TonyMelton said:*According to Jack Wiley's Complete Book of Unicycling
Johnnie Severin of Atwater, California rode 100 miles in
1981 in 9:20:53. *
My 45" Tom Miller big wheel, which I ordered in 1981 and
received in 1982, was originally intended for tackling the
previous record, of 10 hrs. 37 minutes by Cathy Fox of
Marion, Ohio. As far as I know, this is still the female
record. When I read about the 9:20 I was less inclined to go
training for centuries, and never did.
Quoted message said:*Bill Loden of Booneville, Mississippi rode backwards for
14.8 miles in 40 minutes around 1983. I wonder if this
record has been bettered yet?*
There's definitely an error in there somewhere. I'm sure
Bill Loden was riding some kind of 24" wheel or similar.
Bigger unicycles were very rare in '83. Peter Rosendahl and
Steve Gordon have both gone over 40 miles backward.
Quoted message said:*Randy Barnes (any relation of George ??) leaped 11 feet 8
inches from a ramp on his uni in 1980! Amazing! He later
jumped ramp to ramp over 10 feet 6 inches! These are
pretty impressive distances! I wonder how much vertical
height was lost in these jumps. *
These jumps were done on flat ground. Randy had some nice
ramps, made of varnished plywood, with nice curves to toss
him upward. He also had a "T" handle on the front of his
Schwinn seat back in 1980! No relation to George Barnes that
I'm aware of, though you can see him in a documentary that
was done about the Ringling Bros. Clown College around 1983
(sorry, can't remember the title). There's this whole scene
where Irvin Feld takes an interest in the details of Randy's
makeup and offers design suggestions.
There hasn't been much interest in ramp jumping on flat
ground since the Evil Knievel era. Randy had the biggest
numbers I'm aware of, and the Redford and Pontiac
Unicyclists used jump ramps in their shows. But I haven't
heard much about those things since then.
The Pontiac Unicyclists used to jump over rows of people,
lying down in front of the ramp. Mr. Crandall, the guy who
used to make the giraffes for $10 a foot, was always last in
line. In the Redford club, we took a more "family" approach
and jumped over foam bags that looked like a skinny rolled-
up sleeping bag. We used to be able to clear 8 or 9 of them.
--
johnfoss - IUF Director
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com"
www.unicycling.com
"I went to the Liberace Museum and the Elvis-A-Rama Museum on the same
day! This is not for everyone."
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