Learning Journal

[LargeEddie]

Originally Posted by Uni Lateral

I initially found I was hoping up into the saddle and was perfectly balanced for a few moments which I thought was good, but of course it isnt. You need to go over the top to immediately start that forward lean to pedal into.

Yes, I know what you're talking about now. I got as far as knowing that I needed to end up farther forward than perfectly balanced, as you say. But my attempts at doing that so far are rather crude and I'm as likely to be too far forward as not far enough. I'm assuming that's just a matter of time and practice. I was happy even to get to the point last evening where I recognized that as something I needed to work on.

Just started the same process on the larger Muni as the mounting dynamis are all different to the 20" trainer.

You're ahead of me there too. Mine's sitting there smiling at me with the shiny new Hookworm tire I put on it a couple of weekends ago. I'm feeling like there's plenty for me to learn yet on the 20" uni, and the 26er will still be there when I feel ready to start on it. And I'm enjoying your reports on your progress with it. I'm keeping that in mind for when I try to get started on mine.

[LargeEddie]

(A week and a half passes.) Too much work to do and raining buckets when I might have taken a few minutes to go out and practice... I finally found time for a little bit of riding after dinner this evening and I was wondering how it would go after 8 missed days. Not to worry though. After a couple of minutes I felt fine and wound up doing my best and longest rides to date.

I started on the patio, doing a few cranks forward and backward to warm up and feel my balance again, then moved over to the driveway for a couple of short rides. That felt good enough that I decided to venture out into the street for the first time. I steadied myself to launch on a car parked by the curb (no free mounts today) and after a few misfires was rolling up the street to 30, 40, and eventually over 50 half-cranks. For the first time, I had time to actually think about what I was doing as I was riding along. That was fun.

It was steamy hot here today, still 88 °F and 70% RH after 8 pm, so I kept it short but I'm very encouraged by that. I guess that's the power of rest and recovery, or maybe it's just the passing of time letting adaptation run its course.

[LanceB]

That sounds great, LargeEddie, you're really coming along! Great to see the progress.
It's funny how you can be struggling with something for a while, then all of a sudden it just "clicks." I've been working on mounting the 36'r, and have been stagnant at about 20 - 30% success rate for weeks. Then this morning out of about a dozen mounts I got 9 or 10 of them. (And they were mostly pretty good ones, too, not sloppy, barely saving it.) This is practicing at the far (mostly deserted) end of the parking lot at work -- I'm almost encouraged enough to try it out in public. Maybe this weekend...

[LargeEddie]

I was curious as to just how bad my weather conditions yesterday would be considered by others so I used an online Dew Point Calculator which told me that 88°F and 70% RH means the dew point was 77°F. According to the Wikipedia entry, a 77°F dew point is beyond "very humid," well into "extremely uncomfortable," pushing into "fairly oppressive."

The Dew Point Calculator website said that at under those conditions I'm at high risk for Natural Aging, Mechanical Damage, and Metal Corrosion, with a Days-to-Mold of 153. And they're the experts so they should know.

[LargeEddie]

Originally Posted by LanceB

That sounds great, LargeEddie, you're really coming along! Great to see the progress.

Thanks!

This is practicing at the far (mostly deserted) end of the parking lot at work -- I'm almost encouraged enough to try it out in public. Maybe this weekend...

Congratulations on your success too. Don't forget that what you're doing in riding a 36er at all is pretty much pure magic for 99.999% of people, including me.