Monowheel

Keith Dufrane rides his monowheel in the 2005 Doodah Parade in Columbus, Ohio.

A monowheel is a one-wheeled vehicle similar to a unicycle. However, instead of sitting above the wheel, the rider sits either within it 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.

Pedal-powered monowheels were 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.

Variants and related vehicles

There have been many proposals for variants or uses, such as a horse-drawn monowheel or a monowheel tank or Philip Beltracchi's mousetrap powered monowheel. A variant was proposed that placed two riders outside of the wheel itself, with one person on each side to provide for balance.

One interesting variant presented at Burning Man in 2003 involves the passengers sitting in front of the wheel and being balanced by a heavy counterweight inside the wheel. Rather than the typical ring drive, this vehicle is powered through a sprocket attached to the spokes.

A related vehicle is the diwheel or the dicycle, in which the rider is suspended between or inside of a pair of large wheels placed side by side. An example of this would be the character Axel from the Twisted Metal series of video games published by Sony.

Appearances in media

Fiction

• Iain M. Banks' book Against a Dark Background contains a rare instance of a monowheel as an important feature of a fictional work.
• Stanislav Lem's novel Eden features motorized variants of the monowheel.
• In South Park episode "The Entity" Mr Garrison makes a gyroscope-stabilized, turbine-engine-propelled device resembling the monowheel, called "IT" (pronounced the word "it", a play on early hype for the Segway), with a rather uncomfortable user interface.
• In the French animated television series Code Lyoko, the character Ulrich Stern uses a monowheel called a "monocycle" (basically a motorized unicycle) as his vehicle of choice on Lyoko. Ulrich's, in particular, is capable of flight and land travel, and he refers to it as the "Overbike".
• In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, the character Sheen pilots a flying monowheel type device which can travel in space.
• In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, General Grievous uses a wheel bike similar to a monowheel.
• In the animated series Star Wars: Droids the young miner Jann Tosh owns a similar wheel bike
• In the animated series and action figure line Spiral Zone, Colonel Dirk Courage rode the Rimfire, a large monowheel with an attached cannon.
• The Mowercycle of Chaotic is a monowheel with gripping teeth that also act as sawteeth.
• The War Wheel is a huge, armored battle tank that first appeared in DC's Blackhawk comic. War wheels were also used in the Justice League (TV series).
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, the character Jack Atlus uses a monowheel D-Wheel in riding duels.
• In Kirby Super Star, the helper from the wheelie powerup is a monowheel.

They are noticeably more common in Japanese anime and manga.

• In the OVA series Dirty Pair Flash Mission 3, a young female assassin called Monica drives a Red Futuristic Monowheel.
• In Hiroya Oku's manga series Gantz, the players are provided with a very fast motorized monowheel (called the Gantz Bike) to evade their alien opponents during a mission later in the story.
• In the first episode of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, a protagonist uses one in a rescue of the eponymous character.
• In Katsuhiro Otomo's 2004 film Steamboy, Ray Steam, the protagonist of the story, uses a steam-powered monowheel early in the movie.
• In the animated adaptation of Venus Wars, one-wheeled motorcycles are used both in bloodsport and combat.
• Mobile Suit Victory Gundam features the Einrad, a colossal monowheel used as a transport vehicle for the Zanscare Empire's mobile suits.

Non-fiction

• In an episode of the British television show Scrapheap Challenge, two teams competed to build and race monowheels.
• In the Australian Reality TV show Push the Limit a monowheel challenge ended when contestant Kate Siopis fractured her wrist.
• Many monowheels were used in the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
• The Uno, invented by Canadian teenager Ben Gulak, is the first monowheel motorcycle in the world.

Advertising media

• In a 2007 television commercial produced for the drink brand Capri Sun, a boy and a girl are both riding in variants which appear to be manufactured vehicles made of metal and fiberglass (up to the point where they are levitated into the air by a CGI effect).

See also

• Unicycle

External links

• Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge page on the Monowheel
• Monovelo, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Monowheel
• Ben Wilson's simplified, DIY monowheel
• History of the monowheel
• The RIOT Wheel is a huge, heavy motorized single-wheel vehicle, originally built for Burning Man, the natural home of deviant vehicles
• Speedy New Motor-Hoop Amazes Italians, Popular Science, December 1924, page 40, Scanned by Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=FSkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40
• Amazing New Motor-Driven Hoop May Be Car of the Future, Popular Science, May 1932, front cover and page 63, Scanned by Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=1ScDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover
• War Tank on One Wheel, Operated by One Man, Popular Science, November 1933, front cover and page 47, Scanned by Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=7CcDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover
• Cycle World: Circle Cycle
• Imapct Lab: History of the World’s Craziest Invention - The Monowheel
• Home & Garden Publications: Vehicles with Insufficient Wheels