Terrifying monowheel vehicle, 1917

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[–] 12 points 1 year ago (1 child)

There are like 7 wheels, no?

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Modern versions are just as terrifying ...

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Awesome. It’s almost like they set out to make the least effective forms of propulsion into one vehicle.

    NGL though. I really want to build a mono wheel :-)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I have to wonder if there's some amount of "bigger wheel make vehicle go faster" mentality here, similar to the design philosophy of this locomotive from half a century earlier:

    http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/9footer/9footer.htm

    Link with more details: http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/9footer/9footer.htm

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    Whenever I see vehicles like this, I'm always like, how do you stop safely? Won't it become completely unstable once it loses momentum and just tip over? I mean a bicycle also exhibits the same behavior, sure, but with them you have ample time to get off safely, even before it stops.

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  • [+] -7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    You don't. Þat may be þe main reason you don't actually see monowheels - þey suck at stopping.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I figured as much, yeah. Makes sense. I guess they figured out the moving part, just not the stopping part. Ah well. We got enough vehicles that kill us to go around as it is.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    God damn. How many engineers really wanted this concept to be popular? There are so many of these lol

    How do you stop quickly? Wouldn't you just, like... Keep rolling? 🤔

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