I am envisioning a rather scary unicycle, and am wondering whether such a thing
has ever been tried. It has an enormous wheel about 8 feet in diameter, with
the pedals mounted separately on the fork arms, and a chain-drive from each
pedal to the hub. It would be difficult to ride but should be possible at least
in a parade-type situation. Something like this has probably been done
somewhere before. What is the record for largest unicycle wheel ever ridden?
RE: The ultimate big wheel?
> the pedals mounted separately on the fork arms, and a chain-drive
> from each pedal to the hub.
A unicycle of this design was used by the Japanese boy who rode across the
United States in 1996 or so. Not such a big wheel.
> in a parade-type situation. Something like this has probably been done
> somewhere before. What is the record for largest unicycle wheel
> ever ridden?
The largest one I know of for sure was 73", built by Mr. Moore in Southern
CA and ridden by Steve Gordon (on his tippy toes, I presume). I rode one
with a 63.5" wheel, made in Sweden by Goran Lundstrom. It was the largest
known at the time.
Wally Watts, the guy who rode around the world in 1976-8, was working on
making a 10’ diameter wheel. But if he finished the project I never heard
about it.
Not only is a super-big wheel hard to make (normal components won’t work and
you have to build from scratch, it will be very heavy, fragile (or even
heavier), and not only difficult, but dangerous to ride. Also, you will
have a hard time bringing it anywhere, as it won’t fit inside any vehicle
but a truck. I like to set my limits at what will fit in a minivan… 
JF
I saw a photo of Sem riding a big wheel which I believe was listed as 72" in diameter. I could be way off on that. The wheel radius plus the crank length plus the tire to seat distance was clearly greater than his inseam. Rather than ride on his tippy-toes, the pedals were blocked up about 6" on a side.
We’re talking here more or less about a penny farthing, properly known as an ‘ordinary bicycle’. I rode a couple of these years ago. The ideal wheel size on a penny farthing with conventional pedals seems to be about chest high to the rider. With blocked pedals, suitably counterbalanced, a larger wheel is possible. Mounting is easy because there are steps on the spine of the frame, but once you get going, the back wheel more or less hovers - it certainly plays no significant part in either the balance or the steering.
Riding a penny farthing is the nearest thing to ridfing a ‘big wheel uni’ that I can imagine - it is very similar to a cross between a Coker and a giraffe, and it’s great fun in its own right. Never turn down an opportunity to ride one.
My guess is that a genuine unicycle with a 60 inch plus wheel and no ‘farthing’ would be virtually unrideable in anything but ‘ideal’ conditions - at least for most of us - it would be unstoppable on hills, and a high speed fall would be lethal.
Damn! I clicked on this thread hoping to see pics, or preferrably movies, of some nut riding a Coker Ultimate Wheel!
I thought one of the Brits tried this at a meet once. Maybe Roger or Sarah knows. I think Sarah is the one who posted it.
you’re tellin me!! they’d be riding those ball bearings to the max!
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
On Tue, 2 Jul 2002 23:36:49 -0500, harper
<harper.7779a@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>I saw a photo of Sem riding a big wheel which I believe was listed as
>72" in diameter. I could be way off on that. The wheel radius plus the
>crank length plus the tire to seat distance was clearly greater than his
>inseam. Rather than ride on his tippy-toes, the pedals were blocked up
>about 6" on a side.
This post of Greg “photos please” Harper requires this:
http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/btdt/unique.html
Klaas Bil
Re: Re: The ultimate big wheel?
Thanks, Klaas. I couldn’t remember where it was. Clearly the 72" diameter was a guess since it is not listed.
RE: The ultimate big wheel?
>Wally Watts, the guy who rode around the world in 1976-8, was working on
>making a 10’ diameter wheel. But if he finished the project I never heard
>about it.
>
>Not only is a super-big wheel hard to make (normal components won’t work and
>you have to build from scratch, it will be very heavy, fragile (or even
>heavier), and not only difficult, but dangerous to ride. Also, you will
>have a hard time bringing it anywhere, as it won’t fit inside any vehicle
>but a truck. I like to set my limits at what will fit in a minivan…
>
>JF
>
My gargantuan wheel would probably not be practical for any purpose other than
establishing the record for largest diameter wheel ever ridden. There’s
probably a limit to what blocked-up pedals can do; the chain drive would allow
for a much larger wheel. It would best be ridden in a straight line or a very
large circle.
>We’re talking here more or less about a penny farthing, properly known
>as an ‘ordinary bicycle’…
>
>Riding a penny farthing is the nearest thing to ridfing a ‘big wheel
>uni’ that I can imagine - it is very similar to a cross between a Coker
>and a giraffe, and it’s great fun in its own right. Never turn down an
>opportunity to ride one.
