Suspension Unicycle pictures

I built this about 10 years ago,.. modified Amp F2 mountain bike fork,
26 in wheel and air seat. Works great!

Now I check and expect to see dozens of suspension designs, but
Nothing!! I'm sure there's something out there besides suspension
seatposts. Can anyone give me some links??


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That's a really nice piece of work, but unfortunately there still has
never been a production suspension unicycle. Several people have
handmade their own designs, if you use the search functino you will no
doubt find some threads with pictures of designs.


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With your disign the only thing that is being suspended is the seat, so
has no real advantage over a suspention seatpost. Most who ride really
knarly terrain preffer a fat 3" tire. Those who do use a suspention
seatpost usually just ride XC.

'There was a thread recently' (http://tinyurl.com/2m8mos) where a guy
made his own design of a full suspention uni (hub, frame).

'There was a thread hear a while ago '
(http://tinyurl.com/2wsra7)discussing all sorts of design
possibilities, all having various drawbacks. The biggest being drive
control, strength, excess weight, complexity and therefore cost.


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There weren't any suspension seatposts when I built this. Thinking back,
it was 1992 which would make it 15 years old now!! I added the air seat
a few years back. I believe this pre-dates the whole MUni trend?? Its
only 2 inches travel but that's more than most seatposts, and it does
have a hydraulic shock. I'm just surprised there's nothing better after
15 years.

There are lots of ideas and conceptual drawings, and even a few
attempts to adapt mountain bike forks with all kinds of flexibility
issues. I'm just looking for practical examples that have been built
and really worked.

I can't find, but have heard of another Amp fork and a cannondale
headshock adaptation. The Amp fork was and probably still is the
lightest mountain bike suspension fork. I still have a longer travel
Amp F4 BLT with 4 inches of travel, but that may be too much?


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I like your suspension

1) the torque of a quick turn i.e. rotation frin the hips is taken up
by some easily made links. 2) the links can be big!! 3) there are no
sliding fits which can woller out with use. I hope you don't mind if I
copy it!!! I think you've got somthing. I don't think most the replys
you have got are from people who have ridden a suspended uni. I've made
one but it's linkages are down by the wheel which makes the cranks
farther apart than normal although I've never noticed. You are right
they (suspended uni s) are great!!!. Don't listen to the nay sayers
unless they have actually made one and even then a grain of salt. I
like very much. It looks like it would be easier to make than mine and
you can use "normal" forks, seat post, etc. (yes you have to modify)
but no specialty welding (aluminum TIG or a tractor feed on you wire
feed) like mine and no really special machining like special bearing
holders like mine. Like I say I hope you don't mind me copying.
COOOOL!!


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'This post' (http://tinyurl.com/2wu8ao) seems to me the design of a
working prototype made.

kayaker43 wrote:
I can't find, but have heard of another Amp fork and a cannondale
headshock adaptation. The Amp fork was and probably still is the
lightest mountain bike suspension fork. I still have a longer travel
Amp F4 BLT with 4 inches of travel, but that may be too much?


I think the big area of potential benefit would be downhill Muni, like
what KH and the Santa Barbara guys do.

skilewis74 wrote:
The biggest being drive control, strength, excess weight, complexity and
therefore cost


These drawbacks are what I think stoped any real development. and to
have the nessesary strength it'd weigh like 25 lbs, even if you figured
out the drive problems. The big challenge is the thousands of dollars
and time it would take to develop a prototype.

These are the designs w/ what I think have the most potential.
http://tinyurl.com/2zpd88
http://tinyurl.com/ywldw7
http://tinyurl.com/2rv446
(if the wind up problem can be fixed/made negligible as John Childs
said in post 151)
http://tinyurl.com/392w6m
http://tinyurl.com/2oddk2
http://tinyurl.com/2a8zhj
http://tinyurl.com/35z8mz
http://tinyurl.com/ys7hj2

Maybee one of the major uni manufacturers can team up w/ a MTB maker
who has the testing equipment, experience and resources to develop one.


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skilewis74 wrote:
I think the big area of potential benefit would be downhill Muni, like
what KH and the Santa Barbara guys do.

I don't think so. The problem is the seat goes up and down but your feet
don't. So your seat height is all over the place. There is some preload
when you sit on the seat as well, so that's a factor in the overall
picture. All you need to do is hit a big bump with your feet in the
dead spot (vertical cranks) and you'll bounce right off the seat. This
was my experience the first time I rode the Downieville Downhill, on my
suspension post MUni in 1999.

More likely, the best place for suspension is for road and XC riders,
where the terrain isn't so radical, but your time in the saddle is
long, and taking any edge off the bumps is a good thing. I think a
short-travel suspension would be great on my Coker!



The big challenge is the thousands of dollars and time it would take to
develop a prototype.

Yes. So far, I don't think I've seen any suspended-pedal designs that
everyone agrees would work. Most either only compress in certain
directions, or would have problems with windup, oscillation and other
issues. Plus the complexity of the designs would make them pretty
expensive even at the mass-production level.

Your frame (kayaker43) looks like an awesome design. Very compact! But
again it only suspends the seat while the feet still have to move with
the contours of the ground. Why go to such complexity when you can use
a suspension post? Of course if it's for the fun of designing that's a
fine purpose in itself. So is your design 10 years old or 15? You gave
conflicting ages.

Daniel Hopkins built a Rock Shox unicycle about 10 years ago. With a
gel seat it rode like a Rolls Royce. Later on he built one with a
Cannondale Head Shock. Unfortunately I haven't heard from him in years
so I think he's no longer into unicycling.


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This is not to rip on your work, which I think is excellent, but from
the perspective of a downhill, VERY technical muni rider (that's about
all I do), I will say that I would not buy a suspension frame for my
muni, nor would I use it were I given one. As John said, suspension for
technical muni simply moves the seat, which gets to be very hard on the
rider's knees, and technical muni is already bad enough in that area.
Furthermore, wheel placement and tire location are critical for
navigating rock gardens such as those found in Tahoe and Santa Barbara,
so any aspect of a frame that reduces the rigidty of the rider-wheel
interface is negative.

To top things off, the suspension would be of absolutely no use for
large drops, simply because if you are putting weight ont he seat,
something has gone seriously, seriously wrong.

All that negative crap said, I agree with John that for XC muni and
cokering, such a frame could be of great utility. I don't ride coker
muni, but I can see how such suspension would make fast, mildly bumpy
singletrack such as some of Santa Cruz infinitely more fun. Then again,
I think many offroad coker riders would put a wide flange spacing ISIS
hub as a higher priority. Still, improvements are improvements.


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I am very rarely on the seat when landing from a jump or drop. I
consider anything under about 3" to 4" just a bump. My ankles, knees
and waist do all the bending and act as my suspension. I would be
terrified of loosing foot/pedal contact with a suspension seat. Loss of
Foot/Pedal contact is usually the number one reason for UPDs when
MUniing. There was once a computer generated picture of a MUni with
Suspension Spokes! now that is be a GREAT idea! I am wondering if
anyone could actually make it work. A flexible rim would be needed
though.

Unicorn


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I am very rarely on the seat when landing from a jump or drop. I
consider anything under about 3" to 4" just a bump. My ankles, knees
and waist do all the bending and act as my suspension. I would be
terrified of loosing foot/pedal contact with a suspension seat. Loss of
Foot/Pedal contact is usually the number one reason for UPDs when
MUniing. There was once a computer generated picture of a MUni with
Suspension Spokes! now that is be a GREAT idea! I am wondering if
anyone could actually make it work. A flexible rim would be needed
though.

Unicorn


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