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I've got a chance to do a unicycling beginner session, which might be just what I need as my attempts to self-teach aren't going too well.

It's the other side of the city, about 20km away, and I'd really rather not drive as it's tedious at the best of times, and it would be rush hour so slower than cycling. The same heavy traffic means I'd really rather not tow a trailer behind my bike, though the unicycle would go on it nicely since I adapted it to carry a 24" kid's bike. Having looked at the route, the unavoidable roads at the far end would be really bad towing.

So I'm looking to either tow the unicycle as a single-wheel trailer, or carry it on a bike. Are there designs to do the former with readily available materials? I have a rear rack so could attach to that, whether the uni is rolling or not.

The unicycle has a 24" wheel and a long seatpost; I'd probably be using my hybrid (700c wheels, rear rack, possibility to take a front rack). With a little wheel, I'd just take out the saddle and seatpost, and put them and the put the wheel in a pannier. Some degree of disassembly would be fine at this stage.

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  • Can’t you transport it upside-down in an (open) pannier bag? (tie down with some bungee cords) Or just tape it to the rear rack? If you only have to transport it once or twice it doesn’t have to be perfect. I once taped a big baking tray (with cake) to my rear rack to visit a friend 16km away.
    – Michael
    Jun 10, 2022 at 9:28
  • @Michael it's a 24" wheel. Upside down it would be top heavy, flop around, and fall out. Taking the (very long) seatpost right out might help but then it wouldn't be sitting on the saddle . I've carried a 26" bike wheel on top of a rear rack, so would probably be OK with strapping (but not taping) it to the rack, but I wouldn't mind dome tips from someone who's done it; a tow would be better. Plus if I do get the hang of it I might want a simple reusable way of transporting it
    – Chris H
    Jun 10, 2022 at 10:34
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    @ChrisH, in my case the bike had its pedals attached "inwards" for transport. For your Unicycle, maybe you can put the pedal over your shoulder, wrapped in some padding, to avoid detaching it many times. I copied the previous comment into an answer to share a couple extra ideas.
    – Jahaziel
    Jun 10, 2022 at 20:10
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    @Criggie probably possible for an expert, not for getting to a beginners' class.
    – Chris H
    Jun 13, 2022 at 8:32
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    @Criggie my instructor has been known to ride one unicycle to the class while wheeling 2 more holding their saddles, and with a 4th strapped on her back (it turns out you can get specially-designed backpacks).
    – Chris H
    Feb 25 at 18:28

4 Answers 4

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For weird shapes like this, I sometimes use a tramping pack (hiking pack)

For a road wheel I'd use two reusable velcro cable straps to secure the top of the rim to each shoulder strap on the pack, and that's all. Wheel hangs there under its own weight nicely.

A unicycle has a crank on either side, which would likely poke you in the back. Could you secure the unicycle's saddle at shoulder height, with the nearside pedal in its lowest position, and get it under the level of your saddle? A folding or removable pedal would be awesome if you already owned one.

Here's me carrying a balance bike on a pack:

enter image description here

It used to be common to ride your bike to a race, with your weekday wheels on the bike and your good racing wheels on stanchions. Perhaps there's a way to support the unicycle in a similar way?

enter image description here

enter image description here

Photos from https://www.renehersecycles.com/spare-wheel-carriers-for-cyclocross/ Toe-overlap is very bad apparently.

When I tried something similar, I had the spare wheel much higher. The bottom of the spare was velcro-strapped to the fork, just above the main wheel's axle. I had the spare strapped to the very tip of the dropbar's hook, and a third strap at the front-edge of the drop. This triangle mitigated the spare wheel-s potential for wobble, but did make that side hand position tight.

If your unicycle has a smaller front wheel than the road bike (likely) it may leave you strapping the uni's frame to your bars.

A third option might be to unmount the wheel from the frame, and treat it as two separate pieces.

The bare frame could sit on a parcel rack, and it's fork legs could straddle your seat tube and go forward, beside the top-tube. This would leave the saddle sticking out aft. Then you've got a bare wheel and cranks to deal with, potentially easier.

This could be a good excuse to fit a front rack to your bike, a radonneur rack. Put the wheel on the front rack, strap the frame to your handlebars, and have the saddle up near your shoulders. Not ideal in a crash situation, but since its all attached before the head tube, it will all turn with the handlebars.

You have a rear rack, so perhaps all you need is a hitch that has a vertical slot to accept the unicycle's seat-post. This could leave the wheel on the road rolling, and pulls it by the saddle's underside.

The hard part is making sure the wheel stays vertical-ish, so it tracks properly.

enter image description here

This isn't going to work - your unicycle likely can't reach the road from there.

Second version of that might be a flat plate on top of your carrier, with two vertical posts. One sized same as seat post for the frame to rest on upside down, and the other with an ID suitable to hold the seat post.

enter image description here

Perhaps strap the wheel to one side of your carrier, or put it in a pannier bag, with the frame poking up vertically on the other side.

Last resort - leave the bike at home and ride the unicycle. Perhaps when confidence builds it will be easier, or split the difference, drive the car most of the way, and unicycle the last mile.

