Any advice on hiking up mountains with a Uni?
I’m off in a couple of weeks and have only just turned my attention to how I can carry my 24er Muni on my back while hiking. My quick and dirty first attempt is to strap the uni to the outside of a 30 litre backpack with a rigid albeit lightweight frame and good shoulder and waist straps. At the moment I’ve got it mounted upside down with the hub about level with my neck and one of the pedals removed. It feels OK but does move about a little…going on a test hike tomorrow to try out the set up.
I wondered if anyone here had experience of hiking with their wheel on their back and how they go about carrying it? I know some people have custom made bags but that isn’t going to be an option in the timeframe I have.
One very simple question…is it easier to carry upside-down or am I better off having it the other way up? I’m currently trying upside-down as it seems to fit on the back pack better that way but I’d welcome everyone’s thoughts and experience.
I’ve usually tied it on tire up / seat down. It you position it right the pedal may be left on. Attached high seems to work better than hanging low. If the tree limbs are bad I would just push it.
It also works to lay it over your shoulder with the seat out front and balance it with one hand on the seat post. If the frame is resting on the shoulder pad it doesn’t dig into your shoulder as bad. Then you can quickly take it down and ride when possible. No straps or ties to mess with.
I guess if you’re hiking a really long way and just want your unicycle when you get there?
I’ve done about 10 mountain unicycle trips in the Alps and I just push the unicycle uphill. I admit that I had some discomfort in my thumb and fingers and had to keep changing my hand position on the seat. But for hiking uphil like 1-2 hours for 300 to 800 vertical meters this was fine. Or are you doing more a huge cross-country tour rather than just hiking up in order to ride down? In my case, I’m used to pushing/carrying my mountain bike uphill for freeride tours and I usually push the bike if the terrain allows even though I have a really good and comfortable bike over the shoulder method (for stuff like hiking going up stairs it’s way better than pusing), But what I’m trying to say is that pushing the unicycle almost always seemed easy so I have never felt the need to put it on my back…
Cheers guys. Just been for a test hike with my set up and walked 12.5km in 3 hours including some seriously steep sections.
After filling the rucksack with my pads and stuff and then strapping the Uni to it upside down it all stayed fairly stable and didn’t move about at all.
I was originally going to just push it as the mountain I’m climbing is fairly easy going but I get real pains and discomfort in my hands pushing any distance on the pavement/sidewalk…I imagine a rough old mountain trail would make for harder work on the hands.
I ache now
