Bike Mag Slur on Unicycles

General
1

Hi folks. Unicyclists are obviously reading your magazine. Rather than slur us,
why not embrace us as the cycling brethren we are? Circus only? C’mon. Riding a
bike is easy. Riding a unicycle is, well, follow these URLs to some pretty
amazing mountain unicycling pix!

 <a href="http://www.unicycling.com/">http://www.unicycling.com</a>

 <a href="http://web.onyxnet.co.uk/Roger.Davies-octacon.co.uk/muni.htm">http://web.onyxnet.co.uk/Roger.Davies-octacon.co.uk/muni.htm</a>

 We could say that real men (and real women) don't need two wheels, but that
 wouldn't be polite. Quoting the promoters of the recent British Muni
 Weekend, "No brakes, no gears, no hands...no problem!"

Regards,

John Drummond, Partner UnicycleSource.com

---------------------- Forwarded by John Drummond/Atlanta/IBM on 05/18/99 09:51
AM ---------------------------

“Danny Colyer” <danny@mos.clara.net> on 05/18/99 09:04:00 AM

Please respond to “Danny Colyer” <danny@mos.clara.net>

To: unicycling@winternet.com
cc: (bcc: John Drummond/Atlanta/IBM) Subject: Bike Mag Slur on Unicycles

The June issue of Cycling Plus has an article on why every cyclist needs 7 bikes

  • a racing bike, a touring bike, a mountain bike, a hack bike, a recumbent, a
    tandem and a folder. My first thought was “What about a unicycle?” My second
    thought was that including unicycles would add a lot to the article. You need a
    20" for performing and hockey, a 24" for racing, a 26" Muni, a 28" for
    marathons, a Coker for touring and commuting, a 12" and a 16" for teaching the
    kids, not to mention a giraffe, an ultimate and possibly a BC wheel.

When I came to read the article properly, I was saddened to see the unicycle
listed under “Bikes you don’t need”. I quote from the magazine:

“The unicycle. Why? There’s only one place for the one-wheeled beast: in the
circus with the clowns. George Orwell was right, in his unpublished novella
Bicycle Farm, when he said ‘two wheels good, one wheel sad’.”

The letters address for Cycling Plus is cyclingplus@futurenet.co.uk. Please
don’t be too hard on them, I generally consider this to be the best cycling mag
on the UK market.

–
Danny Colyer danny@mos.clara.net

2

Re: Bike Mag Slur on Unicycles

>ou need a 20" for performing and hockey, a 24" for racing, a 26" Muni, a 28"
>for marathons, a Coker for touring and commuting, a 12" and a 16" for teaching
>the kids, not to mention a giraffe, an ultimate and possibly a BC wheel.

and a tandem uni! :slight_smile:

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3

Re: Bike Mag Slur on Unicycles

Tammy Marsh schrieb in Nachricht
<19990518212352.43610.qmail@hotmail.com>…
>>ou need a 20" for performing and hockey, a 24" for racing, a 26" Muni, a 28"
>>for marathons, a Coker for touring and commuting, a
12"
>>and a 16" for teaching the kids, not to mention a giraffe, an ultimate
and
>>possibly a BC wheel.
>
>and a tandem uni!

What is that?

Martin. «

>Oh Gott… an was ich mich alles erinnern kann…
Du sagst es… Kann mal jemand für mich mein Hirn formatieren ? (Alexander
Barth am 14.4.99 in de.alt.fan.konsumterror)

4

Re: Bike Mag Slur on Unicycles (long)

>From: “Danny Colyer” <danny@mos.clara.net>

>HOW WILL UNICYCLING BENEFIT MY CYCLING?
>
> xx A standard unicycle is a fixed wheel, single gear machine. You can’t stop
> pedalling and you can’t change up or down for hills. When you go back to 2
> wheels, you’ll find yourself freewheeling less as a result. Racing unicycles
> will teach you to maintain a high cadence.
>

I don’t consider unicycling to be a good way to practice pedaling technique for
bicycling. They both use different pedaling techniques. Learning to maintain a
high cadence on a unicycle is not the same as learning how to spin fast and
smooth on a bicycle.

On a bicycle your feet are clipped in to the pedals. To spin smoothly you need
to learn to pedal through the top and bottom of the pedal stroke. At the bottom
of the stroke you need to scrape your foot back like you were trying to wipe mud
off your shoe. At the top of the stroke you push your foot forward and down in
the same manner. You can also lift your feet on the back part of the stroke to
reduce backpedaling pressure on the pedals.

On a unicycle your feet are not clipped in so you can’t use the same pedaling
technique. On a unicycle you also need to maintain some backpedaling pressure to
regulate your speed and stay in control.

I have done a fair amount of road cycling. When I got back into unicycling two
years ago I had to unlearn my bicycling pedaling technique. My general unicycle
pedaling technique was poor and my climbing technique was miserable. When I
wanted to go fast or when the going got tough or when I came to a hill, I would
instinctively go back to the pedaling technique I used for bicycling. The
results were not effective at all.

My muni climbing technique is just now starting to come together. It hasn’t been
easy for me to unlearn the bicycle pedaling technique and learn how to pedal in
a way that is efficient and effective for muni.

If you want to sell unicycling to bicyclists concentrate on muni. Muni is fun,
it’s a challenge, and you don’t need to be an expert unicyclist to be able to
ride in the dirt. It was muni that got me to pull my unicycle out of the closet
and start riding it again.

Ex Roadie john_childs@hotmail.com

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5

Re: Bike Mag Slur on Unicycles (long)

John Childs <john_childs@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:19990526073736.5160.qmail@hotmail.com…
> I don’t consider unicycling to be a good way to practice pedaling
technique
> for bicycling. They both use different pedaling techniques. Learning to
> maintain a high cadence on a unicycle is not the same as learning how to spin
> fast and smooth on a bicycle.

I have to disagree with this to some extent, based on my own experience. I tend
to spin pretty smooth on a unicycle, and I certainly believe that my bicycle
pedalling technique has improved as a result of unicycling. There’s no doubt
that unicycling has improved my ability to maintain a high cadence over longer
distances.

>
> On a bicycle your feet are clipped in to the pedals.

This may be why our experiences differ. I started using toe clips on my bike a
couple of years after I started unicycling. I started using clipless pedals a
couple of years after that.

I still find that the pedalling techniques complement each other, though I can
see that going for a long period without using one machine or the other may
adversely affect your ability to switch between the two.

Your points are well made, and I’ll change the wording of my original point to
reflect them.

> If you want to sell unicycling to bicyclists concentrate on muni.

Agreed. In fact - Sarah, have you thought about posting details of the Red Bull
uni event to uk.rec.cycling? I could forward it, but only if you agree.

–
Danny Colyer danny@mos.clara.net