My new Giraffe

Cool! I'm getting that same giraffe for Christmas! Yay!!! 😄

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my advice is dont try to hop on a giraffe unless you know what youre
getting into. Me and my friend went out for a ride recently, and i
decided to take my giraffe since i normally dont, and i tried hopping,
and the uni slipped behind me and i fell as if i had no bones. It was
actually kinda funny. The same thing happened when i tried to do one
footed on it. Anyway yeah im still hoping to sell my giraffe, and if
anyone wants it before i put it on ebay im selling it for 125 free
shipping.😉

Jon

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What kind?

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bugman - Survivor 2004 Wolfman Duathalon

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are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Albert Einstein

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get used to dismounting with the raffie in front of u before u even try
n ride it

riding it will be easy enough
just watch for the raffie trying to pull the seat out from between your
legs
make sure the seat-height is correct

but make sure u're comfortable getting off the back of the raffie and
u'll be kewl
the main reason why this is more of an issue than it is with a 'normal'
uni, is the fact that if u dismount off the front, and the wheel, on
it's way back, stops against something u didn't see, u can hurt your
spine quite badly

and learn to freemount
it is [imho] the kewlest thing in the uni-world

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GILD - Waffle-[censored] and Time-bider

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AllThingsUni said:

* Anyway yeah im still hoping to sell my giraffe, and if anyone wants
it before i put it on ebay im selling it for 125 free shipping.😉*

I don't know what type you are selling, but I paid less than that for my
brand new Torker 5ft (with shipping).

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GILD said:

*if u dismount off the front, and the wheel, on it's way back, stops
against something u didn't see, u can hurt your spine quite badly*

This is true but the same applies to letting the wheel roll out to the
front. This will hurt your nads (for the guys) and is probably less
scary than hurting your spine, it can be pretty bad as well.

Best thing to do is, when in doubt, don't let the wheel roll out.
Instead, stop the bottom pedal and just go down like a tree. There are
some who say you won't land as hard, because your path to the ground is
curved. The logic makes sense to me. What do you physics people have to
say about that?

Before trying to freemount your giraffe, ride it around some and
practice falling off in the direction of all points of the compass. Then
you'll be much better equipped to make that mount safely, and be able to
ride away from it when it happens.

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johnfoss said:

*
stop the bottom pedal and just go down like a tree. There are some who
say you won't land as hard, because your path to the ground is curved.
The logic makes sense to me. What do you physics people have to say
about that?*

I'd disagree. You will fall from the same distance, and will accelerate
at the same rate downwards (9.81 m/s^2), hitting the ground at the same
vertical speed.

If you take two balls, and at the same time drop one while throwing the
other horizontally, both will hit the ground at the same time (provided
you release the horizontal ball perfectly horizontal). Each will hit the
ground at the same vertical velocity.

--corbin

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Quoted message said:

If you take two balls, and at the same time drop one while throwing
the other horizontally, both will hit the ground at the same time
(provided you release the horizontal ball perfectly horizontal). Each
will hit the ground at the same vertical velocity.

Right. I've just been learning about this stuff in physics. Actually,
the horizontal ball will probably take slightly longer though, because
it travels farther and is therefore subject to more air resistance.

--
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corbin said:

*I'd disagree. You will fall from the same distance, and will
accelerate at the same rate downwards (9.81 m/s^2), hitting the ground
at the same vertical speed.

If you take two balls, and at the same time drop one while throwing
the other horizontally, both will hit the ground at the same time
(provided you release the horizontal ball perfectly horizontal). Each
will hit the ground at the same vertical velocity.

--corbin *

This fails to take into account any interaction between the unicycle and
the rider.

If you stop the wheel and pivot down you can apply pressure to the
pedals to slow the descent. Just as you could control the speed of the
wheel rolling in the "straight-down" dismount.

Using your "two balls" example:

First case:
Attach a ball atop a 2 meter stick. Then with the stick balanced allow
it to tip over and observe the time it take for the ball to reach the
ground (still attached to the end of the stick).

Next case:
Do not attach the ball to the same 2 meter stick but balance it on top.
Now, with the stick upright and the ball atop it, quickly pull the stick
out from under the ball. I believe in this case the ball will reach the
ground much more quickly than in case #1.

It's not physics that tells me this though - it's my intuition. If my
intuition get's in a fight with physics my money's on physics.

