Thread: Pointless, yet fun...

A mate I work with (civil engineer, genius who designs bridges) showed me this YouTube clip:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

I couldn't help myself, so with a little bit of tinkering in the shed...3hrs later I whipped this bad boy up. I left it wrapped in gift wrap with a giant bow on his desk...he was blown away, which made me very happy.








Yes, it is impossible to ride. Yes, guaranteed to make a total cock out of yourself, and yes, a lot of fun :-)

Or next mission is to leave it in public places in the hope some shit bag tries to steel it...we'll be over the road in a pub watching the big fail! should be priceless

Kj

What a hoot.

Saw one of these at a fair years ago. Some guy was charging punters $2 for 3 attempts to ride it between two lines, 3m apart. $50 if you found do it. No one could do it, yet he was able to demonstrate it quite easily.

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk

Yeah, you think it wouldn't be too difficult...after all, simply turn the handle bars the other way to corner. But yeah/nah...it isn't that simple. When you correct your balance it goes wrong big time! Honestly, it would take thousands of hours to learn it.

Brains are pretty interesting things eh!

Thats neat!

Are you doing a parts only kit?

God I Would hate to go over the handle bars......you could end up with your nuts stuck in them cogs

Bet you I can ride it, as a teenager I worked odd jobs for s fair outfit and they had one. I have since made a couple over the years.

Most people could learn to ride one in a weekend for a short distance. It really pisses of the guys at fairs when you do.

Your mate is a lucky guy, I bet it comes out at every BBQ for years

My understanding is once you master riding one of these (and it is not easy) then you struggle o ride a "normal" bike. Once you get back into the swing of a normal bike you are shit again on these. Something to do with the way the brain works as I understand it.

Originally Posted by timattalon

My understanding is once you master riding one of these (and it is not easy) then you struggle o ride a "normal" bike. Once you get back into the swing of a normal bike you are shit again on these. Something to do with the way the brain works as I understand it.

If you truly mastered it to the point you could use one as a pub crawl bike then that would probably be true.

Having got to the point I can ride one slowly around the block I'll say that it's about 15 min of playing on one to switch over "okish", a bit like swapping sides with your brakes for mtb-you can do it, especially if you do it a lot, but you will only ever be dialed with one or the other.

Everyone should try riding one as it's a real eye opener as to how much we rely on automatic actions rather than real time working through stuff

Originally Posted by res

Everyone should try riding one as it's a real eye opener as to how much we rely on automatic actions rather than real time working through stuff

Interesting analogy to some firearms accidents too, where people haven't realised the mental shortcuts and assumptions they're making (ie with target ID) until its too late, and sometimes not even then.

Originally Posted by GravelBen

Interesting analogy to some firearms accidents too, where people haven't realised the mental shortcuts and assumptions they're making (ie with target ID) until its too late, and sometimes not even then.

I read somewhere that your eyes are only able to focus on about 20% of what we are able to see. The brain simply makes up the rest based on prior memory. So 80% of what we see, isn't actually "what we see".

It's no wonder we end up doing a double take from time to time, like last time I was up K-Road in Auckland...could have sworn it was a woman at first glance

I love it-tell everyone its a product of TPPA and for them to get on and thrash the shit out of it. beersies&bandaids anyone.

Originally Posted by kotuku

I love it-tell everyone its a product of TPPA and for them to get on and thrash the shit out of it. beersies&bandaids anyone.

None of you dodgy bastards better not throw a dildo at it

'Watching from the pub' reminds me of my younger years when they were building a drive through bottle store at the Woolston Tavern (about 1970) and they had set 3 metre tall pipes in concrete to support the roof. One of the old alky regulars leaned his bike against a pole just as we were walking along so we stood on shoulders and lifted his bike over the pole so it went through the frame, then went in for a beer. After a couple of hours the old boy left and we killed ourselves watching him trying to get on his bike, including retracing his arrival steps and trying to figure out how he had managed to get the pole through the frame. After about 10 minutes of laughing we went out and got his bike off the pole. He was so grateful he shouted us a couple of jugs!