First long ride on 36er or why I still suck at this.

[Rowan]

@joemarshall

By the way, Rowan - are you anywhere near Wanganui? Just that I’m gonna be there something like 5th, 6th, 7th May, maybe 8th, something like that, and obviously gonna to do some riding like.

I live in New Plymouth which is about 200km (I think) away from Wanganui. It would be quite an epic ride to get there but maybe I’ll be able to make it. What kind of riding would you be doing? I could perhaps hitch hike there with a unicycle in tow, or go on my biggest coker ride ever. My Muni is pretty suckful. Are you staying with friends there or what? PM me perhaps. Still being unemployed I am open for planning adventures.

@joemarshall

Bad Spencer.

Riding red lights is stupid. Riding red lights in London is double stupid.

You piss people off by doing it. If you ever say the word ‘bike’ in front of a non-cyclist, the first thing they say is something about red lights.

It’s also dumb cos some point you’ll do it at the same time as some other bugger does it in the other direction, and end up smacking into each other. I’ve seen this happen to cyclists doing the ride through pedestrian lights thing and was v. funny!

Or you’ll do it into traffic that has right of way, and get hit, or you’ll not pay attention and hit a pedestrian or something.

I know several London cyclists who argue that it’s often safer to ride through red lights than to stop. They are dumbasses, and have all been crashed into by cars.

Plus, as an added bonus, by stopping at red lights, you’re giving yourself interval training, which makes you fitter, so you actually end up faster in the long run.

I don’t agree. I treat red lights just like give way signs and I don’t believe that is stupid. As long as I respect the other road users and ensure their safety is not compromised by my dash across the intersection then I think it is a perfectly legitimate way to get around. Road laws were not written for unicycles so they do not strictly apply. This was told to me by a Senior Sergeant of the Police, who is now the Regional Commander. She said I can run red lights, wear no helmet, have no lights at night, and go the wrong way up one way streets etc legally because the definition in the land transport act for Bicycles is that they have two or more wheels, and cars are a way different definition too. I think as unicyclists we deserve the right to choose our right of way because getting places takes so long and we put in a lot of energy to get there.

I rode past an accident scene last night where a police officer was controlling the intersection at a set of lights. Some boys sitting across the road yelled out “He’s got no lights and no helmet” to dob me into the cop, and another one said “He’s got a safety vest though”. The cop called out “Hey- watch out for red lights” or something to that effect as I sped past him straight through the red light without stopping. I called back “It’s all good there was no cars” and kept riding.

WTF is good about interval training? Riding longer and harder is surely better training than stopping more often. Anyway- I’m a cycle advocate and safety is important to me, and I hope I never fail to pay attention at an intersection cos that would not be a good advocacy look if I were to cause an accident.

[semach.the.monkey]

Well, I fully agree that running a red light can be stupid. However, that does not always make it so. I consider myself a safe and responsible unicyclist, despite whatever laws may or may not be broken*.

At every junction, regardless of the colour of the lights, (or even if there are any lights) I have to make a decision. That decision is based on lots of things, but my safety is very high on the list. Getting to my destination, having somewhere to hold on to, colour of the lights, local knowledge, energy levels etc all play a factor in each decision.

Having the legal right of way does not seem to be a factor that London motorists consider. Of all the close scrapes and near misses I’ve had at junctions, I have always been in the legal right, although possibly from a personal safety point of view, maybe I should have yielded.

As Bruce pointed out, one of the worst categories of road users is pedestrians. They have caused me just as much grief as car drivers. No where near as much grief as bus drivers, however, who have the god given right to drive in cycle lanes, pull out on you, pretend to pull out just to make you stop and dismount, and generally just drive like complete arses.

To backup some of what I’m saying, here’s some facts from a CTC article on the ‘share the road’ campaign;

The figures show that, in London during the period 2001-05:

• There were 101 times as many reported pedestrian injuries due to collisions with motor vehicles than with pedal cycles (there were 34,791 pedestrian injuries involving motor vehicles, compared with 331 involving cycles).
• Motor vehicles were involved in 126 times as many fatal and serious pedestrian injuries as cycles (there were 7,447 fatal and serious injuries involving motor vehicles compared with 59 involving cycles).
• 534 pedestrians were killed in collisions with motor vehicles, compared with just one killed in collision with a cycle. That one fatal collision with a cycle occurred neither on a pavement nor a pedestrian crossing point.
• Even on the pavement, there were 2,197 reported pedestrian injuries arising from collisions with motor vehicles, including 17 fatalities. These injuries outnumbered those involving cycles by a factor of 42 to 1.
• The total number of reported pedestrian injuries in London due to collisions with cyclists on pavements was just 65 in the year 2001, and 69 in 2005. In the meantime, the figure went down, up and back down again, showing no clear overall trend. This was despite a 72% increase in cycle use over the period.
• On average just under 18% of cyclists ran red lights, whereas over a third of motorists encroached into cyclists’ “Advance Stop Lines” (cycle boxes at traffic lights).

STM

Edit: I forgot to mention - Whilst riding down Clerkenwell road a few months ago, I was aware of a car hanging about behind me. Normally this is so the passenger has time to get his mobile phone ready to take a photo of me (Yes, it happens many many many times). This time, however, it was a police car, and the passenger had a propper camera, and sure enough, he snapped me as he went past. A bit further on he had to stop due to traffic, so I grinned and waved as I went past. Then I realised that the reason the traffic was stopped was because of a red light. One with no where to hang on to. One that I almost always jump. So, despite the copper having a photo of me, and being in plain sight, I went through. I would have been easy pickings if he’d wanted to stop me, but he didn’t seem bothered at all.

