Beef

[terry@santafe.edu]

Also I'm interested in hearing any tips from people about making their unis more
resistant to damage.

Also, what sorts of unis are tougher?

I replaced my Miyata cranks with some aluminium alloy that has done well. Derek
has the same though and bent his :-) (He claims that mine are the bent ones). I
have heard that Sem's cranks are super good and I have some on my 26", but
haven't really put them to the test.

What about tougher rims and spokes? My Miyata deluxe 20" has 48 spokes which
seems really good.

What does it mean when you jump off something and you feel the rim bang through
the tire and the spokes creak and the pedals come loose?

What sort of pedals are the toughest? The SR pedals from Tom are good and you
can take them apart and fix them up when you destroy them from too much
silliness. But they are only $17 a pair. I seem to remember Tom telling me that
some people pay outrageous prices for good pedals (like $500 or $1000). But
these are mountain bike people I think...

Does anyone else like putting colored streamers in between their spokes?

What about the toughness of a Semcycle XL versus the full-blooded Semcycle?

Stuff like that...

[Ephraim Vishniac]

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 93 16:49:43 MDT From: terry@santafe.edu

What does it mean when you jump off something and you feel the rim bang
through the tire and the spokes creak and the pedals come loose?

Probably means you've bent your rim...

Bent rim anecdote:

I borrowed an MIT club unicycle (with bent everything, of course), pumped up the
tire, and rode it across the river. I took a streetcar (one of the old PCC cars)
toward Boston College and sat near the front. Just before Harvard Avenue, the
bent rim let the inner tube bulge out from under the tire and it exploded so
loudly that my ears were ringing. The driver slammed on the brakes and leapt out
the door. He knew the sound of a pneumatic explosion, and he thought he'd burst
an air hose!

I don't think he ever figured out that it was the unicycle.

[Dean Bandes]

terry@santafe.edu writes

> Does anyone else like putting colored streamers in between their spokes?

Yes, well, not colored streamers, but clip-on spoke decorations, and a sticker
from a Cheerios box on the back of the seat, and an "airhead" clown face valve
cap -- good stuff you can find in the bicycle dep't at Toys 'R' Us or someplace.
I don't want to take my uni too seriously.

Hey, we've got a big parking lot at 900 Middlesex Tpke Billerica MA, anyone in
the neighborhood want to ride lunchtime?

Dean Bandes deanb@ma.credence.com

[Brian MacKenzie]

I replaced my Miyata cranks with some aluminium alloy that has done well.

How are they holding up? :)

[DSchmitt]

whyy? lol

[johnfoss]

Don't make fun of Terry. I can't remember Terry's last name. I think Terry might be the person who originally created the Unicycling Mailing List (e-Mail), the precursor to rec.sport.unicycling. Also Terry's long gone from this community.

If you really wanted to know, my alloy Miyata cranks are still holding up very well. These are the IDOL cranks that came with the Miyata Deluxe back in the 80s, probably before the ones Terry was talking about. The steel cranks on the "base" Miyatas were so-so. I still have a pair of those 125mm IDOLs on my 2002 Coker, the one I used in Ride The Lobster. Still straight. I also have an even older pair of IDOL 150s that I also used to use, for Coker MUni. And I have another pair of 125 IDOLs on my Track unicycle, though it hasn't made it to many conventions recently to actually race...