Ditto 
That’s nuts 
Only the second time I’ve everheard of someone doing a 24 mtb race solo. (the other I think was Nathan Hoover at Laguna Seca)
I think there were some solo unicycle riders at Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous 24hr race up in Ontario, Brian Mackenzie in his youth, and maybe some others.
ro
I agree that it’s nuts, but Solocyclist does that every year. This is his website: http://solocyclist.net/ (it is in norwegian though)
Two days before the race it turned out that I have no transport to the place. My mum was planning to use her car, so I could not borrow it and my friend who considered taking the race dropped out. There was some public transport, so I decided that I’m going anyway.
The day before, the weather forecast got worse and it showed some rains over the mountains, but I’m going anyway.
I got to Zawoja by a small private bus, where my 29er took most of the luggage space, but I was finally there together with my girlfriend. It was raining every now and then and it started for good when we were waiting on the start line.
The route had bit less than 17km with first 9km mostly climbing and I planned to take it in about 2hours. I remembered previous race beginning of August where I was pretty sure I will manage 18km under 2 hours and I failed, so I was more reluctant in my predictions.
The rain was not so heavy to care much about it once you’re on the trail and the temperature was about right (15C I guess) for some effort, so I was feeling just right on the way up.
Just after start, still on the paved road I thought that I have not enough air in my tyre, but it turned out that on the muddy rock we were served today, it was just about right. My WTB Bronson tyre was keeping the ground nicely under the unicycle, I slept in just some places where it was muddy all around and it was really hard to walk there.
I got to the buffe at the 7km quite fresh and I had a quick brake spent on a talk with organizer and some Finish biker who admitted that amount of mountains this day was more than he had home in Finland for last 10 years.
Then I climbed up to 9th kilometer and I stopped on the top to take a photo of foggy trail and I thought that the ride is getting me so much fun that I really don’t care about the result.
Anyway I started the descend and just at the beginning I heard my brakes scratch. I thought it was just some mud, because it stopped quickly, but at the same time I remembered that I’m riding the same pads I was supposed to exchange already at the Unicon. But they were keeping so good at Unicon DH and then at race I rode last month, and at the trip last week, that I forgot about how used they are. And then it happened…
My pads were totally wore down an my brake was squeezed on the disk. It was not possible to ride even down, so I started to remove the brake, to get the pads out. Bit tricky task if you’re having just one hex key, but fortunately it was the one to get the brake bolts out.
After 10 minutes I was ready to go brakeless with almost all riders in front of me when a pair came walking down their bicycles. I decided that I’m trying to ride as much as I can, so I overtook them and rode off. Just a bit. The first descend was quite steep and with all the rocks and mud it would be quite hard to ride even with the brake, but then with my 29" and 135mm cranks it was unridable for me.
Then there was a part with some short climbs and descends and the final climb and descend down to the finish. It would be a real pleasure with brake, but without it was quite a pain especially for my knee which reminds of itself under heavy pressure.
I finished in 2 hours 18 minutes, with just two classified participants behind me (I guess it was this pair I met), but I was happy that this brakeless ride is over.
HIVookash,
that was a fun read. Nice photos too.
Cheers
James
There have been a few (not to take anything away from him mind!)
I think there was a discussion about it some time ago, but there have been a few of us in the UK that I know of (I think “Deadly” Des, Joe Marshall, Roger Davies (?), me (twice)), a few in the US and Canada as already mentioned, and Australia?
I’m quite jealous of those dry conditions though - both my attempts were in quagmire 
Rob
Rocky Mountain Unicycling on the Continental Divide 3650-4000 meters, 12,000’-13,200’ Grateful to call Colorado home!
as usual great pics mike!
my ride (more building actually…) yesterday afternoon:
Every time I see your posts I genuinely get a knot in my stomach and a wave of envy 
Thanks as ever for sharing
- 1
We do live across a relatively tiny bit of water from some awesome mountain riding and if we pulled out fingers out we could be riding looking at similar vistas to be fair
Stupid real life
Turtle, my wife loves your videos, but she thinks you’re probably a “spaz”, so then I asked her to define spaz, she said “he looks silly and hyper…and fun”.
She then said that she’d pay for a plane ticket to Lichenstein so I could go ride with you 
So where did you get the shirt? And what does it say on the front?
Oh, and she your dog is “cute”
spaz? not sure about that 
and yes sure come over, that we can ride together. we are on the couchsurfer platform and used to host guests from all over the world.
for the shirt: http://www.ruffneck.de/shop/index.php?cat=c45_MTB-TEES.html&page=2
BEST place to ride muni! So many crazy trails and such a pretty view
GO NOW NURSE BEN!!! GOOOO!!!
As the seasons change here, my MUni riding has focused on the Continental Divide here. I could be snowed out from riding up high any week now. This is another amazing Pass that crosses the divide; it is the highest pass crossing the divide. Colorado has so much of this, there are (737) 13,000’ peaks and (54) 14,000’ peaks. So much to ride, so little time
are you hitting those jumps in high gear?
I had a long weekend last week up at Mount Beauty/Falls Creek which, whilst not Colorado, does have some beautiful snow and lovely spring weather at the moment. No snow pics but one from a ride I did on some beautiful (but pretty technical) single track. Photo taken after one of many UPD’s. By this stage I was too tired and shaken to compose the photo well enough to capture any of the trail and then the battery in my camera ran out so it just of the Kiewa Valley and my uni.
This one is of my commute this morning. My youngest son (Henry) has been riding the longest of any of us, then me, but my other son (Gus) has started riding now too and is now good enough to do the school commute. This morning was the first time the three of us have commuted by uni together.
Great looking family- nice going on all commuting by uni!