RE: The travelling uni in California
Thanks Greg Harper, and Nathan Hoover, for making it possible for me to try
out the 1.5 geared unicycle.
I rode it yesterday in the parking lot at DeLaveaga Park in Santa Cruz. This
is one of the locations for the 2002 MUni Weekend this fall. I also rode it
at the Laguna Seca Raceway parking lot, at the Sea Otter Classic
(www.seaotterclassic.com)
My basic assessment goes along with Nathan’s, in that it rides real nice,
but is seemingly more sluggish than a wheel of the equivalent size. What you
lose with the smaller wheel is the inertia of the larger diameter wheel to
help you roll over things.
Of course what you gain is a unicycle that will fit in a Mini boot (old
Mini) or anyplace else a 24" unicycle will fit. You can’t put a Coker in the
overhead luggage rack on the subway, for instance. Plus you have a wheel of
standard, non-expensive size. You don’t have to special order tires, rims,
and spokes; they’ll be at most any bike shop.
Like a big wheel, you can idle on it, but it’s not very fun. Better to hold
onto the light pole while waiting for the light to change.
What I was curious to try was quick turns at speed. On a big wheel it’s hard
to make a quick course change, because of all that inertia in your large
wheel. The 1.5 seemed much more responsive when I speeded up (not too much)
and tried to turn 90 degrees as quickly as possible. So it is more
maneuverable. Definitely it will fit through smaller gaps as well, if they
require twisting and turning. Along those lines, you’ll get hit by less tree
branches and low objects as well.
Walking the wheel on the 1.5 is like–walking the wheel on a 24". You
expected something different?
Spinning was fun. With practice, you should really be able to crank this
unicycle into some nice pirouettes, because you won’t have as much
disruptive foot motion when trying to go fast.
Along the lines of slower pedal motion, the 1.5 would probably be better for
high speed gliding, though admittedly that kind of wastes the technology.
Slower pedal motion would also allow riders to ride up things they can’t
on non-geared wheels, like quarter-pipes. To go fast enough to climb up
steep things like that, you would normally have to pedal so fast you’d be
almost out of control. Here you could get more speed, without similar flying
feet. I did not test this.
Similarly, the 1.5 could theoretically do better going down steep things,
because you could build up more speed before losing your ability to keep
pedaling. I definitely did not test this.
The problem is, though you can go fast, you don’t have the ability to make
corrections as easily as on a direct-drive wheel. Hence the sluggish
feeling. So I believe that it will always be a little more dismount-prone
than a big wheel. But certainly you can get used to riding it and be quite
successful using it as a commuting vehicle. Then you can bring it into your
place of work, unlike, perhaps, a Coker or larger wheel (like my 45").
The backlash, or gap in pedaling, is equal to or smaller than what I used to
have on my own Schwinn Giraffe (before some spot welding). Annoying at
first, but I think you wouldn’t even notice it after a short while.
The other problem I had when riding the cycle was tire rub. The
Torker/Semcycle XL frame is narrow, and you can’t run a real wide tire in
there. Idling, and hard acceleration/braking created a rub, which I noticed
on one side more than the other. Nathan may have since cleared this up with
his truing job, but the clearance is very limited. Though it can be ridden
in dirt, it’s mainly a street cycle, so a narrower tire won’t hurt. It had
poured rain most of the day Saturday, so the DeLaveaga parking lot was
barely dry enough to ride the cycle, and we certainly were not going to
dirty it up on any of the wet trails.
For a faster commuting cycle, the hub could be tried on a 700c wheel. Still
standard wheel parts, and more speed!
Though I knew I was going down to ride the cycle, I forgot to pull out some
stickers for it (or for the box). But I have some, and I will mail some to
Harper directly. Thanks for the unprecedented test ride!
Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com
“My p____ just grew an inch!” David Poznanter, after riding an insane
downhill mud/wood obstacle in the pouring rain (not on the geared hub uni)