Post a Riding Tip in This Thread.

Riding Advice
1

Post a general riding tip, for your Muni, Longer, or Commuting type rides.

I can’t account for the validity of all these, but they sound good:
Tips taken from another bike forum…

TP in a plastic baggie and stuff in the bottom of your pack for an absolute emergency.

For god’s sake boys…put some shorts on over those grape smuggling harnesses.
Girls…keep up the good work.

Sack up when ever possible. Cause if you aint killing it, you aint pushing to get better.

Bring a pump. One that fits your tire valve

look where you what to go…not at that tree or big rock.

Spare stuff… Carry your own spare tubes and stuff. No one likes a mooch.

Ride with people better than you.

Eat before you are hungry, drink before you are thirsty.

don’t fill your water bottles with mayonnaise when going on a long hot ride

Don’t forget sunscreen.

When riding in a group, call out junk in the road (for the roadies of course)

Put a spare $20 in you pack/saddle bag.

Don’t stop at the top of a long climb. Keep spinning to clear out the lactic acid or your legs will turn to lead.

If you plan a ride but don’t feel like going when the time comes, do it anyway. You’ll start feeling better about mile two or so.

smart saddle time (riding with goals/skills in mind) will do more to make you a better rider than that swanky new fork or hot new bike.

it’s the rider, not the bike/uni.

Don’t be scared. If you think you can do it, you can. Just gotta grab the boys and give it. It’s crazy what you can get away with. (not always advised!)

Have Advil and Neosporin in the car.

Learn to fix your own bike/uni.

Yield to uphill riders(Just to clarify uphill rider is the rider pedaling their bike uphill.)
When you yield, don’t veer off the trail go around them…you turn singletrack into doubletrack - stop, grab a tree or put your foot down, lean your bike out of the way

Say hello and thanks to everyone on the trail

go ride. Don’t let those little things keep you from riding

Don’t wash all three of your bike shorts in the same load unless you’re sure you can get them dry by the time you wanna ride.

take more food and water than you think you need.

Be nice and pleasant to other riders on the trails you ride, it makes you happier and then you ride better.

always ride like someone’s chasing you

scare yourself once each ride

if you are not having fun, do something different

Get a bell, or “WOOT WOOT!”, or whistle loudly every once in a while on your way down. If you hear someone, respond.

When riding a new trail for the first time, constantly remind yourself to go easy

Throw a few iodine tablets in that baggy with the TP in the bottom of your camel back.

use a presta-schrader adapter as a valve cap on one of your tires.

2

Well, that just about covers it.

But, I have one:
Wear a helmet.

3

Seat not comfortable enough? Ride faster. If you ride as fast as you can, you won’t be thinking about saddle comfort.

4

i few i would like to emphasize:

wear a helmet
eat before and during any long ride
drink fluids
stand on the pedals every once and a while to let some blood flow down there
dont blame the equipment
know where you are going and where you have been

5

don’t sit when jumping

6

Afterwards…

Drink beer AFTER your Muni rides (assuming you are of legal age, of course).

Cheers,

UPD in Utah

7

Ride often! Those longer rides will NOT be fun/comfortable if you aren’t prepared for them!

8

Tuck in your shoelaces!

There’s nothing worse than catching those in the cranks :frowning:

9

+1

It’s like being grabbed by the ankle and flung straight into the ground :frowning:

10

Heck with that! Tie your riding shoes as you normally would, perhaps make the loopy bit as small as reasonable then trim off the excess shoelace and tie a small knot at the new lace ends. Therefore every time you lace up from then on you’ll have just enough shoelace and don’t have to worry about tucking laces or getting them caught up! Have done this with all my riding shoes and it works great!

11

Ok so here are some of my tips (mainly for Muni riders)

  1. Cycling nics are your friend! Ditch the massive cargo shorts that (even if you wear them over your cycling nics) chafe, get smelly, and are otherwise cumbersome and hot.

  2. Combine your cycling nics with some chamois butter for ultimate riding comfort.

  3. Get rid of your skate helmet for Muni- sure you think it makes you look cool and taps into the ‘extreme’ image thing but ultimately they are hot and have poor ventilation. Recently i ditched my pro tec skate helmet for a MET MTB one and i will never go back. Its getting to summer here and with all the longer rides i’ve been doing (20-70km) the protec just wasn’t cutting it.

  4. Proper shoes and some nice pedals make your rides more fun. Anything with the 5:10 stealth rubber sole is going to good. Combine that with pedals like the Impact knockouts, wellgo Mg1s and your grip/ confidence/hill climbing ability will go through the roof.

  5. (Disclaimer- this point is probably aimed mainly at seasoned off roaders) Have a go at ditching all your cumbersome protective gear (helmet and gloves are, of course, still essential). I Never used to hit the trail without my 661 pads but now thats a different story. Sure if you are hitting massive north shore structures with big drops then pads have their place, but for single track, most rock gardens etc i don’t think they are all that essential. By the time you get to that level of riding you will have experienced most types of crashes and know when they are coming and know how to deal with it. It feels so good to have the sweat evaporate off your legs and get that cooling sensation when whipping through some flowy single track.

