Hi everybody. I'm a disegner of fast bikes (for speed records) and
this is one of my recent ideas (modyfied centaur (it had two
wheels before)). It has drive from hands and legs. Very beta
drawing, just idea.
Sounds cool - very cool.
I wold love to hear from unicycle experts :
I'm nowhere near an expert, but I'm going to stick my oar in anyway :-)
1. would it be ridable?
One thing I've learnt on these forums is that almost anything is
ridable :-) No matter how crazy an invention, there's always going to
be someone who can handle it.
I bet many people would be able to ride it sitting upright and not
using the hand cranks. Transferring to hand cranking too would be
interesting - you'd have to be going slow enough that you could grab
hold of the cranks.
Riding this would require decent balance - you wouldn't be able to
flail your arms around ;-) I don't know how much hand cranking would
disrupt one's balance...
What wheelsize were you thinking of? 36" wheels seem to be popular for
speed / distance riding, although geared 29ers have some merits too.
Oh, and a little safety point: it'd be really nice if you could fall
off the front of this without getting your feet tangled in any
machinery ;-) Although given you're unlikely to be able to run out of
a speed record attempt maybe that's not so important!
2. are there hubs with integrated planetary gear for unicycles?
Yes, see
http://schlumpfdrive.com and search the forum history for
Harper's Blueshift and uni.5.
The Schlumpf hub is shiftable on the fly, Harper's hubs offer a choice
of two ratios you can change with a toolkit (by adjusting the torque
arm if I remember correctly - which I may not do).
Also, look for PurplePhaze which achieves much higher ratios using a
jackshaft system. Again adjustable using a toolkit, but a bit more
work. It also featured a "tuck" handlebar arrangement, vaguely like
your proposal (without the hand drive). OuttaPhaze is a proposed
production variant of this design.
3. would it be possible to turn?
If it could be ridden, then it could be turned.
I like this bike bacause it's simple and has good aerodynamics =
high speed.
--
mark williamson
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no
pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
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