New monocycle/unicycle working design; it's also motorized!



Ken Fuchs wrote:
> *Popular Science | Reinventing the Wheel:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/ywqz8
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ken Fuchs <[email protected]>
>
> *

This monocycle was mentioned on slashdot yesterday. The slashdot
article is 'here' (http://tinyurl.com/2swe9). The builder has a web
page 'here' (http://theriotwheel.com/).

My question. Is it a monocycle if the rider is not riding inside the
wheel? It looks more like a sideways unicycle to me.


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Looks like it needs some sort of skids or wheels for when the front part
hits the ground, and also some sort of roll cage. Sticking those frame
points into the ground at 57mph could ruin your whole day.

I think it would be cool to put the rider behind that monster wheel in
some sort of teardrop fairing. Not sure how that would affect steering,
but it would make hops and drops a whole lot easier to take. Sort of a
minimalist SUV.


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cyberbellum - Level 1.0 rider!

Optimists think the glass is half full. Pesimists think the glass is
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==========================
My question. Is it a monocycle if the rider is not riding inside the
wheel? It looks more like a sideways unicycle to me.
==========================

My understanding is that a monocycle carries the rider inside the wheel,
and a unicycle has the rider outside the wheel. Maybe "monowheel" is a
generic term to cover both types? I would probably call this thing a
motorized recumbent unicycle. Hard braking is possible because the frame
is shaped to skid along the ground; I would consider adding a small
nosewheel underneath there, and the roll cage is definitely a good idea.
It apparently relies on a gyroscope for steering control, so a gyro
failure at highway speed could result in a pretty spectacular UPD (the D
being Destruction, Disaster, Devastation)...


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weeble - There can be only one... wheel


==============
Another Joe in MN
Level 2 and holding
==============


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weeble wrote:
> * It apparently relies on a gyroscope for steering control, so a gyro
> failure at highway speed could result in a pretty spectacular UPD (the
> D being Destruction, Disaster, Devastation)... *


When the Bombadeer uni came out I had a long converstation with an
Italian engineer friend of mine who specializes in reliability and safey
engineering. (He's also an accomplished motorcycle affectionado and was
a mechanic in the rally circuits.)

We both agreed that any form of high-speed motorized/gyro stabilized
unicycle would requre all the fault-tolerance tricks of the trade (low
failure rate parts, high redundancy, mechanic certification, maintenance
logs, system certifications, etc) used in aerospace and nuclear
engineering.

I was surprised to hear that these things were already required on high
performance road motorcycles. Apparently if the engine or brake
controls fritz out on any modern crotch rocket you're in for a world of
hurt. That said, I do think the single-wheel machines are more
dangerous. The contact patch is a single-point failure that no amount
of engineering will fix. Hit a bump wrong and you're toast.


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cyberbellum - Level 1.0 rider!

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john_childs wrote:
> *Is it a monocycle if the rider is not riding inside the wheel? It
> looks more like a sideways unicycle to me. *
Though the rider is not inside the wheel, it uses the same technique as
a "classic" monocycle to stay upright, that of a large amount of weight
moving in relation to the hub. Since the mass that keeps the frame
upright is based inside the wheel, I think calling it a monocycle is not
inaccurate.

I don't think of it as a unicycle because it's not human-driven. I
realize a motorcycle isn't either, but at least on a motorcycle the
rider seems to be the main control for balance. On this 1100 pound
beast, the rider has input but the mechanism (and counterweighting)
seems to do most of the work.


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johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

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cyberbellum wrote:
> *When the Bombadeer uni came out I had a long converstation with an
> Italian engineer friend of mine...*
The Bombardier hasn't really "come out," it's just a design concept.
Like you said, to have any degree of safety with such a thing, you'd
have to have lots of precision parts, redundant controls, and still some
amount of risk of a very catastrophic failure.

Bombardier does however make airplanes and railway carriages. They
definitely seem to know what they're doing.


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johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com"
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"I should be wearing a helmet here -- so should you." -- George Peck,
who prefers not to wear one, in the 1991 video Rough Terrain Unicycling
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cyberbellum wrote:
> *When the Bombadeer uni came out I had a long converstation with an
> Italian engineer friend of mine...*
The Bombardier hasn't really "come out," it's just a design concept.
Like you said, to have any degree of safety with such a thing, you'd
have to have lots of precision parts, redundant controls, and still some
amount of risk of a very catastrophic failure.

Bombardier does however make airplanes and railway carriages. They
definitely seem to know what they're doing.


--
johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com"
www.unicycling.com

"I should be wearing a helmet here -- so should you." -- George Peck,
who prefers not to wear one, in the 1991 video Rough Terrain Unicycling
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