Biking after uni....

I stopped riding my mountain bike after I got into muni, and don’t actually have one at all any more, but I’d never get rid of my road bikes.

The mountain bike was just a toy really (I never raced it), and I just find the muni more fun on the trails round here.

Rob (one of those stupid lycra-wearing roadies)

+1

Yeah I road bike 40-60 miles, screw a t-shrit that will stick to you and stay wet for the 2 1/2 hours. Not to mention you really need that pad in the shorts or you get a nasty chaffing as mentioned above (I wouldn’t dare sit on a carbon fiber seat for that long in reg shorts). Its like putting on shin pads when you uni, different, yet important gear.

I still ride alot even though I uni, its a speed thing, I just love my specialized racing bike.

I certainly still ride bikes, there no reason to stop biking just because you’re learning to ride muni. I currently have bikes and unis for road and trail riding, and can pick what I want to ride depending on where I’m going, who I’m riding with and what I feel like doing.

The best thing about bike as as opposed to unicycles is that you don’t get all the unwanted attention. It’s nice just to be able to go out for a ride without everyone staring at you!

Also I reckon bikes are better exercise too if you want them to be, especially ones with gears as you can just keep pushing yourself to go faster, unlike on a uni where you’re limited by how fast you can spin.

It might be a good idea to focus on unicycling for a while if you’re trying to learn to ride muni, as biking isn’t going to help your uni skills much, but I would definitely keep the bike for the long term.

Until I get a coker, my mtb is the fastest way for me to get from A to B (without driving). I prefer muni over actually mtbing, but there have been times with friends when I take the mtb so they don’t have to wait at the bottom of hills etc.

Unless my mtb gets stolen/heavily damaged (frame crack or something) I don’t plan on replacing it any time soon. It’s 15+ years old, and still going strong!

I haven’t biked too much in the last 2 years because of uni. But just recently I have started to ride my bmx almost everyday. I think I’m going to be doing that a lot more then I uni this spring. I love how much faster it is, and I still get just as much excercise. Plus, its nice to have a change every once and a while.

I also have a road bike and have been out riding on it several times this year.

I can’t wait untill I can finally do that. I’ve been practicing them a lot and have defently been making some progress.

What I find amusing is that fact that seemingly everyone who rides those bikes is fitted with the same type of outfit, even if they are not pros. But I guess if it’s the best, people will wear it.

General Statement
I just have something against people spending lots of money and going all out in something that they don’t really find that much enjoyment in.

Bike trials and uni trials are some of the most fun I’v had in along time,plus you can ride in your back yard !

Yeah where I live you’ll see the guy with the racing numbers still pinned to him and on the bike…eh as long as he’s happy I suppose but’s such an “oh look at me” statement. In terms of gear there is nothign wrong with just some black cycling shorts that are padded and a plain jersey, you’ll only look different really because of the shorts and the pockets in the back. Most road biking gear is mostly made the same, the only difference is the coloring and if you have “sponsers” all over it.

I have biked at least every other day to every three days (yes during the winter, with a few exceptions) for the last 4 years and its funny that you see the “regulars” on the bike routes. Then out of no where comes the “tour de france” wanna be that gives the gear the stereo type. I also saw this alot at my cycling club, the “hardcore” people making fun of others for not having team clothing…please lol :roll_eyes:

I wear a jersey and bike shorts while uniing, not because I want to look cool and waste money, but because it’s comfortable and keeps you cool while riding.

Well, decided to fix up the MTB cause I cant ride the uni long enough yet to get aerobic exercise and I want to do the trails and easy DJing. I find that fun. I like going fast and jumping off things and cant do that on my uni yet. So I’ll do both, some skating too. I figure I’m ADHD, gotta keep life interesting.

So I am getting some motorapter tires on it so I dont slide in the mud and a air 100mm manitou fork. I am hoping I can jump over logs with that one day as I read if you compress the fork it spring you up. Then I can learn the trails so when I muni, I know them. I figure it will take me a year before I can muni and I now love the trails. I quit the bike cause I got bored of road biking, cars and gas fumes and dont like the idea when cell phones came out and people dont look at the road anymore. Fast only isnt good enough.

Another thing I love biking for is for short fast sprinting with lots of stopping and starting.

Things like going really fast in an urban setting just aren’t the same on a uni, where getting on and off regularly are natural parts of riding.

I love my uni though for long rides where I plan on spending a lot of saddle time, it is more relaxing for me.

On my bike all I want to do is go fast, then stop fast, go fast, stop fast, thats how I get my thrills, unicycling is more about relaxation and long saddle times (distance wise anyways).

Hmmm. In all my training for RTL and other road riding on my Coker I’ve hardly ever passed any roadies dressed up in roadie regalia. And most of the ones I’ve passed have passed me soon afterward, as they got back up to speed.

