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Product: Toy: Pogo Stick
Pogo-roo   (+11, -3)  [vote for, against]
Pogo stick with kangaroo type assisting tail

Pogo-roo is a refinement of the conventional pogo stick and is based on the appearance, action and resulting motion of a kangaroo's tail.

The tail is attached across the pogo-stick mid shaft, and protrudes backwards between the legs of the user. It is balanced on damped springs, and counterweighted, so that as the pogo-stick jumper bounces and leans forward, the tail adds considerably to their speed and motion. It achieves this by following the same principal of the animal it imitates.

Tails are adjustable to match the characterstics of their individual users, in amplitude, weight and resistance.

Pogo-roo !! Go jump like a Kangaroo.
-- xenzag, Oct 09 2006

BBC kangaroo motion http://www.bbcmotio...90ea2c298f86&page=1
take out the kangaroo, put in the pogo [xenzag, Oct 10 2006]

Pogo-roo https://picasaweb.g...5469221874989621266
clandestine photograph of a pogo-roo being tested [xenzag, Oct 13 2006, last modified Jul 10 2012]

It's this a kids' toy or a sex aid?
-- DrCurry, Oct 09 2006


that depends on the range of amplitude you set on the tail's movement.
-- xenzag, Oct 10 2006


And on every landing whatever inertia is not absorbed by your knees is absorbed by whatever bits hit the tail you are straddling. Ouch.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Oct 10 2006


I like it. This will allow you to lean forward and get the thing going. [Ah...but you said that!]
-- ldischler, Oct 10 2006


[GC] You never come into contact with the tail, and much of the inertia of a pogo-stick is tranferred into the energy stored in the spring, to be released on the next jump forward, assisted in this case by the tail. Seems to work fine on a kangaroo anyway, hence the idea.
-- xenzag, Oct 10 2006


I don't see that the tail helps a kangaroo bounce. A tail on a pogo stick is going to add weight and complexity, besides bollocking up the balance and rotational inertia.
-- baconbrain, Oct 10 2006


[baconbrain] //I don't see that the tail helps a kangaroo bounce// You cannot be serious !
-- xenzag, Oct 10 2006


Yeah, I am serious. I can see the tail as a stabilizer and a counterweight, which might help a bouncing kangaroo stay upright, but I don't see it as something to make a 'roo go higher.

Nor can I see where a tail is going to help a pogo stick. I haven't jumped on one for years, but I used to be good at it, and never thought a tail was needed (and I am just the kind of guy who would have figured it out if one was).

Now, thinking about it, I'd rather put a tail-like counterweight on springs on the FRONT side of the stick to balance out my own backside.

Back to 'roos. If the tail is actively pulled up and down at the right times, it possibly could take some load off the leg muscles, at the expense of the tail muscles. But, on a pogo stick a spring-loaded "tail" won't have the muscles needed to give a useful boost.
-- baconbrain, Oct 10 2006


//but I don't see it as something to make a 'roo go higher// then you need to study its motion a little more carefully, and you might change your mind. I suggest the BBC which has extensive slow-mo videos. It's just not something I feel I have to defend. The motion speaks for itself, and can be mechanically imitated.

You can of course wear your tail where you choose. I'm sure a new strain of kangaroo will eventually evolve with its tail facing the front, and when it does you can say "see told ya !!" :-)
-- xenzag, Oct 10 2006


Or it can say, "I really am happy to see you."
-- shapu, Oct 13 2006



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