I am learning how to grind and was wondering if anyone else grinds with their rear crank arm. I have trouble grinding with my front crank arm because the crank doesn’t seem to slide. Does anyone have any tips?
Grinding
Well i just learned to grind recently and the way i learned to slide the front crank is to go on a slanted ledge thats really slippery and stall on it so you will start sliding. Then start riding up to it with a little speed but not to much speed.
I only know how to grind crank-forward and I’m pretty comfy with it. As uniextreme pointed out, slippery is a must! I learned at a skatepark on metal coping that i could lean up against something to get an angle on it. The metal was kinda loud when i landed on it hard but the rollerbladers had waxed it up real well.
As scarey as it may sound, I had an easier time learning to grind on a pretty steep angle. With the steeper angle, i could just start at the top, hop so that my crank/pedal would latch on and grind on down. As i got more comfortable with it, i made the incline less to the point where i would have to gain enough speed riding towards the coping to get me through the entire grind.
Just hang in there with it. It can be a little scarey but i havent gotten hurt doing it yet. But i would always recommend the proper padding and helmet.
try wax
skateboarders use candle wax on the object they are trying to grind just rub loads of it on the thing you are grinding only on the edge you are using.
i would assume that back crank grinding would be better since, if the situation comes up, you could start pedalling while still on the rail.
an example, lets say you are ginding on a rail that goes from a height of two feet and slopes down to the ground. with pedal in back, as soon as your wheel hits the ground you can pedal away, while if your crank was in front you would have to hop away from the rail first.
catch my drift?
Thanks alot guys. I rubbed lot of candle wax on the rail and I seem to be sliding better. I am going to stick with grinding on my back crank arm.
where the heck are you going to find a rail like that? haha ive never seen one myself, cause i dont think it would serve any purpose. if it was a handrail, it wouldnt need to go to the ground… if it was at a skatepark, the skaters wouldnt be able to get out of their grind or slide. i can see it more with a ledge than a rail, but whatever. either way, grinding on either crank is fun.
see ya, Kevin
Kevin.
Finding a grind where ever i seem to go in England seems quite impossible. the ones ive seen that could be grinded have anti grind nobbles on them.
Thats why i made my own portable grind 
Trev
yep, thats exactly what happens, and it kind of just happens too, you dont actualy need to learn it.
Candle wax is bad
dont use candle wax…
If you really want to fly use skate wax. They sell it any skateboard store and it works 5x better at least. I dont know which skate wax is better however
my tips:
- grind on the pedal
- for concrete use plastic pedals
- for metal, use metal pedals
- wax up the curb
if you’re not going anywhere, try getting some speed and remember to grind on the pedal. crank grinding won’t get you anywhere.
there’s a grind early on in this: http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albus85
good luck!
(i would also suggest doing things like grinding with the front pedal. it’s been my experience that you can grapple with better accuracy and such.)
I disagree. i do all of my grinding on both pedal and crank. i find it gives you more balance. and im doing big rails and ledges, so my opinion must count for something :p. in the end, its all your preference. try out different things and find out what works for you.
Kevin
agreed with kevin, whatever works. dan heaton told me not to grind on the crank because you go farther on the pedal… i do what he says.
edit: however, you may be getting me wrong. it is near to impossible to avoid grinding on the crank. but if it’s directly on the crank where the axle is, you’re going to grind considerably less then if you were putting the majority of your weight on the pedal. if you aim for the pedal, you’re still going to be grinding the crank somewhat, but your weight won’t be on it. it definitely weighs you down on flat grinds if you’re grinding directly on the crank. that was the major problem i had. i couldn’t get anywhere.
It is indeed easier (but scarier) to learn grinds on a sloping rail. You can often find these at skate parks. Try and find yourself a nice flat metal edge that is wide enough to fit your entire pedal on. Loading docks sometimes have metal edges on them which are good to grind. Don’t bother grinding wooden surfaces with metal pedals - your pins will stick in and you won’t go anywhere.
I also grind with my rear foot on the rail. I don’t think it really matters which foot you use, just use whichever is natural to you. One thing that helped me is landing on the rail with the uni slightly out in front of me. I found that if I land with the uni directly underneath me (as you’d do for a pedal grab) the uni would stop dead and I’d fall off. With the uni slightly out in front (or leaning your body back, if you prefer to think of it that way) you’re much more likely to continue to slide. Also it helps to line up the grind beforehand, in much the same way as you’d line up a forward rolling hop.
Happy grinding!
Tony
you know what? i dont like all this back pedal/front pedal stuff. they should be considered two seperate types of grinds. like right now, all unicyclists say is they can grind. how about “i just learned a back pedal grind!”
like for instance i have several types of grinds i can do. i am right foot forward when i hop, so i learned a front pedal grind first. i can also back pedal grind, and switch back pedal grind (where i hop with my left foot forward, and grind with my right foot back). i also 180 into and out of grinds (sometimes both if you watch my video) and ive hopped over a rail thats on my left side and grinded down it with my right foot forward (i believe dan doerkson does this too and he called it a meat slide. i call it a blunt slide). im working on lots of variations.
so dont just stick to one type of grind. get out there and experiment! i wanna see what you guys can come up with.
see ya, Kevin