I didn’t get out for a Muni ride today, but I did get some time in on the Torker 24" for idling, hopping, and stall/free-standing practice. I also had the chance to start teaching a new learner. It is a lady we go to church with, and I was surprised that she wanted to learn. She did good for her first day. My wife even tried for just a minute or two, which is the first time for her! I don’t know if she will continue, but it would be cool if she did. I think the other lady will continue. It is a lot of fun to teach someone to ride.
Went for my normal ride again, but this time, I crossed the underpass and cycled a little in East Coast Park. My friend accompanied me, not on one wheel, but two feet!
Running 14km is crazy, I can never imagine doing that. Lol.
Brian, it must be good to have someone to actually teach. My son is learning secretly. He doesn’t like having others watch him fail. I only know because I sometimes find the seat at a lower height. Good luck with the students!
Lone Reaction, things are looking good! Keep pushing!
I decided to try your app, so I downloaded endomondo. I guess it wasn’t fully configured, because it only gave me a time. I gotta work on that. Fortunately, I know it was 1.5 miles, and I did it in 11:35, which is an average of 7.43 mph, according to other online calculators. I am very happy with that, because with the slower hills, I’m sure I had sprints of over 8 mph. I really pushed the entire way. A good run, and I plan on pushing a lot harder from now on!
Ah. Did you turn on your phone’s GPS? You can go to the ‘history’ tab to check your route and speed. You can also go online to check the full stats.
Oh the website’s ‘workout’ page, you can click the ‘share’ button on the right, below all the statistics. And you can get a public url to share with people. Here’s my previous workout.
There are a lot of graphs and charts to compare your progress with, even with altitudes. Really useful.
Your smart phone conversations are making me want one more than ever! I don’t mind paying the initial cost, but I am too frugal (cheap) to pay the monthly payment even though I know I would love it. Now your talk about measuring distance, etc. with it makes me think about it again. Still, I resist… and will keep resisting.
I finally did get my new bike computer to work. Wednesday I rode a total distance of .62 or .68 miles on the smooth curving university walkways. There were two different measurements, and I’m not sure which one I was supposed to be reading. That was with lots of stops. After not riding at all for several weeks, I was pleased enough with that number. It gives me a starting place. Yesterday evening I went back, but for some reason I was too tired to try to beat (or even meet) Wednesday’s time.
Of course, I can’t see the reading while I’m riding. After I stop, I can check distance, time riding and mph. I know you all already know that, but I was pleased to have that added information and incentive. HA! The mph is embarrassing compared to the numbers you guys talk about!! My top speed was less than 5 mph, and the average speed was less than 4 mph.
It’s nice to have the new gadget. I can see it will help with challenging myself to do more… and more. …but a smart phone… … One of these days I’m going to weaken… and join the 21st century (and pay the bill).
Smartphones do take some time to learn. Even though I’m a techie, I only got my first smart phone last year, and it took me a while to adjust. Before that I was in the army for 2 years, and boy did technology improve
Good smartphones serve as great music players, video players and cameras. They can also be a big nightmare.
If you do decide to get one, feel free to PM me for advice.
Did you choose the correct wheel circumference value for the computer? It’s the most important setting.
The guy at the bike shop set it up for me, but I couldn’t get it to read correctly, so I read the instructions and tried to fix it myself. No luck there. While reading, I discovered the best way to get the correct circumference of the tire is to sit on the uni and roll the tire exactly one revolution. I tried that, and sure enough, the circumference is different if you are sitting on it (flattening the tire a bit) as opposed to just rolling the tire with no weight on it. That makes perfect sense, but I hadn’t thought about it.
Anyway, I took it back to the bike shop. He set it again, but not by having me sit on the wheel, and he wasn’t interested in the measurement I gave him. He just followed a chart, so I doubt it is very accurate. It will do for the moment. I’m not going to try to fool with it again… for now.
About a year ago, I took my first mountain bike ride at a nearby trail. This time, it’s my first mountain unicycle (Muni) ride. Used my 20" trials, because it had a much fatter tire. A bigger wheel would help with rolling over stuff though.
Fortunately I had someone else with me who gave me good advice. Holding the seat is really useful, you can press down or pull up on it to help keep your balance. Helps when hitting small rocks.
My freemounting is still not that good. Freemounting on rocky ground is hard, but doing it on a slope is near impossible!
So i have not been unicycling much… i have been keeping track of all of your progress though and i am very proud of all of you =D
My girlfriend moved on sept 10th 3 1/2 hours away as i believe i have mentioned and i have the most depressing week after… and i drove up last friday after work and had the most amazing weekend with her! and drove home at 1 am… but it was well worth it! I got to try out my new envoy =D and boy does it cruise nice at 150 km/h ;D It has been another depressing week… we have gotten a lot better at our long distance communication and i have been working on keeping as busy as possible, but its tough, and i am not an emotional person who is ever depressed…
Unicycling today, went so much better then expected… last time was so and i could have cried, but i had a 90% success rate at free mounting, repositioning feet and body while riding, and riding slowly and making decently sharp 180 turns. I had a terrible gym day with several sore limbs and joints all over so i needed a good uni ride and that is exactly what i got!
