Forums > Technical Discussion > Competition

Posted: 31st Jul 2002
Oh, come on, make it something hard!

You were doing a simple rotor in front (ccw, I think), while pedalling backwards. Nice picture.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy

Posted: 31st Jul 2002
Spinning a staff while moving backwards on a unicycle.

But it's really cool!

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura

Posted: 31st Jul 2002
yeah, too easy, why dont you ask peeps what moves you were doing during you 'shutter time experiment'? That would be worth something

N

This is a post by tom, all spelling is deleberate
-><- Kallisti

Posted: 31st Jul 2002
Or could have been riding forward if it was a leading flash

Posted: 31st Jul 2002
Ok Adam. I'll make it hard. I'd like a bare minimum of the following answered, plus as much more info as you can get from the photo.

1. Is the staff rotating counter clockwise or clockwise...

2. Is it a standard rotor?

3. What size wheel is the unicycle?
(20inch, 24inch or 28inch)

4. Was I facing the same direction for the whole photo?

5. If I wasn't facing the same direction, which way did I start and which way did I finish?

6. If I was facing the same direction, am I going forwards or backwards?

But that doesn't mean to say that anyone has got it right yet, though the first three posts were completely wrong...

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Posted: 1st Aug 2002
Click here for the photo.

I think that you were traveling from left to right as most cameras put the flash at the beginning of the exposure.. I think.. That and you say the first three answers were completely wrong and they said backwards..

I think you turned around about half way across because the fire is broken (probably when it passed behind your arm) and I then think you did something wierd with the staff either over-head or a throw because the centre of the spin is quite a bit higher and then it falls as it goes out of the photo.. ie one complete rotar then possibly a turn and/or something a bit wierd that I can't work out..

At the beginning (if I am correct so far) the staff would be spinning clockwise as you face in from the left of the picture.. if you did turn then after the turn the staff is, from your perspective, going counter-clockwise.

I guess the size of the unicycle is 28" by comparision to the size of the circles and assuming you are using your 1.5m staff(s).

Of course, I could be completely wrong..
Oh well.
Tom

Posted: 1st Aug 2002
Pretty good there Tom...

2 comments are bang on, and the rest are certainly food for thought. Glass and Tom were both correct when saying I was going forwards. Yay you guys...But there's still a bit more that's not quite right...

(Hint to Tom, Glass and others) Have a look at the trail left by my face on the far left of the picture and see if there are any other trails similar to that showing motion...

Also, my staffs are 1.4 metres long, not 1.5, and I am a short little bugger, not very tall at all...

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Posted: 2nd Aug 2002
If the light smudges that I took to be light reflections are actually your head then did you do a neck wrap just after the photo started?

And I guess the unicycle is probably 20".. granted that if that guess is still wrong there is only one more option left..

I like photos...

Posted: 2nd Aug 2002
Charles, just a quick question ( I liked the picture by the way but had difficulty to determine what was going on )

It is about the next picture where you are doing the burn off, I have done some small burnoff attempts with my staff but without too much effect. What sort of wicks (size and material) do you have please?

Thanks, Mark P

Posted: 3rd Aug 2002
im gonna extend an answer here, and charles can correct me if im wrong, but burn offs are extremely difficult, if not impossible with manufactured staffs, the wick is too tightly bound and the fuel will not come off the wicks quickly enough, however, with a homemade staff, the wicks are usually much more loosely bound and thus the fuel spins off relatively easy and thus greater amounts are present in the air for the resulting burnoff...

i think...

Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE!

Posted: 5th Aug 2002
Mark P. For that particular photo, it was standard Kevlar-Cotton mix, or Wale tape, as it is known in the glass blowing industry. It's not quite as good as the wick sold on this site, but close (And the same price too).

It was 1.5 feet on each end, and 5cm wide. Tube core wicks. What you might find useful is that my staff diameter, is 13 millimetres across and I don't have a handle on the staff, so that is the width right along the shaft. The smaller the diameter of the staff, the faster it spinns when you do a burnoff and that affects the size of the fireballs just as much as the wick itself...

Whiffle - I'd like to try to disagree with that statement, but have yet to find a "manufactured" staff as far as the wick goes anyway...If you mean commercially available ones like the Pure Flame and Innercore (yay Innercore!) then the pure flame is tightly bound and the Innercore is quite loose.

As for their effect on burnoffs, the tighter and larger the wicks the better. Of course this is only in my own experience, and my staffs may behave differently to yours.

Very loose wicks tend to spray some of the fuel out in droplets which don't ingnite, and the fireball is likely to be fairly short. With a tightly bound wick, you'll get more 'aspiration' , and the burnoff will be spread over several seconds.

Despite what some people think, the longer the burnoff takes, the bigger the final flame, as the fireballs keep adding to themselves and they often turn into two seperate mushroom clouds.

And Tom, there is other smudges in the photo not relating to my head or neck...

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Posted: 5th Aug 2002
Thanks Charles and Whiffle,

My staff is one of the 3 piece HoP ones and I do really like it (especially since it packs down nice and descretely )

I still have a long way to go with learning staff cos I spend most of my time with poi attached to my fingers , this also means that I have caused quite a lot of dammage to the original wicks and will be replacing them soon (hopefully!) so I will bear in mind both your comments when I replace them and let you know the results

Also I do not know wether it is just the fact that it is me not seeing the full effect of the burn off as I am concentrating on spinning the staff.

Thanks again, Mark P