recently I have read alot of threads where people have been asking for help on starting to grind. I too have been thinking about grinding and I don’t know where to start. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I approunce the grind instead of sliding, the uni stays still and I go flying,
Help anyone?
Jas’o
keep in mind that most pedals are aluminum, which is a soft metal. when you try to grind level concrete ledges, you will stick, if it is not heavily waxed and worn by skaters. Even then, you won’t go very far. you should switch to plastic pedals if you can afford to replace them once a week. At least till you get grinding down
metal benches are prefect for learning how to grind.
do as many pedal/crank+pedal stalls as you can stand, then do some more.
now, try to roll into a crank stall slowly, you should now be able to slide a little bit, you want to put as much weight as you can on your grinding foot (chocolate foot).
just go faster and faster till you can slide further than the bench is long and move on to longer/taller/harder stuff.
the best advice I can give you is, just get out there and try it, alot of things in unicycling are alot easier than they look.
let me know how it works out for you.
mike
Whats the difference between crankgrabs and pedalgrabs?oh and whats a Crank/pedal stall?names Confuse me.
cheers mike, thanx for the advice, I’m sure I’ll crank it eventually, everyone seems to comment on how much easier it is than it looks, anymore tips will be welcomed
jas’o
different names for the same things. stall sounds cooler.
pedal stall: trials move some obsticles are too high to jump onto so if you can only jump high enough to get your pedal on to, you jump and land on the obsticle with just your pedal. from this posisition, you can jump from your pedal and land with your tire on the obstacle.
crank stall: same as above but instead of landing on just your pedal you land on your pedal and crank. this is easier to land and jump from. though I have found that I can stall on taller things when I pedal stall.
mike
I can grind benches and fun boxes and such but i have yet to grind a handrail. I have found the perfect rail but now i need to just try and any advice on grinding rails would be nice.
If its a stair set try and just hit the tail end of it and then work yourself up higher. You know what i mean? Start with short finishing grinds until you work yourself up to the whole thing.
David
after you have mastered flat pedal grinds and pedal grinds on fun boxes or sloped ledges and want to kick it up to rails,
find a low rail, this is a must for beginners.
make sure the rail dosen’t have a kink, you will find that many rails are sloped and then go level at the bottom this makes it alot
harder when you are learning.
REMEMBER TO LEAN!!! when you are on a rail, all of your weight is going to try to pull you down towards the stairs. for example, take your uni and put one of the pedals on the rail, watch how it wants to fall, or lean to the opposite side. so when you hit the rail you want to lean waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy foreward and waaaaayyyyy toward your chocolate foot. If you grind on your right foot picture yourself falling over the right side of the rail.
PULL UP!!! you want to pull up as hard as you can on the seat. this will lock you into your pedals, and when you are locked onto your pedals it makes your leaning more effective.
hit the rail, dont let the rail hit you. you have to be aggressive. When I started hitting rails I thought that all I would have to do is get my pedal on the rail and let gravity take care of the rest. not true. a while ago I saw a wooden rail (my friend was filming me) since wood dosen’t really slide I thought I could hit it and the rail would come crashing down. I approached the rail with more speed than I ever had before and hit it with a vengance. I was supprised to find that I actually slid and it was one of the smoothest grinds I had ever done.
good luck
mike
P.S. you can’t be afraid of the rail, you can’t be affraid of pain. If you are going to hit rails, you will eventually get hurt.
forrest, i’ve always been a little confused as well on that topic.
a pedal/crank grab is where you jump onto something and land on the pedal/crank. a stall is exactly the same thing. my question is: does a pedal grab, by definition, involve going to rubber? is that what makes it a grab not a stall? should i say “i just pedal grabbed that table” or “i just did a pedal grab to rubber on that table” is there a standard?
I’m still getting into grinding, it’s alot of fun. I made myself a nice grindplate and that seems to slide pretty well. I’ve just gotta find some more places to practice.
robbie, what’d you make your grindplate out of, and how did you attatch it to your pedals? is it removeable for stuff like trials/MUni? is it worth removing for trials? i think grinding rules, by the way.
When Robbie finally finishes sorting out photos of his grind plates for unicycle.2ya.com we’ll all be able to see them. Hint, hint…
Andrew
Yeah Andrew… I get ya. When I find my digital camera I’ll get right on it. I’ll give you a small bit of info before I write up anything large. It’s fully removeable, before I put it on I took the pins out of my pedal. Why don’t I just grind on the pedal? Well that’s mainly because my grindplate is replaceable if I just get a square piece of metal from school and is quite easy to make. New pedals cost me $40. The grindplate barely adds any weight anyways.
It’s currently being held in my two small bolts with nuts on the end, easy to hold them in as I can hold the bolts still with a screwdriver and the tighten the nut end with pliers or woteva. Only got two in there because I’m lazy and I couldn’t find any more bolts the right size.
To bend the metal I used my dads mole grip, and if you don’t have them go out and buy them because they are so useful, I used it the other day detatching a street sign. Wait shouldn’t of said that. Anyway I’ll write something a little more detailed later on for Andrew, with pictures.
I suppose you mean the one I just posted and prolly don’t put that one up as I’ll write something good up with pictures and all soon. Not sure what other post you mean though.
To quote myself…
“Mike, mind if we…”
my bad… i saw the robbie and the mind if we… never mind. i’ll just go hit my head on a wall or something.
be my guest.
mike
I did my first grind on a handrail today it was a really short hand rail just three steps and it only took me about a hundred or so tries
kick ass
thats how it happens, you have to be determined. The first time your pedal hits a handrail you will fall, but it makes you want to keep doing it till you land it.
mike