¿How to tackle roads that are at an angle?

Roads and cycle paths often are at a slight angle so when it rains, the rainwater can flush away to the side. In certain places, this makes it difficult to unicycle, at least I think so, because it pulls the wheel to the side and I also feel I have to hang a bit more against the drop, making me end up half on the saddle.
Does anyone have suggestions / tips?
I currently only ride a KH26 with a fat tire. It might be that it is less of a problem with a road tire.

What you are describing is commonly known as “road crown.” If you search the forum for that term you will find many days worth of reading.

To sum up:
Some tires handle it better than others. It is based on the shape of the tire more than the volume. Changing the inflation pressure can alter the behavior.

Learn to ride with handle bars.

Road crown was difficult for me when I got my 29". I mostly ride it on paved trails and streets. It was most difficult if the slope was on the left side. I tend to have more difficulties with my weaker left side. After several months of riding it got easier to deal with this problem. It’s still difficult at times. My daily ride has a section that I tend to twist my torso in an awkward position because of the slope.

I tried handle bars but had a difficult time getting use to them especially in areas that have pronounced road crown. I had little problem mounting and dismounting but they just seemed so heavy. Unfortunately I had to give them up while I heal a shoulder injury.

Like every uni skill, time in the saddle should help.

I wonder about this. My 29er has a 2 inch Big Apple tire. I’ve never tried to ride it with a muni tire. I’m sure it would be more difficult to ride on on pavement with a muni tire.

Are you considering getting a tire for street riding? The Big Apple is a great tire but I’ve seen people on this forum have trouble keep it on a KH rim because they’re so wide. My 29er has a Nimbus rim and so far I haven’t had any trouble. That might be because I don’t try to pump it up past 45 psi. I’m not sure what folks would recommend as a 26" street tire for a KH rim. Maybe a Hookworm? I have one of those for my 24" Muni. It’s ok but a bit heavy.

The 36" naturally has a road tire. Once I get accustomed to that, I will keep my KH26 for forest rides and the big one for asphalt rides. It should really be with webshops that you always get the products the next day, whether it be weekend or not :slight_smile:

Just learn to deal with camber. Gotta lean sometimes. Higher pressure helps. More weight on the high side pedal helps too. Unicycling is meant to be a little difficult.

same for me but for the other side: I suffer if the camber is on the right side :o
(So I tend to ride on the left side of such roads and pretend that’s the side for pedestrians … so the side for unicycles - this being for countries where we are supposed to stick to the right side of the road :wink: -)

Counter-intuitively I found that tires with a “not so round” profile (Gazzaloddi, Hüsker Dü,…) were better for handling that when on rough terrain I was to cross a slope.

Maxxis DTH is a more upright tire than a Hookworm and is far less susceptible to the problem on my KH26. I think the notion of fully round profile tyres being best for uni is far more about intuition than reality.

The problem for veering down the camber can be reduced by leaning the upper body further forward as well as up the camber.

Whenever the rider leans, the uni leans the opposite way to maintain balance. The side lean puts the uni tyre perpendicular to the surface reducing the susceptibility to side force.

The increased back lean on the uni changes the relationship between the steering axis and the contact patch reducing the leverage the camber thrust has over the rider’s attempts to counter it.

Short side slopes can be handled by steering up the slope as it is entered to compensate for the side force. The uni takes and arced path.

Severe side slopes such as very crossing steep driveways can be managed by breaking the traverse down into sections separated by near still stands where the uni can be reoriented before continuing. In these situations I let go of the seat handle to use both my arms for balance and the inertia required to reorient the direction of travel.

The rough with the smooth

After moving from UK to France I found riding on the opposite side of the road created problems with the road camber. I tried a few things but the most successful was to shorten the length of the cranks

Basically, I found shorter cranks helped for faster rotation but also allowed me to put more pressure on the pedals throughout the rotation. In a sense the longer the crank the more you are hovering around in “no-mans land” to make a complete rotation. By shortening the crank I am encouraged to keep up the pressure against the pedals and found this helped to counteract the unfamiliar feeling of opposite camber throughout the complete rotation of the wheel

So, I usually ride 125’s on the road but by changing to 110’s gave a whole lot better ‘feel’ for balance. However 110’s are harder to push up long gradients!

There are multiple 36" tires on the market, and I wouldn’t call any of them Road tires. They are more accurately called heavy-ass, last-forever tires. In other words, 36" being a “novelty cycle” wheel size, all the tires currently available are built to be really, really durable. This makes them kind of the opposite of road bike tires, which are built to be really, really light and susceptible to all sorts of punctures. :slight_smile:

For road camber I’ve had best results with the Radial TA tire, though I don’t know if those are still available.

Coping with camber takes practice, but your tire could be making it harder that necessary. If you’re doing long rides on the side of the road, you can try turning your seat inward, say 5 degrees or so toward the center of the road. This will help orient your body in that direction and help with the constant side force needed to keep your tire angling “up the hill”.

Novelty cycle!? Oh no he di’int.

I respectfully disagree.

Not to us enthusiasts, and especially not to us unicyclists. But that’s how the category looks to the market in general. The 36" spec was originally made for bicycles, which were definitely in the novelty category (even if the Coker Monster was totally usable). But I think the vast majority of people buying cycles with 36" wheels are for novelty purposes, which means low miles. Even many unicyclists!

We hardcore Road riders are a small fraction of the 36" tire market.

Why is that? I am very new to unicycling. I thought that when you’re a road cyclist you automatically ride the biggest wheel that needs fewer rotations for a higher speed. Isn’t it more comfy to ride a bigger wheel?

In order to combat road camber, if your leaning left place your your left arm behind your back with your fingers facing towards the other side of the street(right). That should do it:)

yes. It’s not a problem for bikes because you have gears, but unicycles are inherently slow. The 36" size is good for speed, but it’s also great for stability. It has a large diameter, so bumps don’t throw you off as easily, and it has a greater rolling mass, which helps as well. You can cut the cranks down on a 29er and ride at 36er speeds, but it’s more twitchy.

Geared 36ers can keep up with bikes, if you’re brave/skilled enough. : )

That’s pretty cool advice. If I picture that correctly, it makes your upper body twist left if you’re riding on a road sloping to the right?

When slopping towards the left, put your left hand behind your back fingers facing the center of the street.

Opposite for right sloping.

Try it you’ll like it!:slight_smile:

Thanks! I had misread.
So that will make my shoulders twist left on a road with a camber sloping to the left. Will try for sure!