Totally impressed

[U-Turn]

Anyone besides me notice how amazingly gracious Greg Harper has been during the invasion of the geared unis? I have heard nothing but praise for the other hubs and gearing approaches.

I'm sure it wasn't easy for Greg to see them come in with competitive approaches, and see that the Schlumpf has had so many orders, etc..

Come to think of it, he is always that way.

I'm totally impressed, aren't you?

[Catboy]

Who couldn't be impressed with such a sexy beast?!?! He even rode with some of the other geared inventors recently.

The sexy beast also shared some hoagie with Bevan and I at CMW. It was quite generous.

[gerblefranklin]

Yes, eternal gratitude to the supreme sexy one, both for the non-competitive nature and the generosity of hoagieness.

[andrew_carter]

Agreed...a great role model for all of us.

[Tim]

Hahah. Harper is great. Maybe some day I'll get to meet him.

[tomblackwood]

Originally posted by U-Turn
Anyone besides me notice how amazingly gracious Greg Harper has been during the invasion of the geared unis? I have heard nothing but praise for the other hubs and gearing approaches. I'm sure it wasn't easy for Greg to see them come in with competitive approaches, and see that the Schlumpf has had so many orders, etc..

You correct in Harper's graciousness, and he's generous to a fault in his support and encouragement for other unicyclers. He was one of the first Seattle Area Riders I met when starting out, and has given me nothing but encouragement during my long struggle to advance my riding skills from hopeless to mediocre.

And he has also made one kick-ass geared unicycle, so when he says another one is better, that's saying something. I've had the extreme joy this week of having Blueshift all to myself, in my garage, where I can just go ride it anytime I want. It was a little daunting at first, but I'm now officially a convert. I've been riding it a bit further every day, leading up to about 3 miles tonight. I'm hoping to take it out for a 15 miler on the Sammamish trail this Saturday before I have to give it back. It's deceptive...I can get it up above my top Coker speed without trying all that hard, then I have remember to tell myself what would happen if I UPD'd at that speed.

Not to speak for Greg, but I doubt seeing Florian get orders bothers him. He's a scientist...I don't think he was into it for the business, but to show it could be done by doing it. Someone else can figure out how take the concept and perfect it, which is what Schlump seems to be doing.

I'm now convinced a flat crown frame is not in my best interests on a 28, but if Schlump ever gets over his resistance to selling just the hub, I'll be figuring out pronto how to get one attached to a Hunter and Big Apple setup.

But back to Harper. Yeah, he's great and all, but remember this: if you're ever out riding Coker with him and he tells you that your shoelace is untied, you might not want to look down...

[bugman]

Maybe in 10-15 years, I will be as gracious, wise and thoughtful as Dr Harper. But, I doubt it.

[unisk8r]

Ditto here. Greg is a pioneer, an encourager, and a great wit to boot! His mug is worthy of any Tshirt!

[Unirene]

I must admit that this thread is correct in assessing Greg's encouragement in regards to unicycling. He is humble and has a witty sense of humor unlike any cyclist I've met. He SUCKS! As his sense of humor would imply (meaning of course he's awesome and encouraging).

[UniBrier]

They must have had Harper in mind when they coined the word Gregarious.

[john_childs]

Originally posted by UniBrier
They must have had Harper in mind when they coined the word Gregarious.

Few people are going to get that joke because few people here know his first name is Greg. Everyone in the forum knows him as Harper (or That Guy In The Bathing Suit).

[john_childs]

Harper is no doubt relieved and grateful that Schlumpf made such a nice geared hub. He's relieved because now he doesn't have to deal with trying to get samples of his hub machined and built in China. That was a little adventure in cross-cultural machining and assembly standards. Right now Harper is saying "Thank you thank you thank you Florian. You saved me from Chinese manufacturing hell."

Either that, or he hides his frustrations very well.

I'm beginning to wonder because all he can talk about now is Florian this and Florian that. Maybe it is bugging him.

[jagur]

yes yes and yes.......is my check in the mail now?

[tomblackwood]

Nice picture by Jagur from CA Muni Weekend 2004. For a shot of Harper's left shin about 12 hours earlier, click here:

http://gallery.unicyclist.com/album299/IMG_1553

He drew the "First Blood" honors for the weekend, farting around on a unicycle like some damned idiot.

In article
<tomblackwood.1lk9n3@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com>,
"tomblackwood" <tomblackwood@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com>
wrote:

> U-Turn wrote:
> > *Anyone besides me notice how amazingly gracious Greg Harper has been
> > during the invasion of the geared unis? I have heard nothing but
> > praise for the other hubs and gearing approaches. I'm sure it wasn't
> > easy for Greg to see them come in with competitive approaches, and see
> > that the Schlumpf has had so many orders, etc..*
>
> You correct in Harper's graciousness, and he's generous to a fault in
> his support and encouragement for other unicyclers.

I've not met him, but the gestalt is pretty righteous -- and that's
said after battling back from a bit of a cognitive setback, as my first
exposure was his Harper Hottie T-shirt!

(In the words of a cow orker "WTF is that?!" I said i wish i had such
excellent hair but how did he like MY abs. Cow orker ran away.)

In general, one thing i quite fairly appealing in this sport is its
intensity of niceness. I hypothesize the first unicyclist was afflicted
with a meme that made him not jealous or resentful, but happy for
other people's success.

..max

--
brave sir stupid is played by max monningh, <betatron@earthlink.net>
<http://flickr.com/photos/86932068@N0...ravesirstupid/>