Archive for December, 2009

Heatings’s Kills

Red Truck Another picture of the truck in front of Cardrona Hotel in New Zealand. HDR from three RAW exposures. f/11, 1/50, ISO 100, 32.0mm. Canon Digital Rebel.

Gaelic Whisky HDR from three exposures. Closeup of the sign at the Cardrona Hotel in New Zealand.

Cardrona Hotel Classic HDR from three exposures of the Cardrona Hotel in New Zealand. Apparently a place that is often photographed.

For Christmas 2009 I was at Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. I rode my kh36 out to it and walked to the top of a little mountain/rock: . HDR of the KH36:

Mt Cardrona Station, NZ. After driving down Mt. Cardrona there is quaint, and often photographed, hotel.

Louise and I need a shoe rack that looks nice. I decided to design something pretty in Sketchup. Here is what I came up with while on vacation: The vertical side pieces have a slight curve to them, and the bottom pieces have a slight arch. I’m planning on using cherry for the outside, and staining the outer pieces slightly darker than the inside sheet pieces (which will be 1/2″ cherry ply). The shelves will be 3/4″ maple. The overall size will be 52″ tall by 28″ wide by 16″ deep. Download the Sketchup file (coming soon, email me to... [read more]

Today was one of the best days ever. A bunch of us in New Zealand went “Heli-muniing”. For the uninformed, that is taking a helicopter to the top of a mountain and riding our muni (mountain unicycles) down to the bottom. Totally awesome. The adventurers: Andy (the ringleader/organizer), Irene (his lovely wife), Nathan (who provided rad pictures), Beau (who rode almost everything), John (amazing rode it without a brake!), Scott (who rode it with 125mm cranks), two guides from Fat Tyre Adventures and myself (on the geared 24″ mountain unicycle). Some of the great pictures by Nathan Hoover. John Foss... [read more]

Today I rode from Queenstown to Coronet Peak. Here’s a shot of my geared KH36, with the road in the background.

A few days ago I left for a trip into the southern hemisphere, New Zealand. There is a big unicycle conference called UNICON in Wellington, which is at the bottom of the north island. I flew into Queenstown in the south island with a few friends of mine, Nathan, Grace and Beau and we have been having a great time! We are going to spend a week hanging out and cruising up north in our rental car, and then two weeks in Wellington for the conference. UNICON is the world championships for unicycling, I’m going to be competing in mountain... [read more]

HDR Town, Madagascar A cool picture, in that it looks like a mini-model. f/22, Canon digital Rebal, ISO 200, 3 shots HDR, 17.0mm

I was never happy with the last handlebar I made for my KH36 road unicycle. It attached underneath the base of my seat, and despite it being carbon fiber it still flexed quite a bit and I was afraid it would break. It also never felt quite right — I wanted it to be slightly lower, and slightly more forward. On my KH24 geared muni I have a handlebar that attaches to the seat post and has always felt great. Using the seat post wouldn’t work for my KH36, since I’m short and run the seat all the way as... [read more]

Here is a short video of me (in the back) riding the tandem unicycle with Jason. This was our third try. With practice, I’m sure we’ll be able to ride it.

My last post introducing my Tandem Unicycle originally started out with a step-by-step process of how I built it, but for some reason I lost the post. Here is how I made my tandem uni: This idea is not my original idea. A few years ago at a “California Mountain Unicycle Weekend” a guy named LobbyBobster on the unicycle forums brought one and I gave it a try with Beau Hoover. Here’s a picture of the creator and their tandem, which looks much nicer than mine! So, from seeing this uni two years ago and based loosely on this picture... [read more]

The Tandem Unicycle Project EDIT: Here are the tandem unicycle construction details for the makers out there. EDIT: A short video of me and Jason trying to ride it: riding the tandem uni. EDIT: For all the traffic visiting, I recommend watching the Africa Unicycle Video. It is much better!

Chameleons at Night While in Madagascar Louise and I did two guided night walks. It was quite amazing, as you could shine the flashlight in the trees and chameleons would show up bright white. They varied in size, and this one was tiny (think pinky size). It was difficult to photograph them; the first night it was raining and I didn’t bring the camera, and the second night we didn’t see any close enough to get good shots. This shot turned out “okay”, but not great.

While in Madagascar Louise and I did a short ride from Isle of Nattes to Isle Saint Marie and up the road a bit. The picture needs to be cropped slightly; you can see the power lines in the top right of the image.

Monkey Looking The red colubus monkey in Jozani Forest, Zanzibar off the east coast of Africa. Darn cute monkeys!