Muni Climbing Technique

Getting up on hard trails can be a great challenge, too :smiley:

If you have done some mountain biking, you probably already know the benefits of clipless pedals. If you’re feeling great about UPD (always on your feet), you should try them on a uni. It’ll make the climbs easier.

I agree with Finnspin, try to sit as long as you can and keep that wheel rolling.

When needed (for steepness or as a recovery) stand up but as soon as conditions allow try to sit hard again. It really saves your legs and lungs :slight_smile:

Hills are a major feature of the trails on my neighborhood. The steeper ones are quite rutted, not flowy, and require I maintain a lot of leverage with the handle. I burn out quickly when applying explosive force. When I approach a difficult uphill, I take it slowly. My climbing posture is the intersection of sitting on the seat and SIF, allowing leverage by applying forward/back/up/down force on the handlebars.

One obvious solution for climbing is to use longer cranks. They work well for me. I am a bigger, taller rider, I keep my tire pressure higher, and my trail conditions, as I said, are not flowy. If you are thinking of switching to longer cranks, you might want to keep that information private, because as we all know, al the good riders are using shorter cranks.

Being able to switch between slogging and spinning, sitting down and standing up, that’s helpful. It is easy to panic, getting to a hill and overdoing the exertion. Don’t look up, towards the end of the hill! It will happen, eventually.

The most helpful thing for me was practicing on impossible hills, being forced to adapt my climbing style to make it up even a few pedal strokes.

1 Like

Great tips, I am currently using 165mm cranks which feel pretty good. I will probably pick up a shorter set soon but I am pretty happy with them currently.

Oh, yeah I ride Crankbrothers pedals on my MTB and there is zero chance I will be making that transition to a unicycle. I am pretty good about landing on my feet, I think I have only hit dirt once honestly but there’s just no way I am going clipless of any type on a uni. Ha.

There is some good info and advice in this thread from not that long ago if you want to give it a peruse.

I use 165s because they’re easier on my knees. I like them better for technical climbs where you can’t rely on momentum. When you have to grind your way up half a rev at a time, the extra leverage really makes a difference.

Shorter cranks work better for steep sections, especially if you can get a run up, because it’s easier to pedal smoothly and maintain momentum. You can climb some surprisingly steep hills by riding at them fast and trying to keep the momentum going all the way up. Weight way forward, pull hard on the seat, and keep the wheel turning.

I found that I have to lean pretty far forward to stay upright on steep hills. In other words, I’m upright or slightly forward, but it feels like I’m leaning very far forward - especially when I first started going up steeper slopes. It helps to have a friend take a video so you can see what you are doing.

:rofl:

Glad I’m a beginner so I can make my own choices :smiley:

A follow-up question: when I inevitably come off the unicycle part way up aslope, I find it very hard to mount on an uphill and start riding from zero momentum. Do you have any tips on mounting uphill so I don’t just have to walk up the rest of the hill (or start again from the bottom)?

I typically mount facing sideways then rotate on my first pedal stroke if it’s too steep or I’m tired.

I practiced a strange method with some success:

Start standing behind the seat but in front of the pedals. The beginning of the mount is SIF with hands on the seat, but you should be able to hoist yourself up on the seat pretty quickly. Place the first foot on the forward-most pedal. Then bring the second foot back onto the rearward-facing pedal. That way, the mount starts off with the weight being placed on the uphill pedal. This mount relies on some requisite skills, and requires a fairly steep grade to achieve a static mount. It may not be practical for the OP, but I bring it up because, to my knowledge, it has not been discussed on the forum.

I suggest you don’t kill yourself trying to learn uphill mounting, and rather mount perpendicular to the hill, then turning or hopping into place, as mentioned by @saskatchewanian

1 Like

I have to try this, it’s something I’ve never come across before.

I’m sure it’ll depend on the amount of steepness, but I had some lines in the woods here which I wanted to ride and could only mount on an upslope, and I realized that a walking / running mount was the easiest thing for me to do. It took a few tries to get the speed right, but after that I could consistently repeat it on the same slope many times in a row.
But for downslope’s I tend to lock my brake and simply step on the pedals. That should work on an upslope as well…

But if it’s really steep I would mount it 90 degrees to the slope and even try to ride up it on an angle (kind of a Z-shape) to make it easier to climb. This of course only works if the slope is wide enough, but going straight up requires more strength or speed than going up it at an angle (talking from MTB experience here :wink: )

1 Like

I practiced it yesterday on flat ground. Works there, but you have to push down hard with the arms at the beginning. There is also a jump version of the same mount I succeed at less than 1/2 the time, but with practice, I could improve those numbers.

