Yes, otherwiese it would be boring after 2 months 
After reading LargeEddie’s progress in the distance stakes I decided to go back to my early training ground and ride a 2km circuit that I did a few months back (roughly 50:50 mix of pavement and reasonably smooth trail with a 15m change in elevation from highest to lowest points). The last time I rode this on the 26er I was UPDing every 30 - 50 metres and I had the humiliation of taking 5 minutes to catch up and pass a pensioner with a lame dog (they eventually stopped and waited for me to go by because the dog was a bit freaked out by me wobbling along behind it). Humiliating 
Wow, what a difference after all my work on the trails. I UPDed just once, had to dismount at two points to get around barriers and stopped once near the end to let my legs take a break but found it so much easier. I’m not sure I could have kept up with a jogger but I was flying by the pedestrians…the quickest I’ve ever ridden. I’m finally getting the hang of cornering by leaning a bit which is cool as you can keep the speed up. I’m also aware I have two peddling modes;
- one where I’m uncertain (tricky terrain or obstacles) where I have more weight on the pedals which is hard work but seems to give more control,
- one where I’m more confident lean forward, sink into the seat a bit more and let the cranks spin…this seems essential for riding any sort of distance without ones legs giving out.
I just need to switch between the two more intuitively as I find I’m not relaxing quickly enough on the easy stuff and hence I tire really quickly.
Anyway, really pleased with the progress and it’s quite a confidence boost to go back and try things like this to measure ones progress.
I finished up by trying to ride off curbs some more. It seems I’m quite sensitive to pedal position doing this. If the pedals are at the quarter to three position when I drop over the edge of the curb I ride away like a boss…when they’re at the 12 & 6 positions I feel like I’ve stalled and I crash and burn. Much more work required here I think.
UL
Yes, that’s also my experience
That’s really great … The switch between this two “riding-modes” happens instantly on demand - e.g. on sudden bumps …
Way to go! That has to be really satisfying. Little by little, we’re getting there.
I think that’s a caveat that should go along with the advice for beginners to keep your weight on the saddle. Yes, it’s good to know about that. But until you have that confidence and can pedal smoothly and not be making corrections all the time, you’re going to have to keep a lot of weight on the pedals. Not good or bad, that’s just how it is at that stage.
Like you and shufps say, learning to switch quickly between the modes seems like a key thing to work on. I get to practice that on the hills here, using a lot of pedal weight going up and then trying to get off them and let my legs recover quickly on the downhill side. It’s getting better but there’s still huge room to improve.
Keep up the good work!
It’s been raining here a lot in the last week so I headed to the gravel tracks of Greenham Common today to work on distance/speed as well as a little muddy off-roading.
Started off of the 26er riding on the hard packed stuff and rode a 2km circuit including some up and down hill sections. Should have put a bit more pressure in the tyre I think but still managed to go fast enough for me! What I did note was that, I (notionally) limit my top speed to what I think I can run-out if I UPD. However, now I’m getting better I typically don’t UPD until my legs are dead tired. When I do, I discover my legs are too knackered to run it out 
Also had an experiment riding with my home made GoPro pole which I haven’t been successful with on previous attempts. All seemed to work well today but I was suffering with condensation inside the GoPro housing as it’s all been sat inside my soaking wet Land Rover for a week. Still, the pole seems to work so I will try and capture usable video next time.
A couple of weeks back I worked on attacking some (for me) seriously big tree roots for my DED video. Thought I’d include an extract here of me trying a particularly tricky root for other people learning…it’s always encouraging to see how often people actually fail!
My first attempt at this root in previous weeks had seen me UPDing before getting anywhere near the bloomin’ thing (I was convinced I was going to fail before I even reached it). With the pressure of having to master it for the video I went at it with a bit more courage and finally, after a few attempts, I cracked it. Now it seems simple and I can’t understand what all the fuss was about.
Well that’s my updates. My attempts to bunny hop sideways more than a foot are still a bit pants so I’m not going to be hopping up stairs anytime soon.
UL
Good stuff there! That looks like some very effective practice dealing with the root. A lot of things you’ll encounter will basically be bigger or somewhat differently shaped versions of that.
