Today’s ride: just over 4.5 miles of light muni, my first real attempt at muni. This is the Lorimer Park Loop just north of Philadelphia. It’s mostly double track and open trail, with some short, steep technical sections. Which, mostly, I had to walk. But not all of them, so I’m calling it a win!
I don’t have photos of the more technical bits, but plenty of scenery. Gorgeous views, and lots of opportunities to accidentally go the “wrong” way. Which I definitely did more than once.
On the other side of the Pennypack Creek from this is a trail I frequent - not to farr from home, mostly flat, often shady. This is the first time I’ve crossed the creek to some of the trails - one of those “shoemaker’s children” problems where I’ve ignored this fun trail right by me, yet I’ll drive up to Hawk Mountain for a fun hike…
On our way to the Lixiviat Festival (#grindcore) in Lyon we stopped on the way and brought a unicycle and the Brompton for a short 15km ride from a trainstation to the hotel…
My favorite route in the Forrest takes me on a paved road for 1.4 km and a 89 m ascent. Riding all the way to the parking lot near the top of Himmelbjerget is a further 0.6 km and additionally 19 m of ascent.
The first part is strenuous for my level of fitness and gives me a good workout without flow breaking UPDs. The ride down to the lake is a walking path that still remain eroded by the winter rain, so somewhat technical. The path along the lake winds along up and down. The final ascending path to the parking lot is also quite eroded with a couple of sections with stones. It was late and rather chilly ( i.e. no or few tourists) so I took the liberty to cycle all the way to the viewpoint at Himmelbjerget and the Venetian tower. The peak of Himmelbjerget is a staggering 147 m above sea level and 125 m above the lake.
Himmelbjerget is more of a cultural peak. In the 1840ties the pastor-poet St. St. Blicher engaged in arranging cultural and political rallies at the site. Our constitution is from 1849 so Blicher helped drive the increasing cultural and political awareness of the common people. The rallies are still held to this day on the constitution day the 5th of June.
The tower was raised in 1875 to honour the king who “gave” the constitution.
Sooo many great pictures here! @Uni2ONE2, Those V-frames are so sweet! Fell in love with them since I got my Oregon. Too bad they aren’t readily available anymore. @r4nd1nt Bromptons and unicycles unite! Two somewhat quirky and in combination with public transports (where available) pretty clever forms of transportation. @UniKirk Would love to ride that trail in the last picture down! A smooth and scenic ride @IvenBach That trail in your last post looks very inviting, too, just not for a smooth ride… Oh, and congrats to spotting that dinosaur!
Here are some pictures of my 29er. It has quickly become my go-to unicycle, since it’s faster AND lighter than both the 20er and the 26er muni. Despite the size it can still be taken to the train or bus, thus is a cool vehicle to explore the city, too. Still needs a break, though.
Met two siblings while waiting outside the restaurant.
The next pictures were taken on the way to or from the next Town. The whole tour takes about 7km and half an hour (if I’m pushing it; and I’m realising that I tend to push it quite often lately, for no reason other than the fun of it).
I flew with my 20" uni on a vacation to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Just wanted to say for those looking for a travel uni a 20" packs down super small and I was able to fit it in a 40L duffle bag with tools and everything. Nothing came out damaged and it made for an amazing trip.
Part 2. Mountain unicycling in actual mountains was magical. Its a 20" wheel, 75mm cranks, 203mm rotor with a basic hydro disc brake. As someone not super good at muni it was riding some smaller less technical trails with basic roots and rocks but some descents that I’ve not been comfortable doing before. This uni will be coming on many more adventures and climbs better than i expected.
This morning I went to the city. Used the public transport for the first ~2/3 of the trip, then the uni. Saved me some money .
I chose a nice route for entering the city. In the background you see the old town of Berne, and below the river Aare with its particular, green colour (There’s a somewhat unusual song in swiss german that refers to this river).
Actually, I arrived barely a minute before the train and had to hurry to take the picture. You can even spot the train’s front bumper at the very left edge of the image. This was somewhat a lucky shot.
Spent a couple days in Flagstaff Az so I could escape the heat and go for a muni ride. Did about 4.5 miles roundtrip on Shultz creek trail. It was a pretty flowy trail for the most part but it has enough rocks, roots and turns to keep it interesting
Today I rode from Altdorf to Schwyz, which is part of the Swiss national cycle routes 3 and 4 and Eurovelo 5. Because some time ago a car had an accident which did not involve any bicycles, they decided the route is to dangerous for bicycles and disallowed cycling on parts of the routes - that’s how we design cycling infrastructure in central Switzerland.
Ironically now unicycling is the only way to ride this route legally. (That said, if you want to try it, I didn’t say it’s in anyway safe or fun to do so…)
Saw another fellow unicyclist. At least that’s what my brain tells me it was. Although for some reason he was pushing his uni along instead of riding it. “Oddest unicycle I’ve ever seen.” said I as I dismounted next to him. A seatless pedal-less miniature giraffe BC wheel is my take on it.
147 m above sea level and 125 m above the lake.
