My first MUni ride of the season

General
1

Well, I had taken the Coker on the trails a few times, and had been playing around on the MUni in town, but for the hmost part, other than gym meets, the 26"r didn’t get used. Recently, it’s been either the Coker, or the Trials.

To my bewilderment, I was EASILY twice as good on the MUni trails the first ride of the season, than I was the last ride of last season!

I’ve gone over these trails tons of times, so I know exactly what gives me grief, which lines I prefer over others…every feature of this trail

Last year, there was 4 hills I couldn’t climb. This year, there were none!

I was able to go and down, taking different lines, seeing which was the optimal route, practicing differenet techniques, etc… and these were on hills I couldn’t get up last year!

There was even one hill that curves to the left as it climbs, and I found myself balancing, unable to move either my legs, or my body position, teetering in a still stand, trying not to fall, right on the crest of where the line goes up to the left, and falling back to the right.

Before I lost my balance, I was able to stretch out my neck and chin out forward, then my face, this gave me the desired forward lean to get my legs working again, and I continued up the hill.

I was so excited about doing that, I was grinning like an idiot as I continued up this very steep hill.

I knew I was gonna be better this year than last, but on the already on the first ‘real’ ride? These are exciting times ! :sunglasses:

2

I’ve been doing the same as you Sofa; cokering and freestyle stuff, but no MUni.

With the BUC coming up soon I thought I’d better get some MUni practice in, so I headed off to this great little nature trail thing about 1/2 mile away. Its only small, but there are loads of little technical trails down a small dirt slope, with bushes and trees in the way and nettle patches dotted around. Last year I rode a few of the routes and had several that I had ridden on quite frequently so the paths were clearly marked out.

I hadn’t been there for four or five months until yesterday, so I assumed the rain would have washed the mud around a bit and it would be just like it was before I had “ridden it in” but it was all just as I had left it. I went riding down some of the slopes, but found them much easier than I remembered, so I tried some of the steeper and harder bits and found those pretty easy. I put a few logs around as obstacles and was bouncing around on those for a while, until I felt a nasty burning pain in my foot. I gave up and came home, took my shoes and socks off and there was a massive blister! Obviously the skin on my feet isn’t as tough as it used to be, all this wimpy freestyle stuff has softened my feet up.

Its really sore, so no more MUni till its healed. We’re going on holiday and taking the MUnis with us, so I hope my foot is better then.

I’d forgotten both how fun and how painful MUni can be!

Oops, that was a bit longer than I had anticipated. What a load of rambling nosense!!

3

Sofa, congats on your improvements. I went out on a MUni ride at one of my favorite mtb places near the house. The trails were alot harder on a MUni!!! I still had a good time and got in 5 1/2 miles. This was the first time I’d ridden my MUni at this location and can’t wait til next Tuesday to join my mtb friends there (on my MUni)

4

Nice work everyone. Sofa, do you find that you do better still stands when you’re not neccessarily trying to than when you are? Whenever I’m either doing trials or muni I quite often find myself just standing there on the spot thinking about my next line. Then when I practice my still standing separately, I can’t do it very well at all.

Is it just me?

Andrew

5

The unintentional ones always last longer!

6

I’m still learning and I find myself doing unintentional still stands when I get to a decision point (do I go on and try to avoid the bush or do I stop here and quit while I am ahead). I am sure that I could not do a still stand intentionally if I tried. The fact is that it scares me quite a bit when I do it because I don’t feel confident getting myself down from there (I usually execute a UPD at that point).

7

Re: My first MUni ride of the season

That sounds like MUni at its best, Sofa. Improvement is a great
motivator.

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003 08:47:12 -0500, Sofa
<Sofa.m18py@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>I was so excited about doing that, I was grinning like an idiot as I
>continued up this very steep hill.

Do you know how steep by chance?
<www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/inclinometer.htm>

Just this week I managed for the first time to ride up a 31.7% slope.
Pic number 2 from the bottom up (but then climbing) on
<www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/beest_photos.htm>. I’m starting to run out of
steep trails where I live!

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict

Nearly 85% of the people killed by lightning are male.

8

Re: Re: My first MUni ride of the season

the grade of a hill varies so much, that would be hard to judge. I’d put in on the bottom side of a lip, so the hill would be steeper!

9

Re: Re: My first MUni ride of the season

Klaas Bil wrote:

> I’m starting to run out of steep trails where I live!

Klaas,

That’s what happens when you Muni ‘below’ sea level. Come visit me in Alaska and I’ll find you a challenge or two! :stuck_out_tongue:

Cheers,
Jason