I’m just learning to ride stairs and am having some success, but I
wondered if anyone has any tips for riding them.
Currently I’m going for the blast right at them and ride down them
pretending that they’re just a slope technique and I can ride about 12
medium-wide not too steep steps (about 7-8 inch wide) without falling off.
I’m not interested in hopping down them, hopping up steps is enough hassle
without having to hop the downhill too. Anyone have any tips on riding
them, especially the very steep sets of steps, like you get on pedestrian
bridges over traffic? I’m currently basing my approach on what I see bikes
do, but I think there may be some point at which the steps get too steep
to just do that.
Riding up stairs, again, I’m sure I could hop them if I practiced enough,
but why hop when you can ride? Do I just need to get my legs really strong
and try and ride all the way, I’ve had little success at that so far,
about 3 or 4 steps max. I’ve seen bikers do it like this, not going that
much faster than me, so I reckon this is possible, might just be a matter
of more balance. The other thing I’m experimenting with is ride up until
you can’t, lean forward and ‘chicken-leap’ up the next step and ride some
more. Erm chicken-leap is where you kind of lean forward and do a sort of
pull-jump and it looks really silly in a kind of person pretending to be a
chicken kind of way. That approach has so far created various humourous
bail-outs, but no success yet.
Spent some time in the park today practicing this, I’ve got a lovely run,
down 13 steps (which I can’t quite ride from the very top) onto a very
short flat bit, down five shallow steps to a short flat section into
either a 1.5 foot dropoff or a lovely long smooth bit in case of
emergencies. There was some kind of snowboard / skateboard show thing
going on, some of them looked a bit surprised seeing me riding down the
steps, although not quite as much as the old grannies walking dogs.
It all started cos I saw some bikers riding steps and found out about this
whole ‘urban freeride’ thingy or whatever they call it this week.
Well, for riding down stairs I just suggest to keep practicing and gaining confidence because once you have enough confidence, you can ride long, steep, curvy steps. What I do is just pull up on seat and slow my self-down.
But, then for ridding up stairs, I have never heard of this, but you have enticed me and I am now going to try this.
-bert
i am a glorified bunny rabbit. I always hop up and down stairs which at times can be pain stakingly slow. This however has more to do with my uni. I only have a 20inch wheel and so if i try and ride down stairs straight on the whell generally catches on every steps bucking all very the place, I think though if you use a larger wheel you shul dbe able to ride on the front edge of the steps and then it would be just like hills. I hop up stairs and haven’t ever thought about riding up them, keep me posted on how your going, i’m interested to see how things turn out. You could try grinding the hand rails? if the steps have them that is. Does anymore know anything about a brand on unicycle called Pro? Pro/Cons/Quality?
My problem with riding down stairs is what sometimes happens at the
bottom. You don’t have control of what your pedal position will be at the
bottom. If the pedals are vertical when you hit the bottom it can sting
your ankle just like if you did a drop with the same pedal position. It
doesn’t really hurt too much, but it doesn’t feel good either.
If I can ever figure out how to roll down a flight of stairs without
getting stuck in that vertical pedal position at the bottom…
john_childs
>From: joe_marshall@dropmemail.com (Joe Marshall) > >I’m just learning to ride stairs and am having some success, but I >wondered if anyone has any tips for riding them. >
[snip]
> Does anymore know anything about a brand on unicycle called Pro? > Pro/Cons/Quality?
I have an old one called Pro, from the 70’s. Made in Japan, quality good,
but many, many years out of production. Mine is a 20" that I bought for
$15 in the 1980s from a newspaper ad. It had a bike seat on it and two
left cranks, but was otherwise fine.
> Does anymore know anything about a brand on unicycle called Pro? > Pro/Cons/Quality?
I have an old one called Pro, from the 70’s. Made in Japan, quality good,
but many, many years out of production. Mine is a 20" that I bought for
$15 in the 1980s from a newspaper ad. It had a bike seat on it and two
left cranks, but was otherwise fine.