o man 
i live just over the hill from santa cruz but i’m going to be missing this one
recovering from a broken back (biking) and still can’t ride by then.
any idea where '08 is going to be? 
Oh man that sucks. You must have broke it bad cause I broke mine 2 1/2 weeks ago and I should be able to ride in a month or two. So I am planning on going to this and it’ll be my first CA Muni Weekend so I can’t wait. I’ve always wanted to go to one. I wish you a fast and unpainfull recovery!
Hopefully I’ll be able to make that. How much of the trails are mild to moderate?
Tholub, have you ridden any of these trails? How do the easier parts compare to the trails we rode that day? I think it was at Joaquin Miller in October.
Wouldn’t the ProWheel’s or Odyssey Black Widows survive abuse like that?
What about cutting “notches” in the TA tire to improve traction for off-road trail riding, essentially making it into a semi-knobby? I thought I saw a pic of just such a modification, but I don’t remember.
Tally one more up for a Coker.
I’ll be lugging mine with.
The Santa Cruz MUni trails tend to be fairly similar to Joaquin Miller in terms of terrain; redwood duff with rocky and rooty sections, some very steep. The Santa Cruz trails tend to be longer, with more sustained riding than Joaquin Miller.
The big wheel rides will likely be on fairly well-packed fire roads with some sections that are steep enough to be sketchy on a big wheel.
If your mounting is solid these days, I don’t think you’d have a problem. There will almost certainly be some sections you won’t ride; there are sections Nathan Hoover doesn’t ride.
I’ll definitely be bringing my 36er! But it sounds like with the terrain and steep sections, a brake would be a good idea, but so far, I haven’t bought one. Luckily, my radial frame is set up (center drilled) for a V-brake adapter, but those are about $50 alone! I’m also thinking about switching my 127mm road cranks for 175’s so I can really have ultimate control off road. With those, I probably wouldn’t need a brake.
Somewhere in California, if that’s any help… 
That’s the extent of the '08 planning at the moment. I heard there are growing groups of riders in the San Diego and LA areas though… 
Also it might be fun to do Mammouth Mountain someday, but there would have to be additional rides in the area to make a weekend out of it.
You seem to be under the assumption that there is a large traction difference between the Coker and Radial tires. So far I haven’t noticed. Are there any Coker tires currently on the market anyway? Yes, I remember reading an account of a guy who used a tire-cutting tool to make corner notches. It looked great, but the tool costs about $100 and then it’s probably several hours to do the job right. I bet it takes some weight off too.
But I’ve been riding my Radial tire on lots of (dry) trails with no traction issues at all.
On the other hand, a brake would probably be a very nice thing to have, thought it may be less important for MUni than road, believe it or not. Especially if you run really long cranks. I think I’ll try 150 or 160, but not any longer. Normally I have 125s on there, which limit the MUni possibilities.
For those concerned about all this Coker MUni talk, please remember it’s an added feature to this year’s MUni Weekend. All the regular-wheel MUni will still be there, but we’re adding these rides because many of us have had lots of fun riding our Cokers/36ers on trails as well. Since they tend to go faster, and prefer less-technical and longer trails, those naturally lend themselves to separate rides.
We should probably see if we can collect up any unused Cokers for fly-ins who can’t bring theirs…
A brake isn’t absolutely necessary, especially if you run longer cranks. Rob (of Rob’s Ride) does the ride with 150s without a brake all the time.
IMHO, the Braille Trail is the serious challenge for the weekend. The approach and descent from this trail is fire road, and if you like, you can stick to the fire road and get just as many miles of riding, and even ride a few logs / drops if you like.
The rest of the weekend’s rides are relatively moderate with optional stunts and incredible technical sections (such as lower Mailboxes).
For the sake of entertainment, however, I recommend you ride as much as you can, and hike down the tough sections. There will be certainly be spectacular UPDs on the Braille Trail! 
Rob’s ride was my 2nd or 3rd Coker ride, and I did it on 152s with no brake. It was plenty fun, and there were only a couple short downhills that made me wish I had a brake.
