Hello ladies and gents this is the viking telling you that today we are going to talk about
Weird american motorbikes
A monowheel is a one-wheeled single-track vehicle similar to a unicycle. Instead of sitting above the wheel as in a unicycle, the rider sits either within the wheel or next to it. The wheel is a ring, usually driven by smaller wheels pressing against its inner rim. Most are single-passenger vehicles, though multi-passenger models have been built.
Hand-cranked and pedal-powered monowheels were patented and built in the late 19th century; most built in the 20th century have been motorized. Some modern builders refer to these vehicles as monocycles, though that term is also sometimes used to describe motorized unicycles.
Today, monowheels are generally built and used for fun and entertainment purposes, though from the 1860s through to the 1930s, they were proposed for use as serious transportation.
The world speed record for a motorized monowheel is 98.464 km/h (61.18 mph)
Issues
- Limited horizontal stability. A single wheel can fall over, unless it is quite wide or has some form of active stabilization, such as a gyroscope. Some designs have used outrigger skids or small wheels to address this. In many one-person designs, being at a stop requires the driver to put their feet on the ground, the same way as on a motorcycle.
- Limited capacity. Monowheels tend to be larger than a car of similar carrying capacity. Most have been kept small by being built to carry only one rider and with little or no space for baggage.
- Risk of "gerbiling". In most designs, if the driver accelerates or brakes too hard, it is possible that the force applied overcomes the force of gravity keeping the rider at the bottom of the wheel, sending the rider spinning around the inside of the wheel. This is known as gerbiling because it has some similarity to the situation of a gerbil running too quickly inside of a hamster wheel.
- Visibility issues. In driver-inside designs, the rider is always facing the inner rim of the wheel, which can obstruct the view of oncoming hazards from all angles.
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