#348: Skatecycle

It’s not exactly a majority interest, but riding a unicycle has always been on my list of personal challenges (ever since I learned how to juggle three small oranges for as long as 10 consecutive seconds. I already dropped out of astronaut training; after becoming travel sick on the bus).

Thrill-seeker that I am, I could always just buy a Segway, I suppose, but they have been outlawed as too dangerous for pavement use -this in a country where people routinely hammer down the streets in unlicensed electric wheelchairs.

Today’s invention is a training device which gradually enables unicycling. It consists of a skateboard cut in half and then bolted together in such a way that front and back halves can be slid over one other and then locked in position. A longitudinal slot allows the unicycle wheel to pass through the board. The board is then bracketed to the unicycle hub so that the main wheel and a maximum of two skateboard wheels are in contact with the ground at any one time.

This system thus acts as unicycle trainer wheels (combining two great ways to break your legs with the advantage that the wheelbase can be reduced as experience is gained). And not a gyroscope in sight.