uni with one hand holding at the stem/handlebar connection. This is more like regular seat out in front riding. Also when both hands are on the bars, you’ve got no arms to flail with- this can make changing direction a lot harder. You have to lean like on a bike.
Despite these handicaps I can hop up and down stairs, ride freehand, do the leg around mount, ride handlebars in front and behind in both directions and my trademark ‘sit on wheel’ trick. I haven’t tried seat drag but I think it would be easier (more handlebar points of contact with the ground). I’d really like to wheel walk sitting on the handlebars, but just can’t sit on the bars without them slipping out from under me.
Mike - handlebar unicycles are so exhausting to ride and so impractical that you’re very unlikely to have a high speed UPD. In any case, as long as you let go of the bars they should hit the ground before you do!
I see that this would be a lot of work. As seat in front its simply exhausting. But now i think of how hard it is to ride an Ulitmate wheel.
I have a BMX handlebar but it doesnt fit into the the fork thing:( , but its fun to ride around and make broom broom noises!
I can imagine that this handlebar unit would be a very good workout for the calves, quads and hamstrings etc. as i dont know what im talking about. But have fun with those thingies.
> Riding one of these things would be similar to riding seat out in front,
> but I guess you’d have more control. It would be tiring.
I used to ride a handle bar uni a bit, it was good to
take to conventions and stuff, at one point I used it to
handicap myself in uni races at juggling conventions. My
handle bars came from the skip behind a bike shop. I
still have them in the celler, must dig them out some
time.
yes it is tiring to ride, it also bashes the knees quite
a bit so I used pipe lagging foam to cushion the frame a
bit ( esp round the seat clamp). It is easier than an
ultimate by a long way as you use the frame agaist your
leg to keep the balance. In fact its easier to ride it
with out holding the handle bars,I found my knees kept
the frame from toppling over and that way I had both
hands free to help balance. Holding the bars with both
hands made it a lot harder as it changes your body shape
and balance point.
