Firstly, I just want to make it clear that I’m not pretending to be able to ride the really narrow rails that I’m talking about yet, but maybe with heaps of practice.
I’ve been thinking that for someone who has practiced their still stands a lot and has a 3" wide tyre, really narrow rails wouldn’t be that hard to do. By really narrow I mean 10mm at the most or just wide enough so that it’s strong enough not to break.
My reasoning behind this is that if you have a really wide and flat tyre that’s pumped up quite well, it wouldn’t matter if the edge hangs over a bit. Then all you’d have to do is to ride while only moving to the side about 20mm each way. What do you think?
I plan to build some sort of rail like this that is really low off the ground but about 10mm wide, strong, and about 2m long. Then if I put a little ramp up to it I can practice on it and see how far I can go. Once I go a little further I could then raise the rail. That’d be a real thrill!
Does this sound possible with a lot of practice or am I just being too ambitious?
Thanks,
Andrew
p.s.
I’m really frustrated now because I’ve just returned from my holiday and I have to wait until tuesday to pick up the rest of my unicycle from the post office along with a stiffener plate and ‘One Tired Guy’. As well as that, I sprained my ankle a bit less than 2 weeks ago toboggoning (I don’t know how to spell toboggoning) and didn’t get to rest it at all and then went on to skiing and snowboarding. Because I’ve been doing so much, it hasn’t yet finished healing and it hurts a bit too much to hop let alone practice my long jumping.
I’m really looking forward to UniNats and I’ve got my long jump up to 1.4m. This is with my current unicycle and not the 24" muni with the huge tyre and rim. I’m using the sidehop technique still because I’ve had no success at all with the rolling hop. I got a copy of the 2001 UniNats results and 1st place was 1.32m. I’m excited!!!
UniNats will be so much fun and I’m really looking forward to meeting heaps of other unicyclists. I think I’ll be one of only 5 riders from Queensland (my state).
Videos of any flamboyant failures or near-successes might be fun too. Good luck to both of you. I can’t even ride in a straight line yet. Maybe a zig-zagged rail would work for me, if I could time my wobbling just right.
My Friend Jeff and i were riding some tight wires not too long ago on our monty tires. They were the kind that act as guard-rails on country roads (that makes sense??) anyways, we’d mount, then ride a few revolutions, then we’d be at the end, and jump off. I agree, it is VERY hard, and the fact that we were on wide tires didn’t make it much better, because to keep your balance, you need to have the wire near the centre of the tire.
I also did a pedal grab over the same wire. This was extremely difficult (timing had to be perfect, as well as your balance when you hit the wire, and you had to do it FAST)
well, there are some pictures somewhere with both things in it, if i find them, i’ll post them
good luck, i’m just curious… when you say rail, do you mean anything skinny? like would you call a handrail a rail, as well as a 2X6??
I call the wider ones “flows” but that’s fine.
10mm is really really small. 10 cm is more than possible, but 10 mm, if your tire isnt perfectly centered you may still fall because of uneven weight distribution.
I agree that 10mm is extremely small. the wire that jeff and i rode was probably 7mm in diameter. So, i d’ont know what you’re going to find that’s 10mm, with a square profile, that’s strong enough but… good luck!
> Maybe a zig-zagged rail would work for me.
I’ve often wished for some sort of a magic rail that changes it’s shape according to where my wheel is heading:).
Ryan,
Thanks a lot for the photo. As for the terms that I use, I suppose I’m using northshore mountain biking expressions for a lot of the time. I’ve heard a lot of people using rails for pretty wide northshore sorts of things so I just copied them. I would also consider handrails to be rails but I’m not saying that that’s the right term. Maybe I’ll adopt your use of the term flows. It does sound alright.
I was planning on using some wood that’s about 10 x 150 x 2000 (mm) with the grain facing up when it’s lying in position. Then I’d just support it with some bigger planks of wood. Don’t you think that’d work? It’s not like I’m jumping onto the rail or anything like that…just riding along it.
Good luck to both of you. I can’t even ride in a straight line yet. Maybe a zig-zagged rail would work for me, if I could time my wobbling just right.