Historical 45' Giraffe; Photos

I was just in Grand Junction Colorado for a night this past weekend and
was walking Main St. I walked into a bike shop I found because they had
a bunch of funky bikes, tandems, and farthings.

I asked if they had unicycles. The sales clerk said "Wow, you're like
the third person in two weeks to ask about unicycles, the only one we
have is right above me." As she pointed up to the ceiling. I was
confused as all I saw above her was (I thought) the fire sprinkler
pipes.

It wasn't a fire pipe, it was a 45 foot giraffe. It stretched from one
end of the store to the other, hung by the ceiling.

Turns out there was a semi-famous circus-unicycling family that lived
in Grand Junction and they built this unicycle to break the world
record.
Here is a picture of that record setting ride:
[image:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...cle/uni45.jpg]

The record held for two months I was told. A museum in Grand Junction
held onto the unicycle in peices for many years and was going to throw
it out when the bike shop saved it from the landfill and put it on
display.

A cool piece of Unicycle history that I thought needed documenting
here.

Some details;
The wheel assembly: (20" white wall!)
[image:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b.../DSC_0049.jpg]

Wire guides along the length:
[image:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b.../DSC_0054.jpg]

How 'bout this seat? Ouch!
[image:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b.../DSC_0061.jpg]

[image:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b.../DSC_0051.jpg]


The shop was pretty busy and the guy was trying to find the newspaper
articles, but I told him don't worry I would stop in some other day,
and they should put it up on their wall. I gave him my email for when
he had an electronic version available.

I don't know the name of this family, or what year this may have
happened. (Pic looks like 60-63?) I'd be curious to know if there is
any other mention in any unicycle histories someone may have.
?


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thanks for sharing. Looks great!


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rem48
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thats cool. thanks for the info, very interesting!


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oneisenough

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OMFG that is a tall uni and ouch is right!

Anybody know what the record now is?


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That seat looks about as comfortable as a Torker Lx seat


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Daytripper63

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skilewis74 wrote:
OMFG that is a tall uni and ouch is right!

Anybody know what the record now is?


'115 feet' (http://www.semcycle.biz/record/) give or take a few inches.
Record by Sem Abrahams. See the link for pictures and video.


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Coolest new RSU thread in a while, and absolutely forum appropriate.
Thanks Bondo! Great job on the pictures!

Now we just need our esteemed historians to jump in with some details
around the history of the actual ride. I wonder when it happened, and
whether T. Miller had anything to do with the construction of the
giraffe.


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tomblackwood

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Bondo wrote:

I don't know the name of this family, or what year this may have
happened. (Pic looks like 60-63?) I'd be curious to know if there is
any other mention in any unicycle histories someone may have.
?




Interestingly the Seb Site lists his record progress, one of which was
45 feet. In 1976.

Might it be possible that the shop has his old record breaking
unicycle. Or was the record held jointly by him and another?


Nao


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Naomi wrote:
Interestingly the Seb Site lists his record progress, one of which was
45 feet. In 1976.

Might it be possible that the shop has his old record breaking
unicycle. Or was the record held jointly by him and another?



Looking at the film on Sem's site (which actually says 1977 when you
click on the link) it doesn't look like the one Bondo saw - no
whitewall tyre, fork looks tubular rather than flat, chainwheels look
much bigger.

Strange.

Rob


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Well i did find this one quite tall and interesting. I
wouldn't even know how high this one is.


+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Filename: uni22.png |
|Download: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/23245 |
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