I just recently learned Crank Grabs (the bench was to low for a pedal grab) , and i was looking for advice on how to get the tire on the bench? I was really struggling on trying to just jump up on the bench, so do you have any tips?
You have to believe you can do it. The first few times I tried I hopped up as much as I could but was still 2 inches or so short (on a 20), and I think that was because I wasn’t sure if I could even do it.
Work on your hops (seat in & out) and make sure you’re nice & stable up there, then (what I tend to do) lean into the ledge (so your uni wheel is skewed with the bottom a few inches away from the ledge and the top overhanging the top, hop & pull the uni up with you, all in one smooth movement. It basically means you don’t have to concentrate on any kind of sideways movement because thats the only way you’re going to go, no options. Don’t worry if you land goofy, or with the pedals not horizontal, you can either hop forward/back to straighten up, or do a quick idle on the top to regain some balance (depending on the size of the obstacle, obviously). You’ll learn, with practise, how to do it quickly, cleanly and with your cranks in the right place.
Once you can do it 100% you’ll probably realise you need to work on your crank grab accuracy & balance more than the hop itself, which is a fairly straightforward 10-14" hop. At least I do.
I learned seat in first, and haven’t really practised seat out all that much, but I’d assume its easier seat out than seat in.
Loose.
just lean over a bit further and jump up! It’s all just practice and effort really.
(and what moosey said)
Just to add to my previous post, here’s a video of the first time I ever managed to go to rubber (hence the incredulous look on my face)
Here
I think I managed to make it because of 4 main factors:
- Luck
- My seatpost is set 3 inches too low for me, giving me more room to seat-in hop.
- Its a single fluid movement, I didn’t need to stop to rebalance.
- The landing area was big, and the drop not intimidating.
Loose.
I first learned them on my generic 20" unicycle. The thing that helped me alot was to remember to jump up and then sideways (seat in). Make sure your at your full height on the jump and then start going sideways. If you try to just jump sideways its alot harder. I just got my onza 20" trials and i am relearning crank grabs because i have to jump alot higher to get to rubber.
I havent learned seat out crank grabs yet but i think they would be easier and harder. It would be easier to jump to rubber because you can tuck up more on seat out jumps. It would be harder to stay balanced when you go to rubber because you dont have as much control as seat in.
If you have trouble just getting on to a crank grab from the ground you could try using prehops. If the object is pretty tall then you can jump into a pedal grab and then swing up and get into a crank grab and then go to rubber. Just keep practicing and you will get it.
I am working on seat in, beacause everytime i try a SiF hop, I always land with to much pressure on one of the pedals and fall off sideways. What am i doing wrong?
Work on seat in front riding and then seat in front it extended and it should fix that problem. It will help you keep an even amount of weight bewteen the pedals