Health issues from unicycling!!!?

That’s grim. :frowning:

Gotta say, I got some bike shorts, and combined with the flat seat, it’s the least discomfort I’ve felt while riding. I do still get sore, but not unitl mile 30+. Muni rides? Forget it, I don’t get sore at all anymore with the shorts.

Don’t worry - some people die first.

That’s true that over-thinking isn’t good for health. And the odds are more on a bad wreck than having blueberries getting the proper color :smiley:

However, there is some basic pain that are common because of use: crotch numbness, thigh rub and knee pain.

The numbness can be managed with breaks/position changes/seat modification. And the thigh rub will go away as your skin get used to it (and your thigh get the proper amount of grip and nothing more).

In my own experience, I started to have a knee pain on the left knee after I started experimenting with short cranks on 29er road riding (without brake). The physic of it is simple: shorter cranks mean higher torque required to speed up and higher torque in the knee to slow down. I found a sweet spot in crank length that suited me and installed a brake. Now I am careful and the pain isn’t getting worse and may heal completely in the long run.

As everybody said: listening to how the body screams in warning and act accordingly and you will have more fun than you can imagine with a unicycle (and yes it includes wrecks when you don’t break a bone :wink: ).

Really I think the research in this subject is valuable, BUT I don’t think we need to over-think it. When I first started riding, my knees hurt like hell, my arms hurt from waving them about, my inner thighs were rubbed raw, and most of all, the boys down there felt like I’d kicked them down some stairs. All this pain has gone away as I’ve gotten better at riding. Sure, if I ride further and for longer than I’m used to then things get uncomfortable, but you’ll find you get uncomfortable if you sit anywhere for too long.

Even if scientific research is done, you’ll probably find edge-cases on both ends - There’ll be the unlucky Uni riders who have everything you listed, and there’ll be others who are 90 years old and still fathering children thanks to what he believes is the saddle keeping his seed active :smiley: The rest of us will be just fine, normal sexual health and still benefit from the great exercise we get!

For me I notice that with muni I have to stand up off the seat frequently while riding, which automatically builds in “circulation breaks.” Whereas when I ride on the road I pretty much keep my weight on the saddle throughout and need to force myself to step off every so often so numbness doesn’t occur on long rides

I agree, I almost never have issues riding muni, since I am off the saddle a lot more and the seat is lower. I also fall off more :slight_smile: I can ride two hours+ with no issues. On the road I need a break after 7 miles or so.

Exactly my experience, muni is rarely a problem now that I went to a flat seat, the abrasion issues having been resolved. But get me on a long slog of a flat gravel road and I start getting numbness and pain radiating down my left leg. So far no seat height or angle adjustment has helped that much, I even tried different seat pads with minimal change; the flat seat helped some.

This is not a new pain for me, it started with over stretching in the 80’s, then was aggravated by overuse in the 90’s, so I have chronic pain in my left side hip extensor when riding long distance or skinning (BC skiing) early in the season. Somehow the position of the seat pushes on a nerve or affects blood flow, so I either stand for a while or I take a break.

I remember having “numb nuts” and fingers that stayed numb while on a cross country bike tour, the finger numbness lasted a couple years, the crotch stuff didn’t seem to linger. Biking discomfort is so much easier to manage because you can lean out on your bars and relieve seat pressure.

For the most part I am pain free these days, but I do get uncomfortable at times. I seem to have a decent level of conditioning such that my crotch, leg, and back pain all peak about the same time, at which point I take a break. I have no problem taking breaks, it’s unicycling for pete’s sake :smiley:

Yes, there is always that alternative :roll_eyes:

Seems like I read somewhere that air is poisonous too, it just takes 80 years to kill us or something like that… :roll_eyes:

All this mortality stuff is really killin’ the mood.

Welcome to getting old 101, it just gets better and better…

This in not necessarily true Ben. Usually for me seat comfort is not an issue. I’ve done lots of century rides without seat issues. On neither my attempt or my successful completion of the STP in one day did I complain of seat problems. The attempt was a 156 mile day. The successful completion was a 204 plus mile day. My problems are usually ankles, knees, and fatigue.

Riding all day in a unicycle seat is more about breaking in/conditioning your butt than finding a good seat.

Here are a couple pics of what limiting ankles look like after 200 miles. I could hardly walk the next day. But the butt was fine!

JM

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Every one must of put on their big girl panties and quit their bitchin?

Lana

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I’ve got my big girl panties on, but can I please still bitch? :thinking: I didn’t realize that they were strictly ‘no bitching’ attire.

Edit: You said panties. giggle

For those who unicycle more than nine hours a week…

A British study of 5,200 cyclists is the biggest research project ever conducted on the health impact of cycling.

It suggests that cyclists in in their 50s who bicycle for more than nine hours a week may be up to five times as likely to receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Of course it doesn’t effect unicyclists…does it?

I *cycle two (or more) hours a day… I guess I’m screwed.

…“The team said the statistical link – tested in the 2,000 participants who were over the age of 50 - did not necessarily prove that cycling directly causes prostate cancer…”[LEFT]

[/LEFT]

That coupled with the fact that it was posted on the Daily Mail sink that ship pretty quickly :stuck_out_tongue:

The Daily Fail. I hope its not true.

This clearly refutes the Daily Mail article. Scroll down and click on question 8