Who here mainly enjoys their unicycle for riding, no tricks? When I get back I’d like to go out on a Saturday, and ride for hours. Something to work up to of course, but eventually take all day, stay the night somewhere, and ride back the next day. I’ve read stories of people riding cross country, people entering the STP. Do people get together for rides, or mainly to compare tricks?
Gadzooks! If you refer to “tricks” you’ll hear the midnight knock on the door. “Skills”, “performance skills”, even “stunts”, but not “tricks”! There are people waiting to pounce on every such slip. 
(Long-term members of the forum will perhaps recall that tow which I refer.
)
But back to the original point: depending on what you mean by long distance, there’s quite a lot of it going on. Some people do only long distance; some people ahve several unis and are multidisciplinary. Because this is a minority sport anyway, long distance riding tends to be a bit of a solitary occupation unless you are lucky enough to have a family member or a nearby friend who also rides.
There are no rules. I do most of my riding alone, but I have ridden in a pack of five once, and often in pairs. I’ve never done an overnight stop though. A long day out and 30 - 50 miles is enough for me. 10 - 20 mile rides on a big wheel are pretty easy.
Tricks, stunts, skills, whatever people want to say is fine by me. What I think I should look into is a Coker. Of the different types of riding, I’m most interested in hearing people’s stories of their distance rides.
You have a wandering spirit. The Coker is great for that. You are showing early symptoms of “Coker fever”. There is a cure…but there is only one cure.
But I also believe it is the better writers who are also Coker riders, not that Coker riding is necessarily more interesting. Sometimes on a distance ride, you might go 3 or 4 miles without anything more interesting than spinning feet.
[If MikeFule would dissect a MUni ride, you’d be enthralled.]
Distance riding gives good thinking time, maybe this is why some coker heads write well.
Sarah
Yeah I love distance. Me and a friend are looking into beating Lars’s reacord starting in about a year. I do all my distance on my touring, which i like alot. As for multi-disciplinary i also do street. that’s about it.
It’s interesting to speculate. Are the ride reports of long distance rides more interesting because:
A) You’re more interested in long distance riding?
B) There is more to happen on a long distance ride, so more to report?
C) Long distance riding tends to attract an older age group, with perhaps a little more to say about the world, and with better writing skills?
D) Or something else?
I’ve written up rides from about 20 to about 50 miles on the Coker or 28, and MUni rides from 5 to about 15 miles. There’s usually plenty to write, but the Coker/28 reports tend to be about the people I meet, the things I see, and the odd thoughts that cross my mind; the MUni reports tend to be more about the ride itself. I’m not sure I could write up an hour spent doing freestyle without it being a simple list of what I did - not that I can do an hour’s worth of freestyle skills, but if I could…)
Anyway, if distance is your thang, you need a Coker or a 28/29. there are pros and cons to both, and I strongly suspect that most people who buy one end up buying the other as well eventually.
Re: Distance Riding
kraze wrote:
> Tricks, stunts, skills, whatever people want to say is fine by me. What
> I think I should look into is a Coker. Of the different types of
> riding, I’m most interested in hearing people’s stories of their
> distance rides.
Then a search of Google Groups
<URL:http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_group_search?hl=en> for posts to
rec.sport.unicycling by Mikefule will take you to a seam of gold. Other
people write good ride reports as well (I’ve got a couple of unicycle
ride reports at
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/cycling/ridereports/> ),
but Mike writes the most.
I find that distance rides can be great fun with friends. If I ride on
my own then I tend to get bored at unicycle speeds, I prefer two wheels.
Although, to go slightly OT, if I’d been riding at Coker speed and
height instead of bike speed and height on my way home from work this
evening then the result of someone stretching fishing line across the
cyclepath might have been slightly different from this:
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/z-neck.jpg>
–
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
Re: Distance Riding
Where will you be when you get back to the U.S.?
I’m from the Puget Sound area of Washington. Now I’m looking into the 28" unicycles on unicycle.com. I’d like to do 50 or 100 mile rides and these seem to be the made for distance riding. I think 28" is fine, I don’t need the 36" Coker.
You don’t need a Coker in exactly the same way as you don’t need beer and good music.
30 miles on the Coker is a good ride; on a 28, it’s an expedition. The 36 inch wheel is 29% bigger, so you go 29% further per pedal stroke. On a Coker, a mile is 1121 pedal strokes.
On a 28, it’s 1441 pedal strokes.
That’s 320 pedal strokes per mile x 50 miles = 16,000 extra pedal strokes on a 50 mile ride.
A 28 is a specialised tool. A 29 is more versatile (same wheel, fatter tyre. Compare a 29 and a Coker and you will find pros and cons, but if you assume good safe riding conditions, the Coker wins on distance every time.
Which record? He has a 24 hour and an overall distance record.
As for the difference between a 28" and a Coker, if your main goal is to cover long distances, go straight to the Coker. I’ve been riding mine to work. Before the competitions this summer I did some riding to work on my 29". Same ride, a lot more work. I’d arrive in more time, and more sweaty.
The advantage of a smaller unicycle over a Coker is fitting it into the car (and elsewhere), and it’s lighter. Otherwise get the Coker.
If you don’t care how fast you go, the smaller wheel is fine. But it will mean less miles per day. In any case, I recommend a Yuni with Big Apple tire. That’s 29", and a nice cushy tire for those long miles.
There are a number of riders in the Puget Sound area that regularly get together and swap between trials, muni, and distance riding. All the distance riders have Cokers, and I think all would tell you that this is the size to go with. (See recent thread on Harper Birthday Ride for a link to some pics). A 20 mile plus ride on a 28 would be a LOT of work I think.
If you’re unsure, wait until you get back and hook up with us to try one. At least one of the riders has both a 29 and a 36, so you could get a direct comparison. The 36 rules.
You’re gonna want a Coker. Let us (the Seattle area riders) know when you get back to Washington and we can hook you up with a Coker to try. I’ve got a spare (stock) Coker and there’s some other Cokers in the area just laying around. You’ll get to test ride a Coker and at that point you should be hooked.
29ers also have their use, but they’re more specialized. If you’re riding around a college campus or in amongst city traffic then you might opt for a 29er over the Coker because the 29er will be more maneuverable and easier to control. But for open roads and for distance the Coker is king.
Ditto Mike fule, John foss, Tom blackwood, and John childs… GET a COKER.
I ride 4 both, like im constantly trying to improve my freestyle skills, (which aren’t much,) but just this saturday i did 12 miles on a 20" uni.