Sports & Fitness Learn to unicycle Parramatta

All those with an interest will say there is a severe under supply, if the young uns don't save and have no jobs/money, then it makes little diff.

 

I think there maybe a design issue with some past (2013) Aldi unicycles. The left crank loosens... not so good when unicycling to the station to work!
Luckily no accident. I felt it was all really loose, so I stopped and the crank just came right off Unfortunately I don't have the skills to ride one footed.

Also, we had after work Christmas drinks last night, but I wanted to leave early... go home and practise skills... I wanted to make good use of the long daylight hours

 

@Gockie
try a drop of loctite 243 on the threads

 

Sorry to hear about your peddle, at least it can screw back on. My Aldi uni broke the whole axle.... terminal for a unicycle.

And don't fret the turns, just stop thinking so hard about it and look where you want to go. I still have to make myself do that after riding much longer than you, and you are 10 times better than I was for the time you have been riding. No doubt this is in large part due to the Parramatta Unicycle Club and having people show you how to ride, not just You Tube.

 

Oh my goodness! Were you hopping?

I guess your aldi uni is now good for parts.

And I suppose that's part of the reason for the instructions "Max weight 80kg".

I think I'll have to keep trying for the cornering. By looking where I want to go I still don't turn as well as I would like. Maybe more air in the tire may help or otherwise I'll just have to gain the hopping skills.

 

Not hopping, just trying to idle. Still trying to idle now. And I am less than 80Kg!

In turns I get distracted by obstacles especially where the turn is tight. Looking where you want to go is common advice, but I REALLY look, as in turn my head like an owl and try to look at nothing else but the exit point. Not the lines on the ground, not the gutter that threatens to hit, nor the edge of the path. Just keep peddling while pointing your head at the destination. Keep your arms out and body straight.

Turning your head also helps twist your body and so assists the turn. The same technique is used for U turns on motorcycles. On my uni I practice tight turns in confined spaces, not so much to turn in the space needed, but not to let anything distract me from keeping the turn and the peddles going. Sometimes I get wobbly or the uni becomes too banked, then the key is point your head/body/uni at the target and keep on peddling!

More air makes the uni more responsive and more predicable in reaction. I keep my tires at 45-50 PSI, which makes riding on dirt very skittish and a bit scary, but turns and distance easier. I find the air pressure in the club unicycles very low and the tires flex in turns, which is very distracting. Good for bouncing and jumping, not for learning.

 

I missed the Parramatta meetup tonight, I left work too late (Damn month end!!!) grrr

But when I got home I did more riding and rode around the block (About 1.2km).... I made ALL the corners as I wanted to do them (and they are a little tricky - they have a definite slope - inclines and declines to them)!

The corners had been my nemesis.
The practise I did while camping between Christmas and New Year along with extra air in the tyre didn't hurt

Also... with the practising on my back balcony, I think i'll be able to ride backwards sometime soon. Put it this way, I think it shouldn't take 10 hours to learn that skill (touch wood!)

 

So... I've now started unicycling to and from the station when it's nice weather. My preferred route is 1.8km (its quiet and mostly fairly flat) and I only ever need to dismount once to cross one road. Cool.

I don't save time over walking (because if I walked i'd use a more direct route) and a bicycle is much faster and easier... but it doesn't matter
I get the occassional person clapping or saying a nice thing when I do this. And I show off my skills to the kids

 

Well done!!! There's nothing like getting out and unicycling in the wild. Parks and cycle tracks are so tame, you learn so much more dealing with gutters, bumps, cars, kids and dogs (and for me today, ducks). You will have to develop new skills, such as how to handle the oh-so-cleaver "you lost a wheel" comments, and how to leave your pride at home and fall off on a busy street.

How is your free mounting going?

 

And here I was thinking it was going to be a photo of you doing tricks, or juggling etc

 

Not quite yet for amazing tricks... turning was hard enough! I still am not awesome at steering.
Btw. I tried to learn juggling... nope. Can't do it.

Re: falling off... I made a bit of a fool of myself falling off when simply trying to mount yesterday morning, 200m or so from the station. Landed on my bum....

However, generally the mounting is ok! Admittedly I still don't get it 100% of the time but usually by attempt #3. The smaller unicycles are easier to mount but I prefer to ride the larger one to the train station because it's a reasonable distance, therefore the higher mounting failure rate.

I'll also say, last Friday was my first real attempt at unicycle hockey. My thought us that it really develops the manoeuvring skills. One of the young boys said that everybody sucks the first few times they play! I think I spent up to 70% of the time off my unicycle and perhaps 30% of the time on my unicycle.

I cam freemount left foot and also right foot first, but in public I'm always doing left foot first because it's my more natural side.

 

Now this is one serious bit of unicycling!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1445153618

 

oh my goodness... With 16 hours of riding there....

 

And check out the altitude gain, 9000m. In a day. On a unicycle!

Here is the details from this guy's Facebook post, not sure it's public so I copied the text too.

