Re: Bumps in the pavement



G

glopal

Guest
When you are coming up to a bumpy part, put more weight on the pedals,
this will give you more control. Also when you are approaching a bigger
bump, right before you are about to go over it, lean back a bit, also
increase your speed a bit.


--
glopal - Mike Menzies
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Agreed, one day you'll notice that you haven't been flailing for a
while... which means it's time to try muni :D


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evil-nick - Unicyclist, Linux Geek, & swell guy

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its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will
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Id rather do technical Muni than ride on flat with little bumps any day.


When im doing a hard trail i know i gotta pay attention and keep my eyes
on the trail. When I'm cruising down the street im paying attention
to.....ladies, cars, signs, who knows what. Thats when the little ****
bumps get me and i feel like a fool. :rolleyes:


--
mango - unity - as 1 stand together

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I did a 31-mile ride on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and this is how I part
of wrote it up:

“With the dappled shadows (UPD) from the trees it’s (oops, almost UPD)
hard to (almost UPD) see the root bumps (UPD).”

The entire write-up is 'here (link)' (http://tinyurl.com/az92p). It was
a good week.

Don't worry too much about this little problem, it'll mostly go away
with practice, but until you're REALLY good there will always be times
that the all-but-unnoticeable bumps will get ya, and even then I think.


--
brian.slater - Nellfurtiti, the Wonder Cat

Brian C. Slater
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Personaly when I could just barely ride on flat ground I went straight
ahead and did muni, I couldn't go more then ten feet again, but then
after ridding muni for three days, I went back onto flat pavement and it
was nothing. I think its best to chalange yourself, insted of just
dooing something over and over that you can do with decent success, it
gets dull dooing the same thing over and over, if it isn't chalenging
enough and you learn slower.

So in other words if you want those pavement bumps to not even give you
a second though, go ride down a grassy hill, or on some trails.


--
cyberpunk - lvl Four Unicyclist

Quick Press ctrl+W
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Your body will eventually learn how to respond to the little bumps the
same way that it's learned everything else on the uni so far. I remember
when I was learning, running over some little twig or any other
inconsequential bit of debris laying on the sidewalk would throw me
right off. When you ride on a smooth surface like a gym floor, you are
constantly making small adjustments to the speed of the wheel, to keep
yourself from falling forward or backward. Hitting a bump or a drop
forces you to make a similar correction instantaneously, which is a
reflex that you haven't developed yet, but will. It all happens in a
tiny fraction of a second of course, many times a minute on typical
pavement, and for small bumps the action is pretty subtle, so you can't
think your way through it. Keep riding until the reflexes develop.

Thunderstorm coming. Have to post and shut down now.


--
weeble - There can be only one... wheel


==============
Another Joe in MN
Level 2 and holding
==============


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No it's nort easy learning to ride by your self, but (a least in my
case) it is worth it.
I know how it feels to be thrown off by small bumps, in my case I have
been trying to get up higher bumps and the unicycle stays were it was my
I go flying:)

Juggling_Arcs


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cjd wrote:
> *Your choice of tyre and pressure can make a big difference. A fatter
> tyre at lower pressure will soak up the small bumps. If you usually
> ride with a hard tyre, try letting some air out so it has a little
> bounce. *

I agree with this.

And, with some practice you'll get used to one hand on the seat handle.
Its going to be absolutely necessary with MUni. It becomes 2nd nature
before long.


--
Memphis Mud - Student of GrandMaster 2T

"winter in peanut butter comes turquoise" -Greg Harper
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cjd wrote:
> *Your choice of tyre and pressure can make a big difference. A fatter
> tyre at lower pressure will soak up the small bumps. If you usually
> ride with a hard tyre, try letting some air out so it has a little
> bounce. *

Hmmm, I did wonder why I struggled with bumps during pavement riding and
riding on grass lawns, while my two chums just sailed over them...

My unicycle is a Nimbus X 20" freestyle which comes with a 'Maxxis
Hookworm tyre' (http://tinyurl.com/5yqhs). Presumably this is completely
wrong for pavement riding as it has to be inflated to at least 85psi,
and it's not very knobbly.

