and how far can you ride on the UW? What size is your UW? I imagine if you can ride slalom and small circles, the you keep the wheel perfectly in the middle already. Do you have a video?
I don’t have a video. Distance wise, I can ride it as far as i wan’t (and my untrained legs carry me). At least in the gym, never tried outdoors. The wheel is 26" and 1.1" wide. The width of the wooden wheel and the tire match nearly perfect.
This may sound stupid, but I just heard about UW not long ago. Would just the standalone unicycle wheel and cranks without the frame work as an ultimate wheel or is there a difference?
Q-factor makes it much, much harder.
Where every centimeter counts, the 100mm axle is already very wide, what makes it much more difficult. To make it easier you can try a big wheel, i.e. a 36" with 100mm axle or less when available, no Q factor cranks. The TA tire is heavy, but has no profile scratching the legs. But it is always more difficult than an UW, what makes you give up earlier.
I am really confused where to post this. There is even a building-a-36-ultimate-wheel thread, but there are only a few ultimate wheel builds over all sizes, everyone is using his own thread.
After I unecpectedly built a 36" steel UW: ultimate-wheel-questions-please I wanted to have one myself and the only option is aluminium.
The rim was self-made of two 28" rims here: Build your own rim
Crossing out a 36" DT swiss 533D rim, what creates a UW=Useless Wheel. I have to destroy a perfect and new rim…:
Drilling out some eyelets which would interfear with the profiles:
Preparing the aluminium rim for welding hopefully without removing too much material:
Fitting the profiles to the rim:
Test weld:
Cross section:
I didn’t have problems, but welding 1mm is on the thin side:
First welds were by far not as easy as the test welds. Later I noticed that the larger piece required 10% higher current, ofcourse:
Closing eyelet holes didn’t create major problems.
Side project fixing gloves:
Definitely not a 42mm stealth II rim:
The Useless Wheel:
Upgrading the Useless Wheel UW to an Ultimate Wheel UW.
Create the crank selection bar. Mill a d= 30mm round aluminium rod to get the square pedal bar:
The chips are hot on my uncovered arms.
Shiny 20mm x 20mm bar:
Right and left handed pedal threads for the 2 bars. I use the black lever and turn manually:
Completed bars with chamfered edges also for larger welding surface.
Just weld and you’re finished.
STOP you’re doing it wrong:
I learned in the
Max Q thread about myself that I do not like/need Q factor. On the UW I noticed that when the feet are just a centimeter more apart, it cuts my max driving distance nearly in half. The old 36" UW had 2cm square profiles between the pedals. It was perfectly rideable and the tire didn’t touch my legs even though my feet were only 2cm apart.
So I will build a Q=0 UW and move the feet 2cm closer together.
That hurts, it was finished and now I am cutting 2 square tubes apart:
The mill creates a smooth surface again:
Luckily the upper traverse of the mill can be tilted and shifted to access everything.
I lifted the pedal bar by 10mm. Therefore the below mounted pedal starts directly on the center of the ultimate wheel UW. So this UW has a Q factor of zero, what was the reason for this major change.
I had to close the end with a small piece of aluminium:
Everything clamped. Ready to weld:
Evolution of soft 6060 aluminium: round → square → zero Q pedal bar:
One foot UW:
Lifting the other bar to the opposite side:
Hey, I didnt know of my abilities as a tattoo specialist. I really like this triangle! Everyone who wants to have such an UW from me will get such a triangle to prove the ownership.
Milling a flat surface for the pedal and recutting threads:
Cutting rim tape for 1 layer:
I bought the tire right after the first light Nightriders were produced. Dismounting the tire easily damages the edge, anyhow it should work:
The extra lightweight Schwalbe SV 19A tube will be installed. The valve directly fits into the rim.
Easy mounting: Last time I inflated the 29" tire until it was 36":
This tire creates a bubble, so I had to decrease the pressure and pull it in place. No problem, just takes some minutes longer.
The raw 0QUW:
A closer look at zero Q.