  6. Experiment with different crank lengths. I started on 170s when i got into the sport and have since moved to 150s and then to 125s (and 125s with the addition of an extra gearing thanks to my schlumpf hub). If you ride something long enough you will get used to it- and shorter cranks mean faster more exhilarating trails.

  7. Try to ride/ find a new trail every month. I recently got stuck in a bit of a rut with my riding routine. By doing the same course most rides it became a little chore like and lost a lot of its fun. Just today i decided to scrap my usual loop and found 2 new exciting single track descents with rock gardens, drops and tight and windy sections that were a blast in 1:1.55.

  8. Stop whinging about not having any riding partners and join your local MTB club or start entering MTB races. Riding with, and racing against bikers is the best way to push yourself when your the ‘only unicyclist in the village’

get out and ride,
mark

12

Disagree with this. I’m a “seasoned off roader” but still understand and appreciate the need to have some sort of at least shin protection. This coming from someone who has to endure some extremely hot and humid summers (not to mention overgrown trails, spider webs, poison ivy/oak and all sorts of critters). Granted if you’re going to just cruise on some easier trails i.e. Coker MUni, I’m all for it, but if you even have an inkling of doing anything a bit more technical then keep the leg protection. For me I like to MUni on a whole variety of terrain, often in the same ride and quite often I’ll come across a new natural trials feature and so am glad to have the extra protection. The one time I forewent the leg gear I ended up with a huge bloody gash on my shin caused by my pinned pedal; wouldn’t have happened with my leg gear on! It’s very easy to imagine many scenarios where you can end up with a pinned pedal to your shin or calf muscle. Yeah most of the time you can run out a crash or UPD, but doing trials you often can get hung up and hit with the pedals…

To this end, it would be nice to find some more breathable shin/lower leg protection. I love my 661’s 4x4’s most of the time, but damn they are hot in the summer!

Just be careful out there!

13

@ MuniSano- I guess that one is a matter of personal preference. If wearing pads is integral to your confidence out there on the trails, and you don’t feel comfortable riding without them then they obviously have their use. In my recent experience (all of this year) i have not had a shin/calf injury. Thats with up to 4x1.5hr rides a week on a mix of moderate to fairly technical trails.I think having great pedal grip is an important factor in stopping these types of crashes. I find that if grip is not an issue, your crashes occur because you misread a line through a rock garden, or some other technical aspect of your riding- Instead of having your foot unexpectedly ejected from your pedal when your not anticipating and leaving it at the mercy of your pedals. I find these other types of dismounts to result in much less dangerous crashes.

The one injury i have sustained this year was a torn ligament in my right ankle after a crash where my first foot down hit a slanted rock and was rolled really badly. Pads in this situation would have achieved nothing to help.

Pretty much the more and more i ride the more i’m ending up looking like a XC MTB rider. For me its all about comfort and speed. Only for the toughest of descents would i put the pads back on- and the more and more i ride without pads the harder that descent is going to have to be before i do it.

In two weeks i’m tackling a 100km XC MTB race. The weather is warming up and the last thing i can imagine doing is trying to complete it in a set of full pads.

Mark

mark

14

Conversely instead of crossing your laces like normal for the last lace hole run your inside lace up, in, and over to come out the hole right next to the other lace end on the outside of the shoe. You can keep a comfortable length for tying your shoes but still have them positioned so it is impossible for them to get caught in the cranks.

Add a brake, it adds a whole new dimension to your riding and can help you in all sorts of situations. (road and MU)

Don’t only experiment with different crank lengths, try different tires. Changing a tire can completely transform the way a unicycle rides.

If you are handy play around with building your own handle. Having a handle that works for you makes a big difference to comfort and control.

15

Hey Scott, fun thread!

Guys, guys, this is Scott’s trhead and he wants “tips”, not arguments over whose tips are better. Start your own thread about tips if ya wana argue, otherwise just post your tips and be satisfied.

My tips:

I like everything I’ve read so far, so the only thing I’d add is ride regularly, even if it’s nasty, better a short nasty ride than no ride at all.

TP, cash, food, water, tools.

Tell folks where you’re going and when you’ll be back, esp in the winter.

Experiment with new gear, you’d be amazed what a different tire or crank length can do for your riding. It’s not like uni gear is as expensive as bike stuff.

Wear good wrist brace/gloves that’ll protect you.

Participate in local biking clubs, it’s a great way to spread the love and find/create new riders.

Get a water pack so you can carry gear, esp a pump and a pressure gauge, emergency stuff. My fav is the Camelback waist pack :slight_smile:

Go to Home Depot of a similar home repair palce and pick up an inexpensive gear bag. I got a big mouth zip gear bag for $15, makes carrying all that nasty stuff a real snap!

Put some fun valve cover caps on your uni, I like smiling faces :slight_smile:

16
  • always do big drops on another person’s unicycle.
  • indoor trials is dangerous, move your stuff out of the way first
  • valve caps are evil, think of the polution created by people loosing them outside when they pump their tyre up!