I did a stop-animation video of all the steps required to convert a bike into a giraffe unicycle.
Starting with a complete bike ($3) an adjustable wrench, 2 pliers, a chain tool ($10) a drill and three hours spare time I built a ridable giraffe unicycle using all original parts.
Watch the video 1/4 speed to see the individual steps.
Disclaimer: "do not attempt to duplicate any of the acts depicted in the video, any attempts may result in major injuries and possibly death!!!)
More serously… I wouldn’t recommend the conversion to anyone who is just learning to ride or hopes to use such a contraption as their main unicycle. It’s just a fun project and you end up with a unicycle that actually rides and may last for a few months (I hope!)
Any multi-geared bike would work, I recommend using a 24" bike since you can gear it to nearly 1:1 so it rides at a normally speed. Obviously, using a road bike or a harder gear you can create a faster unicycle (not recommended for your first try).
Looking forward to your critiques and sequential projects! You now finally have a use for that odd two wheeled thing you have lying around!
If you have intelligent (eek!) questions feel free to ask.
Before i got into unicycling and such, i made my own. It was a 5’ girrafe made out of an old bicycle. It was pretty sturdy, considering i made it without welding. However it could only go forwards and i only went about 2 feet on it because i’d never ridden a unicycle before. Not the smartest of ideas. To anybody keen on making their own giraffe out of a bike, i reccomend WELDING IT.
As far as I know, a bmx would require a weld to lock out the hub. The wire solution would not work. You need a bike with several gears in the back to do the wiring lockout.
However with a welder it only takes one bead to lock it out.
A BMX frame would be fine, I think you would need another front fork though.
“Dom_Proctor” wrote in message …
>
> In your vid you made the uni with a standard mountain bike. Do you
think
> that a BMX would be able to be converted just as easily?
I’ve had a plan for some time about converting a BMX in to a giraffe,
however, it would be a lot more simple than that though. All that would
need to be done is to change the freewheel sprocket for the largest
fixed wheel sprocket you can find, put a smaller chainring on the front
(errr… top) crank, and put a saddle parallel to the headset. That way
you have a fixed wheel BMX that you can actually ride as a bike, and a
giraffe unicycle too.
I can’t imagine that mounting in congenitally would be viable, but there
are enough BMX tricks out there already that I’m sure some kind of
flashy ride > wheelie > Cherry Picker > Unicycle move combo could be
worked out eventually.
STM (already with a pair of Skyways waiting for the time to start)
Depending on the hub (i.e. how new and expensive it may or may not be), you might be able to do it without completely trashing it. Fixed gear bikes are much like unicycles, and I think they’re pretty cool. You can set them up using what’s called a gear cassette, on newer shimano rear hub doodads. The older stuff you’re going to find, in the 12-speed road bike and cheapo walmart bike type stuff is going to probably require a special tool/have threaded and non cassette gears on the back. Sheldon brown’s bike pages explains this really well. I have a trash bike I think I’m going to try this on now
Okay, I’ve examined the video a bit closer. I’m not sure how you’ve attached the seat (which is made of the front fork, right?) to the frame. Would it be possible to get a complete step-by step of this? I promise I’ll post pictures once mine is done!
What a cool project and video. Do you get much backlash from the twisted wire lockout? Did you use a clothes hanger, it looks kind of like that type of wire?
Nice video.
I made one of these from a kids bike with 16" wheels. It is geared for two wheel revs per pedal rev and is stupidly fast and dangerous, but only took about an hour to learn, despite having never ridden a giraffe before.
We welded the hub’s freewheel and quickly found we had to weld the whole sprocket/freewheel to the hub to stop it from unscrewing under backpedalling. Ended up melting some spokes!
I will try and find a pic if i can.
If you’re willing to spend about £20 on a new hub (or find someone with a disc hub where the freewheel has broken so they don’t want it), you can do this.
It’s pretty similar to the way the nimbus giraffe does it.
I don’t know if there’s something obvious that stops it, but would it be possible to do this with a front bike disc hub, which would be cheaper, and have a more centred wheel? You might have to bend the frame in order to change the spacing, or do something with some spacers to make the hub fit in a wider frame?
Apparently the disc brake thing is more solid than welding your freewheel on.
Okay guys, i had a look down the shed and it turns out i have a nice 12" wheel with a gear on it, however it freewheels and has back pedal brake. I’ve also got a frame and various other bits of metal to make the frame out of. Now for my question.
Which bit do i weld on this hub/gear so that it locks it and do i take out the brake inside of the hub?
Very carefully take the hub apart and remove the largest piece which is the back brake mechanism, then reassemble the hub. Weld a bead where the part that backpedals meets the part that doesn’t so they are one.
There is next to no slop in the lockout, I have more play in the stretching chain then in the hub/gear attachment. However, longer you ride it more slop I get, it defiantly isn’t a permanent fix, every few rides you need to add/tighten the wires. However it is a economical easy fix.
The disk lockout seems to be a more permanent fix, but is costly. Welding, for me, is more time consuming and obviously requires specialized equipment. I tried to come up with a design most people could make with little cost and limited access to tools.
Here’s a photo of where the frame should/could attach. Hope that helps!
Could you repost the animated GIF somewhere? I’m curious about what you did. Someone from my club is talking about making his own giraffe this summer, and it’d be interesting to see what others have done.