Stainless steel pedal washers:
Cutting off is always a nightmare for machinists. The machine was running in reverse and the cutting iron was upside down. That way it didn’t crash, because in case something goes slightly wrong, it can lift the tool including the whole table and release forces. Play in the machine, like every machine has, can be positive.
20mm x 1.5mm washers:
The washers fit on the milled surface:
It’s my second 36" with a self made DT swiss rim:
The weight is 3.9Kg, the steel version was about 8.1Kg. Carrying is much better. Concerning the weight difference, riding is about the same. It could be even lighter. The square tubes were 2mm thick and could be reduced to 1mm as the rim has 1mm.
The first ride started right at zero, holding on to a wall. I immediately noticed that the real drawback is the Nightrider tire which is not forgiving when the tire rubbs against the legs. So it requires practice and more skill. The TA tire was much better. There was no problem with 0Q, It should be easier to ride. I noticed that my feet didn’t have to touch the square tubes. So the mount onto the pedal doesn’t have to be that precise.
where is the video of you riding figure 8’s
Hey, I am starting at 0 again. Nightrider nightmare? How did I freemount it? Juggling… no way…
first one foot and then the other, stand upright, feel for balance and take off and you may hop off after the first figure 8, not before, or it will become a figure 0
For curiosity I drew two versions of a no wobble UW, one kangaroo style (better known as @Setonix style) and one with centered feet:
why are the pedals of the top on side by side. I’d like to see you ride that.
For a no-wobble version, I wobble quite a lot.
No problem to ride that if your bowlegs leave enough room (for those who can ride an UW at all, that is).
Heh, the kangaroo style on the top actually eliminates all wobble issues indeed due to symmetry! Well, at least certain kinds of wobble.
How do you actually turn on either one? I see no other way than twisting, or maybe intentionally rubbing your leg on the tire. I can see absolutely no practical way to turn on the kangaroo style one, in fact.
Has anyone ridden a kangaroo style UW, or even one with the “cranks” at an angle other than 180? Or done kangaroo SIF? You should have thought about this when making @Setonix his 36" UW and mirrored the pedal hole selection bars on both sides.
you basically just hop and as soon as you are on the down position, you quickly twist where you want to go before going up again. That isn’t that hard, but I can’t show you a video
Turn on Kangaroo/Setonix Wheel: throw the bearing screws of a normal uni away and swap one crank to 180°. Ride double one footed and do sib seat in back, drop the seat or hold it. But you certainly have other problems to think about than a useless seat
Hey, @Setonix has a SW:
Convert @Setonix UW to kangaroo/botanic Setonix Wheel (Swheel SW): I.e. you can screw two right pedals on the left and on the right side of one hole and you have it!
This one would be for dogs riding UW:
ur aware that the dog will end up upside down…
But it is nice to switch pedals along the way, as long as you keep your knees out with every rotation. I leave that honour to you to show how to do that
Ur picture makes me think of the AI picture with the uni with many pedals and guy not being able to hit even one.
The 12 sets of pedals for the remaining holes are on order
I recycled the rear wheel of my seeding machine to get my training uni back:
90°
0°
Sorry for using a seat At least I lost a seat screw and the bearings were loose.
Love the kangaroo! If I had time today I‘d convert my 20er and give it a try. Maybe tomorrow.
I didn’t convert my main 19" because 137mm cranks are just too long for new 1-footed tricks and because I am not in a hurry for backwards conversion with the spare uni.
It took 2 evenings to learn:
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Ideling: one foot has the reversed motion. As a twice rider I got into it fast.
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Top dead center: the fear of UPDing in any direction right on TDC slows down the learning speed. Past TDC it is easy. The next day I started at zero again.
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1-footed muscle pains don’t appear. Instead I had massive problems with crushed nuts and butt sores as there is more movement/impulsive force (the Wheel was slipping a bit on some UPDs) and less preventive adjustment. Maybe the wrong saddle.
As shown, I had good experience to go one footed and return dual one footed.
@Wheelou, we are eager to see your