Abram Clark's geared giraffe

That is a pretty beast (referring to the 'raffe, not Greg). How hard is
it to get used to the gearing? Geared up to 40inches would make it only
slightly "larger" then a Coker, but how does the loss of the flywheel
effect affect how it rides? And lastly, what crank length is being
used? They look rather long, but it could just be because they are next
to such a small wheel.

Daniel

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First of all, I do post on this form, though admittedly quite rarely.

Quoted message said:

Doyaknow what kind of giraffe this was in previous incarnation(s), or
is this a totally Frankenstein'ed invention?

I have no idea. It had been sitting around for a long time, and wasn't
getting
ridden. The only remaining original component is the frame, and as JC
says, that
was cut down too. Actually the chain is original too.

Quoted message said:

How hard is it to get used to the gearing? Geared up to 40inches
would
make it only slightly "larger" then a Coker, but how does the loss of
the
flywheel effect affect how it rides?

It takes a couple tries before you get used to it. Greg, Tom J, and Jeff
all
managed to ride it after a couple mount attempts, but it takes some
practice to
get used to the smaller wheel. It's much easier to stop, and accelerate
quickly,
but small bumps are far more noticeable of course. It's pretty
twitchy,
especially going up hills.

Quoted message said:

And lastly, what crank length is being used?

Yes, they are long cranks. Here are some stats:

170mm cranks
46 tooth Rocket chain ring
23 tooth Soma track cog
Suzue track hub

There are some pictures of putting it together here:

http://abram.atypedigital.com/2005/photos/projects/giraffe/

There are links to pictures of putting the frame together, and then
there is
another link to a few pictures of putting the rest of the components
together.

-Abram

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john_childs said:

*The two pileups were minor and slow speed affairs. It's more like a
game of leap frog than a pileup. Jeff went down at low speed due to
wavy pavement. Tom was right behind Jeff and Jeff's Coker fell right
in front of Tom. Tom had to jump from his Coker and leap frog over
Jeff's fallen Coker. Tom's Coker then fell right in front of me. I
had to jump from my Coker and leap frog over Tom's Coker to avoid
riding over it or landing on it. All comedy. No risk of injury
(other than ego). *

My ego wasn't bruised at all. I enjoyed getting some practice in rapid
controlled dismount. Today I got to try it twice. The first, behind
Jeff. He was trying to ride some very wavy pavement and lost it. Even
though he was three feet to the right, his unicycle landed right in
front of me. I abandoned my vehicle a few inches before contact,
choosing a nice place to step.
The second rcd came as Greg was turning off the Ballard bridge. Somehow
he turned a little left before the 180deg right and scraped his pedal
and flew off his uni, leaving it parked in the narrow exit. I decided
it dismount, but I could probably have gone around it. I wimped out and
dismounted.
Abram's uni is truly amazing. The cranks are a little bit higher than
the Coker, but with longer cranks, I ride it a little lower than the
Coker. I managed to ride it around at the end of the ride, once I found
a railing to start out on. I'm not sure how he does the freemount so
well, I never even noticed him mounting during our ride.
The ride is very twitchy. You have to hold on to the seat to keep the
back/forward, side-to-side motion down. Turning isn't too easy. I don't
think I managed a 180. Still it seems you could pick it up pretty
quickly.
I found it easiest to mount with a ledge or wall, and JC's shoulder
worked too.

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iunicycle said:

* I managed to ride it around at the end of the ride, once I found a
railing to start out on. *

Yeah, watching Tom Jackson ride a rail skinny like that on a geared
giraffe was truly amazing.

Steve DeKoekkoek has a penguin giraffe geared to 2:1 with a 20" wheel
also but the wheel is wider and heavier. I'm trying hard (with my
antique mind) to remember that Steve's was easier to ride at slower
speeds and that might be because the wheel was not so sensitive to
surface irregularities. Abram's was easy to start and stop and even
stillstand.

--
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-Greg Harper

B L U E S H I F T

"My world view has come crashing down like a drunk clown on a giraffe,
riding through a cactus patch..." -evil-nick on "Entry of the
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harper said:

* with thin 20"x1.125" wheel.*

slight correction. that looks like a 20x1 1/8th tyre.

a rim that fits that size has a larger ERD than a rim that fits a
20x1.125

the tire on that Giraffe would not fit on a standard 20" rim like most
freestyle uni's use for example.

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shame shame, converting those wonderful fractions into decimals can be
tricky when it comes to rim sizes and tires to mount on them.

the popular size 20" ERD is '406' (http://mnhpva.org/tires/406.html)

the fractional 20" size has a greater ERD of '451'
(http://mnhpva.org/tires/451.html)

schools out....😉

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thanx for sticking the pics and the videos in the gallery
and congratulations on managing to miss the freemount in each and every
video

what kind of freemount does he use?
foot-up-on-the-wheel or something closer to a 'Coker-mount'?

--
GILD - Waffle-[censored], Time-bider and JCTK

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I've never understood the difference in tire sizes between things
like1-1/8 and 1.125. I know that the 24x1-3/4 (Schwinn) is much
different than the 24x1.75 but I would think them to be the same. Their
standards, I guess.

--
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-Greg Harper

B L U E S H I F T

"My world view has come crashing down like a drunk clown on a giraffe,
riding through a cactus patch..." -evil-nick on "Entry of the
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GILD said:

*thanx for sticking the pics and the videos in the gallery
and congratulations on managing to miss the freemount in each and
every video

what kind of freemount does he use?
foot-up-on-the-wheel or something closer to a 'Coker-mount'? *

You're welcome. Abram does a static mount in which he just jumps up
higher than usual. I think he presently has a clamp ring on the lower
cog so running jump and roll back mounts may tend to loosen it.

--
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-Greg Harper

B L U E S H I F T

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riding through a cactus patch..." -evil-nick on "Entry of the
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is that your voice doing the commentary to some of the clips greg?

--
GILD - Waffle-[censored], Time-bider and JCTK

if you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.--
'alice' (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/custom.html?) 'roosevelt'
(http://tinyurl.com/963jr) 'longworth' (http://tinyurl.com/78ybd)

I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.-- William H.
Mauldin
...using nietzsche's metaphysics to escape from
christianity...-'metro_tramp on the value of metaphysics'
(http://tinyurl.com/4sjw6)-
it's hard to be sure, and good to be paranoid...john childs on life on
the internet
'NAMASTE!' (http://tinyurl.com/4qcxw)
'Dave' (http://www.lyricsdir.com/d/deep-purple/child-in-time.php)
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GILD said:

*is that your voice doing the commentary to some of the clips greg? *

Yes. For some reason, my mouth is the one right by the microphone.

--
harper - TANKED at GASWORKS

-Greg Harper

B L U E S H I F T

"My world view has come crashing down like a drunk clown on a giraffe,
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THats pretty cool.......It looks like some sort of weird wheelwalk
variation.

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"You do not make the unicycle-the unicycle makes you."

~Y.C. tv

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Here's another one:
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuu71/agriculturaffe
And, I'd love to see one with a trials rim/tire combo

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Will

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