Ahead of myself and loving it...

General
1

Alright, I’m a uni freak finally. Its such an odd hobby, but I’m addicted now.
I’m working on idling for the most part now. I have 20 [back and forth] cycles
down now. Am I far off from mastering this? As far as riding backwards goes, I
would say, I’ve had some freak accidents of 3-4 revolutions going backwards. Am
I close to getting this backwards stuff down or is it gonna take a while? I can
hop on my uni a little now, but 3 hops is my max. I think hopping is stupid,
just a flashy move. Alright, well, my goal for this school year is being able to
idle in one place, while balancing a club on my nose and juggling 3 more. I
haven’t gotten the skill of balancing a club on my nose while juggling yet but
I’ve about mastered balancing, pens and stuff, on my nose. So anyway, my
question is, at my position now, how long will it be before I can idle and
balance a club on my nose, without juggling. Btw, I probably get 1-2 hours at
least, practice, per day. Thanx for any ‘guestimates’…

Greg

2

Re: Ahead of myself and loving it…

>Actually, I have never ridden inside, except down dorm halls… which they don’t
>like too much.

So for tire replacement, you don’t have to worry if it’s a non-marking tire. The
harder (longer lasting) tires usually make marks. But with a lot of spinning
activity, any tire will wear out pretty fast.

>A thought just came to me, my tires are virtually bare already, after 5 months
>of riding. How long do tires usually last? And are there any really tough tires
>I could get? (24 inch)… most my riding is on pavement so it tears the treads
>right off. And a few new tricks I’m working on like pushing off poles into
>360’s leave my tire in pain.

Tires last depending on the type of riding you subject them to. My six footer
has a tire I put on it maybe 10 years ago. This is one of the old Schwinn
whitewalls, made of hard (marking) rubber. Most of the riding my six footer gets
is fairly brief, in shows, with lots of rocking. Ride nice and you won’t leave
marks with a giraffe like you will with a shorter uni. Even with all the
rocking, that tire has held up real nice because my giraffe has a 27:26 gear
ratio or something like that, keeping the tire evenly rotated.

On my freestyle uni, there was a period when I was going thru tires every
two weeks or so. These were cheap white tires, and I was practicing hard
for competition (obviously a long time ago, back before I had access to
indoor riding surfaces). All the spinning and grinding on outdoor pavement
eats the tire up.

If you like lots of spinning action and sharp turns, you have a choice of using
cheap tires and changing them more often, or shooting for a higher-end tire and
still replacing them, but less often. Unfortunately there aren’t many choices
out there in 24" tires, so you sometimes have to take what you can get.

If you like white tires, The Unicycle Factory has a 24" white tire that I use on
my Miyata. It’s got a mild knobby tread, and is equally good for the track, the
obstacle course, or the trails. I highly recommend you order a few of those.
Also they’re cheap ($15?), and Tom has a huge inventory of them that he once
custom-ordered for all of us, but not so many people knew about it. Call Tommy
at (765) 452-2692.

Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
http://www.unicycling.com

3

Re: Ahead of myself and loving it…

>I probably get 1-2 hours at least, practice, per day.

That’s great practice time. You’ll find that idling and cycling backwards will
be easy inside of a week or two.

Work on your jumping. It isn’t just “flash” when you need to get over a curb.
Take your uni outside off the pavement for every other day’s practice. Rough
terrrain unicycling will open a whole new domain for you.

David Maxfield Bainbridge Island, WA

4

Re: Ahead of myself and loving it…

grjacks2@vt.edu (Greg Jackson) writes:

> I think hopping is stupid, just a flashy move.

That statement would be unnecessarily harsh even if it were right. Hopping is
actually quite useful if you use your uni as transportation, rather than just as
a prop. Hopping is a good way to get up curbs and stairs. It’s also useful on
rough trails for getting past obstacles, switching from one rut to another, etc.

> my goal for this school year is being able to idle in one place, while
> balancing a club on my nose and juggling 3 more.

And you’re worried about a skill being just a flashy move?

5

Re: Ahead of myself and loving it…

Actually, I have never ridden inside, except down dorm halls… which they don’t
like too much. I can ride off curbs fine, and there’s usually a grassy hill next
to most the stairs, so going down those hills isn’t a problem. There’s still a
few hills that are tough going up, but I’m working on em. About the hopping up
curbs, it sounds risky to me. Like all the suggestions I get every day about
going down stairs. Would be kewl tho.

A thought just came to me, my tires are virtually bare already, after 5 months
of riding. How long do tires usually last? And are there any really tough tires
I could get? (24 inch)… most my riding is on pavement so it tears the treads
right off. And a few new tricks I’m working on like pushing off poles into 360’s
leave my tire in pain. Anyway, I could just grit my teeth and replace the tire
twice a year… hehe, sacrifices!

Greg

On 15 Sep 1999 23:08:08 GMT, maxfieldd@aol.com (Maxfield D) wrote:

>>I probably get 1-2 hours at least, practice, per day.
>
>That’s great practice time. You’ll find that idling and cycling backwards will
>be easy inside of a week or two.
>
>Work on your jumping. It isn’t just “flash” when you need to get over a curb.
>Take your uni outside off the pavement for every other day’s practice. Rough
>terrrain unicycling will open a whole new domain for you.
>
>David Maxfield Bainbridge Island, WA

6

Re: Ahead of myself and loving it…

Greg Jackson (grjacks2@vt.edu) wrote:

: A thought just came to me, my tires are virtually bare already, after 5 months
: of riding. How long do tires usually last? And are there any really tough
: tires I could get? (24 inch)… most my riding is on

MTB tryes will last a little longer, but it’s hard to find good ones for a
24,and the knobblyness can slow you down on tarmac. I guess its up to you, two
cheap tyres a year or one pricey one…

:And a few new tricks I’m working on like pushing off poles into 360’s

Thats called lollypoping. Its fun.

sarah

7

Re: Ahead of myself and loving it…

grjacks2@vt.edu (Greg Jackson) wrote:

>A thought just came to me, my tires are virtually bare already, after 5 months
>of riding. How long do tires usually last?

A few months after I learned to ride, I needed a new tire. And that second tire
lasted just one month! After that I decided to rotate the balding spots of tire
by 90 degrees before the tire wore down too much. Such unicycle tire rotation
can double a tire’s life. Even triple it, if one rotates just 60 degrees two
times at about equal wear (time) intervals.

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com