Any tips for riding downhill? I can now ride up steeper hills than I can ride down. I’m not sure if I’m not leaning far enough back, but it feels like I am getting tossed off the front trying to fight the hill, I feel like if I didn’t fight it I would end up going too fast. I’m riding a 29er with 150’s.
Here are a couple things to practice, at a place where there’s a short bit of steep downhill followed by a flat section (to reduce intimidation/risk).
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Control. Lean back, dig in, and more or less stop the unicycle with each pedal stroke.
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Speed. Lean forward and pedal quickly until you get to the flat section.
The more you’re able to control, the more comfortable you will be on steep downhills. When you can handle speed, it improves the steepness you’re comfortable with, and gives you another option when you’re near the bottom of the hill.
Good luck!
According to me this is all to do with your leg strength controlling the pedals.
Once your leg muscles build up you will be able to control your pedalling speed on declining better.
More or less what im saying is try not to pedal as fast, put pressure on the opposite direction when you are riding down.
Hope this helps.
Peace.
J
a brake helps a lot. makes it feel like your riding on flat. otherwise practising and building up your leg strength is best
Longer Cranks
Longer cranks give much more control.
I have resisted the move to 150mm cranks because of the lost power when riding steep and technical stuff. Yes a brake would also really help.
Also try sideways hopping down really steep stuff instead of just riding it.
Unicorn
curiously I do not agree with this one: I control while leaning forward a lot and controling the ways pedals go up.
apparently I am not alone in doing that so it seems there are two different “schools”
This is how I did my first very steep and long hill. I really didn’t think I was going to make it and envisioned pieces of me splat at the bottom with people hovering around pointing and shaking their heads. I had to fight this image out of my mind as I mounted at the top of the hill. About 3 quarters down when I realized I was actually going to live, I leaned forward and did the rest with some speed.
I was on a wonderful high. But I didn’t try the hill again that day. Why tempt fate? 
Riding Down Hills.
Actually you don’t really lean backwards. You put your hips back and your shoulders forward to compensate. You must ALWAYS maintain a center of gravity over the wheel. Sometimes it feels like you are leaning backwards because the slope of the hill makes the ground glosser to your back than it would be if you were on flat ground. Wobbling bear and Tholub have kind of a miscommunication but I think that they both mean the same thing.
Unicorn
At first I had trouble controlling my speed downhill. I think that was because I didn’t often ride hills (very flat here) and so I didn’t have the technique.
On the flat or uphill, you’re always pushing on the downstroke of the pedal to keep you going forwards. On a downhill this isn’t really what you want. On a steep downward slope, I find I’m doing something I call “anti-pedalling”: I’m mostly pushing down on the upstroke of the pedal. Not much, just enough to hold it back.
right : I often cite skiing where it is an error to lean defensively backwards and where you need to have head and shoulders towards the slope. This said while skiing you create instants of disbalance downwards (when you turn) I do not know if we can imitate that with a uni…
I have a brake on my KH MUni, and used it a lot when I first started going down steep hills. I thought the brake was essential, otherwise I would wipe out. Then I went riding with several really good MUni riders, some didn’t even have brakes! They could roll down anything under tremendous control. That is when I learned the importance of backpressuring on the pedals, and holding yourself into the seat really hard. Just a few outings later and I can ride down the same hills I used to use the brake on with no brake, and my control is much better. It also helps to have 165’s on my 24 inch MUni. 150’s on a 29er sounds like it would be a little more difficult to backpressure. Good luck!
Maybe a dumb question, but are you pulling up hard on the handle? You have to do that to avoid being lifted out of the seat on steep hills.
Robust back-pressuring is key. Another oft overlooked point is that when it’s steep and bumpy, your feet oftentimes slip or get bucked off the pedals. My success rate on the “steeps” got better once I changed over to super grippy pedals. Though pricey, Drilliums (sp???) are starting to be the go-to pedals for steep Muni.
JL
O.k., I think this may be a large part of my problem. Up until know I’ve been flailing my arms about for balance, now I’m good enough to hold on, but I guess it never occurred to me that I needed to.
Lot’s of good info here, time to go out and start hittin the downhill hard.
Thanks
This is explained really well! 
Anti-pedaling I like it.
Yup… I’m surprised no one’s mentioned this yet. Pulling on the handle keeps you in the seat / on the pedals, and also allows you to put more pressure on the pedals. Just make sure you’ve got a sturdy seat / handle combo.
I went out to tackle my downhills some more this evening and made em all no problem. I actually leaned forward more and that seemed to help my balance and control. I would do a speed check every 4 or 5 revolutions and really slow way down instead of trying to keep slow on every rev. On to steeper hills 
VERY well explained:)
Thats what i was trying to say… it just didint quite come out that clear:D