Having spent 6 months learning to unicycle on my faithful 20" Nimbus II I decided it was time to move up to a muni. My Nibus was great fun and I still have plenty of use for it as I try to improve my unicycling skills, but frequent off road excursions required something that could better handle the muddy slopes.
After some research and a lot of advice I decided on a 24" Onza. The order went in to Unicycle.UK.com and last Thursday and the following day it arrived. It looked serious piece of kit and I couldnāt wait to start riding it, but weekend commitments afforded me little time for practice. The couple of short rides I did try gave me quite a shock, I couldnāt believe how different it felt to my old Nimbus, the long cranks, larger wheel and soft fat tyre made me feel like a begineer agian. But some practice Monday and Tuesday lunchtime started to give me confidence and I was itching to progress. Then Tuesday evening happened!!! :o
Keen to improve I went out for a ride round the local park. All started well with me slowly gaining confidence to tackle steeper and longer slopes. Then as I was thinking what to try next without warning I slipped backwards, the seat popped up in front of me and as I fell the left pedal bit in to my leg.
After 4 hours in A&E I now have 6 stiches in my left calf. The staff found it very amusing with one nurse asking if I was attacked by a lion.
The question now is do I change the pedals, buy leg guards or both? I would be interested to know what other riders think of the Onza pedals.
Oh well I have a week to decide what to do while I wait for the wound to heal and the stiches to be removed.
Definately buy some leg guards. I highly recommend 661 4x4ās, they WILL save your shins. I agree with onetrack, judging from your scars, those pedals are keepers!!!
do 661 4x4s cover your entire leg, or just your shin? im sorta looking for protection for my calvesā¦they get beat up more than my shins. if i only needed protection for my shins i could just use my soccer shin guards. any suggestions for ones that go āall aroundā my leg?
leg armor, duh. i have fox 911 knee/shin guards, nothing ever will fully protect the calf, but the fox 911ās have the thickest material in the back. it will save you from a puncture just like the 661s.
i wonder which of the three provides best protection around the entire leg? the veggieshin looks better than the 911 you suggested but its hard to tellā¦i wonder if anyone knows from experience
First off Clangerā¦ Major Props for the great photo. Unlike other recent threads with this same issue, you actually provided the photo we all wanted to see! Personally I think you should continue w/o the guards and provide us with many more great pictures. I gave the same advice to Chirokid. I think pads are a waste of money. I told him to use that money for a digital camera. SInce you get free healthcare over there you are much better off financially just getting stitches as you need them. I have to pay $75 for an emergency room visit, so the pads were a better deal for me. If I could get free stitches though, I wouldnāt have bought any pads.
Grant, the second link is the pads I have. They do cover the back of the leg with a tough mesh material. I have yet to get clawed through them. I have been bruised through them, but they are just enough to prevent most skin perferations. If the KH pads were available, I would prefer them. Unfortunately they arenāt. The 661ās do the job though just fine.
I just looked at the Veggies. They look pretty interesting. I sure would like to try some of those on. Has anyone else tried these. I wonder how durable they are. They look like they may be a little more comfortable, but they are two piece. I wonder if that makes them a pain to put on? I say get those, and let us know what you think.
Iāve been using the 661 veggies for about 6 months now and they are excellent stopping any cuts/scratches and most bruises - although in very hot conditions they can be a bit on the warm side(not that here in the UK very hot conditions are a real problem) The fact that you can wear them with seperate from the knee pads if required and theyāre fine for putting through the washing machine as well made them a winner for me - so definitely get some shin guards as they stop a whole world of pain and i have found the veggies excellent
Thanks for the advice Bugman, I know from previous threads how much my fellow unicyclist value photographic evidence. I can only assume that this is because we all want to understand the dangers so we can make the sport safer, or perhaps we are just sickos wanting to see some gory pics.
However, your analysis of the pads versus free health care misses out a few important points. Service at UK hospitals is far from rapid, I had to wait 2 hours to get my injury looked at and then it was a further 2 hours before they had stitched me up and said I could go home. Although I believe that the more spectacular the injury the faster the service, so perhaps I was not trying hard enough. The real problem though is that now I have to rest my leg while the wound heals, so no more unicycling for a week, this is a major blow to a newbie like me who needs to keep practicing.
I will definately be investing in some body armour, up till now all I have only been using my roller blade wrist guards, and that was only after a backwards fall which injured damaged some tendons. The 661 gear looks pretty good and not too expensive. I am sure the 4x4 knee/shin pad would have saved me, not so sure about the Veggie.
I just bought an Onza Muni and wimped out on the pedals after seeing someone elses calf. Leg armour seems to be the only way to stay out of accident and emergency.
I use the 661 Veggies and I love them! I also have a pair of 661 shin/knees (not the 4x4s) and I use the Veggies way more. There are some gaps on the calf, but whenever Iāve got caught, itās only been minor and the material stopped the pins going too far. Theyāre quite slim as well so can fit under loose fitting trousers etc. Well worth the buy! Chainreactioncycles is a great site for these things and has free delivery within the UK which is always a bonus.
Pedals with the pins are very good idea donāt remove them you have better grip. esspecialy when in the wet wether I have 4x4 knee/shin and there are very good. till now saved my legs two times. and another think if you have only the protection on the knee it always goes of the leg end slip down and its difficult to keep it on the placeā¦ when you have something like 4x4 you dont have that problem itās always on the placeā¦
Pinned pedals are good, especially in combination with leg armour, but the onza pedals are a bit silly. They have very long pins, so you get great grip, but seeing as your foot only goes on the top of the pin, I think you get a lot of extra gougeabiltity without any more grip than other pinned pedals. Itās probably not worth buying new pedals now, but when the current pedals need replacing look at a set with smaller pins (like the platform pedals sold by uni.com)
For a cheap alternative, you can wear many soccer shin pads backwards Your shins wonāt be protected but the calves will be.
Iāve found most people tend to favour bashing either their shins OR their calves. Shindentations hurt more, but calf tracks can result in meatier looking injuries. I am a calf tracker so it was important to me to find full surround leg armour.
Note many brands have only a light covering around the calf area. This may actually be all you need as the calf muscles can cushion a blow, and the material will help prevent the cat scratch effect. I wasnāt willing to risk this so went for a brand that has a full wrap around material with cushioning on the calf.
I have Azonic leg armour which is full neoprene wrap around with hard plastic shell over the knee and shin. It is extremely hot to wear (thick wetsuit) but has saved my legs many times.
Congradulations on your first calf-shredding. my third is healing nicely. you can get some sixsixone 4x4ās, theyāll protect against every lower leg injury (except inner knee frame hits.) otherwise, donāt worry. iāve been hit in the shin so many timeās iāve developed a tolerance. Unicycling is worth it, though
I wear 661 4x4 + kick-boxing padding over them to protect backwards
this works very fine
I strap the back padding very low so as to protect my Achileās tendon (which I broke with my KH saddle handle).
the overall look is not bad (the kick-boxing padding is red!)
(I just look like an eskimo going into a medieval war:p )
and I still have plenty of use for it as I try to improve my unicycling skills, but frequent off road excursions required something that could better handle the muddy slopes.
It looked serious piece of kit and I couldnāt wait to start riding it, but weekend commitments afforded me little time for practice. The couple of short rides I did try gave me quite a shock, I couldnāt believe how different it felt to my old Nimbus, the long cranks, larger wheel and soft fat tyre made me feel like a begineer agian. But some practice Monday and Tuesday lunchtime started to give me confidence and I was itching to progress. Then Tuesday evening happened!!! :o
