What is the technique of riding downhill?

I’ve been having problems with riding downhill. There are several factors that I believe have a role to play:

a) I think it’s mostly fear. Because I am afraid to fall, I think I am not riding freely and naturally but in an inhibited way.

b) Consciousness of technique. For example, yesterday when I tried to consciously apply technique to my downhill ride, I suffered a fall. I thought I was staying too far back and risking falling backward. But once I tried to adjust for this I fell forward on my hands and knees.

c) I usually have no problems if I go at a diagonal down a slope and gradually straighten my line of riding. So I think it is the initial abrupt change to a downward slope that presents the difficulty. Anyone have any advice on approaching downward slopes directly?

d) I recently bought a new pair of shoes. It’s a New Balance U410PIN (you can check out its shape here: http://cgi.ebay.ch/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180402040888 - Go down to the end of the page). Yesterday was the 2nd time I tried it. After about an hour or so of riding, I decided it was not suitable for unicycling and changed back to my old shoes. But it seemed I had in the meantime adjusted to the new shoes and thus my performance suffered and I had the fall.

e) I unicycle after 12:00AM (midnight) in order to avoid cars and curious onlookers. So maybe at around 2:00AM, I was becoming a little bit drowsy.

f) I had let my LBS look at the wheel which seemed to be 2 millimeters closer towards the left bar than towards the right. He could not adjust it. But still maybe he fastened the bolts a little too tight or in the wrong way. Anyone can advise me as to the right way to fasten the bolts holding the wheel in place (i.e. how tight, etc)?

g) I had also pumped up the wheel to 60psi which seemed too solid for me. I lowered the pressure all the time. Until I probably brought it back to about probably 50psi. But maybe this change affected my performance.

Which of these different factors could be the real culprit preventing me having a natural ride downhill? How can I have a safe ride downhill? What is the technique of riding downhill? Or should I just try to improve my level ground riding skills before I even attempt riding downhill?

Hmmm, don’t lean forward when going downhill, if anything you should lean backwards slightly since when you slow down your momentum will push your body forwards anyway.

It’s probably a better idea to ride in daylight, that way it will be easier to spot obstacles… also after dark it’s hard for cars to see you (unless you have a light on your unicycle).

Have your PSI however you feel more comfortable, low psi means you go a little slower, but high psi makes rolling over obstacles/dodgey terrain harder.

Don’t worry about your performance so much, just enjoy your rides! Gradually over time you’ll improve, don’t worry :slight_smile:

How steep is the hill? What size wheel, and what length cranks?

The smaller your wheel the easier it is to go down. For me this is more in my head. The higher you are off the ground the scarier it is to fall.

The longer cranks give you more leverage, and therefore more control with less effort. You do lose the smoothness of shorter cranks which make descents more enjoyable as you get better.

Regardless of the answers to those questions I’m sure that practice is the key. The more comfortable you get on your uni the easier it will be to do everything.

Two techniques: let the uni down slowly, holding it back with the pedals, and making sure that it never runs away with you; or let it run away with you and spin out.

You can change from slow mode to spinning out mode half way down, but you can’t change from spinning out to slow mode!

You need to lean the uni back. The steeper the hill, the further back you need to lean it back. Think about which part of the wheel is in contact with the ground, and where that is in relation to the axle, frame and your centre of mass. The steeper the hill, the further you need to lean back to get your centre of mass above the contact patch.

Pull up on the seat for extra torque. If trying to ride slowly, have your insteps on the pedal for extra stability, and to reduce the risk of your ankles being pushed back too far if you drop over a slightly steeper bit of the hill.

Read the slope carefully - the effect of even a slight drop or bump will be magnified by the slope on the down side of it.

I also do quite a bit of my practicing late at night. For me, it’s a way of getting in practice without interfering with family time. I wear lots of reflective stuff, and have front and rear lights. But the lights are more for them to see me than for me to see the road. I think the night riding has really helped me, because you have to be able to “feel” the road, even if you didn’t see that bump.

As to hills: I went for a ride today on a path I hadn’t tried before, that had variable hills. I’m also pretty new to hills. I found every hill to be different, and could definitely tell when the slopes changed. The advice about leaning back when going down is spot on.

Good news is, I could tell I got better during the ride.
So the classically frustrating ultimate answer is: practice! :wink:

Also, if you’re riding bumpy terrain, try standing up a little while holding your handle. It usually makes for a smoother ride.

These are a few of the things missing from your original question. Here’s some more:

  • Road or dirt?
  • How steep of a hill are we talking about?
  • You asked about bolts and adjustments but didn’t identify the unicycle. Brand? Wheel size?
  • Tire pressure numbers are not meaningful unless we know the wheel size, tire width and what you’re riding on. 60 is good for regular 1.75" tires on pavement, but generally too much for dirt, etc.
  • What is your age and amount of time riding?

From your writing style and what appears to be an over-analysis of what’s going on, I’d guess you are at least 30 years old. I’ll guess 45-55. A teenager would just keep going at it until he figured it out.

Shoes should not be an important factor unless your pedals have no grip. You did not describe your pedals.

