I just finished building my freewheel unicycle yesterday, and am amazed at how difficult it was to ride. I noticed that even pedaling forward was difficult. It was like I have never ridden a unicycle in my life.
I’m currently running a 26" rim with 114mm cranks on the Drift Trikes P-Hub.
I filmed my first attempts in 360 video, in case anyone wants to see me struggle. Around the 3:10 mark I fall and bring the camera down with me. Rough. Everything was okay, even my pride. I probably got too close to the camera but anyways, here it is. (video starts in the wrong direction, you have to scroll around)
Great video! Thanks for posting! My earliest videos may have given a false impression of how much protection a baseball hat provides. I would definitely recommend a helmet for anyone learning, particularly around a wall. I always wear a helmet riding off road and around cars. I almost always wear KH gloves, too. When I’m around rocky terrain or practicing something new I try to remember to wear elbow pads and sometimes knee pads, too. I wish I had remembered that last weekend when I was practicing switch stance! I still would have bruised my hip but at least my knee and elbow would have been protected! Next time I do switch stance practice I’m going to dig out my padded shorts. Even as padded as much as this I still hurt my elbow:
Thank you! I agree on the pads, I should’ve been wearing them as I usually do. Luckily no bad scrapes or bruises from this session. I saved that for my fixed muni ride today! Anyways, thank you for the videos you’ve supplied in this thread. It’s nice to know that other people ride these so well.
Hopefully I’ll have a better progress update video soon!
I ordered a 27.5" wheel with a Flick Flock hub and I was trying to think what number freewheel it would be (it turns out it will be my eleventh pedal freewheel). I was trying to find a video with one of them and realized it didn’t make the cut when I re-uploaded my YouTube videos. This is the Hill Kicker Pro wheel whose axle I bent hopping in this video:
In this this thread, @johnfoss mentioned a small group ride with a single freewheeler at the recently-ended Unicon 20. Does anyone know if anyone competed in any of the competitions there on a freewheel? I rode mine down Mont-Tremblant at Unicon 17 and “competed” in the Beginner category for Muni Downhill. My time was very slow. It would have been better if I hadn’t kept stopping to answer the questions people were asking me about the freewheel.
Sure, we were two freewheelers for advanced downhill and elite cross-country (Florian Kaiser and myself). In downhill, we both placed in the middle of the results - not really good but not bad either
In XC, Florian didn’t make the cut-off so he did a single lap. I made it to the second lap and placed in the middle of the results, again. Same as downhill: not really good but not bad either!
We also had a fun “freewheel muni workshop” led by @Becky98 and myself with a group of 5 or 6 riders. Quite fun and we rode almost every single part of the elite XC - that was the day before the race.
I also saw a few free wheelers on the muni cyclocross course too.
That was a fun event. Also one gal was wheel walking every time she got to the water spraying section where I was volunteering.
That’s a good question! I hadn’t thought about it, but if it’s not already been addressed, it’s past time. Freewheeling gives a definite advantage over pedaling, so it will probably have to have its own category. Right now I don’t think it does, but I’m not sure if our existing rules have a loophole for freewheels.
I would say it gives a definite disadvantage, as it is way harder to balance and go fast on a freewheel than on a fixed wheel. It would be great to have a “freewheel” category but it is not mandatory as there’s no real advantage in freewheeling. In addition, what about Flick Flock? In which category should it go?
I don’t know about anyone else but I believe @dima (Dmitriy Bibichkov) competed in at least Muni Downhill Advanced at Unicon 18 on a freewheel. I didn’t even go to any of the muni events because I was focused on basketball (and settled for a Silver Woodal).
Slight change of plan in that I’ve decided to build it into a 20” first to learn on. A 20” rim was cheap enough so il start there and rebuild it a 27.5” if I manage/enjoy freewheeling.
The freewheel will currently go in a 29” frame that I use fixed wheel usually then get its own frame in time.
I’d be tempted to say that unless you’re learning inside, a 20" is really a bit small to learn freewheeling. The extra speed and momentum of a larger wheel can help.
So far I’ve found that I’ve been able to get away with swapping freewheel hubs into every fixed wheel I’ve tried without changing spokes. Yeah it might be 1-2mm off ideal, but it’s worked fine, and reduced my outlay for trying other wheel sizes. So far I’ve tried 32", 29", 26", 24", and 19".
Yeah, nah, I don’t think we are there yet (if we ever get to that). I’m yet to see anyone go faster on a freewheel than on fixed in person, and certainly not faster than with a Schlumpf hub, which is not in a special category at Muni races. I’m pretty sure I heard Ben used his Schlumpf for his XC win and he has the choice for pretty much all options: Fixed, Freewheel, Schlumpf, FlickFlock. (I don’t think that that is what gave him the advantage, he was the clear favourite on that course anyway IMO.)
I am excited to see what the future brings with flickflock becoming more common, maybe there will be someone who ends up using freewheeling to a definite advantage. I think it might need a young rider, right now most people probably have a mental barrier of how fast unicycles can go. I’m not seeing that happening very soon, it remains “just” a fun extra challenge in my view.
For specific sections terrain this is very much possible. Early days in my freewheeling journey I was doing this on fire roads on my 29" (but not faster than with a Schlumpf hub).
I really should get around to buying a decent brake and testing some 36er freewheel down some decent road hills… and get myself a new helmet and some knee and elbow pads beforehand.
I need to update what I said before about freewheels: They may have an advantage in downhill races, as early as tomorrow. Of course it depends very much on the course, and requires a skilled Freewheel rider. But when it comes to competition rules, it’s much better to think of things before they happen rather than after, which always leads to someone getting disappointed.
So the question will be, what to do about Freewheels in downhill races? Up until now, as mentioned above, Muni has been unrestricted. The reason for this was to encourage experimentation, and to not restrict what would be allowed. But in a world where we might soon have many people who can cruise down a great deal of mountain without needing to pedal, this could lead to a situation where they might need a separate division. It’s possible that in the future, riders might be going really fast on those.
It should be a fun topic in the next round of the IUF Rulebook Committee. Any suggestions?
I really don’t think freewheels will ever have an advantage for Muni races. It’s way harder to balance on a freewheel than on a fixed uni, so we spend a lot of energy to stay balanced - that’s energy that can’t be used to go faster. That’s even harder on rocks and roots.
By the way, as said earlier, I have been the only freewheel rider making it to the second lap of the elite XC at Unicon so I’d say I have a pretty clear view on this point
I would however be pleasantly surprised if freewheels become at some point faster than fixed wheels!
I agree with you on that point. It would be great to discuss freewheels for the next rulebook. Even though they are not faster than fixed wheels, it’d be great to have a category for freewheels so that it would encourage people to ride freewheels. The next question would be: what about switchable hubs, like Flick Flock? Should they be included in freewheel category or not?
I would definitely recommend a helmet for anyone learning, particularly around a wall. I always wear a helmet riding off road and around cars. I almost always wear KH gloves, too. When I’m around rocky terrain or practicing something new I try to remember to wear elbow pads and sometimes knee pads, too. I wish I had remembered that last weekend when I was practicing switch stance! I still would have bruised my hip but at least my knee and elbow would have been protected! Next time I do switch stance practice I’m going to dig out my padded shorts. Even as padded as much as this I still hurt my elbow:
