David Stone's "Ultimate Unicycle" design

Deze pagina in het Nederlands

In November 2001, in the newsgroup rec.sport.unicycling, David Stone from NY proposed a new type of unicycle:

"I was e-mailing with George Peck, and he liked this idea enough to suggest someone build a proto. Here is the idea:
Build a crank-less uni where the frame attaches to the pedals. The frame parts attached would have to rotate in the way train wheels do (where that metal piece rotates around several wheels at once), and the parts would be attached to a regular seat. The point is to build a planar unicycle, and since it's like a UW, I'd call it an ultimate unicycle."

In a subsequent post, David clarified:

"OK, it's hard to convey in print, but the idea is this, (starting from the seat and moving down):
Seat
Beneath seat, two separate attachments for the two half-frames (one on each side of the bottom of the seat)
Two separate half-frames, one on each side
Each of these attaches to one of the pedals (between the pedals and the wheel)
Since the pedals move up and down, the frame-halves would have to operate like the wheel-linker of a train so that the seat would stay fixed. I guess the half-frames would be sorta L-shaped with a piece that slides back and forth (like those train-wheel-holders)"

At the time, the forum did not allow that pictures were posted. David sent the sketch above to me to put up on the web. I believe that here is a prime example where a picture says more than a thousand words :-).

I'm taking the liberty to add my own comments: From the drawing it seems that the bar at the bottom of the inverted T that "hangs from" the seat doesn't swivel. If the seat doesn't swivel either, I cannot see how the "upper legs" can change angle. They could if the base of the inverted T would be a circle segment with its centre at the joint at the back of the seat. Even then, I am afraid that the seat does not support the rider, on the contrary: the rider has to keep up the seat / upper legs assembly. But hey, that's of coursewhat makes it an ultimate unicycle. Further discussion is welcomed on rec.sport.unicycling.

Click here for a larger version of the picture (still only 19 kB, but 1216 x 947 pixels).

 

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