Super inspiring tour Sid! I can’t wait to hear about it when you are done. Hopefully you will be at Unicon this year!
Hmm, another broken KH handle? This seems to be very common for three uni tour blogs I have read recently. Were you able to weld it and fix it?
Best of luck on the tour, it sounds awesome.
Wow, Sid, you are a beast!
My 9 yr old son, (named Denali), is almost riding now (getting 10 & 15 revs), and your “forum name” is the same as his REAL name, so he’s quite inspired by you. Seeing you make it across Oz, he knows he’ll be able to ride to the end of our street one day soon.
Keep it up, and keep us posted. You’re HUGE!
I pedaled into Ceduna yesterday on Day 40 becoming the second person to unicycle across the Nullarbor. See map. After 2591km of unicycling I am 1095km from Adelaide and the end of Part One of the 3 Oceans Unicycle Tour.
The Nullarbor crossing was an incredible experience. There were some intense moments that included riding 198km between roadhouses over two days on 3 burgers and 3lit. of water; A desperate 11 hour-145km dash to get to Nundroo Roadhouse; And unicycling Australia’s longest straight road (146km) where if it weren’t for my watch, the relativity of time and space would be non-existent.
There were many moments of exhilaration: from riding down Madura Pass and up Eucla pass with amazing views of the plains below and the ocean. And of course, the limestone Bunda Cliffs of the Great Australian Bight. I met a lot of kind travellers (including an intrepid Japanese cyclist) whom I shared food, drinks, stories, smiles and laughter with.
There were some comical moments: I still have trouble putting up a bloody tent after all these years (clumsy as always!!!).
Apart from the few aches and pains, and the weight loss (the incredible Nullarbor diet. I could make a fortune), all is well. Mimi the Unicycle is doing amazingly well. I hope to reach Adelaide in a little over 2 weeks.
[QUOTE=siafirede;1251491]
Hmm, another broken KH handle? This seems to be very common for three uni tour blogs I have read recently. Were you able to weld it and fix it?
[QUOTE]
Yup, I got it rewelded 1400km ago and its held up fairly well so far. It broke at the same place as all the others.
Hey Sid!! Great to hear from you. This is a truly amazing trip you are taking on. Even biking it would be intense!
I can’t wait to hear stories from you at Unicon (you better be going!).
Dude, you’re an animal. Keep the pics and stories coming. Between you and the Tour de France, a great month for gnarly sports.
I think it would be really cool to hear a rundown of all the gear you are bringing, maybe two seperate writeups, one about the unicycle specific gear and another about your camping/living/clothes gear.
What an amazing journey!I’ve been enjoying you blog and pictures.Looks like you might make some sort of record of multiple metric centuries,not to mention the more obvious distance records.
john
Way to go!
Hello hello!
bumped into you and your mighty unicycle along te Eyre Highway a couple of days ago whilst driving back from melbourne to perth. my friend and i are totally amazed by you! way to go!
Raiyes
Hi Sid,
great feat of yours.
I just wondered how the luggage rack works on a unicycle. As much as I can see it’s something like this. Right?
Any conflicts with your legs when pedaling?
How much weight do you put on the rack?
How does the unicycle behave with luggage strapped to it?
As I am in long distance unicycling as well (ok, not sooo long as you, obviously), I saw your pics and thought it is a great idea to mount such a rack.
All the best for the long way in front of you,
Wolfgang
End of part 1 
A few hours after the Tour de France riders stormed into Paris finishing their ride, a lone unicyclist pretending to be the wearer of the famed yellow jersey wobbled onto the Champs Elysees…Ooops! I meant King William Street in Adelaide. That’s right, I was getting quite delusional by the end
Mimi the Unicycle and I reached Adelaide (map) last Monday after 58 days on the road and 3687km. The last 1000km from Ceduna wasn’t as cruisy as I had hoped. Instead it was the toughest section. It began with some intense winds and rain on the Eyre Peninsula that at times slowed me down to walking speed. The weather took its toll on my knees and the last 10 days of the trip became quite painful. Even Mimi was getting a bit ‘crank-y’. But as we got closer, I just put my head down and pedalled. A few harrowing moments getting into Adelaide (road trains coming so close that the suction they caused pulled the unicycle from under me) didn’t deter me. I was relieved when I was finally done. And now I am back home in Melbourne/Frankston.
It’s gonna be back on the road in November to pedal the remaining 2000km from Adelaide to Sydney (via Melbourne and Canberra).
Fundraiser:
If you live around Melbourne, please do come to the 3 Oceans Fundraiser.
Date: Aug 7, Friday
Time: 7:30p.m. to midnight
Venue: Airport Lounge and Sir John’s Bar at Building 10, Monash University Clayton
Pre-sale Tickets: $10 ($15 on the night).
It’s going to be a an evening with music and laughter with the live music of the Better Than the Wizards, stand-up comedy, raffles and prizes and of course, Mimi and I.
The blog will be completely updated over the next couple of days. Do take a look and also at the website for updates. The wesbite doesn’t seem to be functioning properly on a Windows XP/IE8 combination. I will redo the whole thing in a month or so.
