Seeing as how the semester is coming to a close, and seeing as how the due date for my semester project on the mechanics of unicycle manipulation is approaching, and seeing as how the weather today was awesome for a ride, I decided to do more research today.
Coming to campus was painfully bad, as I fell more times than I should. I blame my morning lack of ability on the terrible Pittsburgh weather and my being gone to Germany for spring break. But along the way some girls stopped their car and asked if they could try to ride, to which I obliged. They were much nicer (and cuter) than the guys across the street pointing and shouting something intelligible.
Anyhow, tried riding off some curbs to practice holding on to the seat, and then I rode up a hill next to one of the adminstrative buildings that I could never ride up before. Oh, the wonders of being able to hold the seat! I guess I can add that to my list of things I can now do. Since I felt ready, I decided to begin.
Started by riding across Flagstaff hill where somebody had cut a trail through the grass. That proved to be easy enough, so I proceeded beside the Phipps Conservatory and down to the beginning of the trail in Schenley park. Found that cobblestones aren’t as bad as I had anticipated. Ride from that point on was basically downhill for 15 minutes followed by uphill for 25. Fell off a couple times going uphill but mainly out of laziness/tiredness. Encountered mainly packed dirt with some loose stones/gravel on some of the bridges. Stopped at the end of the trail for a breather, and proceeded back the way I came. Fell off far fewer times on the way back, always a good sign. Then made it back up to campus, and completed a ride all the way around campus without dismounting (first time ever), especially considering the extremely steep hill coming down from upper campus to where my building is. I should check the gradient on that one. Anyhow, it was a wonderful and fun-filled (and research-productive) afternoon.
I had found out just the other day that one of my research partners rides uni also. He has a 26" Semcycle (which he’s had for quite some time) but still can’t freemount with high enough accuracy to ride without poles or fences nearby. Perhaps it’s true that it takes longer to learn on a larger wheel. Anyway, I told him we’d defintely have to ride together sometime. He did get my picture as I started to cut across Flagstaff hill, which I attach below.
Which brings me to my semester project. I’ve outlined all the things I think I want to talk about, and now just have to write it up and make pretty drawings. Anybody know how to draw unicycles in Adobe Illustrator?
