the "death" of Muni...

General
1

PLEASE read all that i have to say before posting anything…i cant stress this enough, because i am tired of repeating things.

My reasoning for believing muni is “dead”: By Justin Kohse :slight_smile:

So from what ive gathered since i posted the “Is muni dead” thread, a lot of people have taken what ive said and tried to prove me wrong by throwing statements after they’ve posted a video, or in some cases right in the title, " MUNI IS NOT DEAD! ITS ALIVE etc…, but without knowing it they have all just proven my initial statement to be correct.

In a sense, yes, Muni has died…Watching the progression of street and trials within the last 5 years has absolutely blown my mind! i am amazed at the level our sport has reached in such a short amount of time. But sadly, IMO one of the biggest and best disciplines of unicycling has been tossed by the wayside and turned more into a “leisure” style of riding instead of being pushed like the rest. I myself am guilty of falling into this, so i am just as much to blame as everyone else. I got sucked into street and improving my trials and technical skills whenever i had the time. But it has just been within the last few months that i realized how much i really missed being covered in mud and deep within BC’s amazing back country. Slowly ive been re-gaining what i had lost over the past few years and it feels good, so good that im going to continue to push the limits and prove not only to myself but to everyone here that muni is still alive and moving forward.

don’t you want to be apart of this? don’t you want to see Muni back at the in the game? lets push it to the limits, but dont just stop there…thats what happened last time.

now lets discuss this and

  • Justin Kohse

p.s. yes i am still working on BBM, im currently in the stage of figuring out how i can get dylan wallinger back on his 24"…

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I don’t think it so dead really.

If you go riding with other riders nowadays, the standard is way way higher than it used to be in 2001 when I first started riding muni much and going to the British Muni Weekends. It used to be that a 6 inch drop would be too much for a large proportion of riders - nowadays many people will happily jump off a 2 foot or bigger drop.

Riding recently with Steve Colligan, Edd & Leo, Dane, all scarily good technical UK riders, was pretty cool - we rode stuff that I’d attempt the easiest lines on, and they were jumping off the sides, and watching Steve & Dane ride something I only know as the ‘suicide trail’, an unwalkably steep trail, made out of hundreds of successive rock drops, with mud in between, that was just more than anything I’ve seen in the past - even riding with people like Kris Holm, I never saw them do anything quite so technical quite so fast.

Oh and seeing the way Leo hits everything on a 24 with 125mm cranks at about 3 times the speed everyone else rides - going over stuff that most people would find hard at normal speed. As well as purely technical riding, speed is a big way to push muni, that just isn’t there in trials and street, and there are quite a few of us really pushing to speed things up, I think Leo is by far the fastest muni rider I’ve ridden with, although there are others who are really pushing the speed over long distances, and over uphills.

Oh yeah, uphill riding - I think that is something a few people have really pushed, mostly people who ride less technical stuff, but as well there has been a general increase in what people are able to ride upwards.

As well as technical stuff, people are really pushing the distance, amount of descent and ascent etc. Crazy stuff like Steve C’s big rides in Tibet (and his downhilling trips are pretty far out too), the Great Divide ride and probably other things like that, people are doing rides that no-one would have thought possible ten years ago. I remember the first BMW I went to in I think 2001, we did something like 15 miles of riding over the weekend. By 2003, I ran a muni weekend with 30 miles of riding over the weekend, quite a few people since then have done rides over 40 miles on normal munis.

Joe

3

Strong coffee sometimes does that to me too.

Muni is dead like rock and roll.

I shall keep on rocking, and I shall keep on rolling.

I shall keep on doing stuff on my Muni that most people on mountainbikes don’t even try, not because I’m particularly good, but because most mountainbikers are mediocre.

If someone else is far better at trials or street than I am at Muni, I shall wish them well - but I will be mystified as to why what they do in their leisure time apparently isn’t classed as “leisure riding”.

We all take up this sport because we’re non conformist. Please stop trying to put rule on our non-conformity - unless of course you want to, to show that you are different from other non-conformists.

As for pushing the limits: the only limits worth pushing are your own, because there will always be someone better either now or coming along soon.

Clarification: When I started to type, Joe’s post hadn’t been posted.

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please show me a Muni video that is HALF as good as Kris Holms section in NWD.

so i guess we’re leaving to 3 to 5 muni riders to pick up the slack for everyone else then? telling us people are doing wonderful things in Muni doesnt make up for the fact that anyone barely see’s anything. less talk, more get of your ass, get up the mountain.

also,

i ride my unicycle because i enjoy it. not because i’m a non-conformist. So lets keep it on the topic of the future of mountain unicycling. I’m wanting to HELP with the state Muni is in, not bash it.

BTW, NWD is almost 9 years old now.

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no.

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ok, your rides are badass, YES. im not disagreeing with you or anyone on that.

but as a WHOLE, look at the entire MUNI scene.
then get back to me.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4sMT6r2V6A

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over here in europe the scene is growing, at least what’s going on at conventions. three years ago there where almost none muni event’s, now there are muni only events in germany, italy, switzerland, liechtenstein (more then 50 participants), croatia and more and with the “Grischa Muni challange 2010” which you’ll paticipate as well (looks like that on fb) it will start a new kind of muni events!

