So I have really been getting into muni lately, and am happy with my progress. I come from a mountain b*ke background where the purpose of a ride always seemed to ride as quickly and efficiently as possible on a trail. There was always mild pressure to get trails with no dabs. Muni seems to sort of have a different purpose. Riding quickly is definitely out. Riding efficiently is out if you are doing anything worthwhile. So that seems to leave no dabs as the goal. At least that is how I have played muni. I try to ride each of the local trails I work on with no dabs. These trails are pretty hard(1) and many have a well defined crux that takes me a while to learn. I am not as skilled as most of you so it takes me months before I can work one of my projects into submission.
I was just wondering how the rest of you all play muni. Is the purpose to work on a trail and try to ride no dabs, or are you all out there trying to log miles and have a good time and work on specific obstacles on trails?
-gauss
(1) The trails on south mountain in Bethlehem, are varied, but there are a number of them that go almost directly down the backside of the mountain. In general the trails are really steep and technical. They are littered with rocks ranging from 4 inches to 6 feet in size. There are many logs to jump and some rock drops. There are some logs to ride on (think northshore only not so high) There are a few trails that are so steep I don’t know if they are even possible on a uni. I know people who have broken mountain bke frames on the trails. Bones are broken often and several of my mountain bke friends have been knocked unconscious on various trails. I think part of the reason is that the rocks are really rough and the take skin and flesh off easily if you go down on them. The trails are relatively short (1/2 to 1 mile long each for many of them, so you sort of make a ride out of choosing different combinations of trails). That makes each trail an interesting puzzle to try to get with no dabs. I’d be happy to ride with anyone who is around here that wants to check them out.
Listen while I get pompous for a moment: I read philosophy for fun and self improvement; I flatter myself that I take part in the ‘democratic process’ by writing to my MP on issues I regard as important whilst most of my friends regard those same issues as irrelevant; I boycott some of the most popular brands, at great inconvenience to myself, and virtually none to the companies concerned, because I have deeply held political and ethical beliefs; my friends, family and work colleagues all think I take life way too seriously - I’ve considered that very carefully, and I agree with them, which makes me wonder exactly what it is in me which makes me so introspective… and I’m here to tell YOU that you are thinking way too deeply about MUni.
The purpose of MUni is to have fun riding a unicycle on challenging terrain. :0)
Enjoy riding it in whatever way suits you, with whatever companions suit you. It is the most incredibly varied sport, whether you choose to spend weeks practising to ‘clean’ one short stretch, or you set out to get mudded up to the eyeballs on a 20 mile ride. Some people like plummeting down denuded forestry areas; some like following river banks and canal banks; some folk like radishes, some curly kale…
… the “I can’t believe I just cleared that section !” feeling that you get occasionally on the trail.
This can be uphill/downhill, over rocks or through mud.
No matter what your skill level you will start to experience this from day one … from the first time you ride over a branch or other small obstacle to the time you clear that technical downhill.
>I was just wondering how the rest of you all play muni.
Only recently I have become more serious about MUni. Mostly I ride
alone, unfortunately. My satisfaction is from riding “difficult”
stretches of trail especially if they were too difficult before. I
sort of wow at myself for what I can manage to ride through. I get a
sense of achievement from it, corroborated by the “admiration” of
mountain bikers and walkers happening to be around.
If I go out riding, it’s usually for 1 or 2 hours. When MUni’ing, I am
not interested in covering distance, nor in speed. As a side benefit,
I am building up leg strength and endurance, and losing some weight.
>I was just wondering how the rest of you all play muni.
Only recently I have become more serious about MUni. Mostly I ride
alone, unfortunately. My satisfaction is from riding “difficult”
stretches of trail especially if they were too difficult before. I
sort of wow at myself for what I can manage to ride through. I get a
sense of achievement from it, corroborated by the “admiration” of
mountain bikers and walkers happening to be around.
If I go out riding, it’s usually for 1 or 2 hours. When MUni’ing, I am
not interested in covering distance, nor in speed. As a side benefit,
I am building up leg strength and endurance, and losing some weight.
>I was just wondering how the rest of you all play muni.
Only recently I have become more serious about MUni. Mostly I ride
alone, unfortunately. My satisfaction is from riding “difficult”
stretches of trail especially if they were too difficult before. I
sort of wow at myself for what I can manage to ride through. I get a
sense of achievement from it, corroborated by the “admiration” of
mountain bikers and walkers happening to be around.
If I go out riding, it’s usually for 1 or 2 hours. When MUni’ing, I am
not interested in covering distance, nor in speed. As a side benefit,
I am building up leg strength and endurance, and losing some weight.
Ah rats! I was going to make that my closing remark in my original post in this thread. Only #1 matters … the others are all aspects of #1. However, my attention span is so short and so poor that I even forget things that interest me.
I am nuts for MUni and I agree with Animation’s reason’s 100% - in order. To me MUni is awesome! I work on my trials riding but mostly to enhance my trail riding. Being out in the woods, seeing deer, incredible birds and other flora and fauna is getting me a little closer to “The Garden.” MUni is the bomb-diggity!
When I come to a challenging part of trail or a particular move that is challenging most of time I give it three tries (at least). I play that little game with myself as not to get frustrated and take away from #1 on the list the Animation has created.
