Re: 3 speed uni

Do you know of the three speed bikes your parents rode, they have 3
gears in the hub, you could easily use one of those hubs if you locked
the freewheel, you could make it in to a 3 speed geraffe!.

Ollie 🙂

--
olmasters
------------------------------------------------------------------------
olmasters's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/11921
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

you can convert a bicycle 3-speed freewheel hub gearbox into a 2 speed
gearbox with direct drive to build into a giraffe, see
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/awfixed.html but I don't know anyone who
has done this on a unicycle.

jim

--
Jim
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/9416
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

olmasters said:

Do you know of the three speed bikes your parents rode, they have 3
gears in the hub, you could easily use one of those hubs if you locked
the freewheel, you could make it in to a 3 speed geraffe!.

I'm not sure, but I think those hubs require some play in them in order
to shift. In other words, when you're riding the bike, you have to
coast a bit to get the gears to change? Maybe not, but what I do know
is I've never seen a unicycle made from a shiftable (bicycle) hub, so I
assume there is some technicality that makes it unworkable.

--
johnfoss

John Foss
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
-----------------------------------------------

"Idiot America—where fact is merely that which enough people believe,
and truth is measured only by how fervently they believe it." --
Charles Pierce, in Esquire Magazine
------------------------------------------------------------------------
johnfoss's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/832
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

olmasters said:

Do you know of the three speed bikes your parents rode, they have 3
gears in the hub, you could easily use one of those hubs if you locked
the freewheel, you could make it in to a 3 speed geraffe!.

Ollie 🙂

If these are the old Sturmey Archer hubs, you could also get a 4
speed version. My mother still has one. Don't know if anyone has
managed to modify and fit one to a uni though. As you say freewheel
would need locking. If it were not so far from here I would check for
play on the gear changes. If I remember correctly, you had to
freewheel to change gear, but it is a long time ago that I last rode
it so could be wrong.

Nao

--
Naomi

They may largely have abandoned religion, but the modern teenagers do
not lack for Gods. The collection plates are just much bigger, and
they get to pay in advance. (Naomi 2005)

Every breath you take, every move you make... contributes towards
global warming.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naomi's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3322
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

7 speed hubs are also now available for bikes, and could possibly be
used for a giraffe. The problem wiht a three geared shlumpf style hub
would be changing gears, currently you press the button in one one side
or the other, trying to move it only half the way in or something
similar would be pretty tricky.

--
kington99

Dave

- what a thoroughly post-modern subversion of the cycling genre -
------------------------------------------------------------------------
kington99's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/9417
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

This came up on a thread a while back. In theory it's possible to
modify a four or five speed Sturmey Archer hub into a three speed fixed
hub, but there are reports that many bicyclists find there is too much
slop, which is a bad sign for its usefulness on a unicycle. It's quite
a bit of effort to do the modification, so I doubt if anybody has tried
making a unicycle this way.

Rob

EDIT: 'Here's the old thread'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46593)

--
rob.northcott

'Dartmoor Muni Weekend'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46116) - Last
weekend in May 2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------
rob.northcott's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/7436
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

I've got an old bicycle with a sturmey-archer 3-speed. Shifting will
sometimes work while pedaling, but it usually requires coasting, and
sometimes back pedaling just a tad to get the gear to engage. You also
have to adjust the cable just right to get all the gears to work in
sync with the gear changer. If the rear wheel starts to slip on the
dropouts a little, the 1st gear position randomly switches between 1st
and 2nd gears and the 2nd gear position randomly switches between 2nd
gear and freewheel (I've wrecked a few times from this happening).
Needless to say I prefer the simplicity of my commuter uni to the speed
of my bike.

--
hell-on-wheel

On the other hand, you have different fingers. - Steven Wright
------------------------------------------------------------------------
hell-on-wheel's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3425
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

3-speed fixed gear hubs exist. Good luck finding one though.

http://sheldonbrown.com/asc.html

--
mscalisi
------------------------------------------------------------------------
mscalisi's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/4961
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

I've ridden many bikes with 3 speed Sturmey Archer hubs, and one with a
4 speed Shimano hub. To change gear, you need to easy the pressure on
the gear train by pausing/freewheeling for a moment. The
lever/twistgrip has to be adjusted just right.

The hubs are built to work in one direction. The gears are cut to mesh
with a certain amount of play.

Any hub gear for a unicycle would need to be purpose-made, or would be
of very limited application.

I'm not convinced that gearing a uni is useful. Fun, maybe, but I see
no practical application. Why choose a unicycle then try to make it
perform like a bike?

