By Gus Saltonstall
It is not quite as noteworthy as stumbling upon a unicorn on the Upper West Side, but a three-wheeled unicycle (is that an oxymoron?) is not an everyday occurrence.
A West Side Rag reader recently sent in a photograph of a man riding just such a vehicle in the neighborhood.
“I had never seen a multi-wheeled unicycle until Tuesday on the corner of 81st Street and Broadway,” the tipster wrote. “I can see why they are referred to as ‘stacks’ or ‘giraffes.’ What incredible balance it must take!”
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I think you mean “extra tall unicycle, which ironically doesn’t use a chain or shaft drive to move power from the peddles to the wheel, but instead uses other bike wheels of the same diameter to drive the drive wheel”.
No oxymoronic nature to the name, since only one of the bike tires touches the pavement.
What do you mean 3-wheeled unicycle? Unicycle literally means one wheel. If it has three wheels, it can’t possibly be…
Oh. Huh. That is a unicycle.
A try-cycle?
How do you get up on that thing–is a step ladder required?
There are extra-tall unicycles that just have a long bike chain. It takes practice, but you can get up on one without a step ladder. You can hold it steady vertically and just climb/jump up. There are a few techniques. Check YouTube for “mounting a giraffe unicycle” or “7 foot unicycle” for some examples. Hold the tire still with one foot, hold the pedal still with one hand, and just climb up. Takes a lot of practice, but it’s doable.
Since the rider sits as high as one would on an 1870s “Penny-farthing”, this might be called a three-farthing or tri-farthing. I think it would be much safer to peddle these on the sidewalk, as the pictured rider is doing. As long as we are naming things, how about using the term “Sideride Path”—rather than “sideWALK”— for the area that was, for so many years, intended exclusively for pedestrians?
I am all for it, as I’m guessing I can walk faster than he can peddle! 😃
*everybody cheers*
I saw this young man on his wheeled device while juggling 3 juggling pins!!!
I dunno what this thing is, but it looks DIFFICULT! WOW! 😮
So it’s a uniuniunicycle?
As @Lee pointed out, how does he get ON it? Is there a bigger story?
Looking forward to the upcoming profile, WSR!!
@Lee The Rider is 11 feet tall, obviously. 😜
Isn’t it against the law to operate wheeled vehicles on NYC sidewalks? This person deserves no accolades. He’s breaking the law and it will be just a matter of time until a pedestrian (whom the sidewalks are DESIGNED and DESIGNATED for) gets injured by him.