Hello fellow uni riders, Next April I am planning on taking part in the MS150 on
my Coker. The MS150 is a bike race from Houston to Austin, Texas in two days.
One hundred miles the first day and about fifty miles the second day. Do any of
you have any suggestions, equipment or training wise, for me? Any help would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Oh, I almost forgot for those of you
that have mounted brakes on your Cokers what’s your opinion of them and
specifically what brand of brakes do you use? The reason I ask is that the
second day of the race is rather hilly and I don’t want to burn up all my energy
on the downhills and have nothing left for the uphills. Hope to hear from all of
you and thanks again.
> MS150 is a bike race from Houston to Austin, Texas in two days. One hundred > miles the first day and about fifty miles the second day. Do any of you have > any suggestions, equipment or training wise, for me? Any help
Here are three very basic pieces of advice:
Don’t race (As an MS ride, it’s probably not a race anyway, but the bikes
will likely toast you in either case)
Naturally, you won’t survive such a ride if you don’t do lots of training
rides. Get your body used to doing several hours of pedaling on that thing.
Look into shorts that work for you, and the best possible seat for your own
personal comfort. Air and/or gel seats seem to be the most popular.
Read about Unicycle Across Minnesota: http://www.skypoint.com/~cotter/ There
was an epic journey of a whole bunch of unicyclists enduring lots of miles
and pain for the same charitable cause.
> There’s doesn’t seem to be much space on the Coker for accessories (like water > bottles, etc). Perhaps mounting a bar to the side like Roger said earlier > would be the best way to carry stuff.
> Hmmm… I wonder if goodies for the trip could travel inside the spokes? Just > thinking out loud.
Some stuff could certainly go in there, long as it’s small and flexible enough
to fit between the spokes. Cokers have relatively narrow wheels; using a
standard unicycle axle. Other big wheels have much wider axles, with more room
for luggage in there.
Another idea for touring on a big wheel is to set up panniers underneath. This
means extending the fork down below the axle, to a point below where your feet
are, and attaching luggage or panniers there. It would make the cycle ride more
sluggish, but this shouldn’t be a concern for long distance touring. Mounting
and dismounting should be relatively unaffected.
>From: John Foss <john_foss@asinet.com> Reply-To: John Foss ><john_foss@asinet.com> To: “‘Brian Berlin’” <berlin@texas.net>, >"‘unicycling@winternet.com’" <unicycling@winternet.com> Subject: RE: Some >distance riding questions… Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 09:52:57 -0800 > > > There’s doesn’t seem to be much space on the Coker for accessories (like > > water bottles, etc). Perhaps mounting a bar to the side like Roger said > > earlier would be the best way to carry stuff. > > > Hmmm… I wonder if goodies for the trip could travel inside the spokes? Just > > thinking out loud. > >Some stuff could certainly go in there, long as it’s small and flexible enough >to fit between the spokes. Cokers have relatively narrow wheels; using a >standard unicycle axle. Other big wheels have much wider axles, with more room >for luggage in there.
On Unicycle Across Minnesota, I recall seeing at least one Coker with a bottle
of Powerade or something stuck in the spokes.
That first day is going to be a killer. On UAM we started on one of our longest
davs and there were lots of real sore knees and achillies. A couple of things
that I would recomend would be good shoes that suport your ankles, some sort of
Camelback that can hold you water, and an air seat. Also when training, try to
get some 60 or 70 mile rides in in consecutive days. that would have been
somthing that I would try to do if I was doing something like UAM again. If your
knees or something starts hurting, make shure to put on a brace or somthing to
suport it. Sounds like a great time. Have a blast and good luck.
Peter
>Hello fellow uni riders, Next April I am planning on taking part in the MS150 >on my Coker. The MS150 is a bike race from Houston to Austin, Texas in two >days. One hundred miles the first day and about fifty miles the second day. Do >any of you
have >any suggestions, equipment or training wise, for me? Any help would be greatly >appreciated. Thanks in advance. Oh, I almost forgot for those of
you >that have mounted brakes on your Cokers what’s your opinion of them and >specifically what brand of brakes do you use? The reason I ask is that the >second day of the race is rather hilly and I don’t want to burn up all my >energy on the downhills and have nothing left for the uphills. Hope to hear >from all of you and thanks again. > >The Oak Hill Big Wheeler, >A.J. > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> Hello fellow uni riders, Next April I am planning on taking part in the MS150 > on my Coker. The MS150 is a bike race from Houston to Austin, Texas in two > days. One
hundred > miles the first day and about fifty miles the second day. Do any of you
have > any suggestions, equipment or training wise, for me?
consider reducing the length of the cranks on your coker. Go down in steps
during your training as it requires a bit of practice to get used to. Also wear
wrist guards! I learnt my lesson.
> Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Oh, I almost forgot > for those of
you > that have mounted brakes on your Cokers what’s your opinion of them and > specifically what brand of brakes do you use?
The brake that I have fitted is a BMX side pull style (front is better but back
does work). I then have a long mountain bike bar end that clamps straight on to
the seat post - I have it turned down so that I can see my computer that is
fitted there, athough it does mean that I have to stretch to the brake that is
fitted on the end (Leo has his the other way up so that the brake lever is
imediately below the seat). I then have fitted in the end of the bar-end a road
bike friction style bar-end gear lever. These are rare, but if you hunt I am
sure you can find them. I had to shim mine with some card board. You will need
to straighten your wheel regularally though. It takes quite a bit of practice to
get the control of the brake correct as well.
> The reason I ask is that the second day of the race is rather hilly and I > don’t want to burn up all my energy on the downhills and have nothing left for > the uphills. Hope to
hear > from all of you and thanks again.
I would consider different sizes of crank for each day if the hills are that
bad. Although there weren’t any hills on the MN ride that gave me much of a
problem on the coker and 110’s - but they were only little hills.
Hi AJ, I think we met at the TJS a couple of weeks ago. That sounds like great
fun adn work. If I can ever learn to stay on for any length of time, perhaps
I’ll join you. If not, maybe I can find a penny farthing or something.
To the point, I saw some picture somewhere of someone who hooked their brakes up
to a gear shift lever (mounted on the frame) for semi-constant braking on
downward slopes.
They’ll have a truck available for your camping gear. I can’t remember where the
stopping point is the first day. There’s doesn’t seem to be much space on the
Coker for accessories (like water bottles, etc). Perhapse mounting a bar to the
side like Roger said earlier would be the best way to carry stuff.
Hmmm… I wonder if goodies for the trip could travel inside the spokes? Just
thinking out loud.
Brian Berlin (berlin@texas.net) wrote: : There’s doesn’t seem to be much space on the Coker for accessories (like : water bottles, etc). Perhapse mounting a bar to the side like Roger said : earlier would be the best way to carry stuff.
OUCH I think you’ll find Roger, myself leo and others have the bar mounted
to the front, NOT the side.
: Hmmm… I wonder if goodies for the trip could travel inside the spokes? Just : thinking out loud.
(As an MS ride, it’s probably not a race anyway, but the bikes