• I know it’s been discussed before about a unicycle being a legal form of road transport, and can’t honestly remember the outcome for the UK.

[joemarshall]

@Rowan

I live in New Plymouth which is about 200km (I think) away from Wanganui. It would be quite an epic ride to get there but maybe I’ll be able to make it. What kind of riding would you be doing? I could perhaps hitch hike there with a unicycle in tow, or go on my biggest coker ride ever. My Muni is pretty suckful. Are you staying with friends there or what? PM me perhaps.

WTF is good about interval training? Riding longer and harder is surely better training than stopping more often. Anyway- I’m a cycle advocate and safety is important to me, and I hope I never fail to pay attention at an intersection cos that would not be a good advocacy look if I were to cause an accident.

Interval training is great, it makes you fitter because it you can ride at higher intensity for short intervals than you can constantly. Over time, this increases the intensity that you can ride at constantly. You do more exercise by riding slow then fast too, because it’s less efficient, so takes more energy.

I’m in Wanganui at ‘design camp’ whatever that is, which ends on Saturday 5th, and I think they’ve booked me transport going back on Tuesday from Palmerston Nth. I’ll pm you nearer the time about that.

Joe

[Bruce_Dawson]

It’s still rude!

@joemarshall

Ah this is something that seems to confuse Americans, Germans and Japanese people in particular. In the UK, there’s no law about crossing streets. As a pedestrian, you can legally cross wherever and whenever you want.Joe

Wow. That’s going to take a few minutes to internalize. Apparently that concept is alien to Canadians as well.

So if I understand correctly it is illegal for me to ride through a red light, but if I get off and walk my bike or unicycle then I’m fine. Presumably walking across will be slightly safer also since it makes dodging traffic a bit easier.

Having thought about it for a few minutes I think that my original comment (mostly) stands. Even if it is legal for pedestrians to cross anywhere I assume it is still considered rude for them to cross right in front of oncoming traffic. Pedestrians are very often rude about crossing in front of cars and riders that have the right of way.

[Bruce_Dawson]

Ditch the backpack

@underdog

I wish I could idle, I wish I could idle, I wish I could idle :o :o

Something else I meant to suggest is ditching the backpack when trying to mount. Wearing a heavy backpack moves your center of gravity farther down and back which makes jumping up harder. If the backpack moves around at all then that further complicates things. If you need a water bottle then mount it on the front of the unicycle somehow, at least until you’ve perfected getting on.

[harper]

@semach.the.monkey

To backup some of what I’m saying, here’s some facts from a CTC article on the ‘share the road’ campaign;

Facts are often interesting but more often meaningless. The key bit (or, at least one key bit) of information missing here is the ratio of the number of pedestrians to the number of cyclists. The so-called facts can then be normalized somewhat as the cross sections have been made equal. Really, though? How much more or less visible is a cyclist than a pedestrian? To what greater extent is a pedestrian able to control their body than a cyclist is to control their cycle?

My irrational opinion is that the absolute right-of-way belongs to the first developed mode of transportation. In order this might be

1. Pedestrians
2. Horse, donkey, and mule riders
3. Animal drawn carts
4. Cycles
5. Trains
6. Autos and trucks
7. Buses

This system would cause chaos in modern traffic. Imagine a train stopping and yielding the right-of-way to an oxcart. Funny image, that.

Edit-WOW! Has this drifted off topic or what?

[idiorythmic]

@harper

Edit-WOW! Has this drifted off topic or what?

Certainly has, and I’m not helping matters by posting a link to video which shows how some cultures don’t bother with traffic control devices at all.

one of many examples to be found on you tube

[semach.the.monkey]

@harper

Facts are often interesting but more often meaningless.

Yes, and in a recent survey, 87.6% of people said that they didn’t beleive statistics either!

@harper

My irrational opinion is that the absolute right-of-way belongs to the first developed mode of transportation. In order this might be

1. Pedestrians
2. Horse, donkey, and mule riders
3. Animal drawn carts
4. Cycles
5. Trains
6. Autos and trucks
7. Buses

I would kind of agree with that, except for the fact that you’ve left ‘primates’ out of the top spot just above pedestrians

I agree with what you’re saying about the stats though. And the one thing that struck me was how the data was collected. I bet there are loads of pedestrians that have been hit by cyclists and ended up with a bruised arm or whatever that is never ever recorded. I know I’m undoing my own argument here, but the biggest froms of transport hitting the smallest are much more likely to appear in the stats.

STM

(Oh, and how many posts stay on topic anyway?)

[harper]

@semach.the.monkey

(Oh, and how many posts stay on topic anyway?)

Only the ones that go unanswered.

[semach.the.monkey]

@harper

Only the ones that go unanswered.

Ah, the ones simpley titled “question” or “KH2006” then?

STM - bringing the thread further and further off topic!

[mags]

does anyone have a link of this mounting method?

@roakey

Correction. A guy I work with is learning to ride (currently he mountain climbs, mount bikes and slack lines) and we spend a lot of time analyzing each other to figure out exactly how stuff is done to better explain it to others, and he figured out that drawing the tire under me is NOT what I’m doing.

I’m actually holding the tire stationary. To mount, I start with a hop and then the foot on the rearward pedal is pushed down to get me up and over the Uni. Holding the tire allows me to push down on the pedal without making the wheel roll backwards.

Works great!

Roak

Does anyone have a video of this mounting method?

[jamessd]

@mags

Does anyone have a video of this mounting method?

It’s pretty simple really, just put less weight on the back pedal, and push off harder from the ground, so you have more forward momentum and can ride forwards without having to roll backwards first. (a very long sentence…)