Jack Halpern
1994-11-19, 12:26 AM
To all unics out there, greetings!
(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
(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