-mg

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Yes I definitely think the unicycle's being there is the factor that
provides the difference. The shorter the giraffe, the greater the
difference.

I don't know how to translate that in to physics language. But I guess
this is not uncommon. Most of the times I see people offering physics
explanations for real-world unicycling phenomena, the physics people
leave stuff out.

So one person is dropping straight down; essentially a direct drop from
seat-level. The other person is taking a curved path, so their downward
acceleration is either slowed or delayed (or both) before it starts
picking up speed.

--
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John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
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johnfoss said:

*I don't know how to translate that in to physics language.*

You need to look at it in terms of conservation of energy here. In both
methods of dismounting, they start with the same potential energy. When
the person on the giraffe just drops straight down, all that energy is
downward and gets absorbed by the impact (either by the person bending
their knees, breaking bones, producing heat, etc). When the rider
dismounts while keeping the wheel still (like a falling tree), the force
acting on the rider by the unicycle causes the unicyclist to move
horizontally while falling down. So when the rider impacts the ground,
the rider is still moving horizontally in addition to some energy being
absorbed by the impact. However, the total energy needs to be the same,
so with their being energy from the rider still moving horizontally,
there is then less energy absorbed in the impact when comparison to just
falling straight down.

Quoted message said:

*Most of the times I see people offering physics explanations for
real-world unicycling phenomena, the physics people leave stuff out.*

That is very typical as there are a ton of variables and usually physics
and engineering try to simplify the problem as much as possible by not
considering the insignificant variables, such as air resistance in this
case.

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noo all you darn physics geniuses beat me to it. i thought id be the
first to correct him. i think this is what gilby was trying to say, only
in equations:

(mass)(gravity)(height) = 1/2 (mass)(velocity)^2

mass cancels out, gravity is about 10 m/s...height of unicycle lets say
is 2 meters...

20 = 1/2 V^2

voila: your velocity when u land is the square root of 40, or like
6.something meters/second. whether u curve down or go straight down, ur
converting all your potential energy into kinetic. sry for reiterating
what other ppl said but i just couldn't let a post on physics go by
without contributing something 🙂

-grant

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I don't know why, but when I dismount "falling tree style" instead of
dropping straight down, it is easier on my body. I've so far not had a
bad (painful) dismount from my 5' giraffe, even though I started riding
it when I could barely ride a regular 24" unicycle. I'm sure it's
possible to get hurt, but with the type of dumb luck I have, you might
not! Have fun😄

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interesting discussion

i'd be curious to hear from the 8/10/12ft raffie riders

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Can anyone tell me how to free mount a giraffe? I don't have one, but my
freind is going to get one for christmas, and it would be cool to
freemount it once we were good. Is it like a normal mount, just many
rotations backwards, or do you hop on like a suicide mount? I have no
clue, just want some pointers.

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hit the search function
there are some very stunning 'threads' (http://tinyurl.com/4uxuy) with
step by step instructions on how to do it

ha! found it!
'this' (http://tinyurl.com/6mcm3) is the kewlest write-up of the raffie
freemount u'll ever read

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It came today.

5 ft is damn high. I only tried to ride it once. Did a "tree" launch",
made about three revolutions, came off.

It didn't seem so hard. Of course, three revolutions is hardly
riding.

See attached pic:

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Attachment filename: uni_23dec04.jpg |
|Download attachment: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/258563|
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

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newtouni said:

*5 ft is damn high. I only tried to ride it once. Did a "tree"
launch", made about three revolutions, came off.

It didn't seem so hard. Of course, three revolutions is hardly
riding. *

Sounds like what I call the "calibration" problem. Basically if you're
used to one kind of unicycle then when you try a different one, whether
it be giraffe, smaller or bigger wheel, then it does take some getting
used to.

Don't worry, it's normal.

The best way to get around this is to ride holding onto a fence, or get
someone to hold onto your hand and walk you along for the first few
revolutions. Yes, this does like newbie territory again, but you only
need this helping hand/fence for at most a minute or two to calibrate
yourself, then you can slowly let go and ride alone in the air. It's the
greatest feeling! :p

Once you've ridden around for an extended period on the giraffe and
return to your regular uni, don't be surprised if you wobble off that
again. Again, a little calibration back to that will be needed.

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Thanks for the warning! 🙂

gkmac said:

*
Once you've ridden around for an extended period on the giraffe and
return to your regular uni, don't be surprised if you wobble off that
again. Again, a little calibration back to that will be needed. *

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