Future of Unicycle Road Racing (here's what I think; what do you think?)

I love how these sport has grown in the short period of time I've been
participating in it.

Chuck, I agree with virtually everything you've said, except the
self-degrading parts. I'm humbled by your humility.

What's exiting about this, is that events like RTL are CHANGING THE WAY
PEOPLE PERCEIVE UNICYCLING. I think our sport is attracting more
atheletes as people discover what is becoming possible. We are being
taken more seriously as a sport.

Regarding the 29er vs. 36er thing, I don't think we should get too
caught up in that debate as it has been discussed ad-nauseum in other
threads. Obviously there are advantages both ways. My personal
preference would be for a bigger lighter wheel, but I'm not the one
pushing the envelope. At RTL, the 36er GUni riders raised the bar and
the 29er GUni riders underscored it. The biggest gear is the fastest
(at least with what's currently available).

Regarding different categories and having respect for the ungeared
records; I think there's no doubt that people respect the
accomplishments that have been done ungeared. In RTL, my team (Totally
Doable) did battle with the Lost Wheelers (fastest 100% ungeared team).
I think there's little doubt that we wouldn't have beat them had we been
on the same equipment. They we better athletes.

I think ungeared records will always be noted and respected. Still,
geared unicycles are STILL UNICYCLES even if less traditional. This is
to say that a world record held on a geared unicycle is 100% valid as a
unicycle record. That being said, I think ongoing records will noted as
geared or ungeared. People will still be interested in what the
ungeared records are even as they are unsurped by GUnis.


--
mscalisi

Unicycle for (reducing the) Buddha
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I agree with almost everything said here except the fact that a category
1 racer would be a faster unicyclist. Chuck you may not be beat by a
category 1 racer even though you think otherwise. It is not just the
power and speed needed to spin the cranks it's also being able to do
this without loosing balance and having the courage to do it. Not
everyone can be an excellent cyclist like Lance Armstrong and today not
everyone can be an excellent unicyclist like Chuck no matter what anyone
says.


--
hectorqlucero
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hectorqlucero wrote:
I agree with almost everything said here except the fact that a category
1 racer would be a faster unicyclist. Chuck you may not be beat by a
category 1 racer even though you think otherwise. It is not just the
power and speed needed to spin the cranks it's also being able to do
this without loosing balance and having the courage to do it. Not
everyone can be an excellent cyclist like Lance Armstrong and today not
everyone can be an excellent unicyclist like Chuck no matter what anyone
says.


--
rolandisimo
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hectorqlucero wrote:
I agree with almost everything said here except the fact that a category
1 racer would be a faster unicyclist. Chuck you may not be beat by a
category 1 racer even though you think otherwise. It is not just the
power and speed needed to spin the cranks it's also being able to do
this without loosing balance and having the courage to do it. Not
everyone can be an excellent cyclist like Lance Armstrong and today not
everyone can be an excellent unicyclist like Chuck no matter what anyone
says.




Very good written!

I think that with unicycling it is more than just your max oxygen
recorded that counts. Unicycling have even more factor that counts than
perhaps any other sports. Balance, speed, toughness, power... And I
think that you Chuck, probably could be a World Champion in many other
sports.

Congratulations!


--
unijuul

www.unijuul.com
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Very good work Chuck, I'll add my thoughts when I have some more time,
untill then can everyone please check this?

http://eenwiel.nl/index.php?menuid=59&pageid=162

It's all the geared and ungeared unlimited records (except for the 2008
female records), if everyone is OK with this layout I will translate it
to English, but I'm sure everyone will understand what it says, as it's
just times and distance.

Combined, all the fastest times including geared AND ungeared.
Geared, all the fastest times ridden on geared unicycles, including the
Unicon 13 fastest geared times and Pete Perron's hour record.
Ungeared, all the fastest Ungeared times.

Cheers,

Dustin


--
DustinSchaap

DUTCH UNICYCLIST COMMUNITY:
EENWIEL.NL (\"HTTP://EENWIEL.NL\")
SPONSORS:
MUNICYCLE.COM (\"HTTP://WWW.EINRADLADEN.NET/SHOP/INDEX.PHP/LANGUAGE/EN\")
AND QU-AX (\"HTTP://QU-AX.COM/\")

*Ah, but can you compress your tire like this?*
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DustinSchaap wrote:
...can everyone please check this?

http://eenwiel.nl/index.php?menuid=59&pageid=162

I'm not sure this is a problem, but the 24-hour records show "m" (for
miles?), and I believe those records are in km. Also, don't know if
this is possible, buyt it would be great to see the equipment
(wheel-size, gearing, etc.) used for each of the records.


