[HN Gopher] Monowheels: Vehicles with Insufficient Wheels
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       Monowheels: Vehicles with Insufficient Wheels
        
       Author : KolmogorovComp
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2024-04-18 20:31 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.douglas-self.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.douglas-self.com)
        
       | ortusdux wrote:
       | While not a monowheel, I feel the gryo monorail should be on this
       | list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_monorail
        
         | NikkiA wrote:
         | It has it's own section in the trains part of Douglas' site:
         | 
         | http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/brennan/brennan....
         | 
         | and
         | 
         | http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/scherlgyro/scher...
        
           | ortusdux wrote:
           | Awesome, thanks for the link!
           | 
           | "Left: The Brennan model, carrying Brennan's daughter on an
           | aerial wire. From a certain lugubrious quality in her facial
           | expression, one has to conclude that the young lady was not
           | entirely happy with her situation"
        
       | abeppu wrote:
       | I find it interesting that there is such a convergence towards
       | hubless wheels, which I think are challenging regardless of
       | number. There are a handful that have hubs but if the passenger
       | is on top they drift into unicycle territory, which feels like a
       | different category -- and if the passenger is inside, then the
       | whole vehicle is perhaps large enough that it's further out of
       | reach for an independent hobbyist project?
        
       | throwup238 wrote:
       | I can't believe this site doesn't mention the South Park
       | monowheel! [1]
       | 
       | Until seeing this, I didn't realize they were parodying anything
       | or that this design was a real thing. And with so many variants!
       | 
       | [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entity_(South_Park)
        
       | geor9e wrote:
       | The website seems to end with a 2015 electric unicycle but not
       | continue on with covering that form factor. Maybe because most
       | people don't refer to those as monowheels anymore.
       | 
       | http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/motorwhl/motorw...
       | 
       | Also airwheel is kind of a random brand to showcase - Trevor
       | Blackwell made an earlier one
       | https://www.trevorblackwell.com/eunicycle and Solowheel got the
       | majority of the earlier patents (and royalties to this day).
       | 
       | That form factor has come a long way since 2015 though.
       | 
       | Check out this MotoGP style race, they're hitting 50+mph:
       | https://youtu.be/fbX6qaWINBk?si=l2G0JnBxxCMP8a7e
       | 
       | I see them every day whizzing across San Francisco, especially on
       | Van Ness passing all the cars.
       | 
       | I know there's at least two shops in SF selling them, one in
       | Potrero and one in Hayes Valley -
       | https://alienrides.com/collections/electric-unicycles -
       | https://lastmilepev.com/collections/electric-unicycle-euc
       | 
       | Unicycle seems to be the winner. The "wrap around the body" form
       | factor seems doomed from a physics point of view. That big of a
       | diameter has way too much leverage, and the person sitting inside
       | has too little. So you end up doing a flip instead of stopping.
       | As such, their required stopping distances are very long compared
       | to unicycles which can stop as well as a bicycle, if the rider is
       | skilled.
        
         | airstrike wrote:
         | ok, that race video was as fun to watch as it was unexpected
        
       | unstatusthequo wrote:
       | Glaring miss in the list? https://onewheel.com/
       | 
       | Love riding mine!
        
       | paddy_m wrote:
       | Also the Ultimate Wheel. A unicycle without a seat.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WRzqlh3728
        
       | teruakohatu wrote:
       | This musical not-monowheel the website links to is quite
       | interesting:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi4PiLSQhf0
        
       | grcggddddc wrote:
       | > That this neglect is wholly justified is neither here nor
       | there.
       | 
       | Love this kind of site.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-18 23:00 UTC)