Now that we have more or less worked out the physics behind
stillstanding (in Andrew Carter’s thread with the funny title), I felt
inspired to finally try this skill. I practiced for about half an hour
and got a couple of times to 6 or 7 seconds. Not much maybe but it
felt great to be able to ‘flip’ the balance from left to right and
v.v., according to ‘theory’.
Questions:
A. Is there any ‘best’ way to start standstills? I tried from holding
onto something (got to longest times), from riding then stopping (only
about 3 seconds max), and from hopping (3 seconds, and tiring).
B. Weight on seat or on pedals? Intuitively I put most weight on
pedals, it seemed to help. Maybe because having support at a lower
height improves stability?
C. I have the pedals in power position and I think I do very small
pedal movements for fore-aft balance. If so, it happens at an
unconscious level. Is this considered cheating?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray. - UniBrier
When I stillstand it is normally while hopping…so I’m not even touching the seat except with my legs…(seat-in hopping) so all the pressure is on the pedals…this is really the only use i see for stillstands. So you hop pause hop pause till you jump, as it’s much less tiring and you get a higher jump than just hop hop hop hop…
I haven’t yet decided whether I prefer standing up for stillstands or sitting. I did about a 10 second one yesterday on top of a wooden rail sort of thing. I was standing and holding the seat with one hand. That was from a freemount and half a revolution of riding. I think I generally prefer going from idling though…I’m not sure.
You just started stillstanding and you’re already doing 6-7 seconds? That’s amazing. Well done.
>A. Is there any ‘best’ way to start stand stills? I tried from holding
>onto something (got to longest times), from riding then stopping (only
>about 3 seconds max), and from hopping (3 seconds, and tiring).
Having a support to hold onto would be best, so one can start the
still stand in a (close to) perfectly balanced state. Also, one can grab
the support occasionally to prevent a fall and start a new still stand
rather than waste time actually falling and than remounting.
>B. Weight on seat or on pedals? Intuitively I put most weight on
>pedals, it seemed to help. Maybe because having support at a lower
>height improves stability?
Do whatever works best. Equal force on the pedals must be applied to
keep the wheel from moving relative to the frame.
>C. I have the pedals in power position and I think I do very small
>pedal movements for fore-aft balance. If so, it happens at an
>unconscious level. Is this considered cheating?
No wheel movement relative to the frame is allowed. If such movement
occurs, one is doing horizontal idling rather than a still stand. Yes,
wheel movement relative to the frame would be considered cheating while
doing a still stand.
>You just started stillstanding and you’re already doing 6-7 seconds?
>That’s amazing. Well done.
Thanks but two disclaimers:
I may have made small ‘horizontal idling’ movements (not sure)
which as Ken Fuchs confirmed is cheating. Funnily enough, I have some
time ago tried to do horizontal idling and couldn’t get it to work
yet.
I start from a near-perfect balance state.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray. - UniBrier
>I think your seat height makes a big difference in if you can stand or
>sit to do long still stands.
Can you elaborate what the best seat height is? Whatever my seat
height, I can always stand and lift my bottom from the seat. (This
must be obvious.) However, if I say ‘weight on pedals’, that really
means /most/ weight on pedals but still sitting on the seat. Next time
I’ll try 100% standing and see how that works. I have the feeling it
would be more difficult as you have less contact with the uni
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray. - UniBrier
Relaxing is definately possible. This evening I tried stillstanding starting from a mount, to a few hops, to a stillstand. I think I got maybe 4 or 5 seconds one of my tries. but I was sitting and pretty relaxed, although it did hurt the ankle a little (it hasnt really been used for anything like this for almost 6 months).
Personally on the seat height, I prefer it so when sitting with the cranks level it’s comfortable to sit or stand, although I cant really think of a way to quantify that level.
>When I still stand it is normally while hopping…so I’m not even
>touching the seat except with my legs…(seat-in hopping) so all the
>pressure is on the pedals…this is really the only use i see for
>still stands. So you hop pause hop pause till you jump, as it’s much less
>tiring and you get a higher jump than just hop hop hop hop…
If the pause is at least three seconds and one is balancing during it
using tight wire sideways balance reflexes and (modified) coasting
forward/backward balance reflexes, then the pause is a true still stand.
Otherwise, the pause is simply a freeze in riding position (call it a
pause) until balance is lost to a degree in which a hop in the direction
of the fall is desired and performed.
My point is that a freeze in position between hops without still stand
balance reflexes being can’t be called a still stand. Calling it a
freeze or (simply a) pause would be more accurate.
As to the the usefulness of any unicycling skill, that would depend on
the rider and his purpose in riding. Learning a still stand can clearly
be an end in itself, to use it in a standard skill routine, or even to
use it as a muni way of resting a few minutes on a boulder.
>My point is that a freeze in position between hops without still stand
>balance reflexes being can’t be called a still stand. Calling it a
>freeze or (simply a) pause would be more accurate.
Point taken, and it may be that my 2-3 seconds stillstands from
hopping and from riding are merely ‘pauses’ although I /tried/ at
least to balance actively.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray. - UniBrier
yes, this has been done. when I practice in the gym I almost always have some sort of music playing…so I have used that to gauge my SS times. on several occasions I’ve started a SS before a song began and finished after the song was over. I’ve done SS’s through songs that were over 4 minutes. other times I’ve gone through a couple shorter songs that exceeded 5 minutes in length.
This was done on a 20" freestyle uni with 110mm cranks and a 20x1.85 Primo “The Wall” tyre.
It is important to relax because after 2-3 minutes weird things can start happening…if you’re not relaxed the tension can cause muscle spasms and your legs will start to shake uncontrollably…unless you can relax and control the uncontrolled spasm. This is really something weird to experience, but really cool when you learn how to overcome it.
for Harper: I was sitting while answering this standing question.
I agree with Andrew, five minutes is amazing. Well done Dustin. Does the titanium knee aid or hinder you? It would look pretty cool when you approach a red light or a pedestrian crossing, instead of dismounting, hopping on the spot, or idling, you would be able to just sit there still standing until it is your right of way. I bet when the wind is gusting it would make stillstands much more difficult (not like they aren’t tricky already).
I will run anywhere from 40-60psi depending on the type of riding surface.
Since I broke my leg and had the reconstruction done I haven’t done any 5ivers, but I have managed 2-3 minutes. When the time starts getting up there I do notice some added pain in the knee. According to the Doc I could be in “recovery” for another year.
This is essentially how I cut my teeth on the SS, except I did this on two wheels. I got pretty proficient at the “track stand” on two wheels back when I did some b*ke racing. The worst thing is being clipped in at traffic light and tipping over in front of everyone that’s watching you try to balance through the duration of the red! Once you lose your balance it’s all slow motion from there until you hit the pavement and flop around like a fish out of water because your feet are locked into those dern clipless pedals.