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im not worried about the growth of muni, i know a lot of people ride muni. My concern is with the stage its its at.

oh and that video was badass, the riding was awesome. Almost equally as good as a 9 year old kris holm section. You see, this is the problem guys! it hasn’t improved… *cough freeride muni *cough

some adaptation is in order.

10

Street and Trials can be done almost anywhere (you can build trials props and stairs, curbs and walls are everywhere) … whereas MUni is dependent on “your” natural environment. We can’t all live and ride where Turtle does or where KH did his riding in Vancouver. I do think that Kris Holm is gifted … our Lance Armstrong so to speak.
The fact that MUni is stamina, uphill, downhill, technical, mud, sand, leaves, rocks, sticks, gravel, streams ans so on… makes it unique.
I personally am too old to “push” it … I just like doing it.
If it gets pushed … I am all for it.
In my opinion MUni is fine just being what it is.
Shug

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ah ok, now i get you… that’s true, the problem is that kh set the limit pretty high…

…but give us a little time, we’ll catch up :smiley:

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Intense Muni is a LOT harder to film than the crazyist flatland or street. You can hand a video camera to just about anyone and have them film a stairset or something, but finding someone that can film well on steep mountian tarrain is a bit harder.
The muni sceen exists but is much less videographed plus I think there is less funding put into making muni vid then the street videos being put out.
I only get footage from about 1 of every 20 rides I go on.
Also good technical muni terrian is alot harder to come by than citys and skateparks. - my 2 cents
Your lucky you live in BC, I sure wish I did.

Muni Lives On.

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All you’ve noticed is that muni videos are much much harder to make than street / trials videos. It’s dead easy to video something that happens in a small area than something that happens on a 10 mile long trail. Riding for muni videos sucks because you can’t just ride the trail quickly - I bet that KH video a)took ages to film, b)took loads of camera gear and probably multiple cameramen. Obviously you can helmet cam or hand-held cam things, but you still need to ride sections a bunch of times and/or use multiple cameras to get a decent muni video, and it does spoil the ride.

So basically, just because you aren’t seeing people put up tons of videos, doesn’t mean people aren’t riding. Like Turtle says - loads of muni events and riders in Europe. I’ve pretty much exclusively ridden locally (within muni riding distance of my house) this year, and even here I’ve probably ridden with something like 15 different riders, there have also been two national muni weekends, several one off ride down mountain type meetups, and probably loads more that I haven’t remembered, and that’s in a pretty small country. To find out about where riding is going, you just need to meet up with people and head out on rides.

Personally, this year, I’ve been pushing my technical level (although it still isn’t up there with the great riders I’ve ridden with), consistency of riding over technical stuff, and speed and distance - I’ve done some 40 mile+ rides over proper trails.

The only place where I would slightly agree with you on, is that once you start riding regularly and pushing the level of your riding, the number of people who want to come on your rides goes down a bit. I have to admit, the last really long ride I planned, I ended up doing solo, as the amount of climbing scared people off. I think there are probably 4 or 5 people in the UK who’d happily do a 45 mile technical muni ride, and they all live in quite different places which is a pain.

Joe

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so when somethings hard to do you guys just give up?

interesting…
then i stand corrected, the future progression of Muni is screwed.

also, i know its harder to film muni. Not impossible, but a little trickier.

15

Are you really reading all these discussion comments?

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our sport THRIVES on videos. I dont think unicycling would be where its at today without everyones online vids. Riders basically using each other to push the limits of things being tried.

It doesnt often happen in muni…so yes i read these. All of them, now im wondering if you are?

im gunning for change here, not fighting it.

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I just don’t see where you got …“so when somethings hard to do you guys just give up?”
I don’t give up … hell I am 51 and still make time to ride and come home battered. Just for fun. I am alive when I’m out there. There may be things that I cannot do but I try and try.
That is what I was referring to…
As I read the other posts I did not interpret anyone "giving up when things get hard.
Hey … I support your gunning. Ride.
Thats all.

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Trials and Street do, you mean.

Distance, muni, and to some extent freestyle, all seem to be less about films and more about just getting out and riding. With muni, that isn’t the end of the world, as you often have to travel to ride anyway, so people tend to meet up with others at good riding spots. Yeah, you have to put in more effort to meet better riders, but actually going for a ride with someone beats watching them on film (and definitely beats filming videos yourself).

Joe

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really?

FILM, FOOTAGE, VIDEO.

each of those quotes start off with someone complaining that its difficult to film, or they just dont want to. like i said, this sport has grown because of online videos and you just dont much ground breaking stuff as you use to.

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and why cant Muni be apart of that too?

i highly suggest never filming by yourself, EVER. Especially when riding Muni…way to dangerous.

i do and HAVE gone on plenty of muni rides where filming is not the goal of the day. I have also done that when riding street and trials.

So much more can be accomplished and we are not tapping into the full potential of mountain unicycling. A lot needs to be explored, we had an awesome starting point now we just need to keep it going.