Moonride '04- Nathan Hoover joins us down-under!



I'm not going to do a 24 hour race in the immediate future.
Maybe in a year or two.

My endurance has not been very good. But I just recently
figured out what the problem was. It seems I sweat out a lot
more salt than normal people. I now bring salt tablets
('Lava Salts' (http://www.lavasalts.com/salts.htm)) with me
on long rides and I'm feeling much much better at the end of
the ride. I no longer feel like a knackered zombie at the
end of a 12+ mile muni ride. It's like a magic energy pill.

I was gulping down a lot of Gatorade before the ride and
then eating energy gels and bars during the ride. But that
didn't do the trick. I was considering putting Gatorade in
my hydration pack, but that causes nasty things to grow in
the bladder and I didn't want to do that. The salt tablets
do the trick. Too bad I didn't figure this out several
years ago.

I'm going to some big muni rides and see how my energy level
is at the end. If I'm able to do the big rides and still
feel good then I might try a 24 hour or 12 hour race.

The advances in LED lighting is exciting. The LEDs are
getting very bright. With luck the new generation of LED
lights may be just perfect for muni. HID seems to be a bit
of overkill.

--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo

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john_childs wrote:
> *My endurance has not been very good. But I just recently
> figured out what the problem was. It seems I sweat out a
> lot more salt than normal people. I now bring salt tablets
> ('Lava Salts' (http://www.lavasalts.com/salts.htm)) with
> me on long rides and I'm feeling much much better at the
> end of the ride. I no longer feel like a knackered zombie
> at the end of a 12+ mile muni ride. It's like a magic
> energy pill. *

I get something similar, I've got energy drink that has some
salt in which seems to work (in the camelbak). Some people
just put a teaspoon of salt into their camelbak each time
they fill it up to avoid this.

As a team rider, a 24 hour race isn't an incredible amount
of riding, it's like doing 6 hours of riding in a day, a
kind of long muni ride. You should enter one, because it
forces you to bother training, I never ride as much as when
I've entered an event that scares me.

172km is super lots. I reckon 200km would be doable in 24
hours by someone training really really incredibly hard.
Maybe Ken will do it next year?

Ken - I reckon you should try for the 202miles (320km) on
road 24 hour record, it'd probably be not that hard if
you're capable of riding solidly for that long, it's about
8.5 mph average. On a short cranked coker and a flat course,
you could probably average at least 12mph consistently,
which would give you about 8 hours of breaks over the time.

Joe

--
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joemarshall wrote:
> *
>
> 172km is super lots. I reckon 200km would be doable in 24
> hours by someone training really really incredibly hard.
> Maybe Ken will do it next year?
>
> Ken - I reckon you should try for the 202miles (320km) on
> road 24 hour record, it'd probably be not that hard if
> you're capable of riding solidly for that long, it's about
> 8.5 mph average. On a short cranked coker and a flat
> course, you could probably average at least 12mph
> consistently, which would give you about 8 hours of breaks
> over the time.
>
> Joe *

Thanks Joe- I think yourself, Nathan and I are the only
three people to have done a 24hr Mountainbike race solo on
unicycles! :) Are you going to do it again? (you should!)

Yeah, I reckon I could have gone a few more laps if I had
stuck to my original gameplan. I was better prepared than
last year but still have trouble getting enough sleep before
the race and pacing myself. Again I went out way too fast-
lapped both Uni teams by the fourth or fifth lap- and
suffered badly later on as a result.

The main problem with this race is the nightime start. By
the time you hit the light of day you are totally wasted- I
estimate the night laps take at least twice as much effort
as day laps- even if you have good lights. I couldn't
believe some of the terrible lines I was taking at night
when I saw the course during daylight.

I think the road record is 360km- but I've done a century
around Lake Taupo (160km/100miles) in about 8hrs 20min - it
didn't feel anywhere nearly hard as doing 24hrs offroad,
although it was really hilly. Maybe later this year I'll
have a go at two laps of Lake Taupo (200miles).

--
GizmoDuck - Adventure unicyclist

o-kO

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GizmoDuck wrote:
> *Maybe later this year I'll have a go at two laps of Lake
> Taupo (200miles). *
:eek: !!!!!