--
Mikefule

Farewell tomorrow, ever was it so.
Absence of flowers,
But choked by weeds.
Farewell tomorrow, ever was this so.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mikefule's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/879
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

Mikefule said:

I'm not convinced that gearing a uni is useful. Fun, maybe, but I see
no practical application. Why choose a unicycle then try to make it
perform like a bike?

I know one big reason - which is to make it possible to ride two
different types of terrain on the same unicycle. For example, some
people don't have cars to get themselves to muni trails, or prefer to
ride to the trails when possible, for them a high gear to get to the
trails and a low gear to ride them is a great idea. Or if you use a
unicycle to commute on, it's great to be able to ride muni on the way,
but generally boring to ride a really slow muni to work. Basically,
it's potentially useful if you're not someone who always drives before
going riding, and you use a unicycle as a mode of transport rather than
just something to play around on. It's also a great idea for muni
rides, because however well you plan, most long muni rides involve some
road / forest track or easy singletrack riding that would be much more
fun ridden at high speed.

For me, even pretty easy muni riding like Bramcote is a bit dull on a
coker, especially with 110 cranks for commuting, you can't ride the
best bits, only really the across trails. Similarly, my commute takes
ages and bits of it are way slow if I ride on the muni.

Joe

--
joemarshall

my pics http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuq44
------------------------------------------------------------------------
joemarshall's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1545
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

Fair points well made.

--
Mikefule

Farewell tomorrow, ever was it so.
Absence of flowers,
But choked by weeds.
Farewell tomorrow, ever was this so.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mikefule's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/879
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

Even if one of those fixed 3 speeds would hold up, I'd like to see how
the shifting chain could be integated in with a modified axle that
could accept cranks. I think we better count on Florian and Kris.

--
pdc

"What doesn't kill you strengthens you, what kills you strengthens your
mother"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
pdc's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/8160
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

I think it would be used with a giraffe. BTW pdc, wanna go riding
sometime? I graduate in a few weeks, and would love a trip up to the
mountains.

--
hell-on-wheel

On the other hand, you have different fingers. - Steven Wright
------------------------------------------------------------------------
hell-on-wheel's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3425
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

hell-on-wheel said:

BTW pdc, wanna go riding sometime? I graduate in a few weeks, and
would love a trip up to the mountains.

I'd love to. Give me a date and I'll try to set aside a Saturday or
Sunday. That house is still vacant, we're not moving back there till
July. If you and any other riders wanted to make a weekend out of it
you'd be welcome.

--
pdc

"What doesn't kill you strengthens you, what kills you strengthens your
mother"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
pdc's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/8160
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

Hey all this doesnt really relate much but just a thought i had to day,
could you add the effect of gearing to a uni by having a device that,
ideally lets you change the lenghts of the cranks on the fly, by
allowing them to extend on a teloscopic principle (or something
cleverer), or at worst have to dismount to change gear by manually
adjusting crank lenght???
This to me just seems an easy way to gear a uni cyle at low costs, so
that leads me to belive i have missed a huge chunk of logic and this
really cant work, well effectivley anyway.

Firstly would this give the effect of gearing to the unicyle, secondly
would it reduce the integrity of the cranks and finally would the
varying crank lenghts makes the uni very hard to ride.

ps: is this just a rubbish thought that has been dreamed up many times
an just never done due to the stupidity of the idea??
😕
please some one let me know.

--
just-learnin-josh
------------------------------------------------------------------------
just-learnin-josh's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/12087
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390

just-learnin-josh said:

Hey all this doesnt really relate much but just a thought i had to day,
could you add the effect of gearing to a uni by having a device that,
ideally lets you change the lenghts of the cranks on the fly, by
allowing them to extend on a teloscopic principle (or something
cleverer), or at worst have to dismount to change gear by manually
adjusting crank lenght???
This to me just seems an easy way to gear a uni cyle at low costs, so
that leads me to belive i have missed a huge chunk of logic and this
really cant work, well effectivley anyway.

Firstly would this give the effect of gearing to the unicyle, secondly
would it reduce the integrity of the cranks and finally would the
varying crank lenghts makes the uni very hard to ride.

ps: is this just a rubbish thought that has been dreamed up many times
an just never done due to the stupidity of the idea??
😕
please some one let me know.

I have never heard of this,. but it seems like it would work, only
problem i really see is that your cranks would be hollow which could
lead to them breaking easier.

--
Jerrick

'MRIS!!!' (http://tinyurl.com/jjjnz)

kristine said:

great minds think alike....
orrrrr... great minds get naked and unicycle?

Kristine said:

pssssshhhhh, whos been on top longest?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerrick's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/11632
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48390