Did my last ride of 2008 yesterday evening in my normal stomping ground… Tokai Forest. Had a good feeling about the ride from the beginning and rode strongly up the long jeep track to the start of Vasbyt feeling the most comfortable uphill I have ever felt. Walked up Lizard chatting to a downhill dude the whole way, was great to see a bit of mutual respect for our respective sports. Rode strongly up the jeep track to the start of Mamba.
When I set off at Mamba a large group of MTB’ers had just arrived and I got the usual, “no way… this guy is on a one wheel” comment and then I blew their minds when I launched off the ramp jump near the start, clearing at least 1 1/2 meters before landing. Unfortunately I couldn’t control the landing well as I was going pretty fast and bailed after doing a couple of pedals. Picked my MUni up and walked back up to do it again. The MTB’ers commenting “no way, he’s going back to do it again !!”. Set off again, this time hitting the ramp with a little more speed as I am able to control my pedal position the more airtime I have, launched off the ramp and landed sweetly. Got a lot of cheers from the MTB’ers 
About half way down Mamba I was caught by a MTB’er, but seeing as I was having a very good run I decided to stick on the route and not pull over… it was my run, my day 
Getting to the end of Mamba I shot down the steepest drop onto the jeep track, and shot straight over the jeep track into Boomslang. Got about a third of the way down and bailed on a corner with my heart rate almost hitting 100%. I don’t really remember much of the run I had done down Boomslang from the jeep track as I just seemed to be riding on instinct. Everything was pretty much a blur. Had to rest for a few minutes to get my breath back and let my heart rate settle a little, while being watched by a large troop of baboons who were walking around me giving me curious looks.
I walked back up to the start of Boomslang to do it again. Set off down, by this time my legs were starting to get tired and I could feel it in the way I was riding and taking the small drops. Got down to the new section that was added, a pump track style piece and took it, but about 10 meters into that part I pulled out of it deciding that the work required to ride it was not worth the fun as there were no drops or exciting pieces to do. Walked back to the trail split and carried on down the original trail, hitting the last ramp jump with speed sailing over it and then on down to the jeep track. Again went straight over the jeep track into Snake Eyes, and launched off the big drop. My pedals were out of position when I landed and got bounced. Undeterred I walked back up to the start to do it again, setting off with a little more speed this time. Took the drop with a little more speed so I could correct my pedal position, not getting it quite right but still managing to land the drop. Unfortunately I could only manage a few pedals from there as I had picked up quite a lot of speed landing the drop on the downhill and bailed. Feeling very tired I missioned on down the rest of Snake Eyes. Getting out to the jeep track and set off along the jeep track to the start of Vasbyt.
Headed straight down Vasbyt taking the berm drop with speed and shot down the rest of the drops with ease doing Vasbyt in the fastest time I have ever done. From there into downhill 4 I took it a little slower as I was starting to get really tired after pushing myself up to this point and also being over an hour into my ride with my heart rate at an almost constant 80% for the entire duration so far. Had a couple of silly bails due to not concentrating, but I did manage to clear another large drop about half way down launching off the ramp. Had to have 2 attempts at it though after not having enough speed on the first attempt and landing in a hollow which I couldn’t roll out of after landing. So 2nd attempt hit it much faster and cleared the hollow easily.
Got out to the jeep track lower down and took another rest for a few minutes taking in the wonderful view of Cape Town, the Flats, Stellenbosch mountains and False Bay and what a spectacular view. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to think that I live in such a stunning place
Headed down the jeep track to My Roots heading down with speed once again. Bailed just after the large drop about half way down, and realised that I was knackered !!! Rode down the rest of My Roots slowly bailing at a few places purely because I was too tired to bother trying. Rode over the bridge and onto the jeep track and headed down to the parking lot to end my last ride of 2008, and what an awesome ride it was !!!
In reflection 2008 has been a good year for MUni. Skill levels have increased a lot. We’ve managed to establish a group of unicyclists, and held the first MUni convention in South Africa.
Ride Time : 1hour 45 minutes
Average Heart Rate : 141bpm (78% of max)