If someone says they have a Coker you instantly know what they are talking about (unless you’re new to unicycling) but do they actually have a Coker? If you want a 36" unicycle you no longer have to buy a stock Coker as there are other routes to getting your 36" unicycle, so as the thread says ‘What makes a Coker a Coker?’
Before recently you would have had to have had a Coker pneumatic tyre but that is no longer the case since Qu-ax have a 36" tyre you can buy and from what I can see is only different by the tread. In fact they have a full 36" unicycle which is my newest addition, hence the thread, and there is always the temptation for me to call it a Coker every time I talk about it yet it’s not a Coker.
So has the term Coker come to mean a unicycle with a 36" pneumatic tyre in the same way Hoover came to mean a vacuum cleaner?
I like the idea of keeping the noun “Coker”. An entire language has developed around the word.
It’s a good word. Fun to say:
Coker, coker, coker.
Let’s keep it.
SNEEZE
Could you hand me a kleenex? I always sneeze when I’m hoovering near the xerox machine. Sometimes I spill my coke in the process. I try not to spill it on my victrola, though.
You’ve got a good point. Is a coker a definition of wheel size, make, or its use? for me, I’d probably call any large wheeled uni a coker (36" or so), But other commuter unis including one of the 28" 1.5 Geared Schlumpfs, wouldn’t be a coker (at least to me). When I think of Coker I think of a massive wheeled unicycle.
Its like those tiny little micro giraffes, technically its a giraffe but i’ll never think of it as one, its just not tall enough!
Coker has also spawned other great words such as
‘cokerable’ - being able to ride succesfully on a coker.
EG “that trial has too many high drops to be cokerable”
or maybe that should be
“that trial is uncokerable”
does that make a coker rider a ‘cokerist’
and what is the plural of coker?
I think i may be leaving myself open to much abuse from the
cokerium (colective noun for a group of cokerists)
we could always call it something new like a maxiunicycle
this would make it sound big, but still retain the latin
origins
Andy
unicus wrote:
> If someone says they have a Coker you instantly know what they are
> talking about (unless you’re new to unicycling) but do they actually
> have a Coker? If you want a 36" unicycle you no longer have to buy a
> stock Coker as there are other routes to getting your 36" unicycle,
so
> as the thread says ‘What makes a Coker a Coker?’
>
> Before recently you would have had to have had a Coker pneumatic tyre
> but that is no longer the case since Qu-ax have a 36" tyre you can
buy
> and from what I can see is only different by the tread. In fact they
> have a full 36" unicycle which is my newest addition, hence the
thread,
> and there is always the temptation for me to call it a Coker every
time
> I talk about it yet it’s not a Coker.
>
> So has the term Coker come to mean a unicycle with a 36" pneumatic
tyre
> in the same way Hoover came to mean a vacuum cleaner?
>
>
> –
> unicus
>
> Every time I try to write my signature the pen slips on the monitor.
>
With non-Coker parts now available for every piece of what used to be a Coker, we could be at a crossroads in the name game.
I’d value knowing the history of the 36-inch neumatic (Coker) tire production. If the Coker Tire Company was the driving force behind the initial and/or continued production, continuing with the Coker name for all 36-inchers might bring deserved recognition to an integral player.
Regardless, I am grateful for whoever is responsible for the 36-inchers we now enjoy so much. They are Great Fun!
I reckon it depends on context. If you are referring to a unicycle with a Coker tyre, as opposed to a Qu-ax 36" tyre, then it is a Coker. Otherwise ‘Coker’ is widely understood to mean a 36" unicycle, though I agree with U-Turn that 36" (or 36-incher even 36er) is a better general term.
Note, however, that the word “Coker” has the familiar 36" unicycle
meaning for us unicyclists, but not for Coker themselves. I e-mailed
Coker some months ago about an issue on their website, identifying
myself clearly as a unicyclist. I got a reply from a Coker employee
who wrote “I am a fellow automobile and motorcycle collector and
enthusiast.”
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“When it comes to the family jewels, you won’t be having fun until they’re having fun. - Jake D”
I’m gradually shifting toward calling unicycles of this size “thirty-sixes,” using the same convention as for other wheel sizes. I want to train myself now, to avoid one day hearing myself refer to a large unicycle as a “Qu-Ax Coker,” and having to slap myself really really hard.
this issue hasn’t resurfaced for a whilenow
(and a whole bunch of other threads about the ‘creation’ of a uni-slang that i can’t find right now)
i remain of the opinion that it can’t really be artificially created
we can talk about it and have polls to determine who’s going to continue calling them Cokers and who’s going to call them thirtysixers
but we are a very small sample of the uni world
That wouldn’t bother me - the term “coker” seems to have passed into general use to mean a 36" unicycle rather than specifically the make of the cycle (although until recently all the tyres were made by Coker even if the rest of the cycle may not be).
I have no problem saying I’ve got a Dyson hoover, so I don’t see why Qu-ax coker is any worse (perhaps with a lower case c to distinguish it from Coker the company).
I have a Coker, and in the near future The only part left will be a Coker tire.
It is just like my old axe. It is exactly the same as the day I bought it. I have only had to replace the handle and the head once (young ones will not get the joke).
Seriously though, the Coker brothers developed the idea of a 36" pneumatic tire. I have asked them about developing a 48" just to keep in front. It is not on the drawing board yet.
Was the Coker 36" tyre developed specifically for the cycles (I know of unicycles, giant bike and penny farthing) or was it a tyre from another application that they just decided to build cycles with?
i’ve heard the (possibly apocryphal) story that the tyres were originally made for Rickshaws but were the wrong size and that the 36" unicycle was the result of them trying to do something with the tyres
i must’ve heard that story around here
if i can find a link, i’ll post it
edit: i’m not 100% if it was from this thread
even if it isn’t, it does show the existence of the story (post by Foolish)
mark wiggins replied to debunk the ‘legend’
A couple of other points regarding this issue. The unicycle generally referred to as a Coker that is made by the ‘Coker Tire’ company has a registered trade mark of ‘The Big One’. So using the word Coker to refer to a 36" unicycle has come from the unicycle community, through a relatively obvious path, rather than directly from a company like the word Muni did. I use Muni all the time without even thinking of a ‘Pashley Muni’ even though they thought of it (is Muni registered by Pashley?).
I’m leaning towards using Coker most of the time just because it flows more naturally in speech (with all its extended versions) and as trailguy said it pays homage to the pioneers of the 36" pneumatic tyre (plus giving them some free promotion at the same time).
Funnily enough I’ve not actually heard anyone say ‘The Big One’ until today and from an unusual source. I was talking to my father this morning who isn’t in the know with regards to unicycles and I told him I went near his house on a ride on Saturday and he replied “What, on the big one?”, which I was, strange.
