I hope to one day see uni-vert riding.
It’s got to be done with gliding. yeah foot gliding …or
how ‘bout just a wheel with pegs?
Anybody gettin’ close?
Re: Dropping into a vert-ramp
Like a B.C. wheel?
Vert BC? it might just be me but that is a calling card for some broken bones
Yeah, Thats exactly what iv been wanting to do, My stkae part has some 4’ verts, and am working on my plate stalls/taps so when i go to the park i can try the ramp, i want to try something bigger, like 6ft, but it has to be a quarter pipe because you need ALOT of run up.
the problem with bigger and bigger verts is that means there higher which means there is more actuall vert which means it gets harder and harder. Believe me I have tried
You could so BC vert, you’d just need to suck in your stomach and lean down into it, i’d also be nice if you hooked a frame and seat up to your bc wheel which would really help side to side balance, also a hand brake would be nice, for mounting and preparing to jump in, I think I could do it with a little practice.
Granted, I´ve only seriously tried vert uniing once, on a 24 Muni at a new skatepark by my house, so I´m talking prematurely. But from what I experienced, the main problem is speed, or the lack of it. You just can´t get enough velocity to generate that centrifical force to keep you pasted up on those walls. You can dink around, going up a vert ramp a few feet and turning around–like that show on the video, but that’s not really getting it in my book.
A Coker might help, or better yet a geared 29 because it´s more nimble, but perhaps the best rig is a BC wheel, but man, that’s gonna be hairy.
Time will tell. That new skate park is only a few blocks from my pad so I’m gonna keep going there till I figure something out.
JL
I think if someone had a mini-halfpipe, say 3’ or so, you could easily do some sick BC/uni tricks on it. I’m actually gettinginto BC wheeling, just for that purpose. We have a skatepark here with a “snake-run” which would be perfect for riding a BC in. Also, you could learn to bend down and stand up and be able to carve a pool or a bowl like a skateboarder would.
I have ridden along the side of a curved quarter pipe on a bc (so has evan he went with me) and I went up another quarter pipe and i tried to turn around and come back but it didnt go well.
When you did vert uni was it an actual vert ramp or a mini ramp?
The difference between a vert ramp and a mini ramp is that the mini ramp has nothing vertical on it. The top part of a vert ramp is straight up. Mini ramps are usually 6ft and under and vert ramps usually are 8-14 ft.
On your avator it says santa barba unicycle club. When you said skatepark earlier are you talking about that concrete park near the beach in santa babara?
My avator refers to the guys and the club I Muni with on weekends. The SB skatepark does not allow Munis. We´ve tried many times to get permission.
JL
Ya in concrete skateparks there are alot of ramps that have weird tranisitions (like you said about some ramps being like mini vert ramps). Thats too bad that you cant ride in the santa barbara skatepark. I was skateboarding there last summer and it was alot of fun. San diego has a very nice skatepark which has a combination of wood and concrete. Here are some pictures.
http://www.socalskateparks.com/park/clairemont/
In the 4th picture down you can see the vert ramp in the background, i think it is around 13 feet tall or so.
i say use a 26 inch wheel uni or bigger, so you don’t have to pedal like CRAZY like in that video. Sun makes them still i think(just got one on ebay:D ).
Ive stood beside that halfpipe on more than one occasion and thought “ok, todays the day im gonna go for it, wait no no no”. ahaha
I watched Bucky Lasek ripping it up there. I heard he can even uni. He was looking a little pissy so i didnt want to bug him though.
That is indeed a very nice park, but also VERY expensive. I hate paying for skate parks.
Something that small has to be a quarterpipe, or else the transition would be unrollable. Just do a scale drawing of your mini-pipe and a scale drawing of your uni and you’ll see the tire would slam into the coping instead of rolling up nicely.
I’d be happy being able to rock the quarterpipe… with spins, shifties, 180s and 360s, footplants and whatnot there’s plenty of rockin’ to be done without doing skater-style grinds and whatnot.
Clearly, no one has figured out what’s possible in either half pipes or pools. I think a couple guys have made some good initial progress, as show by that recent Euro video and the older one by Hardcorecoker guy, but there’s a lot more to do than just rocking the half pipe and pulling 180s at the apex. I also think it’s the bikes, not the skaters, who set the example for unis. The grinds and general fiddling around is, IMO, the lighweight stuff compared to how the bikes swoop around the walls of those pools. I really think that’s possible on either a geared up 29 or possibly a Coker. I also think, but certainly don´t know, that a BC wheel could possibly be ridden somewhat like a skateboard inside those pools, especially if you had a really small wheel, but somebody’s gonna take a lot of knocks working this one out.
I think the biggest hurdle is not learning the technique, but as Mango pointed out, dealing with the terror of dropping in on those big pools and half pipes. A bigger wheel means you don’t have to spin so damned fast, but it also puts you up higher for the certain falls you’ll take getting the process wired.
This is going to be an adventure . . .
JL
it’s not vert, but i’ve seen dan heaton ride up, and air above a five foot quarter pipe on a 20.
I made a bc wheel like that but with a handle instead of a seat. I was hoping that I’d be able to ride ramps with it, but don’t have good enough balance with it yet. also, it is really hard to get used to breaking with it, because you have to adjust your lean against the pressure of the break which is pretty inconsistant.
A big wheel isn’t really the problem I don’t think, the reason somebody can drop in on a skateboard is because they’re going up with the same momentum from going down, so you could glide in on a uni
and you’d have to be a masochist.