Today was my 20th birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to break about a 3 month long unicycling hiatus and go to a bike trials comp!
The competition itself wasn’t great because I wasn’t riding well, but playing around afterwards was fantastic!
Here are four clips: two lines and one nice fall at the end. The video is 1 minute long, 3.5MB, WMV encoded, and shot in 16:9. The soundtrack (which Austin Powers fans will recognise) is “Soul Bossa Nova” by Quincy Jone and His Orchestra.
Edit - What you don’t see in the last clip is all the pointy rocks just beneath the surface! You’ll be pleased to know that my record of never once endangering my ‘manhood’ remains intact…I managed that crucial twist and copped it on the upper thigh.
Sweet video, man! That rope-riding was amazing! So many people have told me you can do it by taking the tyre off and keeping the rope within the rim-walls, now I can tell them you don’t need to take the tyre off at all! (that doesn’t mean I could do it tho!)
Incredible riding, I have to keep reminding myself that you and few others are world class riders, just so I don’t get discouraged at my (lack of) skills.
Good thing I read that you were OK and intact before I saw that fall You have the most spectacular falls on film, please continue to keep it safe so there is more of your skilled riding to watch.
Let’s not forget though that people have been idling on slackropes while juggling for years!
That’s okay…I laughed during the fall. 20 is a good age, I don’t think I want to get much older.
The tyre rolled/slipped off quite a few times. The interesting difference between riding this and something the same width but solid is that normally you can make up for a little bit of sideways balance by moving left or right on the rail…with this you have to try to stay dead centre. Since it has a little bit of play though (I don’t know that I’d call it a slackrope) you seem to be able to make more effective balance corrections somehow. If you try to lean left, not only will your upper body lean left, but the unicycle will swing right slightly…I think.
Thanks, though I’m really not a world class rider. Don’t be fooled into thinking I got these lines down in a couple of tries…more like 30 minutes of tries. Although I’ve had some fun looking crashes, I seem to be able to stay injury free, which is nice.
I’ve never been sure which way they should go, but they’ve always been more comfortable to me this way and easier to put on with the straps on the inside. Happy Birthday to you too!
As for the hiatus, I think a large part of it is because I don’t like riding in front of people so my trials options have been a bit limited.
I’ve had to get over this one, myself…It’s not easy riding around on a campus full of college kids. But, somehow, I’ve been able to block people out and concentrate only on trials lines…unless, of course, a passerby has a question, or a comment.
Alex,
Yeah I know, I wasn’t the one saying it was slack. Good fun though. The bail would have been okay, but you see my right foot slip. The log was really slippery by that time because I and two bike guys had tried a fair bit before that shot.
monkeyman,
I got up straight away, didn’t really hurt myself…I only lay in th water a bit because I was too busy laughing and it was nice cool water on a hot summer’s day. That’s not to say it didn’t hurt a little though.
Man, how refreshing is that to take a dive into that nice cold water and that was pretty kool to see you ride on the rope, now for you to get on there, start hopping a little and pull some 180s or 360, some crankflips, you know, and happy late b-day =p
The video is 1 minute long, 3.5MB, WMV encoded, and shot in 16:9. The soundtrack (which Austin Powers fans will recognise) is “Soul Bossa Nova” by Quincy Jone and His Orchestra.
You have the most spectacular falls on film, please continue to keep it safe so there is more of your skilled riding to watch.