Hi all,
I have a 24" Miyata Deluxe unicycle (all stock parts), and I plan to learn
to hop soon. I weigh about 160 lbs. I have a few questions:
(1) Is it strong enough to withstand the hopping?
(2) Will the narrow tire make learning to hop difficult?
(3) Also, when I start doing drops, how much of a drop can it withstand
(reasonable guess)? Can I at least roll off curbs (~6") safely?
Any advice is appreciated.
Most any unicycle can withstand hopping. You just can’t hop very high on some. And a thin tire won’t make it too hard to hop. It’ll just make it hard to hop more than a couple of inches.
And also any unicycle can stand drops up to six inches. Above one foot is where you need to start looking for a better unicycle.
Your unicycle is plenty strong to withstand normal hopping and riding down curbs. A friend of mine who owns a normal Miyata bent his cranks hopping, but he weighs 200 lbs and he had been hopping on it for several years. He decided one day to see how long he could hop on it. After 2 minutes of bouncing up and down, the crank started to bend on him. Even if that happens to you, new cranks are cheap so don’t let that scare you away from hopping.
–amos
To answer your other questions, the narrow tire isn’t as bouncy. You will probably bounce higher with a wider tire, but you can learn just as easily on a narrow tire as a wide tire in my opinion.
Also don’t be afraid to try bigger drops. I also weigh 160 lbs and I do drops of 1.5 feet on my Torker CX. If my cheapo torker can withstand that, I wouldn’t worry about your deluxe miyata.
Hopping is much easier that it looks. Try to learn when you are stationary and holding onto a support with one hand, while holding the seat with the other hand. Once you get the hang of hopping up and down while holding onto a support, then let go of the support. Pretty soon you will figure out how to transition from normal riding to hopping. This transition is the hardest part in my opinion.
–Amos