I live in Toronto. I’ve practically just gotten my first unicycle, pretty much just learned how to ride more than 10 feet at a time, and successfully free mounted for the first few times (today, in fact).
I am not a fan of cold weather, but I’m willing to look past that. What troubles me is the upcoming snow and ice that will surely be trying to ruin my unicycle learning.
What do people here do once the snow starts to fall? Keep on going through snow and on ice? Chains? Spikes? Hang it up? Destroy your basement practicing?
I ride during winter, here in MN we have winter conventions. So, we can ride indoors a bit. Also, i’m gonna maintain my trials stuff by putting a tarp over it so when we get like 4ft of snow over night, i can just pull the tarp off.
Also, what i REALLY do in winter is ski. I’m going into our hills Ski Patrol this year. I love freestyle skiing and boarding. I also, since i have connections, like to ride snow dogs (ski boot skis lol), they’re fun. I also have a pair of short skis (ski blades/Ski Boards). Fun things to do during winter, plus, i never get cold lol. I get chill, then nothing lol.
Unicycles, munis specifically, work surprisingly well on snow and ice. Its certainly a good bit more difficult but a lot easier than trying to bike in snow and ice. The trick is just to keep your weight directly above the wheel and to not lean too much to let the wheel kick out.
Cokers work really well on snow covered pavement. My 36"er with the coker tire worked better on pavement covered in 3" snow than my 24x3.00 muni did.
I’d recommend trying your hardest to get as comfortable riding as you can now before the snow comes, it will make riding in it all that much more feasible.
The best advice is to let a good bit of air out of your tire so it grips better.
Dont let the cold bother you - i find that uni is the BEST way to warm up - on the coldest days i sometimes have started out all rugged up and still finished in a t shirt or with no shirt on at all.
Only thing that has stopped me from riding in winter(as i dont have a place inside to ride) is the wind/rain… And surfing… Thats mainly what has taken me away from my uni in the winter, with low pressure systems and cold fronts i spend most of my time in the water!
If your not interested in setting up your uni for winter riding i.e. special tires etc. then just clearing a path of snow down to the pavement on your driveway and or sidewalk will keep you riding on a reasonably slippery free surface.
And besides you don’t really get winter in Toronto do you?
I find it tends to vary. Last winter we probably had several months of solid snow coverage. There have also be winters with little to no snow coverage, at least downtown.
You don’t have to destroy the basement when you practice. The basement (or living room) can be a great spot to practice idling and hopping. Many Unicyclist.com forum users have reported that they learned to idle indoors while watching the boob tube (hold on to the back of the couch).
Make learning idling your winter goal. It is still a bit of a workout and when spring hits, you will be a much better rider. You can search the forum threads for how to idle properly. And, as I recall, there was a good idling write-up in a Unicyle.com e-mail newsletter. If the newsletter isn’t posted on the unicycle.com web site, ask them to e-mail it to you.
I learned as winter was approaching. I was pretty excited about unicycling, and I continued unicycling to classes despite the snow and ice. The end result: faster learning process.
Last winter, I was safer unicycling on ice than walking on it. Don’t get me wrong; be careful, but don’t let winter stop you.
What’s “snow?” Seriously even though we don’t get snow in Alabama (except for perhaps one day a year and it’s barely a dusting but it’s enough to put the whole city in a panic, shuts down all the roads etc… pretty amusing since I grew up around snow on the west coast!) we get a lot of crappy wet weather. So I keep a “junker” uni around just for those days when it is wet out but I still want to ride. Better yet, I’ve cleaned out my garage and built a pretty awesome trials course and left enough space to try practice some flatland tricks…
Y’all’re weirdos. For one, if you’re having WIND and RAIN, or any precipitation at all for that matter(including snow!*), it’s NOT COLD!!
If you can strip down to a T-shirt, it’s probably not very much under freezing,(Over -10C is the lowest I’ve been comfortable in, and even then I need gloves, if you’re skiing it needs to be a tad warmer**) and if the lake isn’t frozen over, it’s not cold, and unless you live in the arctic, if you’re by the ocean IT’S NOT COLD.
You should be like us, with our 3 month growing season (4 months with blankets and heat lamps) and snow thick enough to cave in roofs.
*It actually can snow when it’s really cold, but it always turns out like a very thin layer of shaved ice.
the cold usually doesn’t bother me too much it’s usually the wind that tends to make it seem colder than it is. in order to avoid the wind i go downtown and find a parking garage that doesn’t have anyone guarding it and ride in there. makes for great flatland practice
When winter comes with the snow I swap out the 3.0" Duro for a 2.1" Nokian with close to 300 pointy non-slip thingamajigs. I ride all through the winter and I love it. As previously posted unicycling is a great way to stay warm and last winter I had no trouble unicycling in -20c weather (see the attached pic).
Seriously even though we don’t get snow in Alabama (except for perhaps one day a year and it’s barely a dusting but it’s enough to put the whole city in a panic, shuts down all the roads etc… pretty amusing since I grew up around snow on the west coast!) we get a lot of crappy wet weather. So I keep a “junker” uni around just for those days when it is wet out but I still want to ride. Better yet, I’ve cleaned out my garage and built a pretty awesome trials course and left enough space to try practice some flatland tricks…
