DWOTR Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 On 4/17/2021 at 11:31 AM, Unipilot69 said: Depends on how determined you are to learn. The dynamics of the two are similar. Just with the regular unicycle your legs provide the propulsion and fore/aft balance. Your legs will be very sore at first. They're a lot of great instruction videos out on learning the regular unicycle. I've been at it for 40 years. It's also a great cardio workout. Just stick to learning the skill. When it clicks riding becomes natural like the euc. Thanks. The idea was to send this to the nieces. I didn't really have a wish to learn it. However, finding that it may be a challenge has me thinking I may have to play with it when I'm around it. I know I may regret asking this- but what is the draw of a unicycle? I always figured it is rather impractical for transportation (or much else.) That said, apparently people use it on trails- so I may be mistaken? It just seemed without gears it would be hard to go up hills, and hard to get much speed on raods. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unipilot69 Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 I can't remember the draw I had to unicycles since I started 40 years ago. I have well over 10,000 miles of riding. I only started to log the miles 10 years ago. I ride rain, shine, or snow. Unicycles have better traction than bikes. They are all (one) wheel drive. They have the same strain going down hill as going uphill. I have installed a brake in recent years as my arthritis is getting worse. I'm still not very proficient at brake usage. Many faceplants caused by shady braking. My commuting unicycle is a geared 36 inch. It's insane in high gear. I clip into the pedals on it. I don't clip in on the mountain unicycle. Generally unicycles are faster than walking but not by much. The 36 inch unicycles can average 12 mph and some riders can get 20mph on non geared ones. I've faceplanted at about 25mph on my geared unicycle. If you want a strong workout in a short period of time ride a unicycle. They require about 4 times the energy to ride then a bicycle 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DWOTR Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Unipilot69 said: Many faceplants caused by shady braking... I've faceplanted at about 25mph on my geared unicycle... They require about 4 times the energy to ride then a bicycle Allow me to be the first to point out that you are a VERY poor salesman... With the obvious having been stated, I had no idea that geared unicycles even existed. I had seen ones with a brake- but that seemed like it would be destined to stop the wheel and allow you to continue rotating (directly into the ground.) Still, it would be interesting to be able to get the skill to ride. Edited April 19, 2021 by DWOTR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unipilot69 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 If just riding smaller unicycles on the street or just learning, brakes aren't necessary. The idea is to use light pressure just to relieve shitty knees or tired legs from steep descents. Disc brakes modulate better than rim brakes. Also with disc brakes you can use smaller wheels in bigger frames and still have a working brake. My generation of geared hub only works with rim brakes. Currently I'm riding a normal 36er without brakes. I'm doing a complete overhaul on my geared 36er. The hub and wheel are fine but the frame and all of the other shit attached is well used. It had over 5000 commuting miles. I hope to complete it in a few months. I keep riding the electric unicycle instead. It's damn addictive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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