I have watched George Peck’s video titled “Rough Terrain Unicycling” and I was
inspired to build myself a 26" wheeled Mountain Uni (MUni) this winter. I bought
most of the parts from Tom Miller at the Unicyce Factory: a Semcycle 28" frame,
a Semcycle Deluxe hub, a 16" seatpost and an “old style” Schwinn saddle.
>From a bicycle mail order house I bought spokes and nipples, a Mavic 231 PSP
alloy rim and a 1.9" Performance ATX inverted tread tire.
I have been riding around on the street with a few brief excursions onto grass
and dirt, getting familiar with the feel of the larger wheel. I live near
Topeka, Kansas, and I finally made it up there to ride my MUni on the trails at
the Governor’s Mansion. It sits on 1000 acres of undeveloped woods along the
south side of the Kansas River in the north western part of the city. This land
has been made into a public park.
Originally I cut down a set of 170mm aluminum alloy bicycle crankarms (that’s
about 6 1/2 inches) for really rough terrain and they work great. For this ride
though I left on my “street” cranks: 5 1/2" long Matthews steel unicycle
crankarms. I originally bought GT brand alloy BMX pedals with studs for better
grip but I soon retired them in favor of Wellgo plastic bear-paw style pedals
that I found at the local Wal Mart. The GTs were nice looking but they felt
heavy and they gripped TOO well. When I saw what the studs did to the soles of
my shoes I knew I didn’t want them biting into my shins.
The wooded area has a biking/footpath about 6 feet wide, covered in crushed
limestone. The path winds up and down over these steep hills in a circuit of
about two miles. From this path singletracks wander off into the trees. Some of
them are marked with posts every hundred yards or so but many are
“undocumented”, created by the many mountain bikers that come there to ride.
I took my first circuit around the gravel path, ascending and descending grades
as steep as 25% (a 2.5 foot rise in 10 feet). I had a little trouble on some of
the steepest portions where sand had washed out onto the path and made it hard
to keep traction. At these points I was standing on the pedals and holding onto
the nose of the saddle for added torque. I would spin out in the loose sand.
Perhaps a more aggressive tread pattern would have held traction; this is one
area where I am still fine-tuning the MUni. I have read that a too-aggressive
tread makes turning and twisting very tough. After a few attempts, I also found
that I was leaning too far forward trying to get the pedals “over the top”. I
found that if I didn’t lean so far forward, I got better traction without losing
too much torque on the pedals.
As I was climbing up one hill, I met a jogger going the other way. He was so
startled and impressed that he didn’t remember to ask where my other wheel was.
He said “Well, that’s original.” and asked if I could actually get up the hill
on that thing. I said “Sure, if it’s not too sandy”.
Encouraged with my success, I started exploring the singletracks. That day
they were simply dry paths in the loamy soil, with the usual tree roots and
rocks on the steeper parts, and ruts where the path had crossed or merged with
rainwater runoffs.
For the most part, I relied on momentum and the larger diameter wheel to roll
over stuff. I found out right away that singletracking on an MUni requires
constant tight focus. I would roll over tangled roots, ruts and rocks, only to
be thrown by a tiny depression in the hard packed dirt. The dappled sunlight
falling through the leaves overhead made reading the trail tricky. I suppose the
Mountain Bikers among us are used to that but for me it was a big surprise.
Descending was trickier than I though it would be, you have to lean forward a
bit to roll over the roots. It was tricky because I was leaning backward,
applying backpressure to the pedals to control my speed. After stopping cold
against a root and falling off backward a few times, I tried leaning forward
only to find the steep grade was fooling my eye. I had to lean even farther
forward than I had guessed, which with the trail falling away from me made it
feel like leaning out over a cliff. A couple of times I made it over one root
only to bump up against another and go sailing off the saddle forward, landing
one or two feet vertically down the trail. Since no one was watching, I didn’t
feel too bad about grabbing at branches and bushes at times to save myself from
falling over sideways.
I thought I would be doing more hopping but at present this is too much to do
while fighting to maintain direction over obstacles on a steep slope. I hope to
learn this as I gain experience offroad. Remounting on a steep slope is tricky
too. You have to mount into a pedals-level position and try to go forward
immediately or start hopping, bumps make the half-idle rollback mounting
technique very unreliable.
All in all it was immense fun. I guzzled down as much water as I could hold
before leaving the trailhead but after an hour of thrashing around in the woods
I was very dry (and tired!) and had to turn back. I will have to get one of
those fanny pack/water bottle carriers so I can stay out longer next time. Yes,
next time! As Arnold says: “I’ll be back.” Rough terrain unicycling is fun and
challenging. I recommend it wholeheartedly to other unicyclists.
Dennis Kathrens
Date: 19 Jul 1995 06:17:18 GMT