When riding alone I often turn my MUni ride into a workout. But riding with others this doesn’t workout as well for the group. Because there is often too much physical difference somebody might have to violate rule #1.:o
I agree with everyone, and rule #1 is the main point. However, when I MUni, I keep an objective. The objective is to stay on as long as I can. If I can stay on longer through this particular difficult stretch than I could last week, then I’m improving, I’m sharpening my skills, and I’m having more fun.
Rereading my earlier post on this thread, whilst I stand by the sentiment that it should be fun, and we shouldn’t think too hard about it, I may have come over as a little OTT to anyone not familiar with my sense of alleged humour. So, apologies to gauss for any offence caused.
Whilst we all agree that the name of MUNi shall be fun, and thou shalt have no other purpose but fun, gauss asked a legitimate question: which aspects of MUni give most fun to the rest of us? I first read it as ‘How ought we to be enjoying it?’ which is an entirely different thing.
Yes, there are lots of games we can play: longest distance along a given trail without a UPD is probably a fairly common game. Personally, I don’t like to try a particular obstacle more than 3 or 4 times. If I still can’t clear it, I move on. It’ll still be there in a month’s time when I’m an improved rider.
My preferred style of MUni involves covering a fair amount of distance (say 5 - 8 miles in 1 - 2 hours), but diverting down side tracks and looking for short tough sections. I don’t like riding on flat trails, except on the Coker. I don’t like the sort of difficult terrain where every wheel turn is a struggle for furlong after furlong. A few yards of really difficult stuff gives an achievable target. Miles of it just becomes wearisome.
Today I was playing at hill climbing at the local Water Sports centre. Short climbs up mown grass hills where the skill is in choosing the route to keep the severity of the incline manageable. Then plummet down the steepest side of the hill in true Aardvarkian fashion, although I cannot match the great man’s style in ballistic UPDs. ;0)
Alan? I noticed that… when we started going back down on Sunday he just got on and rode down a steep slope covered in random vegetation. There was a family at the top who just looked on in amazement, like I did - I looked at it, thought “you must be joking” and took the slower route, bouncing down some steps instead.
Although this reminds me… why “Arnold the Aardvark”? Took me a while to work out who this “Alan” chap was when I first got an email from him…
> Alan? I noticed that… when we started going back down on Sunday he
> just got on and rode down a steep slope covered in random vegetation.
> There was a family at the top who just looked on in amazement, like I
> did - I looked at it, thought “you must be joking” and took the slower
> route, bouncing down some steps instead.
Aw… That’s the nicest thing I’ve read today But you know how it goes,
nine times out of ten, you look like a tit who can’t ride - you got the
lucky
one out of ten experience. Which bit are you thinking of, that bunch of
tourists who got their cameras out and then started pointedly taking
pictures only of each other?
> Although this reminds me… why “Arnold the Aardvark”? Took me a while to
> work out who this “Alan” chap was when I first got an email from
> him…
Er… I can’t remember exactly. Something to do with a funny name for a
fictional character some friends and I made up at university. I used it when
I got online because it was the first handle that came to mind - I assumed
everyone used one. I continue to use in the news out of habit, or because I
crave attention, or something :-). I really must complete my aardvark
tribute
page…
Arnold the Aardvark aka Alan Chambers aka Oi! Yeah, you! F…
Just after coming off North Hill, going back down the valley, before the really cool rocky bit. In fact we probably really impressed them, with that steep bit to get onto the path and the steep bit to get off it again…
I’d like to point out that dabbing on a unicycle takes a LOT of skill. I have put many many hours into learning to put a foot down instead of falling off, and usualy I fall off anyway.
For my own 2 cents on the topic: distance is never a factor. Fun is usualy a factor, though I have come to realize that, some work early on tends to pay off in more fun later when you can breeze through more technical sections because you practiced the skills for hours and hours elsewhere. We tend to find a spot that interests us and stay at that spot untill either we get angry at not being able to pull it off, or one of us pulls it off.
Personaly it was the priority placed on speed and the distance that prevented me from ever really enjoying MTBing, and why I choose bmx and skateboarding before I learned to unicycle. Just to prove the whole “to each his own” idea.
“thisistrev” <thisistrev.7z8qz@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:thisistrev.7z8qz@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> Graeme wrote:
> > *
> >
> > Putting your foot down briefly, or “dabbing” your foot, usually
> > because you need to stop yourself falling off.
> >
> > Graeme *
>
> I’d like to point out that dabbing on a unicycle takes a LOT of skill.
> I have put many many hours into learning to put a foot down instead of
> falling off, and usualy I fall off anyway.
any tips on how to do this? Is it going to be really hard on a big 26" tyre?
Can you only do it seat out or is it possible on the seat with the frame
leaned back / forward / sideways?
I can kick off a wall no problems, but can’t combine it with a hop yet or
reach my foot down to dab though.
> For my own 2 cents on the topic: distance is never a factor. Fun is
> usualy a factor, though I have come to realize that, some work early on
> tends to pay off in more fun later when you can breeze through more
> technical sections because you practiced the skills for hours and hours
> elsewhere. We tend to find a spot that interests us and stay at that
> spot untill either we get angry at not being able to pull it off, or one
> of us pulls it off.
I think for me distance / speed isn’t important at all if I’m riding the 26"
because that just doesn’t go fast, sometimes with the 29" or the coker I
want to absolutely blast a section and see how fast I can ride it but
usually if I’m offroad I just pootle along at my own pace and play around on
bits I come off on. I sometimes do offroad rides to / from places where
distance is important or else I won’t be able to get the train home at the
other end or get home though.
