Any tips???
I can confidently ride 4, but everytime I try 5, I sorta get bounced off and crash.
Leo
I swaped up to a biger tire, and it seems to have helped a good deal. Seat should be slightly high of medium. Too low will make you hunch over to engage the seat (pitching you forward), too high will keep your legs from absorbing shock and turn you into a human pogo stick. Make sure you keep a strong link to the seat- frim grip and constant pull. Leave some play for your legs have to act as shock absorbers while continuing to controll the roll; If you try to stop the wheel to controll the bouncing, you are liable to pitch over the top. If bouncing is threatening to pitch you, resist a bit more with the legs while reinging on the seat with the link hand. In this way, you can progress down a flight in sets. If the stairs are freightening, you will tend to lean back too far and the Uni will try to shoot out from under you. If you go over the top, focus on clearing the uni and landing well. If you are a monster, and have picket up an uncontrollable amount of spead, you might try traversing the steps or quickly turning into a hop.
Let me know what actualy works for you.
Christopher
Ive actually tried 5 steps a few times now, and each time, the same thing happens. I make it safely down the first 3, miss the 4th and get thrown off as I land at the bottom. Weird.
Tyre is a Nokian Gazzaloddi. Think I need to try your “pull up” really hard method.
Leo
any way to avoid bearing damage while riding stairs?
I believe I messed up one of the bearings on my 24" riding stairs… anyone else had this problem? or did i just get unlucky.
since the incident, i have only done stairs in moderation on my 20"… and i havent worked up the nerve yet to try them on my giraffe. 
About a week ago I started riding down stairs. I started out small. There were small sets of stairs on campus at WPI where I’m a graduate student. I went down shallow pairs of stairs, then triples. Slowly, after I was confident about going down these, I tried steeper sets of 4-6. I found that there is a balance (always in this sport) between trying to decend them slowly and ‘going with it’. As was previously posted, if you try to go too slowly, your uni will try to get going ahead of you and you will fall backwards.
I try to go as slowly as I can, keeping the wheel directly under me at all times. I have to start with some momentum, otherwise I sometimes start straight, but then end up crooked – bad news! But start slow and try to keep it slow. I gain quite a bit of speed in no time when the stairs are steep, so I have to just go with it. When you hit the bottom, try to absorb the impact with your legs, and body a little bit. If you butt hits the seat, you fly!
I think what helps is having a fat Muni tire (Gazz 26"-3.0") at low-medium compression. The deep tread gives me good friction. Also, I have been riding as much as I can down steep hills. The stairs seem just like steep hills to me, only bumpy.
-Erik
The way I learned was like this: I hadn’t seen any kinds of videos or heard of any tips for going down stairs, so the logical way in my mind was to go down as slow as possible. I managed to go about 1/3 the speed I usually ride at. It took quite a while to get stable going down lots of stairs (In one day I managed 3, then within a couple days of hard practice I managed 30). I still wasn’t satisfied with my stability at that point. Then I saw the “Universe” video with Kris Holm speeding down some stairs and I thought, “Hey, why don’t I go fast?” So I tried it, and wow! what a difference! I got down a flight upwards of 100 stairs on my second try flawlessly, and I was never even worried that I would fall. It was great! Maybe the slow start method is more aggravating to begin with, but you end up stronger in the end… at least that’s what happened with me.
yes,speed is the key here.
i think it is way more of a challenge to do stairs slowly.
(i’m trying stairs backwards now and i fear that speed is the key here too)
hmmmmm… I was afraid that speed would be the key. I will go out and try it as soon as this bloody rain stops and I get my wheel back!
Leo
Keep the speed under control and keep in mind that there is a big difference between riding down a shallow flight of stairs and a steep flight of stairs.
Be careful on the steep stairs. I have done a face plant at the bottom of a steep flight of stairs because I hit the landing with the pedals vertical while going a little too fast. The protective gear came in handy that time.
john_childs
On Tue, 5 Feb 2002 06:06:33 +0000 (UTC), john_childs
<forum.member@unicyclist.com> wrote:
>Keep the speed under control and keep in mind that there is a big
>difference between riding down a shallow flight of stairs and a steep
>flight of stairs.
Linguistic (English) question from a non-native speaker: is shallow
the opposite of steep (at least in this case)? I would have thought
that they refer to different qualities, shallow meaning low (small
number of steps) and steep meaning large vertical distance per unit of
horizontal distance. If so, a flight of stairs could be shallow and
steep at the same time. The Dutch word for steep does not have an
opposite, and I never heard (before?) of one in English either.
Klaas Bil
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“PATCH, SGC, CQB”
> Linguistic (English) question from a non-native speaker: is shallow
> the opposite of steep (at least in this case)? I would have thought
> that they refer to different qualities, shallow meaning low (small
> number of steps) and steep meaning large vertical distance per unit of
> horizontal distance. If so, a flight of stairs could be shallow and
> steep at the same time. The Dutch word for steep does not have an
> opposite, and I never heard (before?) of one in English either.
I think you are right. I would use “gentle” as an opposite, but it must be
used in context: Is that a gentle slope, or a steep one?
JF
Sorry. I was being a little shallow there. 
I was referring to the steepness of the slope. Shallow was intended to mean a flight of stairs with less of a slope.
A steep flight of stairs would be something as steep as or steeper than the flights of stairs you find in high rise buildings.
A shallow flight of stairs would be something with less of a slope. Shallow was not intended to refer to the number of stairs in the flight. I could have come up with a better word than “shallow” to describe what I meant. Maybe “steep” and “gentle” would be better ways to describe the different slopes.
Flights of stairs with a gentle slope are generally not much of a problem. Flights of stairs with a steep slope can present a challenge along with more serious consequences if you crash. I don’t mind hopping up a steep flight of stairs, but I am careful if/when I ride down them.
john_childs
I was going around WPI today going up and down the stairs on campus. I covered them all except for one flight which are quite a bit steeper than the others. I think the slope is between 45 and 50 degrees (50 being steeper than 45). This one I looked down at for a few minutes, but decided not to try it without my gear. I turned around and rode away to stay within my limits.
My question is, “how steep is too steep for the best of stair-riders?” I want to have an idea for the limit I will eventually reach. I imagine it might be approximately the same as the steepest hill one can ride down. Would this be an appropriate summary?
-Erik
Bench marks are cool. Use them as a tool- not a limit. Ride within your comfort and skill envelope, and expand it gentaly- then one day You will be the answer to that question. People will see me doing some shallow flight of stairs, and ask if I am the Great Erik… and I’ll tell 'em: no way, man, that guy can REALY do stairs.
Christopher