Wilder MUni can roll up stairs

General
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This past weekend was the 4th annual Damento (Davis/Sacramento) Juggling Festival in Sacramento. It was in a new location, at Consumnes River College. This is a fun unicycling campus. Nathan and Beau Hoover, Tim Bustos and I, as well as a lot of other unicyclists had great fun juggling inside, and riding outside.

I did two unicycling workshops, one for beginners and coaches, and the other for intermediate and beyond, with a demonstration of many different unicycle types. Afterward, people were riding my tin 12", my ultimate wheel, and my handlebar cycle. One guy (from Berkeley) even rode a few feet, several times, on my B.C. wheel!

The Berkeley Unicycle Basketball Club were there, and we played some basketball with them. A nice group of people. I also got to meet some of the people from Humboldt, who are hosting this year’s Humboldt Juggling and Unicycling festival in April!

I had my new Wilder, and wanted to ride it around on the walls, steps, curbs and other artifacts outside. Nathan and Beau joined me, and we explored the campus. FUN!! I love my new unicycle. It’s not intended as a Trials cycle, but it’s fun to hop around on anyway, just like Kris Holm might in mid-trail.

Contrary to my previous reports, my Wilder came with 170mm cranks. I think I’ll stick with that size, because I got used to them on the Steve Howard prototype I rode last summer, and they have great leverage while still allowing me to spin acceptably fast. 170 is my recommended size for a 24 x 3" tire.

Those cranks also make it possible to ride up stairs. The key is to find a set of stairs that are equal to half a wheel revolution per step. Hit the first step with your pedals in the right position, unweight the unicycle the right amount, and you can ride all the way up! I managed this, after a lot of tries, in a little ampitheater with six steps!

I’ve uploaded some video clips, and added them to my video album. Click the link below, and go to the Damento Juggling Festival album:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/fossvideo

Note these are unedited clips from my “photo” camera. Someday I may learn to edit them…

Check out the other clips while you’re there. Next I should upload some other of my more recent video clips…

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that video is great! awesome job riding up them. you should try one footed :wink: just joking. congratulations on your accomplishment. has anyone else ridden up stairs yet? i havent, but im definietely trying now, later, Kevin

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Re: Wilder MUni can roll up stairs

That was Boss, John! Nice, well developed caves you have there, BTW. I find rolling one curb hard enough, let alone a set of 6 terraces! Did you turn around and ride up those other steps?

(somebody just aked me why you would do such a thing… she’s just 2, so I think this wasn’t a rehtorical question. :slight_smile: -she understands ‘fun’, though…)

-Christopher

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I have a picture of David Poznanter doing it on a 28" cyclocross wheel on a Hunter frame. I think this is just before he and Bruce Bundy discovered the 3" Gazzalodi tires. This was also a very shallow set of 3 or 4 steps, in this case on the UC Santa Cruz campus.

David made it up them, after several tries, using a brute force approach. In one of my pictures you can see the tire being compressed to the rim as he nails the edge of a step.

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Re: Re: Wilder MUni can roll up stairs

Caves? Those are at Rockville Hills Park:
http://tinyurl.com/5cs6

Tim Bustos got a video clip of me riding down those steps and then up the other ones. This was a little harder, because I was otherwise lining up my cranks before starting.

To see if I could. It’s rare for me to do something I haven’t seen anyone do before (in this case, more steps than Poznanter)!

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hey,John

do you think the seat tube on a Wilder is a little on the short side?

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Jeff Lutkus has done a few steps. I am not sure as to how many. I will go out and try it when the wind speed gets back to reasonable levels.

-Sal

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damn, I tried to learn that way back but decided it wasn’t possible with the stairs I was trying on. I could make it up a couple of steps but then lost the pedal position. I think mine were about 1 foot wide steps, not too deep, really easy to roll down ones.

Thinking about your steps, half a rev on a 24x3 is about (PIx26")/2
(diameter of a 24x3 = 26")

which is 3.4 feet, is that about the right size to try?

I started trying when I saw a guy ride a bike up some really steep steps when I was riding to work.

Joe

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the wheel/crank step ratio is definatly important.
i saw david pozantner try it once but the ratio wasn’t on his side that time

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Not at all. You need enough tube to have a sucure grip on your seatpost, but not so much that it limits rider size. I dont think that’s a high stress area, at least on a rigid frame, so don’t see a strength problem there.

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The steps I was on were consistent with half wheel turns. Anything else would make it a lot more difficult.

No, you did your math on flat ground. Don’t forget the amount of wheel rotation involved with clearing the step. Step height is then a factor, so looking at the video will probably give you the best guess of what size matches a MUni tire. I think the steps were about 2’ deep, and about 6" high.

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looks like you’ve got one of those cnc handles too,if so how’s that workin out?

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It’s a plain KH seat, which so far is working out fine. Later on I’ll probably experiment with a rail adapter, suspension post, or other add-ons. No complaints about the KH handle, though I haven’t used it that much yet. So far great.

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I noticed that interesting phenomenon too. The steps I rode up were steeper than half a wheel rotation but there was only four of them. I found that I had better success while standing up on the pedals (I think that could be what John meant by unweight the unicycle). I jumped down the PostOffice steps today on my Wilder MUni and a guy said “Now ride back up” so I did. Short steps make the task easy, and tall steps make it far more difficult. I presume long cranks make climbing steps easier and short cranks make it more difficult, similarly a large wheel might make it somewhat easier and a small wheel more difficult. I am pretty stoked with the Wilder Lightrider so far and I am glad to read about (famous) people like John also riding it.