I have an iPhone 3G, and have had it for about 3 years, i pay WAY to much a month for it but i love the phone, its built well and works well, and i will be switching to KOODOO come the spring and buying out right an iPhone 5 and running a 25-30 plan vs my current $90 plan. It will pay the phone off quickly and keep my expenses low, i do not run a land line or cable television, just internet and a cell so my utilities aren’t to to bad =D
I have really missed riding the uni and will be working my butt off to finish my beginner status.
[QUOTE=LoneReaction;1480838]
About a year ago, I took my first mountain bike ride at a nearby trail. This time, it’s my first mountain unicycle (Muni) ride. Used my 20" trials, because it had a much fatter tire. A bigger wheel would help with rolling over stuff though.
Hi LR,
I know you have a 24" for street riding as well. You could put an offroad tire on that, and try what it is like offroad. As long as you don’t do any drops your uni should be fine. Schwalbe makes a nice tire, The Big Betty 24 x 2.4.
It is 63 mm wide, so you should check your frame clearance.
Long time no see, TopHatPlus Sorry to hear about your girlfriend! Real life is tough. It seems you’re getting really good at maneuvering the uni, do you do drills? Will you be getting a 36" uni anytime soon? I feel like getting one for park rides sooner or later, this hobby is addictive >_<
Thank you Twente Muni for the tip, I have been considering that! But what you posted made me take a measuring tape to both unis. The 24" frame has nearly 8cm clearance, slightly more than my trials uni, so I think it will do fine. Now to find where I can buy one.
I doubt it… kind of want to get a real audio setup jammed into my envoy, its kind of depressing to listen to the stock speakers… and no sub… my gran dam may have sucked but it had a sweet sound =D
Had a good ride tonight, probably 50/50 on the free mounting, rode over some beat speed bumps and some in the dark, was riding over some rather bumper sections with 2" drops and lowered sections where interlocking stone met asphalt, i managed to just power through it =D my tire was kind of flat so it made riding distance a lot of work! Was having fun though =D
I started this Learning Journal just over one year ago! It is amazing how much I have learned and how many people have helped me along the way.
My posts here are less frequent now but I will still enjoy coming back here to see how everyone is doing, and to post continued learnings of my own. I find that making a report of my efforts helps me in many ways, which is why I started the Journal originally.
Thanks everyone for making this such a useful and fun thread. I hope it continues to serve many people for a long time! And thanks for all your support and help to me along the past year of learning. This thread has made it a much more fun journey :D. I’m sure I would not have made nearly this much progress without all the support, suggestions, and shared experiences.
Time has been a precious commodity lately so my unicycling and pretty much all forms of exercise have dropped off. I took the suggestion of a fellow rider here in Utah (tmoyer) that mostly does trials at his home because he can ride anytime even if he only has a few minutes because he doesn’t go anywhere, just stays in his driveway and garage.
He said that the best trials practice is just to start with a curb. Living in the United States almost all streets have a concrete curb of between 4~6 inches high. He gave me several ideas on things to practice, and ways to progress.
My home has a front porch with 3 steps of 5 inches each. Then a concrete path out to the large concrete driveway. We also have a nice sidewalk in front of the house, and the street is smooth with not much traffic. And there is a curb.
Today I practiced hopping up onto the curb, first where it is about 4" then where it is about 6". I was able to clear the 6" quite easily, which felt great. Then I hopped up the stairs onto the front porch, and back down. This felt good because I have never tried to hop to the left very much but after hopping up the stairs to the right I had to hop back down them going left. It worked much better than expected. I also practiced idling in the driveway and even a little practice riding backwards. It is only the second time I have ever tried this and it went relatively well. But I think I am going to focus on idling for a while more until I get it down much better, then I will start trying to ride backwards. Then I will also try to idle with the opposite foot, but that is going to be hard!
Hopping is starting to be easier so my next steps are to initiate a hop while riding, and hopping up something going left instead of right. Both of the maneuvers are very awkward right now. I also need to learn to hop with the other foot forward and with the other hand on the grip. Both of these also feel pretty strange right now. I made some nice progress today and I think I will take advantage of this kind of practice more often.
NYSO what wheel are you hopping with? I can’t hop for nuts and I’ve been riding a year and a half. I’ve got a standard 24 Quax and a 29. Now I’m wondering if I should get a trials wheel for my next birthday present???
And congrats on the 1st birthday for the thread too. I’ve followed it all along