Of course the freestyle uni won't have a trials rim so trials tyres are
out of the question. What would be a good tyre for pavement riding? (I
have no intention of taking it offroad)


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gkmac - Never rides in public
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gkmac wrote:
> *My unicycle is a Nimbus X 20" freestyle which comes with a 'Maxxis
> Hookworm tyre' (http://tinyurl.com/5yqhs). Presumably this is
> completely wrong for pavement riding as it has to be inflated to at
> least 85psi, and it's not very knobbly.
>
> Of course the freestyle uni won't have a trials rim so trials tyres
> are out of the question. What would be a good tyre for pavement
> riding? (I have no intention of taking it offroad) *


You don't want a knobbly tyre for riding on the pavement, knobblies only
help on soft surfaces such as mud / dirt. If you want to make it easier
you want a fatter slick tyre, I think there's a 20" big apple that might
be nice, the bigger sizes of them are lovely.

Personally, whilst a fatter tyre and lower pressure is easier to ride,
I'd say that for riding on the pavement on a 20" there's no need for it.
You'll lose speed and manouverability. The only thing that's really
needed is practice.

By the way, you should try some muni, you live right near an incredible
amount of really good muni riding (on the North Downs + Surrey Hills)
and it's a really good way to practice for basic skills like riding on
pavement without getting knocked off by the bumps.

Joe


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joemarshall - dumb blonde
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You're so right about the help here, Cathwood!

I learned to ride on grass as I was too chicken to fall on tarmac, but
when I finally braved the local roads I couldn't believe how much easier
it was to ride on smoother surfaces!

Then, thinking that I'd got the pavements sussed, I rode into the
village one evening only to discover that as it was darker, I couldn't
see the small bumps as well, and UPD'd all over the place!

As a result of this thread, I've been out all afternoon practising
holding the seat, and one of my son's friends plays in-line hockey and I
tried riding with his stick. It was fine until I tried to hit the ball,
then all sense of riding balance fled.

Look forward to meeting you at BUC (s7ev0 or Hell on Wheel Tshirt).


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s7ev0 - ************


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I will echo all of the replies so far. I, too, would have an UPD over
the smallest bump (I can still remember one bump in particular where I
also had to dismount when I was first learning), but the more I rode
over it, the easier it got. At first, I would hold onto the front of
the seat, tense up a little bit, put a bit more weight on the pedals,
then ride over it (usually successfully). Eventually it because easier
and easier, and now I could probably go over it while riding backwards
(I learned to ride almost one year ago, and learned to go backwards
about 6 months after that). So take heart and don't be discouraged,
it's just one of those things that will take practice to learn (if there
were no challenges to unicycling, it wouldn't be very much fun, would
it?) Next thing you know you'll be riding down a bumpy dirt trail
without a second thought. :)

Mark


--
mth32871
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s7ev0 wrote:
> *As a result of this thread, I've been out all afternoon practising
> holding the seat, and one of my son's friends plays in-line hockey and
> I tried riding with his stick. It was fine until I tried to hit the
> ball, then all sense of riding balance fled.*
i find it helpfull to point out to new UniHoki players that u hardly
ever really need to *hit* the ball
more often than not, a gentle tap is all u need to effectively pass it
to your team-mate
when u eventually get used to riding with the stick, u can start firing
slap-shots at the goals, but for now just get used to being able to make
the ball go where u want it to go
gently
keep in mind that your teammate (i'm trying both spellings, it still
looks wrong) won't easily be able to control a ball that been *hit* at
him/her
also try n focus on controlling the ball next to u and not in front of
u
this makes balance a bit easier as u tend to lean forward when u have
the stick in front of u
controlling the ball next to u also allows u to look up and decide where
u want to pass to, making for more intelligent UniHoki
it also protects the ball from opposing players coming from the 'other'
side as they can't go for the ball without getting a stick in- or under
your wheel


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