Wizards 50th Birthday

It might be easier as a unicycle is an invert pendulum... the longer the stick before the weight, the easier it is to balance. He can control the movement of the base with the pedals and keep it all under control. With a shorter pendulum, it's harder to balance. Think about balancing a long pole on the palm of your hand... much easier when the pole is longer (or there is a weigh at the top end).

Just a guess.

Quote: TheCesspit

It might be easier as a unicycle is an invert pendulum... the longer the stick before the weight, the easier it is to balance. He can control the movement of the base with the pedals and keep it all under control. With a shorter pendulum, it's harder to balance. Think about balancing a long pole on the palm of your hand... much easier when the pole is longer (or there is a weigh at the top end).

Just a guess.

You're right. I was going to post pretty much the same message. My friend who got me into unicycling could ride a giraffe and he was not a high-level rider at all. For example, he couldn't self mount any unicycle. He said once you can ride an ordinary unicycle the only hard part about riding a giraffe was the fear factor of being up so high.

Here is me on my 36" unicycle I've written so much about. Click on the image for a larger version.

I used to ride a unicycle when I was a kid, and one thing that always puzzled me is why it was harder to ride backwards than forwards. Or is it?

As the rider needs to lean in the direction they want to travel in order to maintain balance, they would lean backwards when traveling in that direction. If you are leaning backward, you are in more of a "reclining" position, like a recumbent bike, or exercise machine. I always thought it was supposed to be easier to generate force on the pedals from this position, since you can use your heels rather than the balls of your feet.

However, it was very difficult for me to ride backwards for any extended period of time. Is that your experience as well?


Recumbent Bike


Recumbent Exercise Machine

I thought about getting a recumbent.
You are a lot lower so with a low profile, harder for cars to see you.
Its important to be high enough that cars can easily see you.

There was an accident yesterday up the street from me, old guy on motorized tricycle. Very scary. Be careful out there.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa-man-killed-while-riding-motorized-vehicle/2206985

Quote: Ayecarumba

I used to ride a unicycle when I was a kid, and one thing that always puzzled me is why it was harder to ride backwards than forwards. Or is it?

When I lived in Baltimore I could ride backwards. It was hard to learn but once you could then I would say it would be just as easy if you had eyes in the back of your head. However, because you don't, it makes it harder just mentally because you can't see where you're going.

Also, I just signed up for an app called Strava that can track my rides. I recorded the first one today, which you can hopefully see here. Or click on my Twitter feed from WoV or WoO.

Quote: Wizard

Also, I just signed up for an app called Strava that can track my rides.

Are your split times minutes riding, or minutes elapsed? I assume you were off the unicycle for about 8 minutes.

It looks like mile 5 something happened, because you took 9 minutes to do a mile where it is fairly flat. Is this the difficulty in going down a hill?

Can you annotate your trials to show wheel size and crank length?

Quote: Pacomartin

Are your split times minutes riding, or minutes elapsed? I assume you were off the unicycle for about 8 minutes.

It looks like it records your stats for each mile. It says my moving time was 2:07 and elapsed time was 2:11. However, I'm sure I was not moving more more than four minutes. How did you calculate the eight?

Quote:

It looks like mile 5 something happened, because you took 9 minutes to do a mile where it is fairly flat. Is this the difficulty in going down a hill?

Yes, I went to the bank.

Quote:

Can you annotate your trials to show wheel size and crank length?

Yes, I just added in the description, "29" mountain unicycle.  125mm cranks. "

Very cool app I must say, and free. Stephen How, who runs discountgambling.net turned me onto it when I saw him at the Raving show.

I wonder who else gets your data? Free things rarely are.

Quote: Wizard

. How did you calculate the eight?

1 8:08 00:08:08
2 7:44 00:15:52
3 7:25 00:23:17
4 6:02 00:29:19
5 9:04 00:38:23
6 5:47 00:44:10
7 7:37 00:51:47
8 9:08 01:00:55
9 8:19 01:09:14
10 8:10 01:17:24
11 8:46 01:26:10
12 6:58 01:33:08
13 6:54 01:40:02
14 7:04 01:47:06
15 8:43 01:55:49

01:55:49 sum of first 15 split times
00:06:43 = 81% of 8:18 (see Comment)
02:02:32
02:07:34 Time on profile

Difference is 5 minutes (I made a mistake and said eight)

Comment: I wasn't sure how to interpret that last number. Did you take 8 minutes and 43 seconds to run .81 miles, or was your pace 8 minutes and 43 seconds per mile?

Either way it doesn't add up to 02:07:34