Hi freaks,
the grind-videos in the unicyclist gallery are great! I looked these at once and at once…but my question is actually:
On which part of the unicycle must I do a grind ? Do you grind with the bearing, the crank, or with both at the same time ?
Questions over questions…thank you for help.
greetings
-Felix
Hi,
It really depends what you are trying to grind. Grinding really hasn’t been explored too much, so these are just what have worked best for me and my equipment.
Rail: The most accurate and stable way is on the pedal alone. The crank is much faster, but it often causes your wheel to turn slightly and pinch against the rail, causing you to fly forward. It is also harder to make forward and backward adjustments with your body, because you are “locked in” where with the pedal you can tilt and lean because the wheel can rotate to make small adjustments (basically you can move your non-grinding pedal up and down). As you jump at the rail you want to slighty rotate your cranks backwards, just as if you are going for a pedal grab. This will block your crank from catching to rail. Then you are gonna want to pull up on the seat to keep your pedal from dropping down. You can also use your heel to brake by pushing it against the rail (this will usually happen automatically if you start to lean backwards too much. Really the only way you can learn to do a rail is to just go for it. I learned by just forward hoping onto a rail instead of riding at it. This helps to take some of the fear away from it.
Ledge, or any other kind of flat surface: This can be done on the pedal, or both the pedal and crank. It just depends on the type of surface. When grinding on both you can control the pressure put down on the pedal on pushing forward with you foot, or slightly lifing it. This can help you grind farther. Grinding on the crank and pedal also make it easier to do tricks during and out of grinds. I have only been able to grind a flat ledge for 5 or 6 feet because you lose your speed really fast. I know people have welded flat surfaces to their pedals to help them slide better.
Hope this helps. Please feel free to add to or disagree with anything I have posted.
-Dan
Hi Dan,
wow! Thank you for this big posting. I see you know what
grinding means. I the next minutes I’ll read the text once
more to understand really everyone of your hints. Grinding
with the unicycle looks very impressive and cool, I like it.
And all tricks which are looks nice…must be learned 
In my next unicycle session I’ll search a little (!) rail to train
the basic’s of grinding. If you say that trying is the best way,
I’ll try it. But unfortunately it is raining all the time here in
germany. And at the time I did’nt have a place to ride unicycle on
a dry ground…maybe the sun comes
…next tricks to learn: grinding - gliding
thank you very much
and greetings from germany - where it could be more sunnier…
-Felix
ps: do you welded plates onto your pedals too ?
Re: trials - grinding ?
Thanks for the write up. Grinding’s been something I’ve wanted to try for
some time (I’m still looking for somewhere non-suicidal to make my first
attempts) but ain’t had much of a clue as to what to actually try when I
find my spot to try them.
You mention folks fixing flat plates to their pedals. This is a bit overkill
for me so what kind of pedals work well for you? I imagine plastic would
slide well but die very quickly. i guess taking pins out of metal platforms
would be the best solution???
Cheers,
Neil
----- Original Message -----
From: “uniryder” <uniryder.13x1n@timelimit.unicyclist.com>
Newsgroups: rec.sport.unicycling
To: <rsu@unicycling.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: trials - grinding ?
>
> Hi,
>
> It really depends what you are trying to grind. Grinding really hasn’t
> been explored too much, so these are just what have worked best for me
> and my equipment.
>
> Rail: The most accurate and stable way is on the pedal alone. The crank
> is much faster, but it often causes your wheel to turn slightly and
> pinch against the rail, causing you to fly forward. It is also harder
> to make forward and backward adjustments with your body, because you are
> “locked in” where with the pedal you can tilt and lean because the wheel
> can rotate to make small adjustments (basically you can move your
> non-grinding pedal up and down). As you jump at the rail you want to
> slighty rotate your cranks backwards, just as if you are going for a
> pedal grab. This will block your crank from catching to rail. Then you
> are gonna want to pull up on the seat to keep your pedal from dropping
> down. You can also use your heel to brake by pushing it against the
> rail (this will usually happen automatically if you start to lean
> backwards too much. Really the only way you can learn to do a rail is
> to just go for it. I learned by just forward hoping onto a rail instead
> of riding at it. This helps to take some of the fear away from it.
>
> Ledge, or any other kind of flat surface: This can be done on the
> pedal, or both the pedal and crank. It just depends on the type of
> surface. When grinding on both you can control the pressure put down on
> the pedal on pushing forward with you foot, or slightly lifing it. This
> can help you grind farther. Grinding on the crank and pedal also make
> it easier to do tricks during and out of grinds. I have only been able
> to grind a flat ledge for 5 or 6 feet because you lose your speed really
> fast. I know people have welded flat surfaces to their pedals to help
> them slide better.
>
> Hope this helps. Please feel free to add to or disagree with anything I
> have posted.
>
> -Dan
>
>
> –
> uniryder
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> uniryder’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/376
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/16768
>
>
> rec.sport.unicycling mailing list -
www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu