Loosemoose`

What surprised me the most about the police was their attitude. They didn't tell us to do anything, they just said "Be careful riding home without lights if you're using the roads" and "When you're doing your hopping, make sure there's nobody nearby". It was kind of like a pair of sensible suggestion cops. Nice people. The ride itself was ace, headed out after it dried up and there was enough (but sometimes not quite enough, as my arm will now attest) grip for uni trials. Took forever to find the group but when I did we had some ace riding and hit some cool spots. I finally managed to do something I thought was impressive (a 6'4" sidehop gap to pedalgrab, with an (approx) 8 inch drop) as well. The walls outside asda are wicked. Impressive riding from all the rest of the group as well, and I've already spotted some 'in an ideal world' lines that i'd like to hit when I've got a bit more experience. Cool pics ollie, some might need a bit of photoshop tweakage but I'm still impressed by the quality of those phone pics. As far as film goes its not going to be a problem, cos i've been informed my new camera will arrive in the next couple of days, ready for the next ride. All in all a great day, not cold, not sunny, not too wet. Next time i'll get my arse in gear and get out of bed for the 11am start. Loose.

I believe the fattest 20" rim tyre is the Onza Sticky Fingers 2.5", or at least thats what I've heard. You'll probably get a more thorough answer from the riders on here though. Loose.

Sorry to be a total noob about all this but I'm really new to southampton & the urban trials scene in general, so could you let me know where & when you generally meet people for rides? I've seen snap-decision rides organised for soton that are along the lines of 'I'm thinking of going out this afternoon, meet usual spot'. Which for me, as an inexperienced rider isn't too informative. I've heard tell of 11am meets outside the central train station, sometimes 10am... Where do you usually start a days riding from? Loose.

Where & when? I'm free from 2pm, could meet you outside the Soton Uni students union. Depends where you want to be. Loose.

Same here, haven't got a clue whats about or where to go... Loose.

I was talking to oli about riding tomorrow. We've both got a lecture 12:50 - 13:35, but after that I'm free to go anywhere for a couple of hours. Oli might have his bike done by then, depends if he can borrow the LBS' headset press in the morning. Where do you want to meet up? I need to grab some lunch so we can say 2pm? My Mob is 07887731769 if you need to contact me. Loose.

Grinding is fairly straightforward, you use the pedal base to grind on, sometimes in conjunction with the crank arm. It just takes a lot a balance and you have to start correctly or it will slowly go wrong, catastophically. Dynamic hops are hard to get right, but when you get good they can exceed the height of a normal hop by a long way. It takes a different kind of approach though, so you might be better off concentrating on static hopping for now, until you're comfortable you've reached your limit on static stuff. The tendancy for dynamic hops to go wrong is a lot higher than static, so if you concentrate on normal stuff to start with you won't wind up hurting yourself. I'll add you to msn asap. Loose.

I'll definitely be coming out on both days, just need to know where & when you're all meeting. I'll be on a unicycle so moving around a lot isn't going to be fun (for you or me), but I'll try and keep up whenever we move locations. Loose.

Unicycles have always only had fixed wheel gearing except in 2 special cases, that is the freewheeling hub unicycle which is used as a challenge to unicyclists, and the 2-ratio geared hubs. Nobody uses freewheeling hubs in recreational/competition riding, its just not controllable enough. It might appear in the future in combination with a brake, but right now the only reason a unicyclist holds the saddle handle is to keep the unicycle underneath them over rough terrain or hopping. Otherwise it would fall out. Thats good work! Rolling (or Dynamic) hops are an excellent trials skill. I still haven't got them to a decent level, I've been working on my seat out riding & grinding more recently. Loose.

Right, well there are 2 ways to hop on a unicycle, seat in (seat underneath your crotch, between your legs) and seat out (seat is held out in front of you). Seat in you can only expect to reach a couple of feet in hop height, but your landings are more controlled. Seat out you can reach anything up to 4ft+ and even more if you go to crank/pedalgrab, but you are off balance on landing an need to make correctional movements. The difference between static & dynamic drops is fairly straightforward. In a static drop you start stationary, hopping on the spot. You then pick a point to land on, and jump for it, landing stationary as well. A dynamic drop is where you ride up to the edge & just drop off the edge without stopping to correct balance or choose a point to land on, and then 'roll out' where most of the force of the landing goes back into forward motion & the wheel doesn't really ever stop (you can have it stationary in mid air but it never stops while in contact with the ground). I would do a dynamic drop on anything up to about 2-3ft. Anything above that & I need the improved balance of a static drop. If you need to choose a landing site carefully (like you're doing a 3ft drop to a 3 inch wide wall) then always do static, its safer. EDIT: Basically what adamtrials said. I started to post before his appeared... Loose.

If you want to start getting into trials, then you're looking at these basic skills: Drops, Static & Dynamic (Anything up to 10ft, my current max is 5ft Static) Hops, Static & Rolling (Seat in up to 2ft, Seat out up to 3-4ft) Sidehopping distance (allows you to gap from wall to wall, stuff like that) Narrow object balance (balancing across thin objects like the backs of benches, rails) Riding Stairs (its just like riding down a bumpy hill) Riding along narrow objects like walls, rails etc... (This takes a while to learn, you need to work towards thinner and thinner stuff) Riding seat in front Stillstanding Hopping fakie (cranks reversed) 180 Crankspin (allows you to flip from fakie to normal crank orientation on the spot) Not a skill as such, but something called 'projection' which is a combination of a rolling hop and a long jump, it allows you to get distance from a drop (so dropping stairs for example) The easiest way to learn is to get some pallets, stack them and hop on & off. Allows you to build up the height & improve your skills. Loose.

Partly, but I can't really think of a single situation in unicycle trials where you'd ever need a brake. Loose.

A brake is not actually essential for any kind of unicycling. I personally have a brake on my 26" muni, for the reason you state, that it is good for taking strain from your legs on long downhills and for gaining control on technical rough ground. A 20" trials wouldn't ever be used (by someone using it for its intended purpose) in a situation that would need a brake. There are times when you might like to use one, but thats no substitute for good technique. A trials rider, riding trials, who needs a brake is just compensating for lack of skill. The only 20" unicycle frames that are supplied with brake mounts are the new 2006 Torkers. The reason no other manufacturer (Nimbus, Onza, KH) supply 20's with brake mounts is because you don't need them. Prior to the 06 Torker the only 20" to which brakes could be fitted was a Summit Trials, on which manufacturing was halted 3 years ago. Read my post before laying into me, I did specify trials. Loose.

A brake on a trials uni is just extra weight, it serves no useful purpose. There's too much fine control to need it for even urban riding, since most hops & drops are done with a static wheel, and the cranks horizontal. You land exactly how you took off in the majority of cases, so the uni can never really get away from you (with enough practice, obviously). Loose.

I'm in southampton (unversity) and up for riding evenings. I'm totally free tomorrow so if anyone wants to meet up then give me a shout, my msn is Loose(underscore)moose(underscore)pie(at)hotmail(dot com). I'm warning you now I'm a trials unicyclist, so staying in one area & not moving around much are more my kind of thing, I'm too slow for long distance stuff. I'm hopefully going to be on the ride(s) on the 29th/30th, I just need my spanking new account upgraded so I can reply to the topic. Loose.