Hey Ken, call us when you're next in Welly & wanna go for
Muni and/or Trials... how's the 1ft WWing coming along? And
Is it ok for me to randomly hijack this thread like this?
well, I guess this way it all gets put back up to the top so
even more people can marvel at yours and Nathan's heroics!

cheers Pete

--
pete66 - Level 4 Unicyclist
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Congrats to all of you!!! You guys rock, great write ups and great
photos. Just got back from a long river trip in the utah canyonlands,
and it is so fun to come back and read up on all the latest and greatest
unicycling stuff. Congrats again on a job well done!!!!!!!:)

--
aspenmike - unicycling albino
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Rowan, your municycle has 140mm cranks (or 145mm)?

I was wanting to know if I will be able to keep up with a
Coker (on a leisurely ride) with 145mm cranks and the
circumference of a 3" tire. I have the Profile set - and it
does not appear that anything smaller than 145mm is made.

--
ChangingLINKS.com - member

Wishing you Happiness, Joy and Laughter,
Drew Brown
http://www.ChangingLINKS.com
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My MUni has 145mm cranks, you are right that is the shortest
that Profile makes. Ken has a KH 24x3" with 170mm and 140mm
cranks, so it is understandable that he made a small error
when quoting the size of my cranks, and considering he says
he rides a 36 foot wheel, I didn't bother correcting him for
the few mm in crank length.

When I was riding the Coker offroad, I was not able to keep
it at the pace which it was designed for. Because Cokering
is new to me, I just took it easy on the steeper bits,
trying to maintain control rather than top speed. If I was a
Coker expert, I probably would have been able to go way
faster over the rougher terrain rather than just the flat
bits. On the MUni I was able to do the steeper bits faster,
and still maintain a reasonable pace on the flat bits due to
the short cranks. I was also able to avoid the cyclists
easier with the MUni, taking bumpy lines on the edge.

I'd say it depends on the terrain where you are doing the
leisurely ride, and just how slow the coker rider goes,
whether or not you can keep up. Also depends on your ability
to spin the wheel fast enough to keep up. Have fun- if the
Coker rider keeps beating you, ask to swap for a bit maybe,
Cokers are wicked!

--
Rowan - _________

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Another aspect of my question:

I see the lap times posted on the board which seem to range
from 27 minutes to 42. On the lap you used a municycle, I
think you got something like 33 minutes. Could you have
maintained that speed for 3 laps?

Have you ridden with Cokers in paved terrain (with your
24")? I understand that I will have to work a bit harder,
but I am trying to understand whether or not getting 145mm
cranks will enable me to ride 20 miles with a Coker and not
burden the Coker riders too much.

/doesn't want another unicycle

--
ChangingLINKS.com - member

Wishing you Happiness, Joy and Laughter,
Drew Brown
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I've never ridden much with Cokers. There are only four or
five of them in the country (maybe more now that
'unicycle.co.nz' (http://www.unicycle.co.nz/) stocks
them). I reckon I could have easily sustained my 33 minute
lap time speed for three laps on 24x3", and probably
improved on it, provided that it was still daylight. On
that lap I was falling off quite a bit and the track was
really busy. If you are going on a casual ride, it should
not matter too much how slow you are. When I go riding
with other people, I usually have to wait for them when
they are on the same sized wheel as me. 20 miles is quite
a bit further than three 7k laps, it is quite far to ride
on a MUni but is doable.

--
Rowan - _________

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When it comes to "paved terrain", you really can't keep up
with cokers on a 24" MUni... at a guess, I'd say that the
MUni (with 145s) would chug along at about 12km/h but the
Cokers would cruise along at about 23km/h.

cheers Pete

--
pete66 - Level 4 Unicyclist
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pete66 wrote:
> *When it comes to "paved terrain", you really can't keep
> up with cokers on a 24" MUni... at a guess, I'd say that
> the MUni (with 145s) would chug along at about 12km/h but
> the Cokers would cruise along at about 23km/h.*
I think you underestimate the power of short cranks. In the
race, 33 minutes for 7k means I was averaging about 14kph,
including falling off and letting bikes overtake. On paved
ground I can go 20kph or more at my fastest, 15kph is
pretty easy to maintain for long periods of time. On a
Coker 23kph would be just cruising I think. You can go much
faster but when you get flung off you go too fast to run
when you land, so it could lead to a catastrophe. Nathan
Hoover was telling me about one of his friends who put
short cranks on a Coker and wrung it out to about 45kph
just to see how fast he could go, but he was so scared he
didn't want to try it again.

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