Not very well. Despite locking the brake, the unicycle will still pivot on the contact patch - on a downhill that results in “leveraging” you and the unicycle forward (nice for mounting), on an uphill the opposite. Plus on any decently steep hill, you stand “under” the uni quite a bit, which makes it relatively tricky to mount that way.
Running/walking mount gives you the extra momentum to get up (or as mentioned mounting sideways allows you to ignore the gradient during the mount).

1 Like

Good point; but I wasnt necessarily referring to mounting it from the back. Will check the next time I’m on my muni :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t go that far, but I might say that hopping shows where your rolling technique needs improvement. Personally, I am lousy at hopping because I usually will roll something to the best of my ability, for multiple tries, then walk up if needed.

I am not going to test that to see if it works for me. :stuck_out_tongue:

Booo. That’s fine if the ride is all about the downhill, but riding up boring, easy trails isn’t very rewarding. My favorite trails are mostly singletrack, so you have to work hard to get up. Though on the original Muni Weekend trail (Clementine Loop, Auburn, CA), the way up is rough fire road and some paved road, this is to get you to the super-fun Culvert and Confluence Trails on the way down. Those would be REALLY hard to ride all the way up…

So, how to ride up the steeps? Good advice from Canoeheadted above; if terrain allows, attack the hill with as much speed as you can, and try to keep your momentum going. Eventually this will slow down, and you may be able to continue some more, still seated, but you have to stand up once the going gets too hard to sit. Then as your speed drops, concentrate on each power stroke, making sure you get through the bottom with enough forward momentum to catch the next one. Be ready to “catch” yourself if your wheel stops momentarily; you can bend at the waist to keep from over-riding your balance point.

Hold onto the seat. While going fast, this makes it easier to spin; taking some of the seat control off of your legs so they can pedal. As you start cranking, your grip there will provide resistance to your power strokes, so you don’t lift off the seat.

Don’t celebrate until you have completely crested the hill! Celebrating too early has been the “downfall” of all of us from time to time. :slight_smile:

If you fall off, back up and try that spot again. My standard approach is to give a spot three tries before moving on. Conquer as much of the climb as you can; then your future rides will be more about linking those sections together without a dismount.

I recommend against clipless pedals, but to each his own. I know they will give a better grip, but can also lead to nose, general face, hand and wrist injuries. I use good MTB pedals with metal pins, and 5-10 shoes with Stealth rubber soles. That’s a crazy amount of grip!

All the good riders are not using shorter cranks. However, most of the fast, good riders are. Also, they tend to have young knees. I have 125/150s on my KH 26". The 150s give the most control, partially because that’s what I ride the most (also same size as my Road uni). The 125s are faster, and with more practice (and fitness) I believe I will be able to ride confidently over more things with them. But I don’t like switching them mid-ride. My next pair of pedals will allow for a pedal wrench, which is much more convenient than a little allen wrench jamming up behind the brake disc, etc. :frowning:

Getting going on an upslope is indeed harder than doing it downhill or on the flat. First you have to get way up in front of the wheel to reach your balance point, then farther so you can pedal into it. And then, you have to pedal pretty hard. There is an embarrassing video of me doing an Uphill Mounting workshop at the first Muni Weekend (Oct. 1996, Auburn, CA). I’m not sharing it; plus I think my copy is on analog tape! It demonstrates that this is a pretty hard thing to do, as with all my explanations and technique descriptions, none of my attempts to demonstrate this were successful! Bear in mind I was riding a 24" Miyata with a 1.75" tire with about 60 pounds of pressure in it (any less and you’d get pinch flats). But almost everyone else there was riding something similar; the first purpose-built “Muni” didn’t hit the market for two more years…

Generally I find (moderate) uphill more interesting and challenging than downhill. Possibly because I don’t have long enough downhills for that to be an entire ride around here. Having said that I can ride down routes I can’t ride up.

If this is meant as a definition than you have left out a fundamental aspect: “by unicycle”

And why stay standing?
And why the rest/pedal/rest/pedal cadence?

I’m a little confused…