Unicon 18

[jaco_flans]

@johnfoss

I’m in San Sebastian! We arrived a day early from our traveling around other parts of Spain. I only brought one unicycle; the 24" with the thick red rim shown above. My trusty Wilder Muni has had worn-out bearings for a few years now. They creak! I ordered some new ones, which turned out to be the wrong size (inner diameter). After my local bike shop was unable to replace those with some BMX bottom bracket bearings (also off by a bit), time was very short. My wonderful wife said “How old is that uni?” I got it in 2003. “Well maybe it’s time for a new one?” YES! I got hold of Roger Davies, to confirm he would be able to bring what I’ve been wanting for a few years now, a KH 26". It’ll be the first pure KH unicycle I’ve owned! :):)

Hey John, for the bearing issue, check around if you have a bearing supplier local, I got bearings for my good ol’ Profile hub with my local bearing store! Hard to find but I got them!

[pierrox]

John,
Congrats on your first KH, does that also mean your first uni with brakes?
And welcome to San Sebastian.
We will visit next week for a day or so, part of our road trip, with the hope of meeting some people we know on this forum - and some IRL. You might spot us in a green version of a vehicle I saw on some of your old photos…
Now I have to see which uni can fit with all the camping gear!

[LanceB]

FYI, Josh Stinton was just live streaming from San Sebastian (on Facebook). Is anyone else doing that? Very cool way to see what’s going on there, even though I’m stuck here in L.A.!

[pierrox]

Thanks for that suggestion!
There’s also Paul Sergent who films a lot of stuff live and not live:
https://www.facebook.com/paulsergentunicyclist/
I don’t think you need to be registered to watch his feed.

[LanceB]

Thanks pierrox! It’s great to see what’s going on over there!

(I didn’t think to add a link to Josh’s page, so here it is. I don’t know if everyone can see it or not, but here it is anyway. https://www.facebook.com/josh.stinton )

[Vertigo]

Fyi

There are live streams on the Unicon 18 Facebook page.

[wobbling_bear]

@Vertigo

There are live streams on the Unicon 18 Facebook page.

do you have to be registered on Facebook? (don’t want to do that)

now: organizing UNICON is a huge, big, fantastic work (kudos for doing that!)… but I fear providing feedback that may hurt some feelings … how and where to say that DH was perfectly organized:) and CrossCountry was xxxxxx:o ?

[Siddhartha_Valmont]

@wobbling bear

and CrossCountry was xxxxxx:o ?

Cross-Country could have learnt from DH management ?

[OneTrackMind]

Waylon Batt’s Slopestyle win even made it onto the ABC (Australia’s public broadcaster) News Facebook page.

Don’t know if it actually made it to TV but I hope so.

[wobbling_bear]

@Siddhartha Valmont

Cross-Country could have learnt from DH management ?

Xcountry was in a public park of Donostia: harder to manage than the slopes of Usurbe mountain. (DH could mark the tracks 2 days before, Xcountry could not the day before: so there are excuses)
This said when you arrive at the top of the slope panting like mad, willing to finish a race in which you were miserable and riding awfully (too technical, then too long and hard to climb) and then you hear “race cancelled!” … you have reasons for regrets
Happily the bar was open at that time

[Vertigo]

You don’t need to be a Facebook member to see the videos. Just search for “Unicon 18” on Google or here’s link I’m using.

Unicon 18

Sorry to hear about an event being canceled. Seems like they’re short on volunteers. Such a big job to organize a huge event like this. Hats off for all the hard work.

[johnfoss]

@pierrox

Congrats on your first KH, does that also mean your first uni with brakes?

My first uni with brake was my 2002 Coker Deluxe, which was the demo model at Unicon 11. But my only other brake was recently added to my KH/Schlumpf 36". I never had a Muni with a brake. So far, I find it’s much easier to control on the smaller wheel than on the big one…

@wobbling bear

…organizing UNICON is a huge, big, fantastic work (kudos for doing that!)… but I fear providing feedback that may hurt some feelings … how and where to say that DH was perfectly organized:) and CrossCountry was xxxxxx:o ?

Yes, the XC had two big problems. First one was in the Advanced/Elite/lotta climbing race. Apparently there was one spot where it was possible for racers to make a wrong choice and some of the elite riders went the wrong way, which messed up their times. After much discussion, it was determined there was no way to fix this without re-running the race (which the riders wanted), because there was no time. We had to be finished with the park at noon.

Second problem was with the “Beginner” race. That race used one of the two loops of the Advanced/Elite race, but was still the one that included part of the famous Camino Del Norte, a very popular hiking trail that runs along the northern coast of spain. Apparently one or more hikers got fed up with a unicycle race being on “their” trail, and took down some of the course marking tapes. This sent riders into a highly technical downhill section (slippery rocks), and otherwise off the course with no way to tell which way to go. Again, due to the time factor there was no way to fix it because they had to re-open the trails
within an hour or so. So very sad for the riders and organizers alike.