Ben Soja


Here's the story of my successful Everesting unicycle ride:
I heard about Everesting (everesting.cc) about a year ago and immediately started wondering if I could do it on a unicycle. It seemed almost impossible, but at the same time very intriguing. After I completed my last big project in September 2017 (Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains), I started to think more seriously about Everesting. I mounted a road tire and started exploring various mountain roads close to where I live. After I decided on the road up Mt Lowe in the San Gabriel Mountains, I did multiple practice runs and started to work out all the details.
Then, it was time to wait for favorable conditions. This Friday, March 10, the weather forecast was 13-21°C with a mix of sun and clouds, so I decided to go for it. I got up at 3am and started riding at about 3:30am. After two laps in the dark (one is about 620 m elevation gain), the sun rose and it was getting warm pretty fast. Since there was almost no shade, I was exposed to the sun for several hours. My body didn't like that and I started to feel nauseous, which made it difficult to keep up with the nutrition. As a result, I had a lap during which I was almost totally out of energy. I barely made it down and consequently forced myself to eat a lot to recharge my batteries. Unfortunately, my stomach could not handle it and made the next lap even worse. I had to take a break of almost an hour to recover. Luckily, at the same time clouds started forming. I continued riding and it felt much better!
During the next hours, everything was going well, but on lap #10, the last before sunset, I had a high-speed crash on the descent. As a result, my elbow is now missing some skin, but at least my legs were fine - the knee pads had saved me!
Completing 10 ascents had a very positive psychological effect on me. Even though the final 2600 m elevation gain had to be done in the dark, there was no way I would stop with my goal within reach. I was going much slower than during the day, but eventually - after 23 hours - I had finally completed the 8848 m!
I want to especially thank Tamara for looking after me several times during my ride! I could not have done it without you! It was also great to get so much positive feedback from the unicycling community when I posted live updates - such a great motivation!
https://www.strava.com/activities/1445153618/
Let me provide some more details about certain aspects you might find interesting:
Location:
A very important part in Everesting is selecting the right location. I think for doing it on a unicycle, the best way is choosing a rather steep road to reduce the overall distance. The road I selected had an average grade of 11% and I still had to complete a century ride. Another decision was traffic vs. road quality. The Mt Lowe Rd is very old and bumpy, has severe camber and quite a bit of dirt, gravel, and rocks on it. I put up with all that because 2/3 of the road are closed to motorized vehicles and the rest is only lightly used (even more so on a workday). In the night, 95% of the road is closed to vehicles. This allowed me to ride much more relaxed and pick ideal lines, which was especially helpful on the descent.
Equipment:
I used my #mad4one geared 27.5" unicycle and it worked great. I'm pretty sure that a Schlumpf hub is necessary for Everesting. Of course, the extra weight is bad for all the climbing going on, but it is much more efficient on the descents.
I used the Schwalbe G One Speed 27.5x2.35 tire with a tubeless set-up. It was really good to have such a wide tire to absorb all the bumps and for its volume, it's quite light. Maybe even too light, since the tire got a few small cuts, most likely due to gravel on the road. Luckily, the sealant could fix all small holes. In one of my practice rides, I even had a 5 mm cut, which needed patching from the inside. Unfortunately, the tire is also quite sensitive to road camber.
I picked 150 mm cranks - a good compromise of leverage and still being able to shift gears of the Schlumpf hub comfortably. In terms of the cockpit, a KH Fusion One with a T-bar worked well. It was very important that I could use both hands for braking during the long descents. I used platform pedals during the night and clipless pedals during the day. I'm not sure if the crash could have been avoided if I had used platform pedals all the time.
Logistics and general stuff:
It's very important to think through all eventualities and bring plenty of tools, spare parts, extra clothes, food, and water. Having somebody to support you on site is highly recommended. Tamara charged the batteries of my headlamp, brought fresh food & warm tea, and helped me get through tough times.
I used the Strava app on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S8+) for GPS tracking. In this case, the elevation data provided by Strava is used, which is based on barometer measurements collected by other riders. During my preparations, I found out through tests that the Strava data on this segment is very accurate with a perfectly smooth elevation profile (no spikes, saw-tooth patterns, etc.). Using the Strava data resulted in a 4% lower recorded elevation gain on this segment compared to using my own barometer measurements. I'm therefore very confident that I've actually climbed the 9000 m and it's not just due to bad GPS data.
Finally, riding the same road multiple times can be quite monotonous. I listened to music basically all the time to keep myself on track. Also, I was hoping it would scare away any mountain lions or bears that might cross my path

 

Mt Kozioszckos under 3000m... so he did that more than 3 times. Kudos.

 

A new term for me, but Evertesting must be a new cycling world holy grail. Somehow I don't think Kozioszcko-ing will catch on as well

EVERESTING - EVERESTING

 

Second worst injury - while learning to go down kerbs.

 

Sorry about that, can't click the "like" button for that post. I guess you made it down the kerb, that's braver than me

Time for some protective gear? I have some good gear but have yet to wear when needed, other than gloves that I never, ever go without.

 

What a good cause, and a good way to help it..

Mental Health – Lee Griggs

 

You inspired me to go out and learn how to ride off gutters. I made an adjustable ramp to practice. Started at a 5cm drop, now up to 15cm with variable success. The pedal position on landing makes a difference. As does tyre pressure.


Of course any improvement in skill is meaningless in the real world where everything learnt just disappears