I need to get back to working on hopping too. I’ve been trying it on my 20", getting better little by little too. But I’m still not at all good at it.
Only a couple of weeks since my last update but I’ve made some distinct progress on both lumpy and flat trails in the last few weeks.
Knocked off work early a couple of Fridays back and headed to my local wood for some rough trail riding. By the time I got there it was getting dark and once amongst the trees it was tough to see the ground. Took my GoPro on the home made extending pole to get some more experience riding and filming at the same time. Possibly not the best time to try on such tough terrain but it did at least show me just how well the GoPro manages low light conditions.
Here’s a quick edit that I used to look at camera angles and framing (lots to work on here!).
The start of the video is about 4pm (mid November, UK) and I can’t make out detail on the ground once in the woods. By the end of the video it’s about 4:40 and completely dark in the woods. The GoPro manages the low light conditions very well considering.
I managed to ride about 60% of the trail on the 24er which was a major improvement over my last outing in these woods however the 40 minute session completely knackered me out and I couldn’t ride for quite a few days afterwards.
Started taking the uni to work as this lets me ride at lunchtimes (occasionally) as it’s dark by the time I finish work. The trail around my campus is much hillier than I’ve been used to riding so I’ve had more practice at climbing slopes and am improving my abilities here. I’ve also been riding, when I can, from where I park the car to the office. This is only 300-400m but is helping me to be much more confident of just mounting and going…I just need to learn to do it while carrying my laptop (and office) in my backpack.
Last weekend I took the 26er on a longer circuit of the (essentially flat) common and managed a 3km run without sweating like a fat boy…my longest outing so far.
I upped the tyre pressure to about 30 psi to lower the rolling resistance but still had to stop a few times to let my legs recuperate. I’m managing to go further before having to take a breather but am no where near to riding the distances that many on this forum do…patience and practice I guess. I may up the pressure more as I’m handling the path surface easily and can probably further reduce the drag.
My 19" Nimbus Trials arrived today so I’m looking forward to learning some new things…more to follow. Let me announce that I’m going to work on idling and riding backwards and that way I’ll be too embarrassed to post again until I put some proper effort into these two particular skills!
UL
I enjoyed it. You came up with different ways of using the camera and pole instead of going with the same point of view all the way, which helps a lot. That’s good inspiration to try a few things like that myself.
Hey, tell me about it. I’m really feeling the after-effects of my Sunday efforts too.
But you look steadier and a lot more relaxed in the saddle these days. You’re definitely still making progress.
Well UL, great progress.
Since I’ve been away from this place for a while I decided to re-read your topic from the start.
It’s great to see the progress from your first fence clenching revolutions to hill climbing to 3km ride. You have come on a long way and it’s testament to your determination.
Brilliant encouragement. Keep it up!
I’ve found my stamina seems to be waning rather than increasing so today I headed to the fairly easy trails of Greenham Common with the aim of trying to push the distances I’ve been riding.
Basically I failed
Managed just 3km…the first half of which I couldn’t ride in a straight line. After about ten minutes I stopped to consider what was wrong…there was no camber and I felt like I was sat square on the seat which is square in the frame. I did notice my heals knocking on the cranks occasionally (on the right side) which suggests I’m not set up on the uni quite as straight as I think I am. I tried turning my right shoulder into it (I was constantly veering to the left) but that was too difficult to maintain and I tried moving my hips about to see if that would help. I eventually sat straight on the seat but leant my upper body significantly to the right and that straightened up the path I was riding. Ironically 5 minutes later I turned a corner and started a very gentle descent and the problem immediate vanished and didn’t really return.
I’m super frustrated that I’m not able to ride further and even now, 8 hours later, I still feel knackered from the ride
Think I may switch to the 20" trials tomorrow and start working on some skills to make me feel better :roll eyes:
UL
Did you check to make sure your seat is straight? I know when I was doin jumps an dropped my uni a few times the seat turned and I was frustrated my ride home because I couldn’t ride straight without making corrections every other pedal.
Yup, seat is ‘square’ in the frame, nicely aligned with the wheel. I wish I’d taken the GoPro with me…I could have filmed myself to look at my posture and see if I’m sitting a bit side saddle or just not got my feet straight on the pedals. Very frustrating!
