Well, I won’t respond back to all of the points that you made, but instead I’ll read it up and take what I can from it.
Your post was informative and all the useful details are much appreciated and well received. Thank you.
If you ever come across any neat, uncommon videos (those that are hard to find, because most of the typical videos I’ve probably seen already) feel free to supply us a link.
I’m currently already on the street riding and my area is light to moderate. Been riding around for almost a month now, but would like videos to help inspire or give helpful hints and ideas to bring my commute riding abilities up a few more levels.
Chopping some video-footage, this is my last compilation. A lot of equipment involved, but no proper soundtrack (as usual).
It contains some comuting, some speeding (well, everything is relative…), some pedestrians, and a stupid dog.
Possible to learn something? Shorter crankarms = higher cadence and speed? (There might be something about “floating” with a high cadence on a big wheel… but I’m not the expert on that subject)
Maybe I misread, but I don’t think he’s adjusting the seatpost/clamp, he’s just adjusting his butt position, which I do plenty (Mostly by just standing up for a second and sitting down again). I also adjust my feet very very occasionally, but generally I can ride in any foot position at least long enough to get me somewhere safe to dismount and sort it out properly. I also wear big heavy steel-toecapped/soled boots that lock onto even the crappiest of plastic pedals, so I don’t really see the need for metal pedals yet (And yes, even in the rain they work :D)
As for the rest of your post, I agree that learning by chucking yourself into the deep end isn’t the best way to learn busy traffic commuting. However, I NEVER ride on the pavement as a general rule (Apart from to occasionally mount, and ride off it into the road). There’s a lot to be learned even from riding in not-so-busy traffic, and building up slowly is the way to go I think. BUT, I’m still interested to see the videos, as I think certain techniques need to be seen, as opposed to just figuring it out as you go along.
I never rode on the road until, like you, I became confident that I can ride on a smooth-ish road without ever UPD’ing, and this took me a while. Thankfully there’s plenty of tarmac’d and other smooth surfaces for me to practise on that are cycle/footpaths nearby, so I could practise riding without UPD’ing in peace. Recently did a 35-mile ride (On a 29er) without a UPD, so yes, I agree it’s possible! As you said, I’m not a pro uni rider, I can’t even bunny-hop, and definately can’t idle. All I can do is ride forward and turn corners, but I can do both without taking both my hands off the seat (I don’t have a handlebar, so I just grab the handle with both hands, in a ‘desperate for the toilet’ type stance)
Ohhh nice find, hopefully they find out where the zoom button is next time
Finally got a decent video and it’s hecka far away. At least we know he deals with it with sparingly bunny hopping. I’m trying to learn to bunny hop right now as well.
Nice find!
People making me feel a bit jelly with all their geared unicycles, ungeared 36er not good enough eh?!?!?
This is NOT a commute video but I love how it demonstrates great maneuverability and it’s obvious that the person is fluent going around stationary objects that you’ll normally deal with when/if commuting.
The video shows mostly going front and backwards. And just a heads up the last few mins of the video doesn’t seem to work so if you think it’s your fault…it’s not.
and I’m wondering non or very little movement balancing such as:
and
I know those are more advance skills, but I wonder if they’re do-able, even with the bigger wheels like the 36 even?
Those bunny-hops even when executed well like that video, look FAR too sketchy to be doing in the middle of the road, I’d rather not try that one if it’s that or jump off, I’d take jumping off any day. I think my freemounting ‘straight’ skills definately surpass my ‘bunny-hopping on the spot’ skills
Haha. I find it more do-able than the idle in one spot every time there’s a red light method. I dunno maybe. I’ve been practicing idling and it’s getting a bit better, I’m not sure how it’ll be with a 36er. I need to learn the bunny hop anyways because it’s such a useful technique to master due to its many uses. Bunny hops on a 26er not to mention a 36er is heavy and hard I’ll admit. But I’ll learn it for its many uses.
Many uses being a method to stabilize yourself when you start to lose balance, jumping up on curbs, and I’m definitely really itching to get the forward hopping. Imagine the day when you can forward hop. It would work wonders, at least for me, to jump up and down on the sidewalk and not have to pause.
I think a more reliable thing than the bunny hops or idling to wait is just find an object to hold or being able to ride really slowly and guestimate when the light will change with the occasional bunny hop as shown in the video. I’m thinking about doing that 180 bunny hop and riding back and forth in the big zebra crosswalk but not the circle thing, I doubt I can smoothly go around in tight circles the size of a smaller crosswalk for long like the other guy mentioned in the other thread.
Can’t wait till my 36er arrive, hope it all works out. If everything goes smoothly, you won’t read it in the news since all uni related stuff seems to go right back here I kid…I hope.
Once I get good at commuting I’ll start making my own little commuting videos. Either to give an idea of what to do so other people can learn or improve on them.
