The latest Muni exploits from the Auckland unicycling crowd saw us return to Mt
Eden to make the most of the fading summer. We came, we saw and we conquered.
This time I was determined not to leave the site with two sprained ankles and
had fully kitted myself out with body armour.
Charles has come a long way in the past few months and has started joining us on
our offroad adventures. He is working on hopping up curbs now that going down
doesn’t seem to be a problem. So our numbers continue to grow, albeit slowly.
Tony managed a nice 45 degree 20 stair climb to begin with. Alas I didn’t manage
to follow suit (I blaim my heavier unicycle 
And once again he demonstrated
his stylish pedal grabs. Tony is developing some new skills involving flicking
the frame backwards and forwards with his free foot while balanced in a
pedal/crank grab. It looks very impressive when he does a 360 round the frame
with his free leg to catch it before it falls!
We played around at the summit for a while, jumping on and off the seats and
walls that surround the trig. The seats back onto a 3 ft hexagonal shaped stone
wall that enciricles the trig except for a couple of 2ft gaps. Lots of fun was
had riding around the top and gapping the 2ft break. I managed to get up and
over the wall with the aid of the seat and didn’t even break my cranks. My new
crankset seems to be holding up for a change
After that it was time to hit the trails and hills. Tony duely jumped on the
sign that said no mountain biking and then we encountered a bunch of uneducated
public. After the usual circus and clown comments they realized we were actually
serious. At this point one guy looked at a very steep hill and said “You’re not
going down that are you?”
No more incentive was needed although my first attempt resulted in thorough use
of body armour as I somersaulted down the half of the hill I didn’t manage to
ride. The second attempt worked though and the public was duly educated
(although left in doubts as to my sanity).
More hills presented more challenges and we seem to be getting the hang of them
now. I still managed to do a windmill impression with my legs at the bottom of
one particularly nasty descent. All due to using the good old catapult dismount
method
Steve T navigated some very impressive slopes and looks set to be doing some
down hill gliding before too long. He has just aquired a 2.25 tyre for his 20"
and is now jumping around with the greatest of ease and pull gliding as well.
The best was saved till last with my attempt at the crater descent. This was the
trail the bit me bad last time. It is very short, very steep, and very dusty.
Tony got half way down by ignoring the trail totally and just going for it on
the grass. I foolishly tried the trail and bit the dust (sent up a large cloud
and got covered head to foot in the stuff). Eventually I threw caution to the
wind, took a leaf from Tony’s book and ignored the trail. I made it to the
bottom without killing myself on the rocks and in full view of a bus load of
tourists. Not a bad end to the day and no sprained ankles either!
We’ve lost Steve P for a few months while he goes to check out some of the
trails in Greece. No doubt he’ll come back with a whole new set of skills and
one heavily used unicycle.
With a bit of luck some of the pictures Jesse took will come out well and I’ll
post them on my website.
Later, Peter
o o Peter Bier o O o Juggler, unicyclist and mathematician.
o/|\o peter_bier@usa.net
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