UL
some days everyone has a rubbish ride, cant do things that are normally easy, cant get your head in the groove etc…
Dont let it get to you, the next ride WILL be better.
Thanks man…
Maybe. check your tyre pressure. Very low tyre pressure will cause your uni to self steer and you will cycle like a drunkard lol! It will also sap your energy.
Hope this helps.
January 2014 (8 months since starting)
Been making the best of the wet weather at the weekends by trying to learn to jump and idle on the 20” trials uni. All my normal fields and tracks are bogged down with mud or flooded so car parks are all I’ve got.
My riding off pavements is pretty solid now although, interestingly, after first learning to ride straight off (orthogonally) when I came to riding off at an angle, as you might when riding normally, it was like learning the skill again! Funny how your brain quickly gets in the way when doing something new.
Finally managed to ride over some super high speed bumps and am jumping sideways about half a metre (both left and right). Jumping up onto a pavement is still alluding me although I know it’s just a mental block rather than an issue getting the unicycle up there.
The idling isn’t really progressing so I also introduced stationary stands today to try and find something I can achieve…I’m doing these standing up at the moment but quickly find myself doing little hands-free bounces to stay upright! My approach with idling has been to ride forward a bit then to try one idle before riding on (or UPDing as I’m doing). If I can manage one I can start building up the number of idles before moving again.
I did have a quick go at trying to ride backwards today but found it very hard on the 20” wheel…I did it a few months back quite by accident on the 24er and it seemed easier so I might try again with the bigger wheel.
Anyway…I’m starting 2014 with a tonne of skills to learn :roll eyes:
UL
Have you checked that your bearing caps are tight, and have not worked loose?
A few weeks ago I was all over the place trying to ride a straight line, and couldn’t understand how bad I was compared to the previous ride.
Turned out the bearing caps were very loose creating wheel wobble within the frame.
Swinley Forest
It was my birthday yesterday so I took the day off and took advantage of a rare dry day in the British weather and headed over to Swinley Forest about an hour or so from where I live in the county of Berkshire (pronounced bark-shire for our US friends ).
Despite my face I’m actually quite excited to be here…
The forest has a number of mountain biking trails laid out through it so I started with the easiest which is probably designed for kids.
It was actually quite a rough trail with a lot of small climbs and descents which I found really challenging. I was exhausted after this comparatively short run and retired to the Woodland Centre for coffee!
Although the kids trail had taxed my skills I couldn’t leave here without trying a medium skill mountain bike trail. I took a stab at the Blue Trail which was really, really tough with jumps, banked corners and more substantial gradients. I managed about a kilometre before I found myself on all fours, exhausted to the point of vomiting. I found a fairly flat cinder path back to the car park and called it a day. I think the whole trail is about 6km or so.
I’m such a light weight…I did have a good day though and it’s given me an idea of just how much work I need to do on my stamina. I made up for the exertion by going out for a birthday meal and consuming 2000 calories of food and drink!
Thanks for the idea…I did take the time to check over all my unis for spoke tightness, bearing caps and seat fixings. My seats were a bit loose so I’ve tightened these up to see if the seat was twisting a bit and causing me issues. I must get out on the 26er to see if I have the same problem again.
UL
Happy birthday!
Stamina is one thing, but the other one I noticed is that as you get better, you waste less energy in being tense and flapping around a lot.
Having said that, I went for a ride with very experienced riders, and it was amazing to see them gliding around, effortlessly whilst I was huffing and puffing and sweating to try to keep up!
So it’s a combination of stamina and better use of energy.
Good job staying with it, Uni Lateral. I like those ride report maps. And I see that you had another longer one today.
I found during my muni rides that if I managed to go two or three hundred yards without UPDing, it was better to stop and find a log or something to sit on for a minute or two. It really is hard work, and as Pierrox notes, having to fight to stay on due to out inexperience can only make it harder. And it seems to compound itself, with getting winded and wobbly-legged increasing the work rate.
I need to get back out there myself one of these days. The days are getting longer now, enough to notice the difference.