Today I did three trials demos for the Great Brisbane Bike Ride with my new bike trials friends. I didn’t know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. We had two trucks, a 50mm x3m (ish) balance beam between the trays of the trucks, many pallets, two metal A-frames, a ladder with widely spaced rungs, two drums, one big tyre, and some cable spools. It was fantastic! I also brought along my sandwich boards and broke one of the beautiful new ones. Some of you did warn me and I was actually going to fix it up but didn’t find the time…I wish I had.
But anyway, I had a great time. I didn’t make it up the ladder unfortunately. The rungs were too widely spaced for my skill level, but it was fristrating because I’ve made it up a similar one with closer rungs. I did a 170cm drop to flat cement which, surprisingly, I didn’t find intimidating (except for the fact that the trucks suspension absorbed my hops which was wierd :)). The interesting thing is I’ve become more confident with drops and less with ups, unfortunately. I just don’t believe I’m going to make it up things and then don’t fully commit to it. It’s annoying. And I made it along the balance beam after a few attempts.
So yeh, I had a great time. And I’m going to be involved in a ‘speed trials’ demo which is intersting. Apparently they set up two identical courses and race through them. I don’t think I’ll do very well.
I couldn’t believe how great this trials demo course was!
You’re a nutter, 1.7m makes me giddy. Is 1.7m a PB for you?
I wish I could do something about my glass ankles to make them withstand drops. I can manage the odd 50cm drop but that’s only if I land properly. Other times I can hurt myself from 1ft drops
Well 1.8m is my biggest drop, but that was onto reasonably soft soil. I don’t think I’ll go much higher to flat cement. That one didn’t hurt me at all but I think it may have bent my right pedal a little more (it’s already weakened so it now bends quite easily). There are some massive drops in Universe 2. Like 9’ to flat cement or something crazy like that!
Probably more than half of that is in the pedal. I do have a new cranks, I just haven’t put them on yet. I’m waiting until I get a job so I can buy new pedals and make it all straight and nice again. Then I’ll buy my new muni frame and then get my 2 wheeler made, then finally make my seated hand-driven uni, then buy some more stuff.
I’m going to learn to weld too, hopefully that’ll save me money in the long run…especially with prototypes when I don’t know if they’ll work (like my seated hand-driven uni).
Uh… I would have thought it’s the crank. You know more about unicycles than me but I’m jsut gonna use general knowledge here. When you do big drops the cranks will be at horizontal position when you land. When you start bending things it will start bending down because that’s where all the pressure is. But because the pedal rotates when the cranks are vertical it will make the pedal look like it’s bent forward or backward, because it’s actually the crank that’s bent. When you bend a pedal shouldn’t the pedal be bent downwards, so that wouldn’t cause it to appear bent fowards or backwards.
This has nothing to do with working at a bike shop (I don’t anymore by the way). I hop with my right foot back. You can see the right crank and pedal in the picture…it’s bent ‘forward’ in the picture. The picture is taken from above, so if you imagine the wheel rotated so the pedal is at the bottom of the image, then the pedal will face towards the ground. Trust me, it makes sense.
Some of you did warn me and I was actually going to fix it up but didn’t find the time…I wish I had.
