has anyone else done this?

Went out for my lunchtime ride yesterday and I was playing on this little bank.

Anyway, I got sidehopping up the hill, got almost to the top then fell off, but that was okay. But then I tried hopping down the hill, hopping good side facing downhill, was going fine, but then 1/4 way down I suddenly leaned too far and toppled right over and launched off into a great big rolling fall. Which was okay because this was only a little hill, but would have been scary on a big hill. Pity there weren’t any spectators cos it must have looked well funny!

Do people generally find it easier to hop downhill good side next to the hill or good side facing out from the hill?

Is there some cunning way to avoid falling like that or to land out of it?

Joe

i dont have too much experience with hill-hopping
rolling out of any fall in a good idea and down a hill, especially so
any attempt to arrest a fall untimely will increase the danger of injury
just tuck your chin into your chest and roll
getting up and taking a bow might con the audience into thinking it was part of the act
:stuck_out_tongue:

I can’t say I’ve ever tried hopping sideways down a hill. I can go upwards, but I don’t like hopping down stuff… it’s a lot more scary than upwards as you’ve more energy to get rid of without bouncing down the slope out of control.

Couldn’t you just roll down it? :slight_smile:

Phil, just me

On descents that are long and wide (and steep!) I’ll try to side hop down at difficult points (gaps, etc) while traversing back and forth across the slope; the down hill side is often dictated by sercomstance, and is often dictated by the need for the up hill crank to be in a sertain position. Given a choice, I’ll usualy take the favored-foot down hill, depending on crank position. Honestly, I’m more successfull at rolling it out than Pecking down- a big weekness on my part.

-Christopher

Yes I could, the thing is I’d already rolled it a couple of times, so I wanted to try something different while I was trying to ride up it. I know it’s possible to ride up it in the dry, but I was reduced to hopping yesterday, had no chance of just riding up cos of the mud.

Anyway until I fell off, hopping down the slope was a fun and almost controlled way to get to the bottom. I reckon hopping down a steep slope may be a good way to get used to bigger drops because you can choose how far down you go by how far you hop sideways, although I’m still at the level where it’s only a weeny little hop.

about rolling whilst falling, I usually roll over and over sideways rather than actually doing a forward roll type roll, this seems to have a similar effect in that you lose momentum without bashing anything too bad, but without the likelihood of crashing head first. GILD do you really like forward roll out of things? Also, I can see how it’s a good idea in general to roll, but I had real problems stopping rolling whilst on the slope which would not have been fun on a big slope.

I shall go out and play again now.

i wouldn’t say i go out looking for forward rolls as a way to pass the time
i have found that most of my downhill/speed upd’s have encouraged forward rolls because i was travelling in that direction at the time of the upd
your sideways roll makes more sense since that was the direction u were travelling in at the time
a side-roll is nice in the sense that it allows u to stop by simply spreading your legs
(now sit back and see where this thread goes from here
:wink: )

I’ve never really had to on a unicycle, but in general I much prefer to roll sideways rather than forwards… it’s more controlled, you’re not rolling with quite so much momentum. Rolling forwards into a solid object has a lot more capacity for serious damage to you than sideways; your back is in a much more vulnerable position.

Hopping up hills when it’s really muddy is silly… yesterday I was trying to get up a slope; you roll as far as you can, turn sideways, hop up… and slide back down to where you hopped from. :slight_smile:

Phil, just me

It is indeed silly. I managed to ride up my muddy slope today, although hopping down involved lots of comedy falling off still. Hopping up worked about one time in three with the other times either falling off, or getting stuck in a slide and riding back down to the bottom.

I managed to do a mud slide on the flat and stop it in a stillstand without a hop, although it’s not a 100% repeatable skill yet to say the least.

Joe