Is anybody into unicycle racing? For the last couple of years I have been
unicycle racing at competitions. This last summer a group of us got really into
training for racing, it was our life at times. One of the people who I trained
with, Evelyn (sander@s6.math.umn.edu), mentioned that I should post my unicycle
racing training suggestions. After the summer was over I wrote up all a list of
suggestions that were benificial to unicycle racing (and can be carried over to
other sports). If people are interested I can post the suggestions. Or if
anybody wants tips on how to go fast on a unicycle (besides the obvious of
leaning forward and pedal) I can be some help.
Andy B. Cotter CAE UW - Madison cotter@cae.wisc.edu Application Support
Sure- send me the details. I’d like to know what a racing unicycle looks like.
Is it like the racing bicycles? What do you do when your unicycle begins to
wobble due to the pumping of legs?
I’m interested in the uni racing suggestions. Pleas post! When yo race, do you
have all the same wheel sizes compete against each other? Seems unfair to pit
a 16" against a 26" – or even a 20" versus a 24", for that matter.
Being new to this myself…I just noticed… that your responding to a post that is 16 years old… He may not be racing anymore! (or perhaps he is really really good by now?)
Andy Cotter still knows a lot about racing. In RTL he acted as support for Team Venus. I expect he’ll also be among the team hosting NAUCC this year in Minneapolis. NAUCC has a million racing age categories.
The results from the 1993 National Unicycle Meet were not posted online. The earliest set of online results are from 1995. Andy beat me in the 100m, which means he was practicing! Also he dominated the 1600m race by a very wide margin.
That’s 24" track racing. It’s getting a little archaic these days, with all the 29" and 36" unicycles around. But people at the conventions don’t seem very interested in stepping up to the next wheel size yet, so they continue to spin those little wheels madly around the track while the rest of us cruise relatively comfortably at equal speeds…
He’ll probably be one of the main organizers. If not, he’s earned his time not having to run things. He created a database application for running unicycle meets and it’s been used for many years to track all the racing (and other) data. He’s organized rides big and small, including the first “modern” long-distance group unicycle tour, riding the state of Minnesota from bottom to top in 1999. Mind you, this was before Cokers! I think they were on the market, but I don’t think any of the riders used one. His Unitours.org web site used to list details on a whole bunch of major tours he organized all around the world.
That was the first-ever high jump competition. I think it was Andy Cotter who put it together as well. Remember, there was no such thing as a Trials unicycle then.
Where does one get a 24" racing wheel/tire? I showed up at NAUCC 09 and Connie Cotter looked at my 24" muni tire and said “sorry, you can’t race in that”. Had to borrow one from Grace (thanks again!).
Can one simply modify a bicycle wheel? If so, how?
What appeals to me is the fact that everyone is on the same unicycle, and it is about how fast you can pedal. There are not many sports where 12yr old girls can beat adult males in.
I’d like to have a go at the Std Class Hour record…just for reference because I hold the current Geared Hour Record.
One of the most impressive things I’ve seen in unicycling was a 28:22 10km time by Hiroki Shigeno at Unicon 12. From memory some of the Japanese Marathon times are around the 1hr50min mark.
The 24" racing size is derived from the typical 24" wheels that existed before MUni. All unicycles pretty much used to come with 1.75" tires, and that’s still pretty common on non-burly unicycles.
Since you don’t want a heavy wheel for racing, the maximum size is based on a general “rounding upward” of those tire sizes. Fatter 24" tires are also fatter in height, which makes their diameter bigger. A 24" Gazzalodi, for example, is almost 26" in diameter. So all you need is probably a less-fat tire.
However, for the serious track racer you can squeeze a really-skinny 26" wheel into the wheelsize spec. UDC and Qu-Ax have both had special track unicycles with 26x1" tires (or similar). I wasn’t a fan of such skinny tires myself though, because often we end up racing on some pretty soft tartan track surfaces. I used to have a nice setup with something like a 1 3/8" tire, which had a larger diameter than the Miyata tires (they were under 23.5"). This doesn’t matter as much on the short races, but once you start going all the way around the track it makes a difference!