Worlds Smallest Recumbent Unicycle?

[Catboy]

I was browsing through ebay and saw this : Recumbent
I wasn't sure what to make of it... It looks almost impossible to ride(but then again we do ride unicycles... on mountains) Whats your guys' take on this 'miniature beast'?

[johnfoss]

It has three wheels. Is it supposed to be hard? These were briefly popular during the 1980s, promoted on MTV. By popular I mean they outsold the Super Trick Cycle and the more recent UniQ.

There was an earlier version of one of those at the 1983 National Unicycle Meet in Syracuse, NY. I remember all the non-unicycling family members were zooming around on it all weekend. Including my dad.

[jagur]

there is nothing recumbent about a skate bike...?

[Catboy]

If you cut off the front two wheels and tilted the seat, it could be....

[HandyAndy]

there's a pic floating around somewhere of an actual recumbent uni with a bucket style seat

[HandyAndy]

found a couple

[deadlydes]

that is a skate bike that you posted the link for.
they are easier to ride than unicycles although they take abit of getting used to

on the topic of recumbinants (spelling) though. how hard are they to ride? for distance riding they would be so comfy! no saddle soreness!!!!

[wobbling bear]

another one

[goldenchicken]

That picture is really interesting wobbling bear, must be from early 1900-something. Though recumbent bikes were inventent in the 1900 century they weren't actually getting any big attention before the 1930s when Mochet and his Velocar beat the whole biking elite in races. After that the UCI forbid recumbent bikes to participate in competeitions and the technical development seized until it was taken up again in the 1980s. The lady seems to be able to handle it well, even making a standstill. Must be pretty hard. I ride recumbents and now a uni. To combine them in one machine would be a terrific challenge!

[jagur]

Originally posted by goldenchicken
they weren't actually getting any big attention before the 1930s when Mochet and his Velocar beat the whole biking elite in races.

only in velodrome races.

[theamazingmolio]

I dont think balancing the recumbent unicyc;le would be too difficu;lt, but turning coulf be more interesting...

if this is full of typos, its because its dark and i cant see the keyboard...

goldenchicken wrote:
>>*they weren't actually getting any big attention before the 1930s when
>>Mochet and his Velocar beat the whole biking elite in races. *

and jagur commented:
> only in velodrome races.

To quote from "The Recumbent Bicycle" by Gunnar Fehlau:
"Even in street races the unfaired Velocar was successful. The
professional Spanish racing cyclist Paul Morand was engaged by Mochet in
1934 and won the Paris-Limoges race against ordinary racing bikes."

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

[johnfoss]

Originally posted by goldenchicken
The lady seems to be able to handle it well, even making a standstill.

I don't know if it's fair to take the front end off a bicycle and call the back half a recumbent unicycle. That's got to be a breakaway bike, and she is a performer. The picture was probably done by her letting go of a helper right before it was taken. I wonder how old that picture really is? It definitely looks pre-WWI at the very latest.

[goldenchicken]

John Foss wrote:

I don't know if it's fair to take the front end off a bicycle and call the back half a recumbent unicycle.

To me it is not only the shape of the seat that makes a recumbent. The position of the bottom bracket visavi the seat is the important factor that can provide for a recumbent position. But you may be right, it does look like the rear end of a bike.

So ... how would a true recumbent uni be designed then?


goldenchicken