I’m getting close to being able to pedal grab and I can see how important and useful it is. Today I went down to a place near the creek where I’d hop onto some little roots and up to a pedal grab on a little cement footbridge thingy. I managed to get up there and to hang with the seat out in front. I could then make the height when jumping up to get my wheel on the bridge but when I landed, I always had far too much pressure on the back pedal (in my case the right, and hopping up to the right). When I tried to land it, I always had the uni shoot out from underneath me. I tried to lean forward more for both the takeoff and landing but it didn’t help.
Any suggestions?
I was generally happy though because before today, I wasn’t able to do any of it. It’s good fun.
Maybe it’s to do with the pedal position rather than your body weight, ie. you’ve rotated them too much, or you’re not compensating for the changed pedal position.
I’ve got a q too, do many people do grabs on 26".
Just cos my muni is 26" and I’m trying to learn grabs and am really close to getting to rubber but finding it really hard.
I can go to pedal / crank okay, it’s just the second bit I’m having trouble with.
I learned how to pedal grab on a 24x3" gazzoloddi, and i find that now i ride a 20", it’s a breeze. Try to center all your weight over the one pedal grabbing foot, and take your other foot off the pedal. when going to rubber, it mainly takes practice. Which foot do you have foreward? which way do you hop? with which arm? these are all pivotal when pedal grabbing.
“I always had far too much pressure on the back pedal (in my case the right, and hopping up to the right)”.
Joe,
I say this a lot (because it’s so surprising) but a reasonably sized 26" wheel is only about 10mm bigger in diameter than a 24" x 3" Gazz. Therefore, you’re only likely to have to hop an extra 5mm on a 26" wheel. It seems pretty damn hard to do them on 24" wheels to me though.
Ignorance is a blessing as it does not generate guilt.
Shure I will be guilty of not getting at it but…
What is PEDAL GRABBING ?.
‘Curiosity killed the cat’. Well…:o
I’m hopping right, right foot forward, right arm on seat.
As for the wheel size, I suspect even a 26"x2.6" gazz is a bit bigger than most reasonable 26" tyres unfortunately, so I’ve got a little bit more to go. I’ve seen it done on my unicycle though, so I know it’s perfectly possible.
I’ve taken a look at that Kris Holm workshop video and I think what I might be doing wrong is either not leaning into the obstacle enough, or just not being good enough at doing the big jumps yet, he seems to hardly bend his legs at all, just kind of pops it up onto the obstacle.
I find it super hard to hop to the same direction you hold the seat with.
Hopping to right, holding with right hand. Your body is closed and I find it to
be the wrong form. When I pedal grab I hold the seat in front with my right
hand hop the the left and have my left foot forward. Kris, Ben, and I believe
Ryan have this same form.
I agree 100% with Dylan. My frien Callan has the same form too. Jeff hops “closed” and i think this is why he always leans too much into his pedal grabs.
Good luck with your pedal grabs, i’d say, just keep practising, it usually isn’t something you just get, you might get one or two, but it will take awhile to perfect it, or at least it took my friends and i a while.
I can now pedal-grab some thing, but I can’t jump up. I can’t get enough balance to get back on my saddle. I also can’t jump with my pedals up and down, should they be parallel to the ground.
While were talking about pedal grabbing, has anyone tried any sort of pedal grind guards? I was thinking about buying some, then I tought, why dont I just make some. but I was wondering if people actually found them useful?
Pedal grind gaurds will make it easier to slide along ledges. They do not make much difference on rails. On the down side, they slip when going for pedal grabs too. I used to have some on my uni, but I took them off. By waxing the ledge down you get the same effect (though its not as portable, and wax + guards = really long grinds) and you don’t have to worry about slipping on grabs, or landing on the wrong side of the pedal (during unispins etc). They do not help with grinding rails however, they are already slick enough.
actually meant for the purpose of protecting pedal grabbing surfaces, seeing how I cant grind at all, and i dont want to ruin my Atomlabs, too much money.