Lutz Eicholz, the Muni Director, apologized at the beginning of his explanation about the elite race, saying it was his fault about the unclear marking of that course. As always, more volunteers would have helped to make things run smoother.

[Pinoclean]

@johnfoss

My first uni with brake was my 2002 Coker Deluxe, which was the demo model at Unicon 11. But my only other brake was recently added to my KH/Schlumpf 36". I never had a Muni with a brake. So far, I find it’s much easier to control on the smaller wheel than on the big one…

Yes, the XC had two big problems. First one was in the Advanced/Elite/lotta climbing race. Apparently there was one spot where it was possible for racers to make a wrong choice and some of the elite riders went the wrong way, which messed up their times. After much discussion, it was determined there was no way to fix this without re-running the race (which the riders wanted), because there was no time. We had to be finished with the park at noon.

Second problem was with the “Beginner” race. That race used one of the two loops of the Advanced/Elite race, but was still the one that included part of the famous Camino Del Norte, a very popular hiking trail that runs along the northern coast of spain. Apparently one or more hikers got fed up with a unicycle race being on “their” trail, and took down some of the course marking tapes. This sent riders into a highly technical downhill section (slippery rocks), and otherwise off the course with no way to tell which way to go. Again, due to the time factor there was no way to fix it because they had to re-open the trails
within an hour or so. So very sad for the riders and organizers alike.

Lutz Eicholz, the Muni Director, apologized at the beginning of his explanation about the elite race, saying it was his fault about the unclear marking of that course. As always, more volunteers would have helped to make things run smoother.

I feel one of the issues is that muni often requires a vast army of volunteers but few muni riders volunteer. It would help if we tried to organise a system where two waves of competitors were created, each having to volunteer for the other. If you want to compete, you need to help out your own discipline to run its event. Well done to those riders that did volunteer though.

[wobbling_bear]

@johnfoss

Second problem was with the “Beginner” race. That race used one of the two loops of the Advanced/Elite race, but was still the one that included part of the famous Camino Del Norte, a very popular hiking trail that runs along the northern coast of spain. Apparently one or more hikers got fed up with a unicycle race being on “their” trail, and took down some of the course marking tapes. This sent riders into a highly technical downhill section (slippery rocks), and otherwise off the course with no way to tell which way to go. Again, due to the time factor there was no way to fix it because they had to re-open the trails
within an hour or so. So very sad for the riders and organizers alike.

thanks for the explanation: most of us were not aware of that (information flow is always a problem!) . So our excuses to organizers for venting out our frustration.
(but was the initial design of the trail conformant to the Xcountry principles that were put in the discipline description on the web site? "Off-road race where multiple waves of unicyclists ride along a rugged course consisting of uphill, downhill and long moderate difficulty flat sections. ")

[Vertigo]

I volunteered for the stillstand event earlier today and was happy to pitch in. It seemed a bit disorganized since I don’t speak German and didn’t know much about the competition before hand.

Just got an email about the marathon tomorrow. They’re looking for volunteers to record numbers at both ends of the race. She sounds desperate for help.

[Vertigo]

The marathon was cut short. Apparently the police decided to open the roads before the event was scheduled to be over. I did 21 miles before the course was open to cars and tons of pedestrians crossing the roads to get to the beach. I was well within the posted cut off.

I understand that these types of events are difficult to plan but I’m still disappointed. Not sure I’ll attend another Unicon. It’s not worth the effort if events are cancelled.

[Gilby]

@LanceB

FYI, Josh Stinton was just live streaming from San Sebastian (on Facebook). Is anyone else doing that?

Most expert and group freestyle at: https://www.youtube.com/user/ibini1000
Official unicon clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCylBOAMG-uvYzBh-HXmyeug
Livestreams from Unicon 18 facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UniconDonostia/

[onlyneedsone]

Do they have the full trials final anywhere? I know they have the full flatland battles on fb.

[vookash]

@Vertigo

The marathon was cut short. Apparently the police decided to open the roads before the event was scheduled to be over. I did 21 miles before the course was open to cars and tons of pedestrians crossing the roads to get to the beach. I was well within the posted cut off.

I understand that these types of events are difficult to plan but I’m still disappointed. Not sure I’ll attend another Unicon. It’s not worth the effort if events are cancelled.

Damn, that’s a pity. Does anybody know why police decided to do that? How many riders were affected? I did some shopping after the race and I was surprised on my way back that the traffic is already again.

[leo]

@Gilby

Most expert and group freestyle

I’ve got all junior expert and expert (ind/pair) and all group (small/large) freestyle, and much of age groups. It will need cutting and cropping, and then will be on UTV (just subscribe to the RSS).

@Gilby: you were not there?