The Great Giraffe Project

General
1

Just to keep a long story short, I’m getting a giraffe unicycle for Christmas. Even though it’s only mid-November, I’m getting really excited about it. Getting a new unicycle is a very momentous occasion, you know? So I’m starting to think about all of these ideas and plans to make my giraffe really sweet.

As of right now I have two different plans, both equally sweet. They both consist of a box of goodies delivered too me from unicycle.com as well as a hand painting job for the frame. I figure that I might be able to paint the frame by myself since the frame won’t go through a lot of abuse like a trials uni. It’ll pretty much only visit basketball courts and gym floors. Painting should be pretty simple with some info from the internet and a trip to Wal-Mart. I also need a name for the unicycle, but I need to pick the concept first before I worry about that.

Plan A concept: Green frame, everything else black.
This is actually the one I am leaning towards as of this moment. However the problems that I see are that not everything can be black. Of course the crank arms, seat post, rim and spokes will stay chrome because the expense to paint those items black is not well spent since those parts receive the most amount of work. Still the concept is pretty nice, better than an ugly chrome thing.

This thing will have an Odyssey Groundwork Tire or an all black Maxxis Hookworm (depending on rim). Also it will have Odyssey Twisted PC Platform pedals. However those pedals do have that red piece on it, I wonder if I can take that off…

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Plan B concept: All Blue
I like this basically because I can make an all blue unicycle with stuff on unicycle.com. Of course parts will still be chrome but that won’t make it look any worse. The only problem I see is that those blue pedals, while being in my price range, are not quite the same color of blue. This will throw off what color of blue I’m going to get on the frame.

This will most likely have a Primo V-Monster but it may get a Primo The Wall because of the rim. The Blue Bulletproof Alloy Platform Pedals may become silver ones if I decide the color of blue is too off.

Alright so what do you guys think? Any preferences? Maybe you have a better idea. I would love to hear it. Once I decide what idea I’m going to go with, I’m probably going to post a poll for the name. Alright, now don’t just sit there, reply already :smiley:

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3

Don’t try painting it. I guess you really can’t get a decent look if you use spray paint from Wal-Mart or other stores. They don’t usually look good. You won’t get a nice shiny finish, with the metal glowing a bit under the paint.

And you’ll probably end up doing this outside. That’s when things start to go wrong. You start painting and wind starts. Wind throws sand, dust, leaves, squirrels and other small objects at your newly painted uni.

I know that it costs more, but try finding a painter who paints stuff like rims for cars, garbage cans and similar stuff that usually doesn’t look too good. At least here in Tampere there is a painter who has painted some bike frames, powder-coated, just for 20€. I guess he’d paint my uni for something like 10-15€. That’s about the same in $$$'s. And guys like him usually have paints that will never wear of. A painter at Koski, where I originally come from, had some paint that’s used for painting the bottoms of these big ships made to brake ice. I guess that would never wear out. He showed me a piece of metal painted with that magical paint. It had been bent and all, but still the paint was just a bit scratced.

4

All right! More giraffes!

First, unless you are really great at freemounting, don’t paint it until you have that mastered… a giraffe takes a lot more abuse than you think. (and do you really think that you can resist doing drops and stairs on it (or maybe even a little off-road) I mean, I couldn’t on mine…) (anyone up for TGUNI… Trials Griaffe Uni?)

Second, go ahead and stick a KH seat on there. Makes long practice hours more comfy.

If you’re practicing indoors or plan on performing on it, use the odyssey twisted PC pedals.

The Maxxis hookworm is my favorite freestyle tire and I own 3 of them now. I have black and white whitewalls on my 6’ giraffe and freestyle uni and a grey/orange whitewall on my 5’ giraffe.

beefy chain tensioners are a must. as is a thorn-resistant tube (you have no idea how great these are on giraffes)

If you are going to paint it yourself, and you want it to look primo, use spray or paint-on primer first (rust-oleum is a good brand) then sand that so it’s even, and then use spray or paint-on finish paint

(with a spray, lots of thin coats works better than one really thick coat, due to lessened possibility of the paint puddling up (which looks awful) and again, rust-oleum is a good brand, but most paint that you buy at the store will scratch off no matter how careful you are.

I prefer the rust-oleum fine textured stuff because it’s got a nice feel and look, and dosen’t scratch off as easily as some of the others.

they also make a rust-oleum spray on industrial enamel that I haven’t tried, but might work pretty well…

and as for the name… eloise sounds good to me…

5

Re: The Great Giraffe Project

XWonka <XWonka@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote:

>Plan A concept: Green frame, everything else black.

I prefer all black for almost all my unicycles. The notable exceptions
are my red spray painted tandem and my red powder coated freestyle
unicycle. Red attracts the eye more for performances!

I do agree that all black for a giraffe is not a good idea. The frame
seems to long for black to do it justice. My 24" two wheel unicycles
are all black and look great, but they have flat forks like the
Schwinn. The round tubes just won’t look right in black. My 16" two
wheel unicycle is light blue, but that wouldn’t look right on round
tubes either.

You should ignore the color selection advice of anyone who prefers no
color (black). I suggest you use fire engine red for your giraffe
frame. You want people to see the giraffe easily and red will show
great contrast on almost any background both inside and outside. It
will be just the right color when you want to perform for audiences!

XWonka, good luck with your Xmas project!

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com>

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Re: The Great Giraffe Project

XWonka <XWonka@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com>

>Plan B concept: All Blue

>The only problem I see is that those blue pedals, while being in my
>price range, are not quite the same color of blue. This will throw off
>what color of blue I’m going to get on the frame.

>This will most likely have a Primo V-Monster but it may get a Primo The
>Wall because of the rim. The Blue Bulletproof Alloy Platform Pedals may
>become silver ones if I decide the color of blue is too off.

All the blue components should be exactly the same blue color or the eye
will notice it.

The blue pedal is too far off in color. It may be better to use a black
pedal. The seat cover and tire look great together. The blue on the
frame is too light to match the seat cover and tire.

I’m not sure you will like all blue, unless all the components had the
same blue. A darker blue like the pedal might look nicer. Might be
nice to go with a blue rim and spokes as well, but that might be going
too far.

Maybe all red would work out better?

Again, XWonka, good luck!

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com>

7

Have you used the Odyssey Groundwork yet? I have ridden on a uni with a hookworm and i do agree they are a pretty nice, high p.s.i. rating tire. The Groundwork looks pretty similar.
But then again… the rim is going to decide what tire it’s gonna get. does anyone know what tires will go on a Savage Giraffe rim?

8

any 20" tire should fit on the rim, especially on the 6 foot model

9

Ive had a 6-foot giraffe for quite awhile, its just the cheap savage 6-foot with all the stock parts.

Anyway, what I am wondering is if anyone could tell me stuff that i should purchase to pump her up a bit. Im not completely confident in doing stuff other than the normal everyday riding. So let me know what i should get and what i should do if you like.