I think you are right to a degree. I think it is the mindset of people willing to take up new things that aren’t mainstream. However, there is an element of aging (for me at least) that creeps into new ventures. It becomes a bit more difficult to maintain the “I am invincible” attitude. These days I wear safety gear, I never did that when I was young and was lucky enough to make it to my, somewhat, advanced years. Now I believe in it. I make my son wear safety gear and he is only 9 yrs old. He balks, but in the long run, I think it will pay off for him. I have endured many injuries in my life that some little bit of caution would have prevented. At my age now I don’t want to be injured again, it hurts like hell and takes much longer to heal.
I can definitely say when I unicycle (to my meager limits) I do feel younger again. I feel the excitement of accomplishment and the thrill of a new experience. It’s good. Hell, it’s great!!
I made a promise to myself long ago that I wouldn’t be a fat old man. I’m older and fatter than I hoped but I think unicycling can help me peel off a few pounds. When I was about 2 yrs old I met a man (I was with my sisters and brothers) and his name was Gus. He was as old as time to my young eyes and he was magical. He had fingernails on his right hand that were long and manicured and he played the banjo. My siblings used to take me there when I was so young (I know my age based on stories from them). Gus used to play the banjo on the front porch of his house and he was always smiling. Gus had a wife who (in those days) wore the full apron and used to float out onto the porch and serve up hot cookies and pies while her husband played for the neighborhood kids. He has been an everlasting force in my life. I decided very young I wanted to be just like Gus. I wanted to have something to do for the children that would thrill them and make them happy.
At my age now my hopes are to start a unicycle club in my son’s school and bring some magic to them. I know I have a long way to go but I’m willing to put in the hours. I don’t care if I can only ride on smooth flat surfaces, I want to do something that will impact on the kids and give them something to look forward to in their lives. I can only hope, at this age, that I can be half the role-model that Gus was to me.
Sorry for running on so much. In short, I agree, I’m not old but I have something that I didn’t have when I was in my 20s and 30s. I have hope to be able to pass something on. Maybe that is the difference in an older rider. Thoughts??
Your vision is cool, I love to see community outreach like that. It is very similar to what Sebring Unicycle and Juggling Club does. They work with a local elementry school as an after school program, but not directly affiliated with the school.
This all truely stems from the hard work and passion of Paul Getty, with a similar vision to yours. He’s been riding longer than most of you “old” guys have been alive too. He was the oldest registered competetor at NAUC 2013 at 86.
Yes we have lots of nice trails around the Akron - Cleveland area. One of the best ones is Royalview, in North Royalton in the Cleveland Metro Parks, its has long downhills if you ride it backwards from the Mt bikers suggestioned direction. Another one is Quail Hollow in Hartville, short but a little easier than most. Goggle CAMBA mt biking and loads of trails will come up.
I am 55 years old and started 3 years ago. Went from not being able to cross my driveway to riding 33 miles…once.
I don’t feel old but it does take me a few days to recover from long rides or very hilly rides. Stretching helps a lot, as well as ibuprofen.
The longer and longer I ride, the more it impresses my when I see people posting incredible 50 or 100 mile rides here. I recently did 22 miles and damn! It hurt at the end… a lot! I can’t imagine even riding twice that.
Depends on what type of riding. On some MUni rides I might do as much as 15 miles, either on my KH 24 or G26er. On road climbing rides with my 700c I average about 6-9 miles, and 20-40 mile 36er rides, including the 100+ mile 36er rides at least once per year.
1: After playing uni hockey I have overall knee pain
Seems to be related to performing the same motions over time, while the knees are actively engaged. It goes away after walking around a bit but that interferes with hockey.
2: On long distance rides, and sometimes randomly, pain between the very top of my patellas and my legs. If I push right there it’s obvious now but it took me a while to find the painful spot the first time. It happens sometimes when I haven’t even ridden for a week, just out of the blue.
It was intended to encourage riders of both sexes who were 55 and older ( 50 for female)
One attraction was that you could submit a photo of yourself with your uni and it would be digitally edited into a photo of everyone ‘virtually’ standing together. Peruse the thread to see the images as more riders joined.
It still is possible to submit photos so if anyone is keen then PM and I will give you the details
BTW I am 65 and I think I ‘unofficially’ hold the record for the oldest person to ride 100 miles in a day. I tend to do this every year and stared when I was 63. This year I am attempting 130 miles in a day ie, twice my age.