--
steveyo

steveyo
...like having your own personal rollercoaster...

- a few 'uni race write-ups'
(http://home.nycap.rr.com/rduhan/uni_race_writeups/)
- muni and kokopelli uni 't-shirts, mugs and stickers'
(http://www.cafepress.com/steveyo)
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How does a world record apply to the marathon if it is held on the road
with variable terrain/elevation changes from year to year? Can't the
course change a lot from year to year?


--
siafirede

'DCuni' (http://www.dcuni.com/blog) - my blog about Unicycling in
Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland
*James* = my name | 'Myspace' (http://www.myspace.com/clawsout)
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steveyo wrote:
I'm not sure this is a problem, but the 24-hour records show "m" (for
miles?), and I believe those records are in km. Also, don't know if
this is possible, buyt it would be great to see the equipment
(wheel-size, gearing, etc.) used for each of the records.



it's euro writing - the . in the number is the same as our ,
and the m means metres.

so what they are writing is 453,800 metres for Sam's world record.

Also, one thing about the geared records - do we really want to count
any record at all for geared if there is an ungeared one that is
higher? Or does someone (chuck?) with a geared unicycle want to go out
and set an hour record. The geared hour record is a joke - any bugger
with a schlumpf and access to a flat loop could set that higher
tomorrow - whereas the ungeared one is hard (although I presume chuck
will beat it).

Joe


--
joemarshall

' old pics' (http://tinyurl.com/56yl2f) 'new zealand pics'
(http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o...rshall_photos/) 'new
pics' (http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/joemarshall.org.uk)
'Where have I been riding? (GPS) ' (http://tinyurl.com/6fxw5x)
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siafirede wrote:
How does a world record apply to the marathon if it is held on the road
with variable terrain/elevation changes from year to year? Can't the
course change a lot from year to year?



That's an important point about records for off-track races (e.g., road
races) that folks should keep in mind. I should have brought this up
earlier, but I didn't want to disrupt the excellent discussion.

In the road racing world, world records for the marathon were not
officially recognized by the International Association of Athletic
Federations (IAAF) until January 1, 2004. Previous to that time, there
had been too much variance in courses and race rules. IAAF member
federations developed a set of requirements that a road course has to
meet in order to be eligible for the establishment of a world record.


--
tadaniels
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hectorqlucero wrote:
It is not just the power and speed needed to spin the cranks it's also
being able to do this without loosing balance and having the courage to
do it.


I'd certainly agree with that. Going fast on a unicycle has a lot to
do with unicycling skill as well as physical strength and fitness.
Obviously you've got to be fit as well to keep it up for any length of
time, but actually being able to ride a unicycle fast at all is a skill
that you don't need on a bicycle.

I consider myself a fairly strong bicyclist (and tend to spin higher
cadences than a lot of cyclists, rather than pushing a huge gear), but
I can't go all that fast on a unicycle. On my coker I top out at 16mph
in a "sprint" and usually average about 13 on a flat road if I'm trying
to go fast. That speed isn't limited by strength, it's limited by the
fact that I'm really not that good a unicyclist - any faster and I fall
off (or at least feel very unstable). I can't get on with short cranks
(they make my knees hurt, contrary to popular opinions, and don't make
me any faster) and always ride 145s. That's pretty much shown by my
10km and marathon times last week at unicon: 28m40s for the 10km and
2h01m for the marathon (42km) - pretty much exactly the same average
speed! In theory a guni should suit my bicycling background and help
me go faster, but I find them _extremely_ hard to ride when I've
borrowed them - the higher the gear the harder it is to stay on the
things.

I think Chuck deserves more credit than some people are giving him.
He's using the gear that suits him, which shouldn't be called cheating.
Like somebody mentioned, even in fixed gear track cycling you're
allowed to pick the gear to suit you're body and technique. Put me on
Chuck's unicycle and I wouldn't automatically beat the record, or even
be any faster than on my normal 36er - I'd just fall off more.

Rob


--
rob.northcott
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