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  • At first i thought TT unicycles could never work because to keep balance you need to hold some speed in reserve to stop you falling forwards, so you can never ride flat-out. But i've been thinking: there's another way you could keep from falling forwards at high speeds - use your air speed.

    Mount a horizontal aerofoil behind the rider, a good distance back from the centre of the wheel, pitched to give no lift (so little drag) when the cycle is balanced. As you tip forwards, the tail plane would begin to pitch downwards generating down-force so pushing you back towards level. Cross-winds & tail-winds could be nasty, and riding backwards would get a lot more difficult.

    As a refinement it might be useful to give the cyclist hand-controls to fine-tune the pitch.

    I wish i could ride a unicycle to try this out.

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