I had to take both girls to soccer games today. During Abby’s warm up time I was in full armor and helmet practicing skinny riding on a horizontal 12" diameter 45 foot long telephone pole.
After about 15 minutes of mixed success I free mounted onto the pole, cleaned the entire length, landed the 20" drop, rode across several 2" irrigation pipes and headed to Abby’s game. The game was about to start so I was taking off my pads when this kid comes up and asks for my autograph! He even had paper ready.
I obliged, what a great kid.
Found more poles to ride on at Andrea’s game too. Soccer is a great time to ride skinnies.
Steve, you’re messing me up. I’ve been selling autographed pictures of you that I produced and paid some wino to sign by the gross. If you start getting the real signature out there, it’s going to call the value of my goods into question.
A skinny is anything long and narrow. It could be a 12" diameter log, the wide side of of a 2x4, the wide side of a 2x8, a curb with a drop on both sides, a railroad rail, or anything else long and skinny. There is no requirement that it has to be the skinny side of a 2x4.
Since “skinny” by itself does not tell you anything about the width or nature of the object it is a good idea to describe the skinny object by saying something like “a skinny 12 inch diameter log”.
Great job UniBrier. You have impressed me too. If I had been there, I would have asked for your autograph also. That is, unless you were really signing them, Tom Blackwood! LOL
Question: Do you mount while up on the “skinny?” Or do you hop or ride onto the “skinny?” Thanks in advance. --chirokid–
I mounted while up on the skinny. The pole was cradled in both ends so it was about 20" high at the ends and about 16" at the center due to the pavement on the parking lot side. I found a block and hopped from ground to block to pole too, got on the pole several times but never transitioned to riding.
Initialy I was focusing too much on the pedal and pole right in front of the uni. I found not looking at the pedal and moving my focus point a bit farther out helped. (Just like skiing, no need to look at the tips, they’ll still be there when you get to the bottom of the hill: The pedal will still be there even if you don’t see it.) I was using a static mount, also seemed to help to have the rear pedal a bit higher than ususal, above horizontal, to get started.
It was cool to land several rolling drops, regardless of pedal postion. The improvement continues but my trials will always be lame.
I could have spent another hour playing on the thing but I had to watch the soccer game and my public was waiting.
Regarding “skinnies”. My skinny is another riders boulevard!
Re: Re: Re: Someone actually asked for my autograph
Thanks for the great information. You answered my questions perfectly. I have been trying to ride skinny too, without much success. With this new info, maybe I will soon be riding the skinny also.
Nice to know you are there for both your girls, and your :DPUCLIC:D I can see you are handling it well. --chirokid–