>
>My guess is that a genuine unicycle with a 60 inch plus wheel and no
>‘farthing’ would be virtually unrideable in anything but ‘ideal’
>conditions - at least for most of us - it would be unstoppable on hills,
>and a high speed fall would be lethal.
>
>
>–
>Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling
I am on the point of buying a 50" bike from these folks:
http://www.wuk.at/hochrad/index_eng.php
They make big unis too; the largest one that they have pics of (click
“Unicycling” on the menu) is a 50". They are neat looking, but a Coker will
probably beat them for practicality as a road machine. Their bikes have brakes
on the rear wheels, though most of the original highwheelers in the 19th
century relied mainly on back-pressure on the pedals to control speed. I’m
guessing you’d want some kind of a brake on the big uni if you were going down
any significant slope.
I’m gonna have to get myself a helmet I think.
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
“Joe” <ickyslug@aol.complexity> wrote in message
news:20020703200933.01882.00003022@mb-fl.aol.com…
> I am on the point of buying a 50" bike from these folks:
> http://www.wuk.at/hochrad/index_eng.php
>
> I’m gonna have to get myself a helmet I think.
>
>
> - Joe
>
Go for it! The view must be tremendous from up there!!!
Doug
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
harper <harper.78adm@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
> I thought one of the Brits tried this at a meet once. Maybe Roger or
> Sarah knows. I think Sarah is the one who posted it.
Miark has riden a Coker as an ultimate, back in April 2000. Miark is not
currently riding as his knees hurt too much due to illness.
He is missed.
Unicon 11 ~ Washington USA.~ July 25 - Aug 2 2002
The world unicycle convention and championships.
http://www.nwcue.org
There is a penny farthing at my bike shop… it has wide handlebars that would trap your legs in a forward UPD. But the pictures at the site you presented seem to have the tiller-type steering. Is that so? What happens during forward UPDs?
On a penny farthing, the handlebars are just above your thighs, and often they have a curve built into them to accommodate the movement of your legs. That means that if you do a forwards UPD (the most likely sort) then you are trapped, and you do a face plant. (Then the back wheel slowly and elegantly comes over the top and hits you on the back of the head, ruinin’ your deerstalker, dontcha know?)
On the flat, forward UPDs would be very rare indeed. The back pressure of the pedals is such that even if you stand on the back pedal as it is rising, it lifts you bodily (I’ve tried this) so sudden stops are simply impossible.
The problem comes with down hills. For the first bit, you can choose either to control the speed with back pressure, or you can let the bike have its head. Sooner or later, though, the pedals go faster than your legs. The proper traditional and genuine (no joking) answer to this is to drape your legs over the top of the handlebars. You can still steer (to a degree) and if the wheel hits a stopper, you are thrown clear, landing at high speed and some distance from the bike. (I have never tried this bit.)
Another problem is that the pedals and cranks are very heavy, which means that the wheel oscillates more and more as the bike gets faster and faster. (Try pushing your uni by the saddle to demonstrate the effect.)
All this said, penny farthings are damn’ good fun. I rode two on a day out with a vintage cycle club 20 years ago (egad! 20 years!) and covered 10 - 12 miles, and the experience is still with me. As I said before, NEVER turn down an opportunity to ride a penny farthing. :0)
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
On Wed, 3 Jul 2002 17:31:10 -0500, harper
<harper.78l0y@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>> http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/btdt/unique.html
>Thanks, Klaas. I couldn’t remember where it was. Clearly the 72"
>diameter was a guess since it is not listed.
Strictly speaking, you’re right. It lists 73" as the presumed
diameter. I reckon you were damn close.
Klaas Bil
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
On Thu, 4 Jul 2002 12:03:02 -0500, Mikefule
<Mikefule.7a0ey@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>On a penny farthing…
>On the flat, forward UPDs would be very rare indeed.
Unless the thing has a brake on the big wheel. Then a forward UPD
would be easy to provoke. I don’t know how common a brake is but the
one I rode had a brake.
Klaas Bil
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
>> I am on the point of buying a 50" bike from these folksThere is a penny
>farthing at my bike shop… it has wide handlebars that
>would trap your legs in a forward UPD. But the pictures at the site you
>presented seem to have the tiller-type steering. Is that so? What
>happens during forward UPDs?
