I’ve been trying to ride down stairs the last couple of nights. Having trouble…seem to wipe out by third to fourth step. Any advice?
I’ve been practicing stairs too latley, after not doing it for 3 years i was sort of scared. so what i did is start on the 2 step and ride down after your comterble with that move up a step and repeat till your a pro!
Reed’s advice about starting small and working up is good. Also try stair sets of different widths. There’s definitely a difference in riding small stairs vs. wide stairs, and it helps to “feel” the difference.
Take a little weight off the seat (not all) and sit up straight. That should help you balance; as the seat drops out from under you (with each stair) you don’t want to get bounced around! Use your legs to absorb some of the bumpiness.
Try and maintain your speed… fight the tendency to speed up! Also maintain your direction… take a straight line down the stairs. Keeping a firm grip on your handle should help with these actions.
Good luck! Let us know how things go.
Thanks guys. I went out tonite to practice some more. I started with 3 steps, and I can successfully make it. I think the hardest part is losing the fear…but I’m not afraid to keep trying.
Stand off the seat, and note that certain step sizes are much more difficult on certain sized unis. If you stand the wheel on one step and it only just has room to land before dropping ot the next step then it will be pretty hard to ride that flight on that uni. Shorter steps allow you to ride the set as a smooth slope, longer steps let you ride each step individually.
There’s a trick to it, you have to be going at the right speed or the whole thing starts going wrong. I’ve ridden some seriously steep flights where the steps themselves were only around 5 inches deep, and its just a case of keeping on the edges of each stair. Practise on small flights, work your way up to bigger ones, and eventually you’ll find a flight thats great to practice on, you feel comfortable with and you can then start varying the speed at which you attack it. I’ve been riding stairs for a pretty long time, and I still get the odd flight where the stairs are all different depths, and that’s almost thrown me off a few times…
Loose.
The only trick is to think of stairs/steps as a bumpy hill.
When folk at the juggling club ask me how to ride down stairs, I tell them “It’s just a bumpy hill”
With this in your head it won’t matter what size/how steep a set is, just keep pedalling until you hit the bottom, and then keep pedalling some more. You don’t want to make it down a set and then come off at the bottom!
Sure, certain sizes/shapes are easier but if you don’t think of them as stairs you’ll be fine.
T.
In case it wasn’t mentioned above, DON’T TRY TO GO SLOW. You really have to plow down to keep yourself rolling. If you try to break it down step by step, eventually you’ll notch in somewhere with a bad pedal position and that’ll be it.
Also a fat tire with low pressure really helps. A skinny tire with high pressure is a lot harder! (and a skinny tire with low pressure is a bad idea)
don’t think of them as stairs…think of the whole stairset as a really bumpy hill. that said, ride fast, lean forward a little, and keep pedalling no matter what. and stay on the seat.
pull up on that handle for all you’re worth, that’ll help keep your speed from getting away from you and it’ll help keep the uni underneath you. also, everyone elses advice is pretty good too.
I think that I have been going too slow. After a few steps, my tire starts to skid, and then I lose control.
I like that idea about the bumpy hill…I’m gonna try to think that way tonite. I guess half the game is a mental game (good thing I’m mental then).
Thanks for all the tips everyone.