Yesterday’s Muni ride. After the previous day’s easy warmup ride I picked some more technical stuff. I did a variety of up hills, some were rocky and not too steep, and some were steep but not too rocky.
I did this fun downhill section that i have not done in a few years. The last time I did this I was still riding muni on my first unicycle, a 24" sun classic. I think I want to try it on my 29er now.
Actually, Germany has some of the best rules concerning unicycling. And allows the best of both worlds: as a bicycle or as a fun device on sidewalks (pavement for the Brits).
If you fulfill StVO like a bike (brake, lights and bell), a unicycle counts as a bike and ride on bike paths/roads. Or it can be classified as a “Fußgänger ähnliches Gerät” or “pedestrian comparable device” like inline skates or a skateboard or a push scooter.
Someone on the forum, I think Yogi maybe, actually has an official letter from a court that a unicycle only needs one brake as it only has one axle (bike messenger fixies with only a front brake are not legal).
And the unicycle actually comes away better than others like inline skating, as other modes like inline skates or skateboards cannot fulfill StVO and thus are technically not allowed on the road.
So correct would be: Oh I read today that Einrad in Germany can be considered bicycles and are then allowed on bike paths and the road, and also on Fußwege.
Same ride as yesterday minus the tech practice in the washes. This time I took my 29er after putting some 150s on. I was making sure I would get back before sunset so I didn’t redo anything or take long breaks. I did a 3 mile loop in 38 minutes. Still had a nice little stretch of climbing on the uni and some fun downhill.
I think you can also use the 36” Unicycle. 29” with 150 mm Cranks is also good. I had Yesterday also a ride with my 29” with 148 mm Cranks. My ride was good but you had the better View and the better Pictures.
Actually they are. The law requires each wheel of a pedal cycle to have an independent braking system, and on a fixed wheel the legs are considered to constitute a braking system.
See regulation 7 of The Pedal Cycles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1983:
Edit: Regulation 9(1)(a), BTW, indicates that a standard unicycle does not require any braking system other than the legs.
Cool spot I just needed to grab a pic of while exploring the town
(Didn’t ride down adjacent to the train tracks of course, I was mostly sticking to paved paths)
It’s a bit funny with the brake on a unicycle. Generally you don’t use it to stop or bail. Of course there are some unicyclist that hang back and brake, but I’d say it is mostly used for downhills. If I were to use it like a bike brake, it will send me flying and that makes a brake unsafe and dangerous. Do you have a bell on your uni’s?
I do! At least on my brake equipped unis. The knog Bell fits nicely behind the brake lever. And I am surprized how many people actually react to the delicate high pitched sound.
Germany calls it “Fußgängerähnliches Gerät” or “pedestrian comparable device”, Switzerland calls it “Fahrzeugähnliches Gerät” or “vehicle comparable device”.
Proves once again that you’re a bit inbetween both worlds when riding a unicycle. Depending on wheel size and riding style you can be either closer to a pedestrian or to a vehicle. (technically it’s a vehicule, of course, but when I casually ride my 20er I see myself more as a pedestrian, while the 36er is a different story)
Actually, Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus. Agree, it’s a good winter tyre (on a unicycle) as long as the ice you’re riding on isn’t bumpy. I ride it on my 29er since October or so. It doesn’t corner extremely well, but good enough, in my opinion.
Indeed it is Now it’s getting close to the time of the year where I probably don’t need it, but surprisingly it still came in handy during the ride. There’s a lot of snow melt, and the temperatures are still hovering around the freezing point, which of course means big sheets of ice scattered here and there. Still had to dismount for the really bumpy ice, but flat sheets can be ridden on with relative peace of mind.
Thanks for the interesting info. But just to be clear: Fixie bikes are legal in UK.
But in Germany as far as i know, they’re not explicitly legal and some courts have decided that they need 2 brakes (there is no UK comparable declaration that a fixed hub qualifies as a brake).
My point really was that unicycles are treated more fairly by German law than fixie bicycles. (Although technically a unicycle without a brake on a road/bike path is then in a grey area). Nevertheless, as a unicyclist you can legally just switch to the sidewalk which fixie bikes are legally not permitted).
And German unicyle regulations are better than many countries, where a unicycle is either a play device for the sidewalk or a road vehicle but not both (while Germany permits both). It is my understanding that Austrian law only considers unicycles pedestrian-like-devices, and (I think on this forum), an Austrian unicyclist was ticketed for crossing a street (perpendicular, aka jay walking) while riding and thus “illegal use of the public road surface”. But that would seem to be an isolated issue, and I have never had any issues unicycling in Austria.
Sorry. I read the mention of the court letter, was reminded of a UK unicyclist having a legal explanatory letter and leapt to the wrong conclusion.
On reflection, I believe I was thinking of the case of a unicyclist receiving a letter from the UK Home Secretary clarifying that unicyclists were not to be fined for riding on the pavement. So nothing to do with brakes at all.
Who took the picture? My phone doesn’t hang in the air, so I can have it take pics while riding. Or do you tend to have a drone in your backpack? Yesterday I did 6ish kms on the 32", but I always ride the same route, so a picture would be boring.
Old school: I stopped and manually took the photo with my phone. I’m too lazy to take my older action cam (GoPro knockoff but with real buttons) and don’t have a drone or good phone selfie stick.
I took my 36er out today to do a little brake practice. I did some practice on a small grassy hill first. That went well so I rode around the park a bit and my way to a steeper gravel slope along a multiuse path in a wash. I went down that using the brake a few times. It was a good feeling to be able to slowly go down the hill with very little leg input. I practiced stopping with the brake on flat ground a few times as I pulled into my driveway. One time when I was turning around in the street to make another run at my house I discovered a patch of dirt and gravel on the road when my wheel slid out to the side and I fell down. It was low speed and I am fortunately fine. With this brake practice complete I think I’ll have more fun trying other people’s munis at az muni weekend in a few days.
Yes, this is one of the real benefits of the brake: it frees the leg muscles to focus on control and it makes descending smoother - in contrast to the choppy zig-zag effect of braking with each revolution of the pedals.
And later after you get accustomed to the brake, then you can try shorter cranks - I’m sure many people could physically do it, but I don’t want to brake a 36” with 110 or even 125mm cranks on a steep downhill with my pedals – and in contrast it gets to be quite easy with a strong disc brake (I run a Zee on a 200mm disc on my 36, mostly 125mm cranks for XC).