I have nothing against bikes. We have several in the garage, and my old “Cross” bike is still there if I need it. I haven’t needed it.

How can you tell how much someone is enjoying something? If they’re going all out it’s hard to think they aren’t at least motivated.

I have no problem with people buying nice gear for themselves, even if they have little time to devote to their sport like they might like. It’s like people driving an Escalade when they can’t really afford one. They can never say they “need” that particular car, can they?

As for jerseys, it took many years, but I’m wearing them more and more now. They’re so much better than cotton or most other forms of shirt. They’re just expensive…

i rode my bicycle to the store, forgot i rode it there and walked home. It was a strange walk, i could not for the life of me work out why i had walked to the shop with a helmet on.

That was tfour years ago, i have not owned a bike since.
although i still walk to the shop in my helmet… just to keep up appearances.

Well i road bike, and im not gonna back it up saying it is really intersesting, because unicycling is way more fun. However, going distance on a road bike is nice, because i dont live in a place where there are great muni trails or anything, but there are roads right out my front door. And climbing a huge hill aint easy on anything. So you cant say that bikers have it easy just because they have gears, thats just not true. A hill is a hill, and i just climbed like a 6 mile huge hill yesterday, and it was HARD. So you cant go saying that roadbiking is less of a workout than muni.

I wasnt making a joke about bike gear, just on newbies who spend a ton on gear and “looking” like a cyclist then riding it. If you are riding flat at 5 mph and have a beer gut so big you cant lean over, I dont think you need to spend hundreds of dollars on clothing til you put in some miles. Then again, my job at work is to give these people all this gear that they wont use which sucks on my part as I feel I should sell them what they will only really need and more importantly USE and get them something appropriate that will last and fit their exact needs. I myself just go out and ride. I used to ride 60 miles at a time on a race bike going up to 40 mph wearing a good ol cotton t-shirt. Yes I rode bike shorts then, you need them spending that much time in a saddle, but not going 2-3 mile trips. Of course if they do it regularly, if they enjoy it more then yes, wear it. But you dont need a hundred dollar jersey to ride around the block. There is no wind resistance issue at 5 mph lol.

The same goes for kids with skateboards that just stand there and hold it to “look” cool. A skateboard is fine. Carrying it around just to look like one is retarded.

It takes me almost the same time to unicycle to work as it does to bike to work. I go about 8 miles in the morning, and it is a choice of a geared 36 or my new touring bicycle. I have to say…I enjoy bicycle commuting a lot more than unicycle commuting. I can put all my gear in a rear pannier and not have anything on my back on the bicycle, but on the uni I have to carry everything on my back. Also, the bike is just simply easier to ride and it is quite nice to just wake up and bike and not have to concentrate too hard in the morning. I feel like I could bike to work every day, but unicycling to work every day takes a LOT more effort, so I keep unicycling for fun distance rides or challenges, and leave commuting to bicycling.

There are wayyyyy to many fake skaters here. My friend just started and he is better than them.

They all know stupid tricks like pogo hops and caspers.

I tried a fancy road bike after the round the mountain for a minute. It felt like such an efficient machine, almost like cheating! You can pedal a little bit and it just seems to fly along, and coming to a halt you can just use the brakes (none of my unicycles have brakes yet).

A hill is a hill, and a freewheel is a freewheel, so you CAN say that roadbiking is less of a workout than a MUni (why MUni? … shouldn’t you be comparing a roadbike to a road unicycle?). I agree that bikes are a more intense workout, people ride averaging 40km/h for a few hours, but over the same distance a unicycle must keep pedalling nonstop and while it is less intense it is possibly more work due to the need to constantly pedal. I can average about 20km/h for a few hours but it takes me twice as many hours to go the same distance, so it depends on your definition of hard whether it is time or distance based. Unicycles have more of a mental challenge for balance, but bikes have other challenges such as riding closely in a peleton and avoiding accidents. Geared unicycles provide an even greater unicycling challenge, I’m yet to try a geared 36" due to Tony’s reluctance to bring his along to the Juggling festival, and my lack of thousands of dollars to buy one.

Which distance unicyclists? I don’t wear cycle shorts for distance. Normal trousers work fine, and if I rode a bike I think I would wear normal clothes mostly too. I think people are much more diverse than the generalised comments being made here. I reckon people are too worried about how other people look- stop judging people on their looks and just go out and have some fun yourself! A posing skater/surfer/snowboarder/biker/unicyclist will not effect the amount of fun you have from not posing doing those activities.

Yeah, I think anyone that’s judging people for how they look must have forgotten what forum they’re on…:wink:

hahahahahahaha :smiley: good one