I’m moving to an 8-acre spread in New Paltz, NY in a few weeks. In the ensuing months, I’d love some help (and suggestions) in setting up a nice muni trail thru my woods. I have some hills, a stream, and lots of flats. Trees are spread about 10’ apart thruout.
I can prolly get some cast-off planks, spools (does anyone use them in muni?), and such, and I could chop down a few trees (or find some fallen ones) to use for ‘bridges.’
Anyway, the coolest thing is that our new home comes with its own 2BR guest house! It’s pretty much open to any unicyclist and family. We need to fix it up a bit (like: it doesn’t currently have plumbing), and we’ll be doing that soon.
Oh, and I’ll finally have a reason to buy a muni – so I need some ideas and suggestions there, too.
have maybe a 4" wide or 6" wide skinny going over the stream, or setup rocks to hop across. have some drops, more skinnys, and also build plenty of north shore type structures. Also you can build teeter tottors.
First just build a trail around the perimeter. Trail-making for hiking (which seems like it’d work for uni, too) says make an opening thru the woods so you can carry a 4x8 sheet of plywood - so 4 ft wide and 8 ft. tall. Though a cokuer might want some more head room. For muni , I’d say the curvier the trail the better, and include as much up-and-down as possible, too.
Hey, i’m building some north shore stuff right now. thin logs are nice because you can put boardwalks on them or just ride on them. take your time with supports for boardwalks and rails. think triangles. dig them down deep. HAVE FUN!!!
Make the trail smooth and curvy, it’s always fun to wind around trees and stuff. Plus, have the trail double back on itself (well next to itself) to save space.
It sounds great… Post pics and we could get a better idea of more specific stuff.
Thanks, guys. I’m impressed by all of your answers.
Forest, are you really only 16? Your answer betrays a more mature thinker. And boy, you sure have a lot of posts!
I’ll post pix soon – I’m still in Brooklyn for a few more weeks and don’t have plans to hit NP for a week or two. I’ll post again on this thread when I have some low-res photos (I haven’t been too successful in that area).
once you have a basic outline and a few trails to cross it, mark out a bunch of trails and then choose one that you feel would be the funnest to ride. it is also okay to start a bunch of trails, and ride them before they are finished, so you can get a feel of what is you like and what problems are. I would go for quality trails first, especially with the perimiter trail, because you will ride that one the most, and smooth is always nice.
dont forget to ride in the middle of building, its all about the test ride
A unicycle park in New Paltz!! Sounds great! My grandparents live in Kingston so I’m up in that area twice a year at least. I can only offer one little tip: wrap and nail chicken wire onto wooden ramps to improve traction. It really helps. Good luck!
Wow. More great answers from my young brothers in unicycling. Thanks! That chicken wire idea is something I’d never have known; I’ve never been on a muni trail and I don’t even own a muni (as prev’ly noted).
So I need: palettes, chicken wire, planks and logs, a muni (and pads!), …
I need to: try out different trails, consider doubling back parallel, dig deep for triangles to help set up boardwalks, set up a perimeter that you could drive a door thru, keep it winding, and try to have as much vert as possible.
This won’t really help with the trail making part, but it will help you to save some money.
Go to like a local construction site and ask if they have any spare wood they don’t need, and they could give to you.
ehh, i doubt you will get much out of that, unless the framers are sloppy w/ leftover wood
go to your local bulding supply store, or houses where they are putting the brick on, as they will have leftover pallets. The wood supply center over here has tons of pallets
Best source of wood is DIY stores where they cut wood to size for you. Anything left over is thrown into a bin, and you can salvage the pieces of wood for free. Ofcourse, not all of them do that, but quite a few around here do. It’s great for making trials obstacles, and in your case, MUni obstacles. Make sure to treat the lower portions (the ones that will be in the mud) with varnish or similar, to stop rotting.
Ofcourse, depending on your style, you could include some trials obstacles, just to keep things interesting
Edit:
Oh, and far as a MUni goes, pretty much anything 24x3" (for the steep up and downhills) will work, the KH24 is fine, just don’t do any huge drops on it. As you might have heard, the cranks don’t appreciate that.