I would love to see the day when I see more unicycles commuting on the road. It would be a nice change in the scenery.
Here’s a NON-commute video that has inspired me for the bunny hop. I have a 26er so it’ll be harder but I just can’t wait till I’m able to do something like this. Maybe I’ll somewhat get it this month!
I hope you can find some road and offroad riding here
including riding in Yunnan province in China
PS:here at 4:55 you can understand why were stressing on riding technique before riding in the streets.... Crashing with pedestrians isnt the only problem…
Thanks for the videos. I’m starting to learn how to brake and I’m amazed at how some of them are applying their brake. I wonder if that’s a safe thing to do all the time. Or is it just for show.
They’re really great watch, I can’t believe I haven’t seen them. They’re hidden somewhere in there in the dark realms of Youtube.
Brake is safe once you know how to use it. But if you don’t need it, then just don’t use it. You will feel the need at some point. Also I’m almost not using the brake at all in the city.
As for your original request I took the opportunity of having my girlfriend on a ride with me to record a bit of my ride in the center of Krakow. It was not real commute as we were just riding around and it was recorded on Sunday, so the traffic was much lighter than on working day, but still the first part up to the castle is half of my daily commute. I usually take it on a bike, but from time to time on an uni as well. On the uni I’m sometimes on a different route to skip one busy street, but I taken this route recently in the snow and it was OK. And one more thing. I’m not that good at timing the lights. We were just totally lucky I would wish I had such green everyday on my commute.
The movie shall be visible in couple of minutes:
Thanks for the video, I watched the whole thing. The traffic and lanes there are very different to where I am. Near my area, they’re beginning to really work on the bike lanes which is a good thing, but it’ll still take some time. I’m in the U.S. and in my part of the neighborhood and when I go in the city, the lights are jumped up so it’s a bit hard to time them. Many times there’s no bike lanes so I just travel on the right side as close to the right side as possible and only go left side if I intend to make a left turn. We have some bike lanes but it feels uncomfortable with cars behind me, like I can sort of feel like they want to run me over if there weren’t a law against it.
I’m trying to save up for a Go Pro and work up on some skills and hopefully ask a neighbor to follow me with it. Very soon I will publish my own commute and I’ll be hitting a ton of stop signs and lights. I will say another good month or two.
Especially the GoPro, I’m ridiculously broke at the moment. I shall gather couch change in the meantime!
I was riding on the bike lines more than I would when doing usual routes in the town. When I have free time and especially on uni, I tend to select longer, but more friendly routes. Also the town center here is much more bike friendly than the suburbs.
And for your staying right as close as possible, try not to do it that much. You should have enough place to dodge something e.g. a trash or pothole. Also the drivers tend to give you more space when overtaking if you make them cross the line between the traffic lanes. See more:
The reason I hug to the right is I’m a very leisure rider. Several years back I use to the “need for speed” kind. I’d ride so fast that cars would tell me to slow down. Now I like to sit back and pedal at a slow pace.
I’m also still new to the 36er so my average and top speed is low. If I was riding faster I might take over a lane but I’m riding much much slower than the cars so I feel it a bit awkward to take up a whole lane.
Is it okay still though? I’m riding around 5-10 mph (my biggest goal at the moment is to not UPD into cars, not how fast I can go) I just want to feel like I’m doing a generous and thoughtful thing to the public by acknowledging that and moving to the side so they can easily pass. People that drive cars tend to be annoyed at bicyclists for several reasons and this is probably one of them.
Yesterday I tried commuting through the city and all was well, I’ve improved, but there was a construction in the road at one point and I was cycling through and it’s a small road that they open while they work on the rest of the portion of the street and there were two cars behind me. I was going pretty slow because the road there was messy too and I was going up a minor slope. It just feels bad, like I can sort of feel like the drivers behind me want to cuss up a storm…and of course I’m on a giant unicycle that I’m new with.
It’s up to you where would you position yourself. I’m usually not taking the full line, but like a half of it, but it depends much on the road.
And for the cars behind you on narrow part. If it is not too long, then probably they are not that unhappy to wait having such a show in front of them
What size wheel is that? Looks like a 26… I have to say, riding a smaller wheel seems so much easier for traffic-riding than a larger wheel, specially for re-mounting… I’ve never been so tired to fail a freemount on my 24", but sometimes on my 29er it takes me a couple tries
Really liked the video, the streets there look very cycle-friendly!
It’s totally okay. If they’re visibly/audibly annoyed at you, flip 'em the bird
I’m joking, but honestly, drivers who get annoyed at cyclists (Who are acting 100% legally) are just stupid, and I personally would gladly see them stripped of their license
if it’s that or jump off, I’d take jumping off any day. I think my freemounting ‘straight’ skills definately surpass my ‘bunny-hopping on the spot’ skills 
I would wish I had such green everyday on my commute.