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    After all that, perhaps the trailer is the best solution despite being unweildy.
    – Criggie ♦
    Jun 10, 2022 at 10:54
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    It's a shame about the trailer - much of the way is bike path where it would be ideal. But the destination is only reachable with some very busy roads and in the traffic I would encounter at the far end, it's far too likely to get driven into, quite likely taking me down too. It's rather long below drivers' lines of sight, after all (picture, note the rainbow strap under the back wheel of the bike being carried - that's the back). This would be in rush hour after all. Towing a unit would be far shorter and higher (more visible)
    – Chris H
    Jun 10, 2022 at 12:15
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    We only used the trailer once for child transport in the UK. Apart from barriers making some of the safe routes inaccessible (except stop in traffic, uncouple, take kid out, walk everything through, reassemble) a significant minority of drivers give the adult rider as little room as they normally would, pulling out very late and passing within about 20cm of the trailer. Ballasted with cargo it twitches like crazy from the wind. Some local journeys, like carrying the bike back from school, are OK.
    – Chris H
    Jun 10, 2022 at 12:19
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    The suggestion to let the unicycle roll behind the bicycle won't work. The pedals are fixed to the wheel, and they are not balanced. At bicycle speed the pedals would be forced to turn at high speed and shake the unicycle like crazy.
    – Florian F
    Jun 11, 2022 at 17:41
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    @Criggie I could easily make a flagpole fit, and it might help here. The problem with a kid/enclosed cargo trailer wasn't drivers not seeing it, it was the ones who didn't drive sensibly when they did see it. A flag would get us back to that situation and not being able to take the trailer round potholes because of cars is less of an issue with a light cargo than with a kid. Maybe instead of a flag I should mount something that would obviously scratch a car - certainly transporting bulky metal things by bike people are more cautious
    – Chris H
    Jun 13, 2022 at 8:40
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Would a bicycle tow bar work? I'm thinking of the ones that clamp to your seat post and are intended to clamp to the headset of a child's bike so you can tow it. Something like this:

Adult towing a child on a full child bike using a tow bar that connects from the seat tube to the head tube and holds the front wheel off the ground.

I've never used one of these, and if it's not adjustable the tube angle this would create for your unicycle isn't ideal, but it would put your unicycle out behind your bike riding on its own wheel.

You can find a couple of makes of this online, but the one that currently seems to have the best reviews is the Trail-Gator, pictured above.

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  • I think some of them come apart into two pieces for storage. Is do, and they can be assembled with the rear half inverted, that should work
    – Chris H
    Jun 10, 2022 at 15:45
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    That one definitely has 2 pieces, and they're joined by a simple locking pin. I just don't know, since the tubes are continuously curved, if it could be rotated 180 degrees and still slide together. It might; it's a pretty shallow curve. Of course I'm sure you could make it slide together if you insisted. :)
    – DavidW
    Jun 10, 2022 at 16:09
  • Towing the unicycle won't work. The pedals would be forced to turn with the wheel and make the unicycle wobble like crazy. Or you should remove the pedals.
    – Florian F
    Jun 11, 2022 at 17:45
  • Great idea - the unicycle frame doesn't have a tube in the same orientation as a head tube. If this trailing link was clamped to the single upright, the uni's wheel would in front and the saddle would be leaning backward. There would be no "trail" to help it follow the tow-bike. <br> It may work if there was a secondary bracket to allow the uni to "lean forward" a lot more, but the unbalanced pedals may cause oscillations.
    – Criggie ♦
    Jun 13, 2022 at 12:20
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I Had success carrying a bike frame by strapping it like a back pack. More recently, I did similar with my kid's small balance bike. The large bike frame was cumbersome and I won't recommend it for heavy traffic routes. The balance bike, however, was very small and comfortable to transport in comparison, as it only protruded a few centimeters over my MTB handlebar's width.

In this answer I describer a bit better the method used: bicycles.stackexchange.com/a/71452/2177

You may be able to strap your unicycle to your back or to a backpack. Use a bungee cord or similar to keep the wheel/pedal from rotating, so you keep it in the least cumbersome position possible.

I also had success strapping a few wooden planks (from pallet) to the sides of the top tube, and in another occasion, I strapped a PVC pole to my downtube in order to attach a camera and film myself. (One time activity to produce a video that promoted commuting by bike.)

Depending on the relative size of the bike and Unicycle, you may be able to strap the "seat tube" of the U.C. to the top tube or down tube of the bike's frame. Protect the frame with pool noodles or similar. For the straps I use nylon dog collars, sometimes modified with velcro, or small ratchet straps from a "dollar store".

enter image description here

In my country is fairly common to give a "hitch ride" by letting the passenger seat on the top tube, both legs to the same side, holding to the inner part of the handlebar. The main rider places their arms around the passenger. It is common for fathers to transport their kids like this, specially in small towns. Some people even install some cushion permanently to the top tube, and, of course, there are also commercially available solutions like these:

enter image description here

This means you can do similar by strapping the U.C. wheel to the main triangle, leaving the saddle pointing towards wherever it bothers you the least.

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In the end I simply took out the seatpost with the saddle attached, and put that upside down in a pannier. The frame and wheel then went upside down on the other side of the rack. The rather angular crown of mine tucked neatly into the bottom joint of the rack (with a strap), then I could strap the crank and hub to the top of the rack. That latter strap might have been enough, but I also put a bungee strap round the wheel. I couldn't tell it was there unless I slid myself back on the saddle.

unicycle mounted on my hybrid

A unicycle for a shorter person might have gone upside down just by pushing the seatpost all the way in; my saddle was on the ground.

Since then I've also transported it intact, the right way up, with the upper pedal on top of the rack, but the strapping is harder to get right that way,

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    24" wheels with big tyres really aren't that much smaller than 700c with thinnish tyres
    – Chris H
    Jun 22, 2022 at 9:03
  • Great solution! So you'll be going through bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/unicycle looking for improvements and gaps I take it?
    – Criggie ♦
    Jun 22, 2022 at 11:01
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    @Criggie maybe if they're focused on learning. I need another couple of sessions before even that
    – Chris H
    Jun 22, 2022 at 11:44

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