(As former IUF president (ten-years), I must bury my head in shame and
tell you that "unic" is new to me. Will someone enlighten me?)
As far as I know, I am the first person to ever build and ride a two-
wheel unicycle. If I am wrong, please correct me. I got the idea from
an old USA newsletter. There was a diagram, but apparently no one had
ever built one.
pbennett@lssec.bt.co.uk wrote:
|> > I thought that I would mess up my balance when I returned to a 'normal'
|> > unicycle.
No, I don't think so. It just feels a little strange when you switch, but
worry not.
|>
|> Now I don't know cause I've never met the guy, but I get the feeling
|> Andy's not such a bad unicyclist. So, just how easy are two-wheelers
|> to learn? (Yes I've *almost* made up my mind to get one, only I want
|> to hear anyway.)
I learned in 1979/1980, I think it was was. It was *very* difficult,
but in those days in Japan riding one-foot was considered difficult and
walking the wheel an act of magic. I was accused by my friends that the
reason I can do these stunts was because I am "different" -- that I know
doubt "eat meteors for breakfast" was the expressions they used (:->...
When you practice, you must concentrate on moving your upper body forward
along with the frame as you pedal backwards. It feels extremly weird at
first, but once you get the hang of it it will almost feel natural.
|>
|> Another thought: would it be possible to build (or buy) and "extendible"
|> multi-wheeler, that starts of as a normal uni, but can be extended by
|> bolting extra wheels on underneath? That way if I never got the hang
|> of the two-wheeler, I could extend it to a three-wheeling mean giraffe.
|> I guess the main problem with this would be the make robust joints so
|> that the extended frame was *nearly* as strong as a solid pole.
It is possible indeed. I have a two-wheeler that I can extend to a three
wheeler *and* to a four-wheeler. The frame is solid and heavy, but if you
use good materials it need not be. Anyway, its ridable. I rode the
fourwheeler at the opening ceremenies of a Japanese national meet. I
normally use it as twowheeler and it works just fine.
|> So, who builds these things? DM? Siegmon? Sem? Where's my best bet?
|> Does anyone have one? Has anyone ridden one? Does it really hot-up your
|> backwards pedalling as Andy suggested? Advice?
These are of course all hand made. Try Tom Miller in the US and perhaps
David Mariner in the UK? In Japan its Tsukahara in Nagoya.
The best twowheel riders are probably in Japan, though Ken Fuchs is highly
skilled. Here are some skills that I can do or have seen done on two-
wheelers.
1. Riding forward 6. Free-mounting (two or three ways)
2. Riding backwards 7. Switching from riding to idling
3. Idling 8. Switching from idling to riding
4. Idling one-foot 9. Hopping
5. Spinning 10. One-foot forward
I'm sure there is much more not in the above list. BTW, probably the
greatest multiwheeler builder in the world is Tsukahara from Nagoya Japan.
I have seen or ridden his two-, three-, four-,five-, six-, seven- and
eight-wheelers, and have ridden Hayashi's (also Nagoya) 13-wheeler. All
but the last have the wheels in vertical arrangment. The 13-wheeler is
more or less pentagon shaped (I think there is a picture of me riding in
an old issue of OOW).
You may be interested to know that Tsukahara has also built me a one-and-
a-half wheeler that converts to a half-wheeler, both of which I
demonstrated in UNICONs and NUMs. He also built me a two-and-a-half
wheeler, which after a couple of hours practice we dismantled. It could
be pretty dangerous because we used 20" wheels and that made it pretty
tall. When you practice on 1.5 and 2.5 wheelers and lose your balance
during the coasting part, you come down *very* fast and *very* hard.
Perhaps John should this to his list of what not to do on a uni...
BTW, I ended my adventures with multiwheelers by buiding and riding the
silliest uni ever invented -- the zero-cycle. Yes, no wheel -- just
a hub, cranks and pedals. The reason I no longer do it is because
I can't think of new ideas. That is, I'm trying to figure out how to
build a -1-wheeled (yes, *minus* one) unicycle! The ultimate twowheeler
I discussed in a previous posting is something I should do one day, but
it's very difficult and expensive to build...
I know that Ken Fuchs once wanted to start a special-interest group
on two-wheelers. I'll let him take over from here, if there are to
be follow-up discussions, as I am busy on my *third* dicitonary this
year...
John Foss, if you're reading this, you may want to use some of it as
a basis of an article on multiwheelers? I think the mailinglist has
tons of stuff that can be reedited into articles....
Stay on top,
Jack Halpern
IUF Vice President
----------------------------------
Kanji Dictionary Publishing Society
1-3-502 3-Chome Niiza
Niiza-shi, Saitama 352 JAPAN
Voice: +81-048-481-3103 Fax: +81-048-479-1323