We tend to avoid discussion of the fact that we all fall of a lot. I thought it would be fun for people to post interesting UPD’s that they’ve had.
I’ll start.
My most spectacular UPD happened when I just got my 36er. I had ridden it around a bit and decided to see how fast I could go. I don’t know how fast I was going but it was too fast and my legs could no longer keep up. I somehow hit the ground feet first and leaned back just enough that I managed to slide on my feet like I was skiing on concrete with shoes on. The toddlers and their mother that were watching me were quite horrified.
I’m still not quite sure how I stayed up on my feet while sliding. I don’t think I could do it again.
My favourite UPD is just like yours. UPD’d but not actually fallen down.
There are two that stand out for me:
Running it out on small gravel and straight into a small tree with my right shoulder. That one took months to get over completely.
Riding on the sidewalk in 4 inches of wet snow. Turned the corner and my tire lost traction and I came down hard on my side. The ground came at me fast, like I’ve not experienced before.
I suppose the most amazing one would be the time I landed on my hands and actually nailed the landing. I just sort of stuck there like I was doing a pushup until gravity kicked in, Wile E. Coyote style, and brought my legs down. Face inches from the pavement. That’s never going to happen again, at least not successfully.
Ha. I’ve done something similar, but I think it involved jumping up from the skid and stopping when I landed on my feet again. I don’t intend to try to repeat it. It was naught but dumb luck. The jump might have been an attempt to turn it into a run which failed.
I’ve had a lot of spectacular UPDs but my favorite is this one which I caught on video at this spot:
I’ve had run outs that were much faster and where I ended up running 50 feet before getting under control but none where I was more horizontal. I still can’t believe I didn’t fall to the ground on that one. My worst UPD came going down a slight incline on my big wheel after getting a handlebar. I pushed down which made me go faster which made me push down more. I finally got going too fast to pedal, flipped into the air, and rolled 10-15 times in the middle of a road where the speed limit was 55. I shredded my CamelBak but luckily got out of the road before a minivan rode by a few seconds later.
(I just thought of another favorite UPD. I was practicing one footed backwards riding and the unicycle shot forward, catching my ankle between the crank and pulling my leg forward so that I landed perfectly flat on my back. I landed so evenly it didn’t hurt at all.)
Riding to town with my dad (He was on a bike) And we come to a decent downhill, some of the smoothest tarmac in town here. He obviously freewheeled down, so I was pedalling like mad to try and keep up (While trying to keep balanced on a downhill). I hadn’t been riding my 29er long so this wasn’t exactly something I was comfortable with. Anyway, I’m not sure what happened, but I think the foot that was forward decided not to pedal anymore, allowing the pedal to continue its route without my foot on it, while my foot just hung there pointlessly. The uni fired forwards, and while I followed it forwards for a few feet too, it went a lot further and faster than me, so I eventually hit the floor back-first.
It didn’t hurt too much, but there were people watching (one of which was my dad!) And I had to walk down the hill to grab my wheel. Big time ego killer
I decided to see just how fast I could get the max speed on my computer to read. Slight decline, smooth trail… spin spin spin. Then the doubt that I couldn’t hold it together anymore. I ended up sliding through the grass on the side of the trail, kinda like this.
More of a Bail than an UPD in my mind, but the first time I tried jumping High on my uni. I jumped with as much lift as I could get. My legs came off the pedals, and my hand let go of the seat. I some how got horizontal and landed my stomach on the seat of the uni in a Superman pose. Balancing perfectly for a second or two, when I started “flying” face first towards the ground. Luckily my Hands where out front to catch me, so I didn’t actually face plant. But I still have no idea how I did that
I mentioned this in the Learning Journal thread last summer: It was a routine UPD during slow-speed practice session in driveway. I ran out of talent, let the unicycle drop, and started to step away. But I wound up leaning to the right with my left foot on the ground and my right foot directly over the wheel, and I needed to put that foot down somewhere.
From there it played out in slow motion like a bad dream: I tried to move my right foot away and step down beside the wheel, but no matter what I did the wheel was still right there beneath it. All I could do was drop onto my hip so that I wouldn’t step too hard onto the spokes. After I was on the ground, I looked at my leg and saw what had happened. The right pedal had somehow gone down the top of my right sock as I fell, and I couldn’t get away because I was dragging the wheel along with my foot as I moved it.
I had a good laugh and no harm was done and no one else saw it except for my cat, who was already disdainful of unicycling and was hardly impressed by that.
