Hey all,
Would anyone like to join me for the Finish the ride event at Griffith Park in June? They have a 12 mile, 20 mile, 35 mile, and 50 mile ride.
I’m in touch with the director at the Streets Are For Everyone non profit and they offered a discount if we can get 5+ unicyclists to attend. Also, I’m not affiliated with them, just happened to be in contact and they offered this deal.
Here’s the event page: Finish The Ride Griffith Park — Streets Are For Everyone
Let me know if you’d like to come!
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Until 2 days ago I’ve been away from uni riding for a couple years. I’ve never done any distance riding and need to build up my endurance again. Despite those impediments I’m interested.
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Right on, welcome back! Good news is that it’s a good ways away still so you have plenty of time. What distance are you most interested in?
Thanks for the welcome back. Right now saddle soreness says says to aim low be conservative with 12 miles. I intend to increase that with more practice. I tried checking registration deadlines but got a 502 error on their website. Is there a deadline we need to commit to a distance on?
There’s no deadline I’m aware of, just before the race day. Also updated the original post, we will have a team 20% off coupon for registration.
I’m thinking I’ll be doing the 50 miler. I have a goal to do a century at the end of the year, so this is my halfway ride.
Are you planning on riding the 36er?
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I’d want to. Right now I only have my second hand 24in Torker, which I learned to ride on. Any riding longer than an hour leaves my legs pretty fatigued. Gradually building my endurance though. I should have my 36er by next weekend. Once it’s delivered, my goal is to ride and acclimate to it. Hoping the larger wheel and the differing crank lengths let me go farther distances without being so leg drained after. Only time and practice will tell.
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I’m in a similar boat, also trying to build my endurance. You definitely go faster and further on the 36er, overall I prefer it to my smaller unicycles. It feels more stable and rolls over most things. I hope the transition goes well, you’ll have to keep us updated on your progress
So. The 36er arrived today. Unboxed it. Looked at it. Felt intimidated by it. Assembled it. Looked at it fully assembled. Felt even more intimidated by it. Got it over to my local park. As I was getting ready to assist mount it I heard Oswald say confidently “I’m gonna ride 'em.”.
Wow. What a difference when compared to my 24in Torker. The pedals have metal studs and are really grippy, in the best possible way. While riding, the wheel felt so smooth. I didn’t expect it to be as stable as it felt. I now understand what everyone means when they say it takes effort to get the big wheel rolling. Once it starts it does want to keep going.
I had a couple UPD’s I was able to step down from and walk out. Only a couple “Oh #$%*” moments that never came to fruition.
What surprised me most was successfully freemounting at all on day 1. I attribute this to Terry Unigeezer Peterson and his videos. Much appreciate them. Despite a low degree of success initially that gradually worsened the longer I rode, I nonetheless had success.
I really liked the brake. The ability to lightly engage it to bleed off extra speed while on a downward slope is really nice. Wish I’d have had one for a long time now.
Rode at least 3 hours on my 36er today. For the ride I feel like I want to aim for 35 or even 50 miles. But in order to do that I have to introduce my new best friend Mr. Pool Noodle.
If it isn’t obvious from my ramblings I had a ton of fun today. Time to go soak my legs.
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Let us know how that Pool Noodle saddle cover works out!
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I love the character arc in your story! Also stoked you’re enjoying the 36er as much as you are. It’s such a cool experience. Congrats on the long ride time too that’s awesome, even if it was broken up.
Selfishly I’d push for the 50 but mainly because I think it’d be cool to have a team 
No presh.
Also +1 on the pool noodle, I’m very curious about that.
Mr. Noodle is helpful. The dual cylinder support shape helps mitigate uncomfortable saddle soreness and distributes pressure over a larger area. I thought of using it since saddles have a recessed center area. It is held down with hook and loop (velcro) strips. Minimal movement of it while I’m riding. The extra length on the tail comes in handy when I start to feel uncomfortable. It permits me to “Y” split it so my weight is on my butt bones. Not sure what else I can say about it other than “it works for me”. Saddle soreness has decreased some since starting back up. Slowly building my tolerance up.
I tried out the 3 positions available on my cranks 114/142/170mm. Farthest out at 170mm gives me the leverage to continue riding inclines without much difficulty. A little bit too long to be comfortable while free mounting. The middle 142mm length feels “Goldilocks” just right for me. Long enough to ride easy and give enough leverage to start/stop. Free mounting feels good when I push off and can get into the saddle correctly. Innermost 114mm crank length I can ride, but at my currently ability feels too short. Trying to start with them feels sluggish and the wheel is resistant to move. Braking at that length with my legs doesn’t do very well. Once, while stopping I leaned back a little and tried breaking with my rear foot, I had my worst UPD I almost didn’t outrun. I may progress into 114mm eventually but 142mm is my comfort length currently.
I’ve only done rides at and around the perimeter of my local park. Best guess is 2-3 miles while riding. I need to get in a distance ride to get a feel for how far I can comfortably go at present. It surprised me when I went back to my 24in uni how slow it felt. That gives me confidence I’ll be able to get some decent distance in on it.
I think a group of 36ers would be fun to do. I don’t feel pressured to do it but I am willing to reach for it.
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Hey 1Hunna, how’d this turn out? I totally missed your posting, because I hadn’t checked into unicyclist early this year.
I jog Griffith on a regular basis, and ride up Mt.Hollywood Drive every thursday.
I did notice when the park started posting signs for their mega weekend for running and bikes.
For a quick seconds, I thought hmmm…I could do 12 miles on my 24 muni in about 2-3 hrs.
@Onehunna @slamdance @IvenBach sounds like you’re all in LA–any interest in coming down to SD for Bike the Bay on Aug 27? Bike The Bay 2023 Online Registration
I don’t think I can do the whole 25 miles on my 24" muni, but there’s an 8 mile optional off-road loop that might be fun to get a small group of munis on. Cost is $75 (before Aug 1) plus $10 for the off-road as far as I understand.
I should have availability to attend that event. Start up a new event thread and ping me there. Hopefully there are enough uni riders available to make a good showing.
I don’t want to speak for Onehunna but I had fun. I was the only one who had a UPD on the ride, thankfully saved by a tuck-n-roll. We both made it and had a few glamour shots of us that I shared Pictures of your latest ride continued - #2869 by IvenBach. Made me want to do another ride with others.
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Hey Slam! It went well, it ended up being @IvenBach and I, and we did the 20 mile (actually 22 mile) ride. We had gone a couple weekends before to check out the 50 mile route but at least half of it was through the hills and we decided we’d rather do the shorter ride.
Overall it was pretty fun and a nice ride through and around Griffith. We got lots of great reactions from all the cyclists and plenty of photos taken of us. Afterwards @IvenBach and I spent some time trying the freewheel in the parking lot so that was also pretty cool.
They invited us out to their next event in October, it’s like a Halloween costume ride up in Santa Clarita. Haven’t really made any plans for it but it’s in the back of my mind
That sounds pretty neat and I’d be interested. The off-road sounds pretty fun.
I’d also be down to meet up outside of the event
