Next year after having my custom unicycle for a while and after practicing some muni, I’d really love to do a bit of racing for fun in the mountain biking events. Firstly, there are some reasonably short 3-lap races as an inter-school thing. There are 4 of these each year and there are usually about 30 riders including quite a few who have never done any other racing. Would there be any point in riding in these races or would I just end up a long way behind and having to leave the race before I finish. I would consider myself as a reasonably paced unicyclist (or I think I will be anyway) and I’ve got a background in mountain biking.
Also, there are some 3, 6, 12, and 24 hour events for mountain biking. I thought that if I can get my friend to join in, it’d be fun to have a go at the 3hr. Do you think that any of the mountain bikers would mind if ther were a couple of unicyclists going quite a bit slower than them? (I know I’ve already asked this in another thread).
Has anyone done any events like either of these and if so, how was it?
Thanks,
Andrew Carter
Well quite a few of us have done the red bull mountain mayhem here in the uk. this is a 24 hour race and far from complaining everyone was shouting on encouragement the whole way round.
I even had a little chat with garry fisher which was quite cool.
I’m also planning on doing some of the uk mtb downhill and dual slalom events over the winter - just for fun
Just remember the story about the tortoise and the hare.
(Of course, the story relies on the hare being arrogant, complacent, and stupid, and all the mountain bikers I know are modest, determined and intelligent…)
Go for it! The worst the organizers can do is not let you ride, however that isn’t likely to happen. I’ve ridden in a few MTB cross-country races and a couple 24 hour events on unicycle and everyone has always been very possitive and supportive.
You are going to be quite slower than most of the bikers, but you might end up finishing ahead of a few slow ones. Make sure you pick a distance that you’re are comfortable with and remember that in a race situation you’ll tend to ride harder and faster which will tire you out quicker.
A fun little training exercise is to do some rides with bikers and try to keep up to them. If you’re riding a trail with the right type of terrian (i.e. lots of uphills or really technical) you’ll find that you can probably keep up with them.
Enjoy,
Carl
Thanks everyone. I live pretty close to a great mountain with heaps of really good technical singletracks and some fast firetrails and quite a few really fun downhill tracks (downhill as in the category of riding and not just down a hill). There’s a road that loops around the top so I can probably get dropped off there and ride down and home. I’m still a little worried about not finishing in time in the shorter inter-school race I was talking about and having to stop before I finish.
Thanks,
Andrew