After the popular street discussion thread, I thought it would be a good idea to start something similar.
Discuss anything trials:
-technique
-accomplishments
-questions/answers (all welcome)
-parts evaluation and comparison
-trials courses
etc.
I love trials, but I fear that street is starting to become more popular.
Trials is awesome. It’s simplicty is appealing.
Who is your favorite rider? (Including style and ability)
I personally like Ryan Atkins lazy style and amazing precision.
Tom Pec’s my favorite rider from what I’ve seen of him.
I used to be able to up 60cm with a sidehop, but now I can’t even do four pallets(54cm) properly. I can rolling hop up the four pallets very consistently now(if I get the guts) which I couldn’t do before at all. Isn’t this funny. Comes with lack of practice, I suppose, but I should have much more free time soon.
Ryan Atkins is great. I also really like Zack Baldwin, but he doesn’t ride anymore. And I loved Nicolaj(spl?) from Fluck, he’s insane.
Its hard to say who my favorite is. Ryan is up there, as with Tom Pec. I have seen way more of Ryan though. Id like to see a full trials video of Tom.
Hmm, I cant really say much more, because I havent rode for almost a month now. Waiting for my torn ligaments to bond back together before I can do any jumping and wrecking again.
Who’s Tom Pec, if you don’t mind me asking? I’d like to see some videos.
Ive only seen him at the ends of some Koxx videos. There is one they made called ‘Koxx <3 Fluck’ or something like that, and he has a few moments in there.
Don’t worry about that. Just do what you love doing.
The sport’s very young, and there are many directions you can take each discipline in. Look how Zack integrated street into his trials. Or, what about Keaton Miller? What do you call his riding style, strials?
MUni was the first ‘extreme’ side of unicycling to be popular, and then with Kris Holm, Universe 1, and Profile cranks Trials gained more popularity because it was something new. Suddenly a new field of possibilities cropped up for unicyclists. And of course people like Heaton were laying down the law with street back in 2000, but it took people until Universe 2 to really catch up, and the amount of street riders started growing. The second and third wave of riders to come along since those movies have really revolutionized the sport. They made it new and exciting. Also, there have been a large number of prominent street riders who possess unique styles all to their own. I don’t know how many riders have their own styles anymore since street’s starting to have trends just like any other street sport.
Who knows. Maybe something else, or someone else will come along and do something new that a lot of people will get excited about and want to join in on, too.
I will commend anyone that’s proudly doing their own thing, regardless of what’s popular. Make up your own style, your own hybrid of unicycling. Take what’s out there and view it in a different context, a different way, and go for it.
Even if trials were seen as completely stupid I would still be riding it, because that’s what I love. I love that competition with balance, gravity, and my own mental/physical abilities.
Even though “street” is seen as the new, cool side of unicycling, I prefer and always have, trials.
I see trials as going back to the roots of extreme unicycling. Some of the really influential riders from the early days I bet alot of the new “street” kids have never even heard of! Ben Plotkin-Swing, Ben Turley, Joey Cohn, Carl Hoyer and James Cowan, all complete legends and the pioneers of unicycle trials.
My favorite video is still spaced out, by far!
Trials is not dead, and never will be!
Ride on dudes!
Edd
People only judge from this forum and from videos they see. At fluck I noticed that in europe street and trials is nearly same popular. This is crazy because trial is much harder to practise because you always need new spots not like street where a flat space can be enough.
Also street rider have much more to discus in a forum. As a trials rider you basicly do only rails, gaps, ups and drops.
My favourite rider if you judge from style is Zack Baldwin and in skill Ryan Atkins and Kris Holm.
saying trials is ____ and street is bad because its _____ or the other way around is on a small scale how skaters and inline kids are these days. I’d say that street and trials unicycling are VERY similar as they embrace the same balance and principles. Trials riders should play off of street riders they know and the same to street riders for trials cyclists.
How about some trials pics?
It’s hard to guage just how high the hop is, but it’s about 3 feet.
(I’m posting this for any beginners wondering what the apex of a good side-hop looks like. This is an example of good tucking).
When I get into bigger (pre-hop) SIF hops I like to keep my seat away from my head and body. I’ve bumped my seat into my chin before, as well as my collar bone, chest, etc. Not the most fun. Keeping the seat away from me on the bigger hops helps me to angle my unicycle better, if I need to tilt my unicycle to get an extra cm or so.
What do you people do to combat the rubbing on the front/inside of your leg from were the back of the seat rubs when ever you hop or jump? I wear cyling shorts but they dont quite go down that far and I normaly wear cut off jeans but it still rubs realy bad.
that only seems to bother me after very long rides… it used to alot i guess i’ve gotten used to it. My shorts tend to wear down in that area though.
I wear board shorts, or dickies black pants. When you ride SIF you don’t want to have the back of the seat pressing on your pants. You do have it close, but try not to have the back of the seat pushing into your legs.
The more you practice, the better you get at it. And your legs get used to it, the more you ride SIF. One way to practice is what I call the “Baldwin Squats.” To warm up for a trials ride, I take my seat out in front of me, and squat with my unicycle, trying to get down really far while pushing my seat way out in front of me. Then, I ride 100 or so feat seat out, all the while trying to relax my arm and legs into letting me put the seat really far out in front of me, and I also squat down and ride the last half of that 100 feet in this way. It should get to the point, in your riding, that you don’t consciously ‘feel’ your arm holding on to the seat. You’ll be more focused on what you’re riding, what you’re doing, your lines.
It’s the same with hopping. The first time I tried hopping, my fingers hurt the next day from holding on to the seat. The pain didn’t go away until I let things heal, and take hopping one step at a time, until my body was used to it. Now, even wearing gloves, I have callouses on my fingers in the joint areas, where I hold onto my seat.
Hope that helps.
Yeah I love trials. Tis’ why I started you know. I am not very good yet, but that comes with time. I have that problem with my shorts wearing out and the better at sif you get the less it happens/not as bad.
What is you dream trials unicycle? What crankset do you prefer? I got moment 150’s for the trials I am building up.
Good tucking. But a good hop will not come from just tucking the uni all the way to your butt.For example, I can tuck all the way to my butt, but my heigest hop is around 28". You have to learn a few things to work with your tuck to get your maximum hop height. 1) tuck with your legs, don’t bring your upper body down 2)time the tuck with the compression 3) stand up immidiately after landing on the obeject, if you stay tucked you will lose balance pretty easily.
an accomplishment for me? about a week ago (a little over 1 year of trials riding for me) I landed a 27" up static no-prehop. I figure after a couple of rides learning effective prehops i should be able to manage around 30".
and finally, how many people are running 150’s on their trials set up? I have a DX hub, and the 125’s are way to short. I’ve got 150’s from my muni on there right now as an experiement, and i think I’m gonna order a set for my trials uni too.
I run 145mm profiles which are actually 147s. I love the length, it gives great control for rails.
If I really try, I can turn and hit my pedal on the cement. It isn’t a problem.