I do most of my riding on a 29". Usually anywhere between 3 miles and up to 22 so far. But right now I only have a 29 and 20 so the choice is pretty easy to make for which one I should ride.
I did it! I actually pulled off my first free mount today. I’ve been able to come close, get up and balance, but never able to get up and ride off! Wow, that felt good!
After a frustrating session a few days ago I’ve made real progress the last couple days. I’m learning on my 20" Torker and can now consistently ride the length of my carport and the paved section of driveway (~25 feet). Today I took the uni and rode in “public” for the first time. Yikes! The local church has the biggest parking lot in town and was empty, so I practiced there. I can go quite a ways now, not very straight, wobbling, arms flailing, hips twisting; but I’m doing it!
My other big news is that my new 26" Nimbus Muni came yesterday. Wow, what a difference! It’s going to take a while to figure that thing out. Not nearly as maneuverable as the 20".
This is quite an experience you have waiting for you with the 26" Muni. That’s real fun once you go offroad (gras, gravel, hardpack, even ground, even that is a supersmooth experience.
My first uni was a 24" which I used for everything. By the time I got interested in distance riding / touring, I added bigger unis to my fleet. I now choose the wheel for the occasion. Mostly, for longer rides I’d pick a bigger wheel. But I sometimes race (and train to race) 10 km on a 24" as a required wheelsize. Also, my main MUni is 24 x 3", on which I’ve done rides up to 60 km. Summary: it depends.
First: Congratulations on the successful free mount, RedRockRider! I envy you
Second I have a question about turning: While I’m getting pretty decent at going straight and even with the slightly curved, bumpy part of my training course, I am having trouble turning. Do you guys know any exercises that can help learning sharper 90 degree turns? I’ve been trying to ride wide circles, but the best I got was a quarter of a circle before I dismounted involuntarily
What worked for me is looking way past the corner you want to make. I was trying to make it around 90 degree corners and kept falling. Once I began looking past the corner in the direction I wanted to go, I started making them easily. Let’s get more “old” women out there!
Good advice from Young at heart there. I’m still learning myself but turning is going pretty well for me these days. Things that seemed to help:
Use the space you have. If you start feeling shaky in the middle of a turn, let the arc run wider but keep on pedaling. If you try to slow down to hold a tight line, you’ll UPD every time.
Throwing in some sharp corners in the middle of turns is fine if that’s what it takes to get around. Tracing smooth steady circles is a nice goal but make stop signs until you can if that keeps you going.
As an exercise, find a nice street without a lot of traffic and practice making lazy S-curves back and forth. That way you can bail out of a turn any time you need to and still keep on going down the road. Make each arc as deep as you can and work on the feeling of turning smoothly to one side and then the other.
Lately I’ve been working on riding the tightest circles I can as fast as I can for as many times around as I can, literally until I’m dizzy. It’s fun!
Young at heart and LargeEddie, thanks a lot for your advice.
I believe the “look where you want to go” is deeply ingrained in me since I also do a lot of motorcycle riding and you’re getting yourself into really big trouble if you don’t learn the “head and eyes” mantra. When I’m practicing tight turns on my motorcycle I’m looking almost 180 degrees ahead of my turn. The spot in front of your tire is the last place you want to look at.
For practicing, I think I should follow LargeEddies advice. My current training course is the narrow boardwalk by my house with the concrete stretch shown in the pictures below connecting the two big straight sections. While this is good in forcing smoothness (my straight lines are really straight), making a 90 degree turn on a path that is only a few feet wide is a real challenge. I think I’ll move to the more open area by the garage or in the parking lot and set up some cones to weave around. Once I’m getting better, I can move the cones closer or do offset weaves. Maybe then I can start doing circles until I get dizzy
I’ve attached a few pictures of my practice this morning. The concrete path section is the most difficult (other than the tight 90 deg turn that I can’t even fathom to attempt yet) on my exercise course. It is the most difficult part because it is (a) slightly curved as it bends around the base of the bridge and (b) isn’t quite level and has a few half inch steps between concrete slabs. While I made it across this section four times this morning without dismounting , I haven’t been able to make the turn either towards the bridge or away from it during the few times I attempted to. May still be worth trying some more since there is only grass to land on if I don’t make it.
I’m just shy of 52. I’m not old. As I see it, I just recently passed the halfway mark. Even if that means “middle age”, I refuse to act the part.
Someday I will qualify as old in my own mind. At that time, I hope I am still riding unicycles. Doing so will continue to push that day farther into the future!
