You may have noticed that the pedals are missing - that’s because I removed them when I expected the trains to be very crowded. This offers more opportunities to store the uni unobtrusively. I have to say, though, that I never had problems with ticket inspectors throughout the whole trip.
On an evening ride in Hamburg. Nothing special, except for the little guy in the background.
Here’s a bigger pic of it. It’s called “der kleine Maulwurf”, the little mole. I kinda liked it when I was a kid and think I like it even more today. Nothing fancy, just a lovely, modest cartoon character. And whoever put it on that hill put a smile on my face. Thank you for that.
Now, bringing the 20er instead of the 29er… I obviously opted for the smaller uni because I had to take it in public transports, specifically in german ICE high speed trains, quite often. But once I rode around with it, I sorely missed the speed and reach of a larger wheel. On the other hand I started learning to juggle on the uni, something that I wouldn’t have tried with a bigger wheel. Tried to juggle while unicycling once last winter and I felt it was way out of reach. But within a week I got to 70 catches once, and over 60 catches several times. I was quite happy with that (without a uni my record is 302 catches, established today). It’s still a long way until I can confidently claim that I can juggle with three balls (whether or not riding a uni at the same time), but it appears doable. Now, why I would want to juggle at all, feeling that it must be one of the most useless skills mankind came up with, is an entirely different topic that I don’t feel like digging into
Pictures of my latest vacation rides.
Rented a canal boat in Alsace, France with another family, 9 in total. Also rented some bikes to bring along if someone got cabin fever. Why not bring the Uni too?
The path along the canal is a first class asphalt cycle path, but a little boring for a muni. However, the path on the other side of the canal was usually gravel wich suits the muni better.
Yersterday I ride a little and nice round Muni. It was good but the Part with a broken Pedal wasn’t. After 7 Years the Pedal is R I.P. but today i installed my new Pedal. And also my Saddle is a bit R.I.P. but it works well.
I went out for a ride yesterday with a couple of local friends. For once we all had the same tyre size. The classic 3 inch wide 24. Though quite different crank lengths, 125, 114, and (me) on 89mm.
At points in our ride which took turns trying each others setup. In addition to the cranks we also have different seat heights. It was pretty wierd (but fun) switching between them.
got out this morning to get in some training for my GCC ride during September
just rode around the house as we still have a lot of flooded rods from Debby in my area.
I ride a 24” muni and the longest ride I’ve ever done on a uni was 8.3 miles for months. I rode that back in May before I left college. All summer, due to time constraints and family commitments, I didn’t ride more than 7.5 miles. Now that I’m back at school, I set out Tuesday afternoon i both broke my record and broke and broke the half marathon mark! I did 13.58 miles! I also realized that this is longer than the farthest I’ve ever ridden on a bicycle either! Booyah, bikes! Strava link
Slowly crawling toward my goal for early September, when I’d like to ride my age. Looks like it’s going to have to be in km though, not miles; I’ve had enough delays with my schlumpf hub slipping and various minor medical issues that I’m at least a month behind where I wanted to be. But all’s good, or at least still improving - today I pulled off a 30 mile trip in 4 hours of saddle time. All in low gear, because I pulled a muscle a couple weeks ago and I want to be sure it’s solid before I get back to 10+ mph.
Anyway - today I rode along the Perkiomen Creek, just before it dumps in to the Schuylkill River. And it rained, a lot (very different than my expectations of “an unlikely chance of a small shower”; I think I was in the seat for at least an hour of rain).
I put my mad4one handle seat on this time - I’m still looking for a seat that agrees with me after 20+ miles. The best so far is my ISM PR3.0… but the mad4one was almost as manageable.
The pedals are flat with rubberish surface. No annoying pins to be felt through the shoe soles.
They are probably no good for muni, but I find them good for riding on tarmac.
My last ride a couple of weeks ago was on the bicycle path along the railway to Copenhagen:
I used the brake for my 29er muni and haven’t bought a replacement. For anything more than a gentle slope I do want and need a brake. For the beach ride I was fine without it***. I don’t have any problem riding 114 cranks on flat level ground. I’ve found it feels better for me. Really tempted to go shorter and see how I do.
***Side note: After I took the photo, I rode down the ramp without issue until the bottom where I turned on a patch of sand. The uni went one direction and me another. Fell hard hurting my wrist. A brake my have prevented the fall but who knows #KarmaPayback for all my rebellious photos?