Sid
a
Steveyo: You told me about Denali when I first joined the forums. He’ll be running circles around us in no time
Dangerdog: I haven’t updated the blog in a bit. I will do it over the next couple of days. The ride had a total of 16 metric centuries with 145km being the longest day. Though the 127km on Day 57 was the hardest day. I seem to prefer a couple of long days and a rest day, instead of many medium days in a row. I use the rest day to do some sight-seeing.
Nathan and Wolfgang: I was riding an ungeared KH 36". For the supported section I used 125mm cranks. For the unsupported section I used 150mm cranks. By the end I was riding as fast with my gear on 150mm than with no gear on 125mm. I think 140mm might have been the right length. I’m not too keen on trying 125mm cranks with all the gear because my left knee is a bit wonky.
I had a rear rack. Almost the same one in the link by Wolfgang. The rack weighs about 1kg. It is made up of three parts that can be separated. I think a 2 part rack would save weight. On the rack I carried a tent (1.3kg), a sleeping bag (600g) and a down jacket (700-800g). I tried to pack most of the weight as close as I could to the seat post. You can feel the difference when the weight is even a little bit away from the seat post. I don’t think the rack is the best way to carry gear as you can feel the pressure on your legs and in the long run, it may hurt your knees. Mine hurt towards the end. And if you notice, for a 1kg rack, I wasn’t carrying too much gear on it. The rack can take a max of 9kg.
The rest of my gear was carried in my backpack (1.5kg). The gear included:
Spare clothes: (1 cycling jersey, 1 pair thermals, 1 pair shorts, 1 t-shirt, 1 rain jacket (240g), 2 pairs gloves, 2 pairs socks, 2 lightweight face towels). I wore the thermals at night. I could have not taken the t-shirt and the shorts but I wanted something decent to wear when I wasn’t riding and in a town. Apart from all that while riding I wore: a jersey, cycling shorts (and a ripped out padding from a pair of cycling shorts to make it double padding), socks and leggings.
Toiletries in small portions.
Head torch (35g), swiss army knife, spare battries.
Map, money, indentification, ATM card.
Video camera, phone (with camera), netbook, USB modem and chargers.
4.5lit water carrying capacity in 3 Nalgene plastic cantenes.
Food and water.
Very basic first aid kit
SPOT satellite messenger (350g). I used this only on the Nullarbor when I didn’t have reception.
Tools (only the ones I need to change cranks, pedals, tighten things) and spare tube (and lots of patches).
The netbook crashed early on, so I was carrying 1.2kg of deadweight the whole time. Bummer! Maybe without the laptop I may have tried to carry the sleeping bag and down jacket in the backpack and attached the tent to the seat-post. This would eliminate the rack.
The rack helped coz at the start the saddle soreness was bad and even though there wasn’t much weight on the rack, it still made a difference (even if it was a placebo). Towards the end my butt got a little bit more used to it. So, I’m still undecided about the rack (3600+ and still undecided…damn!). A long tour with lots of gear: use the rack and know how much weight you can take. A shorter tour with not a lot of gear: just use a backpack.
Interesting. I had experimented with a similar rack set up:
http://dcuni.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/cimg4704.JPG
I attribute my knee injury to using that seatpost mounted rack though. There is just too much awkward weight.
It does save crotch pain, but if I ever do any other self supported trip…I am ONLY carrying the weight on my back. For the most part though, I don’t see myself doing self supported trips with a tent and sleeping bag on a unicycle anymore. That kind of thing is much better suited for a bicycle. If I do multi day trips on the uni…it will probably be credit card touring and staying at hostels.
Anyway, I love the pics and it sounds like quite the adventure!
good to read an update and by the way I love that certificate.
john.
Sid, You are an amazing rider
Congratulations from UDCA on your ride ; we have been following your ride and what an achievement. You are pretty amazing.
Cheers
Mal
Sounds very reasonable (with the exception of the netbook). Do you know the total weight you carried on your back? My guess would be at least 15kg, as short to 5kg are for water only.
I think the most I carried on my back may have been about 13kg (including water).
Like Siafirede said, if you can get away without a tent and lots of camping gear by getting places to stay, then that’ll be a better option than carrying all that gear. I’d use the rack only if the place I was riding is remote.
http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2009/08/one-track-minds.html
This piece also has a reference to Gracie’s and Matt’s Great Divide ride and Ken Looi too.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Sid.Denali.Rajan/3OceansUnicycleTourPerthToAdelaide#5367400526745709906
A video I made up to show friends and family (watch the HQ version). It’s not fully edited though.
3 Oceans Unicycle Tour Part 2
Hey folks,
The 3 Oceans Unicycle Tour across Australia resumed about 2 weeks ago. In the first part I rode 3687km in 58 days from Perth to Adelaide along the southern coast of Australia. Part is around 2000km from Adelaide to Sydney via Melbourne and Canberra.
I’ve already ridden the 1000km to Melbourne in 15 days. The ride began in a heat wave and I started off slow but things picked up in the final 8 days (700km+) when it cooled off a bit.
Check out the blog and the website.
I’ll post some pics when I’m back to my computer. Only 1000 more km to go
Sid
Good luck Sid! Are you heading to Unicon? cough Hockey cough