I’ve been contacted by a fundraiser from the RAF Association (www.rafa.org.uk) who has had the idea of setting a unicycle world record to raise money for the charity.
The event would most likely have to take place in London, and would involve press coverage to raise the awareness of the charity and of unicycling and will potentially be attended by the Mayor and the official World Record adjudicators to judge.
Would anyone be interested in raising money in this way, and have you got any suggestions of world records to attempt?
World Record Suggestions:
Most number of unicyclists in same place - unlikely due to Unicon being the most likely place this will happen, but has it ever been registered as a Record?
Sam. Maybe Ken Looi might be able to. Maybe Chuck. Not very many other people spring to mind.
If you want a guaranteed world record, then you want to look at something more stupid and less hard, i.e. something that someone else who is super fit hasn’t done. Although it is hard to think of anything stupid that hasn’t been done. (backwards records, skipping etc. have all gone). Longest match of unicycle hockey?
There is biggest drop, but that is already set quite high (like 16 feet or something), so you might get hurt.
How about most complete 360 degree turns in a minute or something (I guess you’d have to spin for a minute). You’d have to ask John Foss or someone like that if there was an existing record. If not, then it’d just be a matter of spinning for a whole minute then falling over and vomiting.
Or you need to convince someone like Sam to go for the hour record, although that is set pretty high already, you’d need a decent, flat, long course that you could ride a geared 36 on.
As Joe says, there aren’t a lot of people around with the physical fitness and skill levels to take on a serious world record like the 24 hour, or even the 1 hour. Dustin has a list of road unicycling records here; http://eenwiel.nl/index.php?menuid=59&pageid=162
There are, of course, hundreds of trials type records, and it seems like people are always pushing the boundaries there in terms of jumping higher, longer, with more crank flips, and seat in front etc and so on. I’m not sure if that would generate enough interest for sponsorship though. And, again, there’s probably only a handful of people in this country that would be in the running for this.
John Foss has inspired me though. There’s a photo of him riding a unicycle while dressed as Santa, which has got me wondering what the largest collection of unicycle riding Santas there has ever been? A gathering of say 50 unicyclists all dressed up like that would certainly create a bit of media attention, and the lure of being part of a world record should get a lot of people interested.
As far as I can see, the giraffe 1 hour record is still set at 16.048km (9.94 miles). I don’t know how much gearing is allowed, but I’m sure with a bit of training, it wouldn’t be too far for some people to aim for.
The current Guinness World Record for biggest drop on a unicycle is 3 metres or around 8.2ft. I know for a fact there are a number of UK riders who would be happy to smash this record, myself, Hodges, Edd and Leo to name a few…
I’m surprised nobody mentioned this, but why not longest distance ridden w/o a UPD or better w/o a PD! OUCH! This may include no stopping to rest against a pole, tree, wall etc… Of course if you ever plan to have children perhaps this isn’t the best record to shoot for !
That’s probably already set quite high. I think Sam did something like 100 miles in one go on his 24-hour record ride (?)
Personally, the longest I’ve done (on a unicycle) without a dismount is 26 miles (unicon marathon), but that wasn’t uncomfortable even with just the standard KH handle - you can stand up for a bit every few miles to relieve pressure on the groin, and if you’ve got a bigger handle it’s probably even easier. I would imagine the limit is more to do with who has the biggest bladder!
I’d agree that the hour distance record would be good, or a high-jump type thing, rather than something that takes ages.
It’s always good to remember that Guinness World Records aren’t always actual World Records, often they are set alot lower just because many people can’t actually be bothered with all the official stuff. So what if there is already an unofficial world record, get someone on it and set a Guinness Record that may be lower, remember it’s for charity and overall it’s going to be getting publicity for the sport.
If you think you can come close to the existing record, what do you have to lose?
Only problem is that there are loads of documented things where people have done higher than that - like kris holm’s 14 foot on that dvd so it’d really be not that good a record unless it went over those (not to say that you guys couldn’t pull off a 20 footer or something ridiculous like that!) Are there any limitations on landing surface by the way?
What happened to that australian guy who was doing the biggest drop record on a tv show?
Of course, I should have said “the time limit”, rather than distance - I’m not claiming I could ride 100 miles without a dismount (that would take me nearly 8 hours at my usual riding speed, even if I could physically keep it up, which I doubt).
Actually, I think a 24-hour record is more suited to a charity event than something short. It’s hard to build up media hype for “he’s going to jump 1.2 meters!”
I suppose that could be true - depends what people think is more interesting. I was thinking as a spectator - a big jump or stunt of some kind like a drop is an instant cool thing to see (it could even be multiple attempts over a longer time period, possibly breaking the record multiple times), rather than “riding around a track for ages”, which in itself isn’t really good to watch unless you’re more involved with the people or the sport.
Okay I’ve got it! Serious this time. Combining some of the ideas already suggested… 24 hour GIRAFFE record! Heck with the hour giraffe record, go for a 24 hour record. Is there one? If you could get access to several giraffes you could set up different gearing in each one and experiment as you go. I imagine geared right and with possibly a 24" tire set up on each you could cover quite a distance!
Like the idea, how about a big car park somewhere, maybe a store that’s closed on Sunday and would therefore contribute to the fund for the exposure.
Mind you I can’t think of one off hand that ever closes.
Here’s another serious suggestion (in case you weren’t taking the largest amount of uni-riding Santas serious enough)… but it wouldn’t be in London though. How about hiring out Santa Pod (No, nothing to do with the real Santa), and go for the world record for the standing quarter mile?
I’m sure there’s enough riders in the UK which consider themselves in with a chance to make it a big enough event for an afternoon that with a bit of publicity and the Guinness men there too would make it worth while.
!