I do look forward to some day actually seeing another unicyclist in person, let alone ride with one. Maybe i should take it in stages, I don’t want to overexcite myself.
As for my first unicycle (16" Sears, maybe even 12"), I found these pictures of one that someone just posted for sale on another site. I recognized it immediately, and I am almost certain its the same model as what i had. If i remember, it failed at the bearing brackets.
I am located in midtown Sacramento, so my local trail riding is primarily on the levee roads (and the graveled levee access ramps, which are short, but great practice). I have also been nervously exploring a few of the dirt trails along the river bank. Sadly, after digging deep into the Sac County regulations, I think you are correct as to bikes not being allowed on these trails. For the time being, I’m going to stay the course, smile :D, be very polite, and try not to irritate anyone. So far, reactions have been positive, but I have yet to encounter a ranger.
Thanks for the feedback, and joking aside, I do look forward to meeting and riding with you at some point.
Wow, your old Sears is vastly identical to the P.O.S. I started on. Yours has an upgraded seat though (made by Messenger; same company that made the older generation Schwinn seats). Mine also failed at the bearing holders. What genius thought a single bolt would be a good idea? Oh, one with an accountant for a boss. I don’t think anybody expected people to actually ride those things, and I still believe they damaged a whole generation of potential unicyclists by being such pieces of crap! They left people feeling unicycling was much more difficult than it should be, by being super-hard to learn on, and then falling apart if you started to actually ride them.
All you unicyclists out there; if you haven’t tried one of those, you may not realize the effects of a solid tire, really short cranks (but wide stance, or Q factor), tiny little tricycle pedals, and NO BALL BEARINGS. With weight on it, the wheel takes quite a bit of effort to turn. Kudos to you, Geolojas (and any others) for not giving up way back then!
That goes a very long way. Don’t crowd anyone, and mostly they won’t be bothered. Plus I think the park gets less “regulated” and possibly less ranger attention in the midtown/downtown area.
Unfortunately we don’t have much going on in the Sacramento area for entry level riders, just the occasional group rides I put together, and possibly some practices by a small group that (may or may not still) meets in Granite Bay. I can connect you with that group’s leader if you’re interested; he’s a former Olympic coach (rowing).
Unanticipated benifits & an average speed question
Hey there fellow one-wheelers
I was feeling worn out and cranky yesterday, so i wasn’t going to go for an evening ride. The weather was perfect though, cool and calm, so I ended up riding after all. Just a short one I said. Endorphins are such wonderful things. I felt better almost as soon as i was up and riding and had one of my strongest rides in a while.
I only had one UPD on my 3 mile loop (on one particularly tricky hill with a low-hanging branch) and I noticed that my crotch was getting a tad sore on the return trip. I’ve been working on SIF riding, and while I don’t have it quite yet, I can stand up and ride. I stood up and rode standing on the pedals for a while, and when I sat back down all the discomfort had vanished. I was ready to go again. I guess a little stretching and blood flow back to the region every once in a while does wonders.
A question…
What is the average speed you can expect to achieve on a 24" wheel with 127mm cranks? I expect the answer is a range depending on the experience of the rider, but I’m curious as to what is possible. I rode almost exactly 3 miles last night, and averaged just over 5 mph, which was about my best average speed to date. Anyone else have any other data?
I think most people that ride over a few miles are riding something larger than a 24", not to say it can’t be done, or shouldn’t. If I’m doing any distance on a 24, it’s for Muni, and then I would say 4-6mph is about right, but I have 137s on the 24". I have only gotten data from group rides though.
If you want to get faster, you can definitely bump those cranks down a size or two.
There’s something to be said for low expectations! I’ve had a few like this, unicycling as well as running and skating. We probably get a nice gradual warmup at the start while still deciding whether to go ahead with it or not, which helps a lot.
Definitely. Being able to shift around and get some fresh blood down there really makes a difference.
6 mph or so is tops for me. There are forum members who have gone a lot faster but I think usually with much shorter cranks.
