For what it’s worth: I passed level 7 about as officially as I could on
Saturday given that I am the only officially (?) sanctioned member of my
club. I had a bunch of fellow club members as witnesses and was able to
pull it off even tho I only had an increasingly small area under the
Central Park Bandshell to work with – the snow kept making inroads until
there was just a small dry area for me to ride on. The hardest skill for
me of late has been the seemingly easy ww in a circle (we call it the
tipsy cossack; a drunken cossack goes in a figure 8*). After I got that on
the first try, the rest was cake, and my only glitch was a simple mount
that I had to repeat once.
I’ll give myself a patch as soon as one arrives!
Level 8 is a LONG ways off…
David Stone
Co-founder, Unatics of NY
1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
@ Central Park Bandshell
1: 30 start time after 11/1/01
I didn’t make these up – Bryant Gumbel did in his live coverage of
my attempt.
Congratulations, David. Keep climbing. It’s great fun and a great sense of accomplishment to step through those levels. What are the higher ones like? Dizziness…nosebleed?
Xophoer Rhysling writes: >I highly recommend Harper’s Mantra. > >I just read the level 7 specs, and got a bit sick to the stomach. What 7 >mounts did you choose, David? > >Christopher
I made no mistakes with mounts, as I did when I first tried to pass level
6. In that case, I did the whole level and saved the ‘easy’ mounts for
last, then messed up a mount into riding one footed. That stank. So
this time I tohught ahead and actually practiced a few. I chose:
standard reverse mount (I actually messed this up once, but it’s easy)
side mount reverse side mount mount into rocking with one foot jump
mount (assisted suicude, since I was holding the seat) walking mount
There are still a few more I can do, and when I test for levels above 7, I
am going to make sure not to include any of the mounts that seem too wimpy
– I am going to include a few killer mounts like suicide, or spin mount,
and a few which I always mess up, like kick-up (which I always got on my
Schwinn but only once on my Miyata). I think it’s important to challenge
yourself with mounts, too, and I didn’t do so this time around bc I had
already failed to pass level 7 on three earlier occasions.
David Co-founder, Unatics of NY 1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday @ Central
Park Bandshell
7:30 start time after 11/1/01
I’m encouraged to hear this was not your first attempt- I presume that it takes concerted effort, and it’s nice to have that confirmed.
On the revers side mount, does it just go around back, instead of in front? And for the million dollar question: have you done a kick-up mount on Roger? Uh…you know… your Coker.
forum.member@unicyclist.com writes: >I’m encouraged to hear this was not your first attempt- I presume that it >takes concerted effort, and it’s nice to have that confirmed.
Yeah -it makes you appreciate it more when you get it if it’s not so easy.
I kept ALMOSt passing the level, always erriring on some simple thing that
I just hadn’t practiced enough. > >On the revers side mount, does it just go around back, instead of in >front? And for the million dollar question: have you done a kick-up mount >on Roger? Uh…you know… your Coker.
Yeah, right. But actually, I found a side mount pretty easy to do
on a Coker.
The reverse side mount looks like you’re trying to impress someone by
mounting a horse without using the stirrups, only you couldn’t find a
horse so you substituted a pony. Basically it looks stupid, but since
it counts…
David Co-founder, Unatics of NY 1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday @ Central
Park Bandshell
1:30 start time after 11/1/01
“David Stone” <dstone@packer.edu> wrote in message
news:<mailman.1011666748.6455.rsu@unicycling.org>… > For what it’s worth: I passed level 7 about as officially as I could on > Saturday given that I am the only officially (?) sanctioned member of my > club. I had a bunch of fellow club members as witnesses and was able to > pull it off even tho I
<SNIP>
Congratulations Dave! Are there any others at level 7 or above in our
club, or the New York Metro area?
j_n_shah@hotmail.com writes: > >Congratulations Dave! Are there any others at level 7 or above in our >club, or the New York Metro area? > >/Jay
I am unaware of any other riders above level 5 in the area, tho I am sure
there are, and I can say that Joe Merrill is probably going to pass levels
5 and 6 on his first try when he gets a chance to test…probably next few
weeks. We have had a young woman in the club (she is 13) who could
probably pass level 5 if she practiced for a week, and 6 is within her
reach soon. There are probably some excellent riders from the King Charles
Troupe who could pass high levels if they tried, but they may not be
interested – Kip, what about it?
If there are any other expert uni’ists in the area, please speak up, forum
members. I am dying to meet someone who can give me pointers on skills in
levels 8+. I learned a great deal from such riders in Canada in the NUC,
but since then, I have had to rely on videos and on teaching myself.
David
Co-founder, Unatics of NY
1st Sunday / 3rd Saturday
@ Central Park Bandshell
> >front? And for the million dollar question: have you done a kick-up > >mount on Roger? Uh…you know… your Coker.
I’m not a Coker owner myself, but I don’t think this would be a good
idea. Doing a kick-up on a Coker will stress the wheel in its weakest
direction. With its narrow hub, the Coker wheel is not as resistant to
side forces as a smaller/wider wheel would be. Practicing kick-ups would
stress it pretty bad…