For main cap bearing bolts, the general rules is to tighten them evenly, but not to where you can detect friction in wheel rotation. If you notice added friction when you spin the wheel, back off the bolts a bit. Also check them from time to time, especially after the first few rides.

If your wheel is a mm or two off-center, this should not be a factor in any kind of basic riding. It should become more noticeable if you’re riding fast, on cambered road surfaces, etc, or not at all. It depends on the nature of the off-centeredness.

I became more confident at descending hills (dirt or paved) when I got a brake. I had knee pain when I first began hills. ‘Knock on wood’ my knee pain is much less now that I have some climbing/descending experience. Yesterday I took my Coker up and down a fairly steep road. I do not have a brake on the Coker and it was like starting over. I found descending to be difficult and slow. Today I’m ordering a brake. Not everyone requires the use of a brake but it was the right choice for me.

Well, here are my answers to these questions:

  1. It’s not a hill, just a street that is downhill. I would say about 10 to 20 degrees of an angle down from the horizontal. I had successfully ridden down it on other occasions.

  2. The wheel is 24"

  3. The cranks are 127 mm.

  4. I’m talking about asphalt roads.

  5. The unicycle is a Club 24" UDC. You can see it here: http://www.einradladen.net/shop/show_product.php/cPath/2/products_id/762

  6. The tire is 1.95"

  7. I am 37. I have been riding for about 6 months. The over-analysis is from some frustration at my slow progress. I would have expected to have acquired at least something approaching bicycle-like proficiency on the unicycle by now.

  8. The wheel is 2-2.5mm off-center to the left. And it is to the left that I can turn the more easily (but I am also left handed/footed). What do you mean “it depends on the nature of the off-centeredness”?

Thanks for your answers and for all the other answers.

37/6 mos riding - me too!
Stop being so hard on yourself. You’re probably just having a bad day/week.
And maybe lower your expectations, and just have fun with it. I got a unicycle mainly to see if I could ride it at all. Granted, now that I can, my expectations are going up. But I’m still pretty happy with just being able to do what most people consider impossible by getting up on the thing at all. I don’t expect that I’ll ever be as proficient as I am on a bicycle (been riding those consistently all my life), but who knows? :slight_smile:

Where could you find front and back lights for a unicycle? I could find only reflectors that fit.

Thanks for your other response too! You are right maybe I was having an off-day! I guess that is to be expected with riding a unicycle even though not with riding a bicycle.

Here is a recent thread about unicycle lights:

Scott

riding at night is going to make everything on a uni seem more of a challenge - one benefit being when you now ride in the day everything will seem a lot easier! :slight_smile:

so I would say:

do more riding in the daylight

if that hill is too steep ATM, find some hills that aren’t as steep and ride those to build up your confidence

before dropping into a hill that scares you, relax. I think really this is the most important thing - staying relaxed.

control your speed going down a hill, but still keep it smooth

don’t over think stuff, just do it.

i wouldn’t think about riding downhill in terms of ‘leaning back’ - you’re not really leaning back, you’re dropping your butt towards the ground behind you (which pushes the wheel slightly in front of you) while maintaining good upper body riding position.

When I first started riding the slight hill outside of our house seemed like it was out to kill me, both going up and down it. Nowadays it’s not even a hill, just a fun bit of flat!

You WILL get there, just ride as often as you can and push yourself to try harder things as soon as your able to.

I’ve found riding at night has made certain things easier, you don’t get distracted by a lot of stuff. There is a trail I ride at night, going down it at night, I can’t see down the ravine on one side and it makes it seem much easier. Obviously if you don’t have a bright light, it’s going to be more of a challenge. The dark tends to slow things down for me, much much less to see and be distracted with, all I focus on is the little bit of trail that I can see and kind of zone out/in it.

Hills are just a lot of practice, not only riding hills, but just basic balance and general riding. It seems impossible at first, just keep at it and the muscles get stronger, they learn to work together, then finally the hills start to get easier and you start searching for steeper ones. Just find the smallest hill that makes you nervous, hit it a couple of times a day and by the end of the week it will be doable, find a harder one and repeat. After a while make sure to revisit the easier ones and you will blow yourself away at how easy they have become. :slight_smile:

paradox: for me the reverse is true! lean chest forward and unicycle backwards (the same as in skiing).
once you overcome this feeling of falling forward you have better control … strange.

Getting over the fear of falling off backward will definitely help. Once you can confidently step off to the rear of the uni, going downhill will be much less intimidating.

I put a Cateye 5-led blinky on the back. It’s the type with the five led’s in a row, and the mount allows it to be either horizontal or vertical. In the vertical configuration, it’s right in line with the seat post (well, a little of the bracket sticks out, but not enough to bother me). http://www.rei.com/product/745549

On the front, I made a dual-headlight mount out of pvc, and then put two led headlights on, with slightly different tilt angles so it spreads the light out in front a ways. Keeps the light low, and is narrower than mounting lights directly to the frame. I’ll try to get some photos posted in the next couple days.

And no problem with the other comments. I suspect everyone on this forum has had bad days and moments of extreme frustration. Not much discussion about that, though. Perhaps we all like to put a bit of a rosy glow on things because in the end, the frustration is worth it.