The other factor would be cadence, on which this is an upper limit based on the rider. I don’t have much data here and haven’t every really tracked myself, but Rookie riders generally can’t do more than 120rpms…
Hello from a another fellow Sacramento area rider! Sounds like your having a lot of fun progressing on the local dirt trails, I also learned on the American river dirt trails and never ran into any Ranger issues. There’s a few low commitment rides around Folsom lake that are also great to learn on and easy to walk back from if your too tired. I would just encourge you to ride over every little rock, stick, and sandpit you can find and that’ll help your overall skills a lot.
Oh, forgot to list an actual speed for comparison. On my 14km (9mi) commute my moving average is about 18km/h (11.25mph) with sustained bursts up to 22km/h (13.75mph) on a 36 with 127s.
So, rounding to 125mm cranks, the 11.25mph of a 36 with 125mm cranks would equate to the following on a 24 with 125mm cranks:
= 11.25pmh /3.66 * 2.44 = 7.5mph
On the one hand, on a 36 it’s probably easier to maintain a speed because of the momentum of the large wheel. On the other hand it takes more strength and guts to go faster on the large wheel (on the small wheel you don’t need much strength but just the max cadence).
So 6mph sounds decent.
Like juggleaddict, I don’t have any data on smaller wheel sizes on the road as on my 26, 24 and 20 I only ride off road or trials and generally try to avoid distance unless it’s getting to the trailhead or trials spot. After so much time on the 36, for me the 26 with 125s is so incredibly slow for road, and with 150s it’s almost painful (how slow).
Sounds like a really nice ride! a 3 mile loop is a perfect distance for getting the cobwebs out of the mind. I am embarrassed to ask, but what is SIF riding?
Sounds like you are doing great. I would love to follow your lead and learn to stand up and ride.
Means riding without sitting on the saddle with the saddle out in front of you, held with either one or two hands. It’s hard on the legs as you obviously have no weight on the saddle and have to support all your weight with your legs, and this as you pedal. At first the back-and-forth movement makes it seem impossible, but comes with practice (and strength buildup).
There’s also seat-in-back and seat-on-the-side (or is it seat-to-the-side), but those are more freestyle moves.
I was practicing hopping the other day and I accidentally pulled the seat out from between my legs, and then surprised myself by not falling. I can stall, transition to SIF, and then hop. I can’t ride SIF yet, nor have not been able to transition back to normal riding from SIF.
Riding while standing on the pedals is a step towards riding SIF. Its a good quad workout. Other than using it to relieving saddle discomfort last night, I have yet to use it for anything “useful”. I still sit down while climbing.
I’m glad to see riders discussing SIF riding, though it’s kind of impractical to learn it on a larger wheel. (Get a 20"!!!) I think SIF represents the “future” of unicycling. More extreme technique can be performed on the unicycle without the limitations of seat-clearance and having to keep the center of gravity over the seat. SIF riding on my 20" taught me how to use handle bars on the larger unicycle. I think of SIF riding on a spectrum, from sitting on the back of the seat, to placing the seat against the abdomen, to holding it out in front of the body, and all the places in-between. I stressed my arms out initially learning SIF, because I could only hold on with one arm at a time, and this put great stress on my tendons. Later, I learned to hold the seat with two hands, and this was much more comfortable. Currently I can perform backwards figure-eights more reliably SIF than I can SI. Think about it this way: we’re constantly making corrections, and SIF riding allows us to make bigger corrections. Since I set my seat-post high, I have limited clearance SI; I drop off curbs exclusively SIF. Not all forms of SIF involve placing all the weight on the feet. I frequently am pushing straight down onto the seat with my arms while riding SIF, so I’m supporting a lot of my weight with my arms. SIF has provided me with an upper-body workout, in addition to the lower-body workout. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking “I want to do a particular kind of riding, so I don’t need to learn this or that technique.” Get a 20" and learn technique on it, then apply that technique to other forms of riding. SIF is important; IMHO, it is not a ‘niche’ skill.
