Yesterday I was at my roommate’s parents’ house and was in the basement playing (using this term very loosely) the drums. I looked to my right and there before my eyes rested a tread mill. I jumped up from my seat ran upstairs and grabbed my unicycle. I then got on the tread mill and started that bad boy up. It was a blast especially once I let go of the bar. I got up to 10 mph on the 20". Eventually I fell of but oh well. Things to try next time; one footed, backwards, seat out in front, rolling hops.
Thats sounds sweet! On first thought it looks like #33 on the Things NOT to do on a unicycle.
But that is totally cool
Too bad i dont have a treadmill:(
Did you try the tilt mechanism, so that it was like you were
trying to go up a hill? I’d like to try that myself…
On Sat, 2 Nov 2002 21:12:26 -0600, Monkey Juggler
<Monkey.Juggler.divbn@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>Yesterday I was at my roommate’s parents’ house and was in the basement
>playing (using this term very loosely) the drums. I looked to my right
>and there before my eyes rested a tread mill. I jumped up from my seat
>ran upstairs and grabbed my unicycle. I then got on the tread mill and
>started that bad boy up. It was a blast especially once I let go of the
>bar. I got up to 10 mph on the 20". Eventually I fell of but oh well.
>Things to try next time; one footed, backwards, seat out in front,
>rolling hops.
>
>Has anyone else tried this?
>
>- Sal
>Monkey Juggler - the ever elusive monkey juggler
>
>Monkey Juggler’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1213
>View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/21413
>Did you try the tilt mechanism, so that it was like you were
>trying to go up a hill? I’d like to try that myself…
Clarify this please. Does the tilt mechanism rotate the axis of the
tread mill away from horizontal? Then do you ride it at an angle so
that one component of your movement rotates the drum and the other
simulates going uphill? In that case I assume there is a suitable
braking mechanism on the drum’s rotation otherwise it would spin up
quite fast.
The treadmills I’ve seen at various exercise rooms have
a mechanism that lifts up the front of the beast so you
walk ‘up an incline’. It looks like you can get upwards of
a 10-15% grade.
>On Mon, 04 Nov 2002 15:17:38 GMT, hbaker1@pipeline.com wrote:
>
>>Did you try the tilt mechanism, so that it was like you were
>>trying to go up a hill? I’d like to try that myself…
>
>Clarify this please. Does the tilt mechanism rotate the axis of the
>tread mill away from horizontal? Then do you ride it at an angle so
>that one component of your movement rotates the drum and the other
>simulates going uphill? In that case I assume there is a suitable
>braking mechanism on the drum’s rotation otherwise it would spin up
>quite fast.
>
>Klaas Bil
> hbaker1@pipeline.com wrote:
> > *so you walk ‘up an incline’. It looks like you can get upwards of
> > a 10-15% grade.
> > *
>
>
> I live in Illinois. What is this “grade” you speak of?
>
> B
Asimov argued, correctly of course ;-), that the Earth was as smooth as a
billiard ball, to wit:
The Earth is roughly 8K miles in diameter, and the highest mountains (and,
for that matter, deepest ocean trenches, if you want to count irregularities
covered by ocean) are 5 miles high (or, you know, deep).
A billiard ball is 3" in diameter, so the equivalent to Everest and/or the
Marianas trench would be less than 50 microns high or deep.
Grade is the ratio of rise to runout, or vertical climb to horizontal distance traveled. On a 100% grade, one travels vertically as far as horizontally. This would be at a 45 degree angle. Going straight up or down is at an infinite grade.
By golly, Greg, you are correct. I thought in line with Sofa about gradient but my handy dandy little black book - Thomas Glover’s Pocket Ref - confirms it. I guess it’s been a long time since engineering school.
I just happened to look up the word “grade” in the dictionary before I took a gander in Pocket Ref and there’s another definition of grade, something about improving through breeding…
>The treadmills I’ve seen at various exercise rooms have
>a mechanism that lifts up the front of the beast so you
>walk ‘up an incline’. It looks like you can get upwards of
>a 10-15% grade.
Oh, OK. Even this type requires some brake mechanism though. However,
I was assuming with “treadmill” you meant a cylinder with a horizontal
axis. Either you walk IN one (like you can have in a hamster cage) or
you walk ON one. For cylinders, tilting to simulate going up a grade
is slightly less trivial.
Klaas Bil
All my posts are made with 100% recycled electrons.
> >The treadmills I’ve seen at various exercise rooms have
> >a mechanism that lifts up the front of the beast so you
> >walk ‘up an incline’. It looks like you can get upwards of
> >a 10-15% grade.
>
> Oh, OK. Even this type requires some brake mechanism though. However,
> I was assuming with “treadmill” you meant a cylinder with a horizontal
> axis. Either you walk IN one (like you can have in a hamster cage) or
> you walk ON one. For cylinders, tilting to simulate going up a grade
> is slightly less trivial.
Imprimus: a hamster wheel is not a treadmill.
Secundus: simulating a grade on a hamster wheel is trivial: apply friction.
Granted, tilting is not the solution…
I may be way off course, but here is what geometry has taught me. A 90% grade would be straight up wouldnt it? Look at a protractor. 100% grade is equivalent to 10% grade, it is just going the opposite way. “flat” Would be 180 degrees or 0
Somebody correct me
>The treadmills I’ve seen at various exercise rooms have
>a mechanism that lifts up the front of the beast so you
>walk ‘up an incline’. It looks like you can get upwards of
>a 10-15% grade.
A treadmill can’t completely simulate a hill, since its altitude remains
constant in typical use. (We assume the treadmill itself is stationary,
i.e. not on a truck climbing a hill.) As a result of the treadmill’s
constant altitude, the riders potential energy doesn’t change. The
increase in potential energy is the most important aspect of climbing a
hill. The resistance to the increase in potential energy is what makes
hill climbing a challenge. That challenge is missing from an inclined
treadmill.
However, a treadmill is still a viable way to ride long distances in
one’s house.
OK, Scott, you’re way off course. I’ll correct you.
There are 3 common systems used for expressing angular quantities. These are the degree (360 in a circle) the radian (2 Pi or 6.2832… in a circle) and the grad (400 in a circle). The grad is a RARELY used angular unit so let’s skip it. Protractors are commonly marked in degrees. When you look at a protractor scale with 0 and 180 at the sides, 90 is at the top and a line from the mark at 90 to the line between 0 and 180 is perpindicular to it. It is straight up.
Grade is a term used in engineering to describe a slope or the change of one quantity with respect another. In civil engineering (those guys who make roads and dams) distances are the quantities of interest. It is a fractional value commonly expressed in % (percent). Grade and gradient are sometimes interchanged in a sloppy sort of way with grade being the more specific term. The grade of a road over some length is the change in vertical distance divided by the change in horizontal distance.
The slope of a road can be described either by the angle the road surface makes with respect to horizontal (in degrees or radians) or by the grade, the ratio of vertical to horizontal distance change, expressed in percent. The simple examples are a flat road, one at 45 degrees (extremely steep) and a sheer cliff at 90 degrees. The grade of the flat road (0 degrees) is 0%; no vertical change. The grade of the 45 degree road is 100%; the vertical change is equal to the horizontal change. The grade of the sheer cliff is infinite; there is zero horizontal change.
You are correct. However, if you’re at the gym, try running on
the treadmill with it tilted up for a while – it takes a lot more
energy. So there’s more to it than simple potential energy.
>>The treadmills I’ve seen at various exercise rooms have
>>a mechanism that lifts up the front of the beast so you
>>walk ‘up an incline’. It looks like you can get upwards of
>>a 10-15% grade.
>
>A treadmill can’t completely simulate a hill, since its altitude remains
>constant in typical use. (We assume the treadmill itself is stationary,
>i.e. not on a truck climbing a hill.) As a result of the treadmill’s
>constant altitude, the riders potential energy doesn’t change. The
>increase in potential energy is the most important aspect of climbing a
>hill. The resistance to the increase in potential energy is what makes
>hill climbing a challenge. That challenge is missing from an inclined
>treadmill.
>
>However, a treadmill is still a viable way to ride long distances in
>one’s house.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com>
