Historical 45' Giraffe; Photos

[Bondo]

I was just in Grand Junction Colorado for a night this past weekend an
was walking Main St. I walked into a bike shop I found because they ha
a bunch of funky bikes, tandems, and farthings.

I asked if they had unicycles. The sales clerk said "Wow, you're lik
the third person in two weeks to ask about unicycles, the only one w
have is right above me." As she pointed up to the ceiling. I wa
confused as all I saw above her was (I thought) the fire sprinkle
pipes.

It wasn't a fire pipe, it was a 45 foot giraffe. It stretched from on
end of the store to the other, hung by the ceiling.

Turns out there was a semi-famous circus-unicycling family that live
in Grand Junction and they built this unicycle to break the worl
record.
Here is a picture of that record setting ride:
[image
Loading Image...]

The record held for two months I was told. A museum in Grand Junctio
held onto the unicycle in peices for many years and was going to thro
it out when the bike shop saved it from the landfill and put it o
display.

A cool piece of Unicycle history that I thought needed documentin
here.

Some details;
The wheel assembly: (20" white wall!)
[image
Loading Image...]

Wire guides along the length:
[image
Loading Image...]

How 'bout this seat? Ouch!
[image
Loading Image...]

[image
Loading Image...]


The shop was pretty busy and the guy was trying to find the newspape
articles, but I told him don't worry I would stop in some other day
and they should put it up on their wall. I gave him my email for whe
he had an electronic version available.

I don't know the name of this family, or what year this may hav
happened. (Pic looks like 60-63?) I'd be curious to know if there i
any other mention in any unicycle histories someone may have.


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[rem48]

thanks for sharing. Looks great

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[oneisenough]

thats cool. thanks for the info, very interesting

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[skilewis74]

OMFG that is a tall uni and ouch is right!

Anybody know what the record now is

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[Daytripper63]

That seat looks about as comfortable as a Torker Lx sea

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[john_childs]

Post by skilewis74
OMFG that is a tall uni and ouch is right!
Anybody know what the record now is

'115 feet' (http://www.semcycle.biz/record/) give or take a few inches
Record by Sem Abrahams. See the link for pictures and video

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[tomblackwood]

Coolest new RSU thread in a while, and absolutely forum appropriate.
Thanks Bondo! Great job on the pictures!

Now we just need our esteemed historians to jump in with some detail
around the history of the actual ride. I wonder when it happened, an
whether T. Miller had anything to do with the construction of th
giraffe

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[Naomi]

Post by Bondo
I don't know the name of this family, or what year this may hav
happened. (Pic looks like 60-63?) I'd be curious to know if there i
any other mention in any unicycle histories someone may have.

Interestingly the Seb Site lists his record progress, one of which wa
45 feet. In 1976.

Might it be possible that the shop has his old record breakin
unicycle. Or was the record held jointly by him and another?


Na

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The dress in which I unicycled was not THAT short, but in retrospect,
think that maybe the blue one would have been more appropriate to th
terrain. Nao April 2007
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[rob.northcott]

Post by Naomi
Interestingly the Seb Site lists his record progress, one of which wa
45 feet. In 1976.
Might it be possible that the shop has his old record breakin
unicycle. Or was the record held jointly by him and another?

Looking at the film on Sem's site (which actually says 1977 when yo
click on the link) it doesn't look like the one Bondo saw - n
whitewall tyre, fork looks tubular rather than flat, chainwheels loo
much bigger.

Strange.

Ro

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[Hazmat]

:confused: Well i did find this one quite tall and interesting.
wouldn't even know how high this one is. :confused

+-------------------------------------------------------------------
|Filename: uni22.png
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[john_childs]

Post by Hazmat
:confused: Well i did find this one quite tall and interesting.
wouldn't even know how high this one is. :confused

22 feet, just like 'this one' (http://www.22footunicycledude.com/) wit
Chaz Marquette. That photo looks like it's Tom Miller on the unicycle
He's the one who built it and the one that Chaz is riding. Tom Mille
is 'The Unicycle Factory
(http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/unicycle_factory/). My understanding i
that there are two of those 22 footers. Chaz has one and Tom Mille
has the other

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[UniBrier]

I agree, a good find on unicycle history.

One suggestion: Re-size the pics and attach them to a post(s) rathe
than hot-linking them from photobucket. If the photobucket pics ever g
away we've lost the pics forever in RSU

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[James_Potter]

So...is it for sale
(

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[johnfoss]

Post by john_childs
22 feet, just like 'this one' (http://www.22footunicycledude.com/) wit
Chaz Marquette. That photo looks like it's Tom Miller on the unicycle
He's the one who built it and the one that Chaz is riding. Tom Mille
is 'The Unicycle Factory
(http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/unicycle_factory/). My understanding i
that there are two of those 22 footers. Chaz has one and Tom Mille
has the other

The unicycle in the photo above is actually Chaz's 22-footer, bein
ridden by the builder, Tom Miller, just before handing it over to Chaz
at Unicon I. I took the picture. Chaz must have painted the unicycle
different color since then, but it definitely started life white, whic
was probably the color he ordered. Otherwise Tom made everything blue.

That year he also had a 16-footer (blue) along. Both of these giraffe
could be assembled at 16' or 22'. That 16-footer was the talles
unicycle I ever intend to ride. Later Tom made a third one, fo
Constance Cotter. She rode it in a big promotional event at the Mall o
America to set the world record for the tallest unicycle ridden by
woman. I think this was part of a promotion for the release of the ne
Nintendo game, UniRacers, and I think this was in 1992.

I never heard of the unicycle and record in the thread title, and i
doesn't resemble any of Tom Miller's work (plus he never mentioned it)
Sem rode his in 1976 or 77, at 45'. That unicycle is probably still i
Suriname, where it was ridden. Brett Shockley, from Minnesota, rode
unicycle of around 50' in a similar timeframe, and I don't think ther
were any more attempts until Sem's next record, at 72' in 1980.

The Guinness World Records museum that used to be in the Empire Stat
Building in NY had Steve McPeak's 41' unicycle, also from the mid-70s
This one holds the record for highest unicycle ever ridden on
tightwire (40' up!)

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[john_childs]

Post by johnfoss
The Guinness World Records museum that used to be in the Empire Stat
Building in NY had Steve McPeak's 41' unicycle, also from the mid-70s
This one holds the record for highest unicycle ever ridden on
tightwire (40' up!)

That's an interesting record. How does the tightwire aspect affect th
riding of such a tall unicycle? A unicycle that tall is going to hav
twist and sway. So if you're riding it on the flat ground (with a tir
on the rim) I'd think the wheel would wander a bit just due to th
twist and sway in the unicycle frame. Now if you put it on a tightwir
you constrain the wheel so it can no longer wander from side to side.
Does that actually make it easier at that point since you know th
wheel is always going to go straight? I'm assuming that on a 41
unicycle you can't use body english and action-reaction to turn o
twist the thing like you can on a little 6' Schwinn giraffe cause th
frame is going to be flexing and the unicycle weighs so much.

I have never, and will never, ride a tall tall giraffe. I also hav
never, and will never, ride any sort of unicycle on a tightwire. S
I'm unaware of the actual challenges and issues involved.

Would it have been easier for Sem to ride the 115' unicycle if it wa
on a tightwire just 1' off the ground

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