Unfortunately, my aluminum cranks couldn’t take the pressure on one downhill and decided to strip. I then had to walk many miles back to the highway. If you’re brake-less I highly recommend steel cranks!
By the way, Rob’s Ride is also totally manageable on a 29er with 125mm cranks, and a strong 29er rider won’t have trouble keeping up with the Cokers with longer cranks. If you’re coming from out of town and only want to bring one uni, a setup like the KH 29er would allow you to choose each day whether you wanted to do the MUni or the big wheel ride. Most but not all of the MUni stuff should be 29erable.
Personally, I think cutting notches in the TA tire is a waste of time. I doubt that there is much terrain that would make it worth doing this. Sandy and muddy terrain would benefit from it, but generally I find that riding through sand is just a pain on any unicycle/tire (unless it is hard packed), and there aren’t too many “muddy coker days” that we’ve done.
To follow up on Jason, a lot of the really good Santa Cruz trails are unfortunately illegal. We will be sticking to the cream of the crop for the legal trails. Braille Trail is one of the best, IMHO too.
Do you have any rough mileage estimates for these rides.
That info would be helpful to more accurately form fitness goals for then.
Rob’s Ride is in the 20-25 mile range, probably with around 1,000 ft. of mostly gradual climbing at the beginning.
I’m not sure what the other mileages are, but I believe the 24" MUni rides are quite a bit shorter but with technical options.
I think, for a MUni weekend, it’s more important to be ready to ride/hike/socialize for 4-5 hours than anything. With such a large group, the rides tend to have a very accommodating pace. So, if you’re able to do a 2-3 hour MUni ride on the weekend by yourself, I think you’ll survive just fine.
In regards to the Muni rides, if you’re in shape for the Braille Trail, the other rides will be cake.
Here’s a link to a random MTBer’s GPS profile of the trail. I can’t vouch for its accuracy but it looks good to me.
Qualitatively, the Braille Trail begins with ~4.5 miles of uphill on a fire road. The first 2.5 miles are rolling and moderate uphill, the next 2 miles alternate between brutishly steep and moderate uphill. Few riders have made this approach without dismounts. Braille’s downhill is 5 miles of awesome… rolling and steep with jibs, stunts and drops aplenty. It’s all doable without a brake, but I’d recommend maximum body armor for brake-less riders . After the downhill there’s about 3.5 miles of gradual uphill on a fire-road (back-tracking over the first 2.5 miles) to return to the trail head.
Even the best riders will be hiking parts of this trail. Don’t stress about your fitness… but definitely do some training. You’ll get more enjoyment out of this trail if you’re not exhausted by the time you hit the downhill.
Find an area nearby with some miles of gradual uphill. Ride it often and work on doing it with no dismounts. Also get in touch with your metabolism – find out how much you need to eat and drink to keep your energy levels up. If you can ride moderate uphill for 2-3 hours without bonking you’ll be in super-great shape for CMW '07.
Go for it!
of course… because trials riders are always taking their feet off the pedals. in fact no street riders i know ever get hurt. it is always us darn trials riders who get hurt. 
seriously it is the street riders who get hurt way more. personally i would rather a trials comp because you could get more people to enter it. people might prefer the street comp. move the saturday morning ride earlier and squeeze the trials comp in between the ride and the street comp.
I’d like to see a “Seniors” trials comp for those of us over 50! Hmm, that might only be me! Anyway, I really think it would be great to have competions for us old farts!
Of course, people get hurt doing both sports, but the potential to get hurt bad doing trials lines is MUCH higher than street riding. With trials, in 2-3 moves you can easily be 6-8 feet off the ground. Most street tricks are flat, or involve doing tricks down stairs (which does have a higher potential for bodily injury), or involve low-objects.
What makes you think this? Do you have statistics or are you just going on personal experience? My experience has been the opposite.
Well the fact that it will be at my house means that I want to limit liability. We may end up having a trials competition instead, if more people would rather do that instead of a street comp. If we end up doing that, then there will be no street comp.
There is no time to move the Saturday ride around; that day is booked solid. Don’t forget, we will be having a trials day at the Jetti; it just isn’t a competition.
-corbin