Its Memorial Day. No work, no school, what do you do? Take the kids Muniing!
Today was parent and child day at Big Finn Hill Park. The weather was great and Saturday night’s rain shower made it just right for a wonderful morning of mud Muni.
Of course the kids out rode us but what to do expect when they’re 1/3 your weight? Here we are in our post-ride group shot, from left to right:
Greg Harper and his child John, Tom Blackwood and Miles, Steve DeKoekkoek and Andrea, and Tom Jackson and Negeen.
If Muni means Mud Unicycling we definitely did that. John says it is just plain wrong to wash a Muni so we rode them hard and put them away caked with dirt.
Even the Tangerine Dream ventured into its inaugural Mud Muni. At first it acted real prissy and rode around the puddles but in no time it was plowing through with the rest of us. Also make nice wide tracks for those behind to ride in. Did you know that with enough speed a Fireball can “waterski” across mud?
There’s never been a better looking group of geezers and geezlings! John is right - MUni’s look best when caked with mud. The Tangerine Dream looks especially good in mud.
That was a fun ride. The kids (Andrea DeKoekkoek, Negeen Jackson, Miles Blackwood, and John Childs) were great troopers and all did a fantastic job.
The Dyno FireBall tire surprised me somewhat in the mud. I thought that the tread pattern would make it much more slippery than the Gazz. It held the mud pretty well. It shed mud faster than the Gazz and cleaned up instantly with water. It also surprised me on the pavement. It wants alot of pressure to ride like a road tire.
The Tangerine Dream was lightweight and pleasant to trail ride with the 150mm cranks. The cheapo, plastic pedals worked out OK even when wet and muddy. Maybe my technique has improved but I doubt it. The only weakness in the frame setup is the 22.2mm seatpost tube and the smooth, chromed seatpost. It wants to rotate pretty easily and takes some brutish action with the quick release to hold it down. The KH Velo saddle was a pleasure to ride on the trail.
After the morning ride, John and I descended the lake trail at Saint Edwards park. It’s about 300 feet down. It’s easy. I used the SH MUni on this ride for the 175mm cranks. Coming up was a different story. I rode about a third of it. John made it from bottom to top without getting off. He’s an animal.
Totally sweet pic of the Dads and their kids. Gotta love having your Dad as a uni pal!
Harper, good to see the Tangerine Dream got its ‘wheel wet’ on a fine inaugeral ride. (Some day we’ve got to see about the yellow Gazelle meeting the Tangerine Dream… )
The best part was watching Greg go down “The Elevator” with the Tangerine Dream. The Elevator is a 20 or 30 foot steep down followed by a 20 or 30 foot steep up. It’s a big gravity dip for the bikes. The bottom of the dip is thick mud due to recent rains. When Greg went down The Elevator the Fireball did a two to three foot power slide when it hit the mud. It looked like he was mud surfing. It was amazing to watch, and Greg repeated the experiment at least three times. Big cheers from the spectators for the Fireballs performance on the mud.
That sounds like a great ride. I’m really looking forward to my biggest ever group ride this saturday with a bunch of South-East Queenslanders. I’ll take plenty of photos.
bugman wrote:
> Anybody ever tried a fender on a Muni to keep the mud from slinging up
> your back?
Not yet (I’m more of a dry weather munic anyway), but I’ve got a
mudguard on my Coker and it does a sterling job of keeping my arse dry
when I ride in the wet.
I put a fender on a 24" Schwinn many years ago. It made a huge difference when riding on anything wet. On a bike you just get a line up your back. On a unicycle, you get crap all over the backs of your legs!
The fender was even immortalized in an On One Wheel article (I should say “USA Newsletter” because that’s what it was called then). But the parts and instructions might not be usable in today’s parts market.
I later buried the fender under a bunch of other accessories, to make the “Excessory” Cycle. This is an older picture of it: http://www.unicycling.com/garage/special.htm (scroll down)
That’s an old picture, before I added more stuff. Today the Excessory Cycle is in pieces in my garage, awaiting restoration. All the parts will be cleaned, de-rusted and refurbished before re-assembly. I had a flat. On a Schwinn, this means taking out one bolt. On the Excessory Cycle, this means pretty much taking the whole dang thing apart. Pictures will follow when the project is completed…
A fender on a MUni would certainly cut down on the mud. The hard part would be finding one fat enough I guess…
What?! are you crazy?? Getting covered in mud is half the fun of MUni!
I’ve never really understood the Fireball. The slickness would be great for tarmac, but I would have thought it was really slippery in mud. Apparently not!
Sounds like a cool ride, I love it when you are riding with a big group. Much more fun!
First off, I am in no way degrading the post or anyone’s comments.
However, (in my opinion) “Caked” is when the mud is so thick hanging on your knobby tire that the frame scrapes it off in huge gummy chunks. “Caked” is when the mud is on there so thick, your knobby tire Looks like a fireball in all it’s slick glory because you can’t see the knobbies.
Someday, when the summer is over and we actually get preciptation, i will post a picture of what “caked” is.
“Caked with mud” is overstating it. “Peppered with mud” is closer to reality. I just think it’s wrong to actually wash your muni after a ride. I keep a scrub brush (a.k.a. utility brush) in my car to brush off the the big chunks and loose dirt. But I don’t get anal enough to wash it with soap and water. A clean muni is an unhappy muni, unless it’s cleaned so it can be ridden in a parade.
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