>
>
>–
>U-Turn - Diligently Practicing
Their handlebars are variable in shape according to the owner’s preference, but
all work pretty much the same. Something that looks like a tiller in the
picture is probably a handlebar seen from the side. As Mikefule says in his
response, a forward UPD will plant your face, though this is really likely to
happen only upon collision with a curb or some other event that stops the wheel
too suddenly (like a tree-branch flipping up into your spokes, yow!). Simply
staying upright on a highwheeler is no more difficult than riding a regular
bike. I have already invented (only in my mind, as usual) a safety handlebar
for the highwheeler. Each bar is hinged at the base to swing forward and up at
about a 45-deg angle, so that if you do a header, your legs will flip the bars
out of the way. Whether this would work or not, I don’t know. Someone build it
and try it. The other biggest risk is loss of speed-control on downhill slopes.
That suicidal legs-over-the-bars coasting technique was indeed actually used by
highwheel riders, and is every bit as BAD an idea as it obviously appears to
be… The Austrian bikes have rear-wheel brakes which help to control your
speed; they can also build on a front-wheel brake, but they are reluctant to do
so because of the danger (I would want one just as a booby-trap for unaware
bike-thieves). Riding these things, especially in a busy area, involves a
rather defensive attitude, and thinking a few seconds farther ahead than you do
on a “normal” bike in order to avoid these situations in the first place. I
want to get on our wide-open commuter path here and let the thing fly.
The only actual pennyfarthing riding experience I have so far is on my 36-inch
Coker bike. It has a freewheel hub and brakes on both wheels; its small size
and more rearward center of gravity make headers much less likely. There’s no
trick to riding it, but it is a distinctly different experience. It’s a load of
fun but needs to be built a bit better component-wise in my opinion (I’ve
replaced the saddle, the bars/stem, the rear brake and the front hub so far).
Re: Re: The ultimate big wheel?
A genuine penny farthing would normally have a ‘spoon’ brake, consisting of a concave piece of metal (a spoon) which pushes down onto the tread of the tyre. This spoon would be hinged and operated via a bar-mounted lever, with the linkage being metal rods. Very primitive, very unreliable, and unlikely to lock the wheel up.
In the old days, racing bicyclists used to ride fixed wheeled bikes and rely on grabbing the front tyre with their hand for emergency stops. (Gloves were NOT optional!)
I’ve occasionally wondered whether this would work on the Coker, but I think the loss of back-torque from leaning forwards would outweigh the braking available from the friction of the glove on the tyre. Thoughts anyone?
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
Mikefule wrote:
> A genuine penny farthing would normally have a ‘spoon’ brake, …
> Very primitive, very
> unreliable, and unlikely to lock the wheel up.
And I believe now illegal in the UK. Hmm, that could be an interesting
case. The reason for a spoon brake being illegal is presumably the risk of
blowing out a pneumatic tyre (tire), which of course a reproduction or
original ordinary wouldn’t have. But I’d hazard a guess that the law
doesn’t specify that it’s illegal only when using a pneumatic tyre.
So who’ll be first to land up in court for using an illegal brake on a penny
farthing?
Actually that’s complicated by the fact that a fixed wheel cycle doesn’t
legally require a brake on the drive wheel - so we’ve got an illegal brake
on a wheel that doesn’t legally need a brake, and probably no brake on the
back wheel, which legally should have one.
I bet a lawyer could have hours of fun with this
–
Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply) ( http://www.juggler.net/danny )
Recumbent cycle page: http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/
“I don’t think proofreading is adequate. All posts should be waxed and
buffed. Then they should wear little tuxedos.” - Greg Harper on usenet
Re: The ultimate big wheel?
>A genuine penny farthing would normally have a ‘spoon’ brake, consisting
>of a concave piece of metal (a spoon) which pushes down onto the tread
>of the tyre. This spoon would be hinged and operated via a bar-mounted
>lever, with the linkage being metal rods. Very primitive, very
>unreliable, and unlikely to lock the wheel up.
>
>–
>Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling
Yesterday at an Independence Day parade I was able to get a look at a lovely
52-inch 1880’s Victory highwheeler ridden by the captain of our state Wheelmen
group. It had a spoon brake on the front wheel. The bike overall was a very
nice-looking piece of machinery, with that indefinable air of 19th-century
solidity about it. The brake did look rather ineffective by today’s standards,
but I have the feeling that this was due to practical necessity rather than
primitiveness; a really effective brake on the front wheel (which certainly
could have been engineered back then) would have been a real danger. Another
method of stopping a highwheeler in a hurry is to jump back onto the
mounting-step and press your foot on the top of the rear wheel (or bail out
completely and drag your feet on the ground); the front brake would be useful
then to help slow the bike.
Here’s a small pic of the unit I am probably going to buy (try again later if
AOL is slow getting it up)…
It has a V-brake on the rear wheel but nothing on the front.
I have read that the unicycle may have evolved from the pennyfarthing bike,
when riders discovered that it could be ridden with the rear wheel off the
ground. Does anyone know whether this is true, or was the uni invented
independently of the bike?