Oh man, I tried some deep, yet far spaced stairs the other day at a nearby park. Man, it was 2 of the most PAINFUL/unusual wrecks I’ve ever had. My friend seemed to really get the hang of it after an hour or so, I wasn’t FAR behind, but during one fall, I flew down the stairs (probably about 12 or so) and landed SIDEWAYS on my ankle. I heard a pop, and sat down for 20 minutes. To my surprise, nothing really happened. I really can’t understand how my ankle isn’t broken, it was REALLY bad, I guess I just got lucky. About 1 hour later, I had another wreck, this time, I have no idea what happened! All I know, is that my shoe got pulled off midair halfway down the stairs, (they were on pretty tight too!) and then I fell, my bare foot got jammed in the spokes, the wheel spun, and I took a fair chunk of skin out of my heel as the uni dragged me down the stairs. Despite all this trouble, I can still only go down these stairs with medium speed, it’s scary and disheartening. Usually when attemping really tricky stunts, we joke saying we’re going to kill ourselves, but if it keeps going this way, i just may!!! any tips? My friend has gotten amazingly fast, and he credits it to pulling up really hard on the handle, with his butt not touching the saddle at all. Any other tips?
Re: Stairs…going to kill me…
Hey Ross,
Stairs are ace, I like riding stairs…I just rode some tonight after a three week break. Why the break? I catapulted forward riding some stairs that were to long, steep, high and in the dark. Left ankle got pretty tweaked, but it would have been much worse without my Active Ankles . They saved me again! A small price to pay unless someone really wants to get screwed like Jack Hughes. Jack has screws in ankle because of a uni fall.
It’s good to get comfortable on stairs that are shorter on the Height and Length of each step. When the length of each step is longer I think it actually makes it harder to ride because the uni wants to bounce with each drop off a step. When the steps are closer you can ride it as if you are riding a really steep, bumpy hill, in one smooth, continuous motion. My riding stance usually involves…
*standing slightly, this helps prevent being bucked off by the bumps and my legs have to be ready to absorb the bouncing
*pulling back on the seat handle to help maintain control
*trying to maintain an upright/slightly leaning back line with my body and uni.
As I described above, leaning to far forward can have negative results, but it sounds like you might know that already. Please don’t kill yourself! 
You’ll be around longer if you ride within your ability and become a good judge of your ability vs the obstacle at hand.
Re: Stairs…going to kill me…
On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 20:40:53 -0500, cybeross
<cybeross.awb5m@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>About 1 hour later, I had another
>wreck, this time, I have no idea what happened! All I know, is that my
>shoe got pulled off midair halfway down the stairs,
Sorry if this is too obvious, but could it be that your shoe lace was
not properly tucked in?
Klaas Bil
If you had this signature, I have forged it.
My laces didn’t get undone if that’s what you mean. Going back over it, I’m pretty sure my shoe got stuck between the crank and the frame, (it’s been wedged there before when I learned how to one foot ride), in that case, I’m GLAD my shoe came off, if my foot had stayed stuck, it could have been REALLY bad…
Who can say CANYONARROYO (spelled wrong, of course).