I there !
As I said before, I got my first MUni ever and started to ride it a
couple of weeks ago. I have so much fun with it riding over roots, going
downhills, etc. but I found that I had to modify my riding style a
little bit…
So here’s my question. When I was in the process of learning to ride a
unicycle, people kept telling me to put as much weight as possible on
the saddle. That helped me keep my balance and stability. Now that I
ride a MUni, I’ve found that, on uneven terrain, it is sometimes helpful
to stand up just a little bit on the pedals. It seems to help me pass
over obstacles because, that way, I can put more power on the pedals and
can react more quickly to sudden changes.
Is this a bad habit or just a good Muni technique ? I analysed the
question and thought that it was the reason why many Muniers hold the
front bumper of the saddle while going down or riding uneven trails.
Thanks for you precious help and have fun !
Christian.
RE: Riding a Muni… Basic question…
> I’m not sure if it’s true- and it makes no sence to me- but the 170’s
> seem to have helped improve my spinning. Go figure.
It seems counterintuitive, but I think it’s because the longer cranks
force you to pay attention to your spinning.
I base this on my relative lack of experience with long cranks (my MUnis
have 150s). When I ride longer ones, I tend to bounce up and down. I have to
pay a lot more attention to a round pedal stroke to make the bouncing go
away…
JF
Re: Riding a Muni… Basic question…
On Wed, 1 May 2002 09:23:45 -0700, John Foss <john_foss@asinet.com>
wrote:
>I base this on my relative lack of experience with long cranks (my MUnis
>have 150s). When I ride longer ones, I tend to bounce up and down. I have to
>pay a lot more attention to a round pedal stroke to make the bouncing go
>away…
That implies that the bouncing is a reaction to the force applied to
the pedals in a choppy way as opposed to “round”. Well, this will
certainly be a part of it (if only because you could make the bouncing
go away that way). But another part comes IMHO from the vertical
component of acceleration and deceleration of the mass of your legs.
At the same speed this is more pronounced with longer cranks. This
part doesn’t go away with round strokes. Apart from “ankling” (which
reduces the vertical amplitude of your “main” legs) there is not much
you can do about the bouncing impetus from your legs, at a given
(rotational) speed.
Klaas Bil
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“Enaam Arnaout, Suha al-Taweel, JERTO”
Sortaontopic.
Bouncing seems (for me, at least) closely related to seat height (high) combined with certain cadences. Changing either of these can alter or eliminate the inclination to bounce. This was a problem for me on the Coker- on which it would happen even at lower seat positions; I’v grown out of it, some how, making me think that perhaps it can be overcome or caused by technique.
Christopher
RE: Riding a Muni… Basic question…
> unicycle, people kept telling me to put as much weight as possible on
> the saddle. That helped me keep my balance and stability. Now that I
> ride a MUni, I’ve found that, on uneven terrain, it is
> sometimes helpful to stand up just a little bit on the pedals. It
> seems to help me pass over obstacles because, that way, I can put
> more power on the pedals and can react more quickly to sudden changes.
>
> Is this a bad habit or just a good Muni technique?
It’s essential MUni technique. There is only so much you can do if you’re
just sitting down and not holding anything with your hands. So when learning
to ride, yes, keep your weight on the seat so you don’t get tired out, and
so you learn to relax and feel the unicycle beneath you.
But once you go beyond “the basics”, the rules change. Standing up gives you
more power to the pedals. Holding onto the seat not only increase your
leverage and power, but increases your body’s grip onto the unicycle,
keeping you in better control.
Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com
“If people want to truly understand mountain biking, they have to do two
other things: ride a unicycle, and master the trampoline.” – Joe Breeze,
one of the originators of mountain biking, in a conversation with Tim Bustos