Strange cycles

General
1

I saw something yesterday that (for me) was new.

An “Axle bike”. This had a twelve? inch diameter wheel in the back and pair of
roller skate wheels in the front.

The seat post came up a little forward of the centerline of the “large” wheel.
Had a bicycle chain drive. Gave the appearance (at first glance) of someone
riding a uni.

It was not home-brew, story I got was that someone tried market them a few years
back. The flopped, and this guy bought one as they were going under.

I’m tempted to make to comment on how strange he looked riding that thing, :slight_smile:
but I will restrain myself.

            Bryce

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2

Re: Strange cycles

In article <43mghn$nqt@eccdb1.pms.ford.com>, Bryce Grevemeyer
<bgreveme@etcv01.eld.ford.com> writes:
|>
|> I saw something yesterday that (for me) was new.
|>
|> An “Axle bike”. This had a twelve? inch diameter wheel in the back and pair
|> of roller skate wheels in the front.
|>
|> The seat post came up a little forward of the centerline of the “large”
|> wheel. Had a bicycle chain drive. Gave the appearance (at first glance) of
|> someone riding a uni.
|>
|> It was not home-brew, story I got was that someone tried market them a few
|> years back. The flopped, and this guy bought one as they were going under.

I came across one in 86’ on a business trip to CA. I got the same story
about the business. The guys that had it rode it with the skateboard wheels
in back though.

Eric

3

Re: Strange cycles

I see these in NYC from time to time. They look very silly. I assumed that they
were “macho bikes” made up in Spanish Harlem.

/stern

Bryce Grevemeyer <bgreveme@etcv01.eld.ford.com> writes:

>I saw something yesterday that (for me) was new.

>An “Axle bike”. This had a twelve? inch diameter wheel in the back and pair of
>roller skate wheels in the front.

Irgendwo ist ein Fehler aufgetreten! * stern@deshaw.com * stern@panix.com

4

Re: Strange cycles

Bryce Grevemeyer <bgreveme@etcv01.eld.ford.com> wrote:

>An “Axle bike”. This had a twelve? inch diameter wheel in the back and pair of
>roller skate wheels in the front.

It may have been called a skate bike. I bought one years ago, but have since
forgotten about it. It provides a unique challenge and is not a difficult to
ride as a unicycle.

Try taking off the springs that keep the wheel from pivoting too much. That
provides additional challenge for those of us who already ride unicycles.

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com

5

This too is strange.

6

Skates?

Today I saw someone riding around on Freeline Skates. Has anyone tried them?

http://www.freelineskates.com/FREELINE/website/index.html

He looked very odd riding them–the movement was like a skateboard rather than like skates.

Yeh, they have too many wheels to be a unicycle. :stuck_out_tongue:

7

This must be one of the oldest threads on these forums. An antiquity from 1995! These guys must be some of the true pioneers of our sport. Funny.

But back to the subject: I don’t think contraptions with multiple wheels will ever establish themselves in our society. They are just too complex and too many parts to break. I believe unicycles shall take over the world by 2020 and anything with more than one wheel will be a thing from the past. It’ll be like “look mom, he’s riding a two wheeler! How can he manage to ride on two wheels simultaneously without falling over?”. And for the rare bicyclist “Hey, what’s that extra wheel for?” will be a frequently asked question. So that 'll be in 2020. Maybe we should start by taking over New Zealand during UNICON. Then if all the participants decide to stay there for a while, I reckon unicycles would be the mainstream means of transportation at least in NZ. From there on we can then continue to conquer the rest of the world bit by bit.

8

something like tjis?

4275_1.JPG

9

Yeah, don’t you just love those 14 year bumps? :slight_smile:

But unicycles, unless new designs come about, will never be as practical as bicycles. Bikes are so easy to ride.

10

You mean this???

11

What balance does that take? :roll_eyes:

I found the Wheel U when I was searching for Speed Xtreme unicycles. I imagine that such is a generic name, but has anyone heard of them?

12

Wow. Who wants to be first in line to have all road bumps transmitted to your chest? :slight_smile:

It looks fascinating and I’d love to try one. What a strange riding position! Say goodbye to the skin on your knees if you’re not wearing leg armor. I’d recommend plastic ones for that. And keep that front wheel nice and high, so it doesn’t dig in on any big bumps. Ouch!

Missing from that article is the point of that particular layout. If it was done for a school project or basic design experiment it’s pretty cool, but for practical I don’t know about staying in that riding position for any long period of time…

All the real pioneers of unicycling are dead. Unicycles go back to the 1870s. But 1995 sure is antique for archived electronic unicycle communications! If it’s found here, it must be from the newsgroup days (rec.sport.unicycling). Before that, it was an email list.

13

That page won’t load for me :frowning:

Could you put the whole address hear?

14

http://www.studentdesign.co.il/designer/tomer-zer-kavod

15

I had a cycle that collected cats, wore a bathrobe all day and had gloves on its feet. I thought that was pretty strange.:smiley:

16

:astonished: I got exactly the same thing in my shed but in white! I changed the 12" wheel for a 14" wheel, it’s a bit faster.

17

Richard Cunningham “One Wheeler”

I was looking at uni listings on Craigslist, and stumbled upon this. The listing says that it was designed by MTB pioneer Richard Cunningham. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before.

18

u by it!

19

I’m not in Oregon, but you would have had to follow the link to find out that it’s not in CO. This could very well be the first mountain bike uni, although it looks a bit like a death trap to me.

20

It’s fascinating! I’m especially interested in learning more of the history of the thing. They actually built and sold about 30 of those? Wow. As a unicycle it would probably be pretty terrible on rough terrain, but might be fun on pavement due to the seating position. The weight of the frame probably makes it annoying to ride, but I’d love to try it anyway. Anybody live close enough to buy it?