I was prepping dinner a few minutes ago when all of a sudden I exclaimed, “Seat in Front!” Now, what is SI?
I am so regretting buying a cheap 20" unicycle off of a neighbor, cutting it down, and giving it to my nephew. It will collect dust, along with all his other toys. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a 20" on craigslist. I agree that everything one can learn on the uni makes you just that much better.
Nice work Geolojas. I only have a stall currently. You inspire me to definitely follow your lead.
SI=Seat-in. In other words, traditional butt-on-or-under-the-seat riding. There are some interesting threads on the forum comparing various aspects of SIF vs. SI riding. The post below is from a 2008, when younger riders hadn’t yet ditched the forum for the facebook unicycle chat.
[THREAD]65564[/THREAD]
Now the only ones left on the forum are a bunch of old fogies complaining about their hemorrhoids. Easily remedied with a tube of SIF!
that’s funny. Thanks for the morning laugh, and for the info. I am full of questions. I appreciate all you old fogies being willing to educate us newbies
This is good to hear. I will stay the course and continue to have fun on these trails. Hopping is an emerging skill for me right now. I can hop to stay in place or make tight turns; the one time I did manage to hop onto a sidewalk from the street, I was so surprised I couldn’t ride out of it. Your advice is well taken though… I’ll start looking at smaller objects and imperfections in the trail as opportunities for jumping practice.
Yes! Thank you, I have found the chart made by saskatchewanian and it is fantastic. Cadence brings up an interesting point. I’ve never tracked my cadence, but that might be more interesting data than speed since it can be compared more broadly across different wheel sizes. I’ll start paying attention to it.
Note that your maximum cadence is also tied to the crank size… smaller the cranks, smaller the circle, higher the cadence. Usually gear ratios are pretty low on a unicycle, so shorter cranks usually translate functionally into an increase in speed because you increase your max cadence, but are still within a comfortable gear ratio to push, although you do lose some acceleration and control. A crank size of course doesn’t have a max cadence, but in general, your personal max cadence will be higher on shorter cranks.
if you do have speed data and want to have cadence data:
where distance is the same unit measurement, so add your respective sensible units and convert there. [/B]
This is independent of crank size, but cadence will increase with shorter cranks, and the gear ratio will go up, so it will be harder to push the wheel.
You can see here that increasing foot speed linearly will increase cadence linearly… that’s no surprise, especially on a unicycle, but notice that crank diameter is inversely proportional to cadence, so assuming you have the same foot speed with large cranks that you do with short cranks (big assumption that isn’t true) halving your crank size will double your speed.
This has been discussed extensively in other threads, but it’s also been a source of debate and confusion.
It’s another needless abbreviation, which has no place in a thread that was started by a new rider with new-rider needs. Now we have to keep explaining all of our acronyms instead of helping with the topic.
Sweet! Thanks Juggleaddict, that makes a lot of sense. And, being that I’m a huge nerd and proud of it, I couldn’t help myself from making a chart showing expected velocity based on wheel diameter and pedaling cadence. Feel free to check my math, I’m more of an arm waver than a details guy.
Based on the chart in my previous post, I can average about 70rpm over an entire ride, and my top speed of about 8 mph means that my maximum cadence is somewhere between 110 and 120.
That top speed is really into the red zone too. Its usually on accident, and if I manage to recover from going this fast, its just barely. I’ve been reading the current “tips for riding fast” thread too, and I’ve been trying for speed in short bursts in an attempt to control it.
I had a fun moment on tonight’s ride too. Riding past the park I saw a friend sitting at one of the tables so I turned to say “Hi”. I didn’t dismount while we chatted briefly, just rode some tight turns around the picnic table. As I was riding off I realized that the turns were not awkward, jerky turns that I often use, but smooth turns that I pedaled through while leaning in. YEAH! It pays to be distracted sometimes… until I’m daydreaming, miss a pothole, and go sprawling.
