Giraffe Mounting

[Myles, Garry]

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone unicycle@aol.com

wrote:

+ +I have seen Tom Miller (the Unicycle Factory) freemount an 8' giraffe +

I was very concerned when I first read this and mainly for the giraffe. I
thought "Crikey these people really do get up to some strange things. That sort
of thing would be illegal in Britain and probably a lot of other countries too."

Of course I soon realised when I got to +
+ using a slight notch in the grass to hold the wheel in place. + that the act
in question was not in fact a lurid and perverse gesture against a helpless,
tall and spotted mammal but actually a method of getting onto a big unicycle
called a "Giraffe" presumably because of its height.

I'm sorry, call it my wierd British sense of humour if you like but when I saw
the Subject title "Giraffe Mounting" in my mailbox I absolutely cracked up with
laughter and felt I had to share it.

I have trouble mounting my unicycle and its only about a 3 or 4 footer :(

I have a question too:

All the talk about what unicycle is best has made me really curious. I have
never heard of any of the names being mentioned and that may have something to
do with me (a) being in England and (b) knowing *very* little about our great
art - and I do see it as more of an art than a sport - and anyway... I'm really
curious now about my own little unicycle. I just want to know if anyone has ever
heard of it and is it some sort of rectal death trap or should I feel proud of
it. It's a...... PASHA. There I said it. Anyone ever heard of it? I just want to
know whether I am likely to get fruit thrown at me if I try to ride it through
the park...... (I probably will anyway.)

Garry 'Gadget' Myles (garry.myles@mcl.co.uk) -- My Train of Thought is more of a
roller coaster without rails.--

[John Foss]

<dsasosp@dreamscape.com> wrote:
>hi John, i have a giraffe unicycle and i haven't been able to free mount it
>yet. I either put it up against a tree, my house or my brother and climbed up
>it. i am a woman and

My brother never used to let me do that.

>alright shape but still don't have the strength of the guys so the frog mount
>is probably out to begin with. do you have any tips on how i can get on it in a
>way that looks somewhat professional? i'd really appreciate the advice. thanks.

When I learned (back in 1979) car fenders were mostly strong enough to stand on.
That was the preferred method until Bradley Bradley and I learned to freemount.
We learned totally on our own, with nobody to watch. First we needed
confirmation that it could be done. Somebody told us he'd seen it, and that was
enough for us to go out and start trying. We spend a lot of hours at it, and
eventually figured out a way.

For you it will be easier. Check out this link!
http://spectrum.mathematik.hu-berlin.de/~stroess/photos/photos_gb.html#aufst ieg

After you've waited the half hour or so for the page to load, you can go down
and click on the picture of Wolfgand freemounting the giraffe to see it bigger.
To go directly to the big picture (and miss all the others), go to
http://spectrum.mathematik.hu-berlin.de/~stroess/pictures/giraffe_mount.gif

Hints: It doesn't matter if the crank arms are not quite vertical (or what angle
you use; they'll go straight down when you step on the pedal anyway). It also
doesn't matter how you tilt the thing before climbing up. All that matters is
that when you get up there the wheel is more or less directly under you. You
should be comfortable at rocking and riding backward before spending lots of
time on this, because you'll then be able to ride out of most any situation.
Also practice falling in every possible direction.

Have fun!

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone unifoss@calweb.com http://www.calweb.com/~unifoss/

"Never two tired"

[John Foss]

At 02:22 PM 12/6/97 +0100, Wolfgang Stroessner wrote:
>
>Sorry for the inconvenience. But as you may have recognized, there's a big
area
>of water called ocean in between your place and mine. So the data has to make
>its way under pretty hard conditions. I don't know of any way to set up a
photo
>page without posting some pictures. And pictures allways take some data.

Yes. If anything, I'm even more guilty of "picture glut" on my pages. This is
not to say pictures are bad, but too many on a page is. I'm working on a re-do
of my site (but don't hold your breath, everyone) to relieve this and other
problems. The long distance across the ocean and the continent is a problem. I
think there were two snowstorms, a thunderstorm and a shark chewing on the wires
between your house and mine!

>The other way round the data flow is not much faster. When looking at one of
>your photo pages there may be a good time for using the restroom, getting
a cup
>of coffee or practicing some unicycling skills as well.

But don't practice juggling too close to the computer.

>On the other hand you could direct <dsasosp@dreamscape.com> (whatever her
real
>name is) to the giraffe mounting page of the unicycling page
>(http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/mg.html). There the same picture is
>included and it's located in the USA
>(http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/gmount/giraffe_mount.jpg).

I didn't know how to connect to your picture from there, but I remember seeing
it. I think she had gone to the unicycle mounting page before writing me, but
the Frog mount seems to be the only giraffe mount there. Am I wrong about that?

>BTW, it was hard work and took quite a long time until being able to
freemount
>giraffe unicycles, especially very large ones.

Very true. Anyone out there who is learning, don't give up. It definitely took
longer to learn the freemount than it took me to learn to ride. Also the mount
Wolfgang is doing in his pictures is at about the height limit for that type of
mount, and he's a pretty tall guy. An average six footer, though, should be
manageable by just about anyone.

Good luck,

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone unifoss@calweb.com http://www.calweb.com/~unifoss/

"Never two tired"