Yesterday, we did a great 50 km ride out in the Bay area, to celebrate Geoff’s birthday. We had five schumpfs on the ride! 3 geared KH 29’ers, 1 Nimbus 36 with the old Schlumpf hub, and 1 Nimbus 36 with the KH schlumpf hub (my uni). Man…the guni’s are fast! I hit a record speed for myself (more by accident than anything else); 24.9 MPH.
Tom W took some pictures and posted them online: http://flickr.com/photos/tomwphotos/sets/72157604648367869/
corbin
That is scary fast on one wheel, shortly after I got mine I went down going just shy of 20mph and it was not very forgiving.
Your right; I think I’m going to invest in some knee pads, just in case.
I’ve found I can actually cruise at 20-21mph if there is a slight downhill.
corbin
Question: Why is this guy holding a small bicycle in his hands?
http://flickr.com/photos/tomwphotos/2429006085/in/set-72157604648367869/
STM
I also think I am going to invest in some pads for RTL purposes. I find that with my geared 29 on the slight downhills I am going crazy fast and I get really scared of what would happen if I were to fall.
I haven’t fallen off at my top speeds, but I have had to roll out of falls on occasion. Based on my experiences with “lower” high speed falls, I think my hips and elbows would be at least as important to pad as my knees, if not more. I usually only land on my knees on weird low speed MUni or trials type falls.
My photos from the same ride: http://www.flickr.com/gp/83189681@N00/o7D235
Thanks to Geoff for organizing it; it was a lot of fun! I think we had 14 unicyclists for at least parts of the ride, along with Geoff and a handful of rollerbladers, and a couple of bikes.
Hah! that’s quite a funny picture. And that guy is me.
corbin
I had a bit of a crash yesterday. It was at the end, I was tired, and trying to catch up with team Yellow Line Fever.
I wasn’t going that fast, Maybe 15mph when I came off the front. I can’t recall exactly how I landed, but I didn’t run out of it, and I wound up doing a bit of a sommersault. I lost a little bit of skin on my left elbow, and a little bruise on the same hip.
My knees were completely unscathed.
I was going about 15 mph when I broke my collar bone. Of course it helps a lot to not have your foot tied to the pedal when you fall off. Keep those shoelaces controlled!
Speaking of which, I just, finally ordered a pair of “proper” road riding shoes for unicycles, the Sam Hill from Five Ten. Until now I’ve been still using the damaged shoes I was wearing the day of the crash…
Since then, and with the bone still in the healing process, I’ve had absolutely no interest in pushing the limits on speed. Problem is, even riding at “cruising” speed it’s now in the 15 mph range, and will hopefully be faster. But I guess I’ll just keep concentrating on long-term consistency.
I’m not worried about my knees either, though they got scraped up pretty good in the collar bone crash.
Sorry I couldn’t make the Geoff Birthday Ride, that could have brought the Schlumpf total to 6!
Looks like a heck of a good time. My cohort has yet to get a single GUni let alone 5!
It only took one crash for me to decide to get some safety gear. I’m probably on the excessive end compared to most people around here. Putting in 50 miles or more a week in my commute alone, plus my distance riding, I just think that I’m out there enough to increase my odds of crashing enough to merit it.
It was really a beautiful day for a ride yesterday. 50km is a perfect distance, enough for some exercise but not a long ride. And Geoff provided fantastic food and drink at the 25km mark and at the finish.
This was perfect RTL training since the hills were modest and we kept up a decent pace. It was really amazing watching how well Corbin has learned to shift his 36er in such a short time. He lent it to Beau for a while who was amazed that at 21mph, he was fine to look down and check his speed. Corbin looks like a bicyclist when he rides his.
Tom H and Kevin were cruising fast and comfortable on their shiftable 29ers. Mike let me try his shiftable 36 and I actually made a successful upshift. When I tried downshifting though, things got dicey. I think I didn’t click it quite enough because I completely went into neutral and went down quick (onto my feet).
Awesome times. THANKS to Tom W for the excellent photos.
—Nathan
John, those look like good shoes for winners: they have the Champion Rainbow stripes on them! 
Yeah, I’d also say elbows and hips get hit first from falls on road riding - I’ve got some funky scarring on my right elbow from a couple of fast-ish falls (not on public roads luckily), and both times also grazed my hip; but knees were fine.
Sam
Yes, I’m paying the extra $25 or so for those tiny little stripes. Plus I’m not so into black shoes. I’ve seen rainbow jerseys get awarded in person, at the Indoor Cycling World Championships in 1982, 83 and 86. (Example)
Nathan, I’ve experienced the same thing in lots of downshifts on Robert Allen’s Schlumpf. Am I doing something wrong? I get about 30 degrees of freewheel, which may as well be 360 as it’s usually too much to recover from…
I only hit my knee once but my wrist have taken a beating and got some big purple lumps
John,
Those shoes do indeed look good, but I am in the market for a shoe that will grip well, not have laces AND be somewhat waterproof or at least dry fast. I am looking for a unicycle touring shoe that will be able to dry out fast in a tent or under a tarp. I wonder how well those shoes you posted will hold out under wet conditions and how fast they dry or if they will be comfy when wet.
I WISH I was up there with you guys! I keep getting all your MUni list emails, and every single ride you guys do, I wish I was there! I can’t wait for Strawberry Fields Forever. Jeez, I hope I have my hub back by then. Florian should be sending it back soon with a new planet carrier (that’s the part I broke).
I was probably doing 15 or so on my coker when I wiped out last week, and just skid across the pavement. I can’t say my hips or my elbows have ever hit the ground, but my knees and my forearm took some abuse.
Of course, I was more concerned about reassembling my brand new $40 gloves…
Yeah, I UPD’d at 19mph a couple Saturdays ago trying to race a mountain bike over… can you say… bumpy, tree-rooted broken pavement? I don’t think I can get much stupider, and I always surprise myself. 
Luckily all I got was a bunch of cool looking blood, nothing serious. I’m just now pretty much all the way healed.
Try Salomons. I’ve been using them for years. Uses a Kevlar fastening system that tucks away.