Sex, aggression, and humour: responses to unicycling Sam Shuster compares men and women’s responses to the sight of a unicyclist
Learning that unicycles don’t have suspension has made that memory even more surprising. I want to understand the motivations, which were not addressed in this FAQ.
As well as this, it'd waste energy, which would tire the rider faster and eat hops. There is also the case that most suspension solutions aren't really designed to handle the sort of aggressive lateral torsional stresses of the entire weight of the rider and their movement in the way that unicycles dish it out.
As someone who goes along gravel paths with relative frequency on their unicycle, it isn't too bad. I'm not sure if the dirt bike-style unicycle you're referring to was an electric one, but most municycles (mountain unicycles) have decently thick tyres to handle some of the jolts. Take the model I have as an example: https://www.krisholm.com/en/gear/unicycle/kh27.5
Thanks for the comment. I'll make an update to provide a tad more information on suspension.
Those also exist? I was curious and checked your faq but it is not mentioned. You should add it!
Perhaps I'm being dim, but I don't get why this would be bad; it just sounds like the definition of what suspension is!
Edit: I was briefly confused by the "relative ... to the pedals" bit here as well, but only 'cos I was thinking of the type where the pedals are directly attached to the wheel.
(In the UK you are required by law to have working brakes on a bicycle. My unicycle had no brakes at all! Though slowing down was never a problem with the fixed wheel drive.)
Later in life I made a concerted effort to learn how to manual a bicycle, and after a couple seasons of regular practice I gave up, I never really got the knack for it.
I’ve learned to appreciate simplicity in machines. For a long time I thought of a skateboard as the simplest one for transport but this got me thinking.
Where I live you're even permitted to take them on the bus/train, assuming you're not being too much of a pain. Unicycles are specifically outlined in the terms.
some of those slopes I would have problems just hiking down (the scree, the pain)!
You can overtake bicycles easily going uphill, but downhill is hard on your knees!