I need to consult the freewheeling hive mind. Braking is second nature and comfortable. Extended brake gliding on long descents are quite common. I can ride up inclines without using the brake with only a little extra concentration. That’s the good part. My struggle is most flats or descents and coasting without braking.
I can’t consistently figure out the pedal-pedal-coast transition without involuntarily leaning back. My chimp brain won’t fully disconnect. I have done the exercise of sitting in front of a wall and backpedaling. I do my best to lean forwards to be over the wheel. At a loss and somewhat frustrated when I try coastingto find myself leaning back and needing to brake or falling forward. I am riding as often as I can to get practice in. I do feel some progress but not like I want. Any good riders out there with suggestions for a schlub like me?
The Team Ursli members are getting real good in freewheeling and they become more and more. Now we have 5 riders who are on a real good level at muni freewheel riding: Urs, Lea, Manuel, Samuel and Elias. I hope we can make a video with all five of them soon. This video is from Elias (15 years) on his second ride on the freewheel: Elias freewheeling
It has been a while and I find that I can ride comfortably. Well enough that I can brake glide down steeper descents without the need to pedal. It is a really fun feeling going down without pedaling being fully in control. If I keep myself above the axle within what I’m guessing is 3-5° I can very lightly brake before falling too far back and keep going. A lot less back/forth pendulum brake-pedal oscillation.
I have a long ways to go yet. I still can’t coast at will. At times I do get a coast but only brief moments of 1-2 seconds. Methinks I need to dedicate time to practice on flat ground with no hands to develop the sensitivity needed to coast. One day hopefully soon.
This is a freewheeling hub. Or maybe it’s not? Or… Is it?
Oops, should have re-read the notice before jumping:
The hub is not suitable for jumps or drops.
Basically, I made a jump two days ago. 50 cm high, 50 cm sideways long. The hub made a loud noise and started completely freewheeling in both ways under load. But it also drives the wheel when unloaded
We’ll disassemble the wheel during the incoming week and hopefully repair it
Lock the brake and jump as you would on a regular uni
It’s much harder if you want to jump without the brake as you have to keep your balance only using your upper body… In such case, training is the only real method to get it.
They’re not lying. I burnt myself after a quick 5 minute ride a few years ago. I was still a beginner in freewheeling and used a lot more the brake than todays. I wanted to lock my uni and accidentally touched the rotor
Oof. I suspect the issue is that sprag clutches of that size are rather limited in their maximum load. In a bicycle hub the maximum force isn’t really all that high, but in a unicycle hub during a drop if your weight is onto the disk, the load could be absolutely huge. Something normal pawls can handle just fine, but I suspect your sprags slipped, and marred either the sprags and/or the surfaces they mate against.
I haven’t done so, but sent it back to @qu-ax and David replaced the faulty bearing. I’m not sure whether that’s an inner or outer bearing that broke, though. It seems to be less bad than expected, as that’s not the whole mechanism that broke.
So after not riding the freewheel for months (lots of fixed wheel DH muni and freestyle - I think one short ride in February), I finally did 2 rides today in Finale Liguria where there are steep roads and technical trails. First I rode up about 150m vertical and did a short trail and then practiced brake coasting on the road. The first descent wasn’t so great.
Then I did about a 2 hour XC ride. Wow, the freewheel is so strenuous!! I often need 2-3 tries to mount (either jump mount or brake-assist pedal in front). But had a few coasts on the trail, although the technical sections were way harder than on my fixed wheel. Both the line choice is more difficult while coasting, and I have way less control over ledges and rocks and such.
Question: When going down a technical section on the trail, say rocky downhill with ledges, can you stay sitting while you coast, or is it better to stand to have more absorption with the legs? I can brake coast sitting all right but then going over small drops or ledges while sitting seems hard to control smoothly (drops and ledges that are relatively easy for me with fixed-muni become challenging).
Then for the 200+ vertical meter technical DH, I switched back to fixed (Flick-Flock): and yes, I can ride way more technical stuff fixed. Although after riding freewheel, my fore/aft balance was a little messed up for a bit and I kept wanting to keep the pedals in one position. But worked out OK.
Then the trail let out on the road, and I had maybe 100m vertical runout on the road and switched back to freewheel - and then coasted pretty long and consistent (sitting).
About a year ago I had a few coasts standing but was only able to brake coast while sitting today.
Can we stay sitting while we coast? Sure. Is it easier than standing? Absolutely not
What I have learned in my last year of riding my freewheels is that it is usually much easier to coast while standing up on the pedals than sitting on the saddle. However, it can be a bit more tiring for the legs, so you should practice both.
