Advice on learning to ride up/over things higher than a few inchs required.

[Splodge]

I've reached the point where I need to be able to get up curbs, steps and over branches/logs etc on my 24" Muni (with 3" tyre).
At the moment I'm trying to sort of 'power' over them with brute force - usually unsuccessfully.

Does anybody have any advice on the best method?
Is it jumping? If so any suggestions on how to start?
Or is just like everything else and practice, practice and more practice???

........I'm loving Unicycling!!!

[delcypher]

Definitely more practice as always but I tend not to power over curbs. I can but it seems unnecessary when I can just hop on to it. Crank alignment in important for hopping up and powering up curbs. If you're powering over a curb try and make sure your strong foot is roughly at the top of its revolution (i.e. you have your good foot forwards).

Trying learning rolling hops and then hop up the curb (that's what I usually do). Take a look at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Uni...h_rolling_hops. Although the guide is for large object there's nothing stopping you from applying it to small objects.

Hope this helps

Dan.

[pkittle]

For small things (rocks, curbs, roots of around 4-6"), it's pretty easy to just ride right up them. You need some momentum, and then, just as you're about to hit the step-up, you drop your hips/seat backward, and then when you actually hit the curb (or whatever), inertia will push you forward and back up and on top of the uni, at the same time pulling the unicycle up and onto (or over) the object.

I don't know if my description is adequate. But there's just a feeling that happens--the wheel wants to stop, but then it sends you forward and you just flow up and onto the thing. It feels very natural.

The first couple times, you may just get tossed off the front of the uni. If that happens, slide your butt further back the next time. You'll get so that you can judge how far back to go based on the size of the object you're approaching.

Good luck. Practice!

[Jerrick]

Learn to float. Ramming into things isnt going to work always and a lot of time will just be making you hit your rim which is no good. Floating, is like a rolling hop, but your not lifting the tire off the ground. In a way, you are kind of just taking your pressure off the uni, so when you do roll a curb, your tire just hits it and goes up without a big compression into your rim.

Or even just learning to rolling hop right to the tip of something and as soon as you make contact, keep pedaling so you just ride right off and down the trail.

Practice floating in all pedal positions, and for rolling hops, learn to line up your hops. Ride at a curb, and make some swivels or a slight curve so when you are near the curb your in a jumping position.

[evil-nick]

What's your tire pressure set to? Too high and your tire is less like a shock absorber and more like a big stiff wheel ramming into things. When I got my first muni, I had a hard time riding it at less than 50psi (I was used to a skinny road tire). When I got used to the muni, I was advised to lower the psi and it helped a heap rolling over stuff.

And of course, practice