Thoughts on the future of trials

I've been wondering for some time ... as of now, it looks like trials
unicycling, and more specifically, trials unicycling technology, has
basically reached a point at which it's getting extremely tough to
improve the quality of the equipment. So far, it looks like minor frame
improvements (that will probably come at disporporionately large costs)
are the only thing that can shave weight off a trials uni, and the uni
as a whole is simple enough that no radical changes or improvements can
be made. If we think about a pretty high-end trials uni as having the
following equipment:
Profile hub/cranks
Alex DX-32 rim
KH or equivalent frame
Luna tire
Odyssey Jim Cielincki or equivalent pedals
KH seat, maybe carbon-fiber Miyata
standard seatpost, seatpost clamp, spokes, etc.

... then what can be done to make the uni stronger/lighter/easier to
use? A lighter frame is definitely possible ... but the improvement
would probably be relatively small, new weaknesses would be introduced
(such as structural strength), and in any case it's doubtful that such a
frame would be cost-effective for the vast majority of trials
unicyclists. A hub and crankset as strong or stronger than Profiles
would probably not be light enough for the trade-off to be worth it. As
for the rest of the parts, any improvement possible would be marginal at
best.

Are there any changes we can make, possibly to the fundamental structure
of the unicycle, to improve trials technology? I was thinking of making
custom super-light super-strong frames that attached directly to the
seat, eliminating the seatpost and seatpost clamp (but making adjustment
impossible).
The only other thing I can see that would substantially improve the
weight of the unicycle without compromising strength is the elimination
of the seat altogether, with a simple handle setup of some sort in its
place. The resulting uni would theoretically be the lightest and
strongest uni possible for hopping, but would probably be near-unusable
for drops, rolling hops, and riding skinnies. Perhaps if trials
competitions separated the lines into hopping-only and
hopping-plus-other-riding-skills, this development would evolve and
specialized trials unis would come to be.

Thoughts, anyone?


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Arrow or Try-all rim. Better seatpost then basic maybe, GB4? I've
thought about that handle thing too, it might work but would be horribly
impractical.

David


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i amy be ignorant regarding this but Arrow rims are stronger than alexDX
since the inner diameter of the rim is smaller. lighter? i donno ask
Ryan Atkins he rides one.

perhaps a full CF seatpost and seat assembly though not at all cost
effective might help?

perhaps we need to wwork on building a lighter stronger rider?


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onewheelwizzard wrote:
* Perhaps if trials competitions separated the lines into hopping-only
and hopping-plus-other-riding-skills, this development would evolve
and specialized trials unis would come to be.
*


it has evolved... into competing with the FLYBAR 1200 (pogostick), all
you can do is hop.


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Witness an average man, flesh skewered deeply and imbedded with shark
fishing hooks! Marvel as a mere mortal fueled only by free will...
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the pastey dermal landscape of his own hide and finally ascend to new
heights, literally!" This is NO ILLUSION! What you will see is real...
and remember ladies and gentlemen all this done without the assistance
of his unicycle.
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The "sticky rubber" Try All" tire is a decided improvement over the
Luna, IMHO, and a carbon fiber seat base reduces flex (and lost boost)
from a standard KH seat.

JL


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hungfromhooks wrote:
*perhaps we need to wwork on building a lighter stronger rider? *


Thats perfect right there.

David


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I've actually heard very good things about the Arrow and Try-All rims.
I only mentioned the DX-32 because it seems pretty standard.

However, the Try-All tire has thinner sidewalls (or so I hear). The
Maxxis Creepy Crawler does as well. While they may be grippier and
lighter tires, I think the thin sidewalls work to their disadvantage ...
you don't get as much from snapping down on the tire. I haven't
actually ridden anything but a Luna, so I don't know this for sure. But
thick sidewalls would probably be better for a trials tire than a couple
ounces of weight loss.

The carbon fiber seatpost idea is good, but the thing is, you need a
rail-type converter to connect one to a uni seat because no uni-specific
carbon-fiber seatpost exists (yet). I'd expect the extraneous piece of
equipment to negate any weight loss you'd get from the carbon-fiber
material.

Maybe ... just maybe ... if someone decided to go all out ... they could
somehow create an all-carbon-fiber one-piece frame that connected
directly to a seat. It would be very hard to do, I expect, and not
cost-efficient in the least, but the frame would be stiff as hell and
lighter than anything else anyone has ever made. All you'd need to do
is somehow keep the carbon fiber from being damaged.


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onewheelwizzard wrote:
*The carbon fiber seat post idea is good, but the thing is, you need a
rail-type converter to connect one to a uni seat because no
uni-specific carbon-fiber seat post exists (yet). *


Ahh, that's when you get the Wallis design carbon seat base, handle, and
rear bumper. It's made to mate directly to a Thompson seatpost (no
rails).

Here are some pics Scot emailed me. I'm not sure how to get his seat
base and how much it cost.
http://www.wallisdesign.com/HANDLEpics.html


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daino149 wrote:
*

Ahh, that's when you get the Wallis design carbon seat base, handle,
and rear bumper. It's made to mate directly to a Thompson seatpost
(no rails).

Here are some pics Scot emailed me. I'm not sure how to get his seat
base and how much it cost.
http://www.wallisdesign.com/HANDLEpics.html *


Wow, that's very nice indeed!

And I'm glad someone's finally got around to making a direct Thompson
attachement to the seat. Rails are unncessary IMHO, since you generally
only need angle adjustment on a uni seat.


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The improvements in trials equipment is going to be in the increasing of
their strength and the decreasing of the weight.
Things that have moved already...

Tyres. Luna is now old hat and there are several newer models out that
are up to a third lighter. Some of these tyres like the Sticky finger
and Maxxis Creepy Crawler have a slow creep formula on their rubber so
offering great grip. But... we know for the Monty lightweight tyre that
has now been discontinued, just didn't work well.

Rims. Alex DX32 is a very poor profile rim, but being a good quality
rim this generally compensates. There are again several rims out there
that are a lot better profile and at least as good a quality. Not
really any difference in weight here though, but definitely a gain
strength.

Hubs and cranks.... this is where the big improvements are going to be
in the future. We are coming onto the second generation of hubs and
cranks where we have learnt the lessons from the first. These are
lighter and stronger. There are already a third generation of hubs and
cranks already on the drawing board... but remember these things do take
time.

Frames... there is a saving on weight and strength here and we are
seeing this in this years frames. The next generation of frames will be
even lighter and more rigid.

Seats and seatposts. There is so much weight that there must some
saving in weight and strength. I know that we could all go for carbon
bases... but that is not going to happen for the masses, it costs too
much. I believe the straight is going to come in using the seatpost and
its connection to the seat to offer strength where it is needed like
John Foss's X racing unicycle's seat.

Roger


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