things to do on a unicycle that I haven't seen done yet

[riverman]

neophyte that I am, I've been watching some of the videos floating around youtube, the tutorial vids in the forum, and the videos of you guys playing OTG.

as far as speaking about my style, there is little I can do but speculate considering the fact that I can't even ride in a straight line yet, but there are things I want to do on a unicycle that I haven't seen yet, ranging from potentially simple to complex.

1. seat post grinds. unicycle on its side, one foot on the seat, one food on a pedal. sounds extremely difficult, but extremely cool.

2. in the same vein, unicycle upside down, grind a rail with the top of the seat. bouncing the wheel, grabbing it with a hand, riding it down the rail, and bringing the seat back up before you hit the ground sounds extremely difficult, but totally awesome.

3. in another similar vein, a small hop up to a tall rail, catching the top of the seat on the rail while the uni hangs below, sit on the seat like a champion, ride it down, and maybe pull a sweet unispin on the way down. this sounds like a bit of a party trick, but it also sounds fun.

4. you know that trick where you hop, then spin your frame forward or backward, making it do a 360 around your wheel, then land it? what about stopping it at 180, stall on the ground balancing on the seat, then do a cool transition back to riding?

5. not sure if this has been done, if it is a simple crappy trick or what not, but transition the uni to its side, one foot on the seat, the other on a pedal, and balance on the pedal that is touching the ground, maybe doing some cool spins or something. sounds kinda lame, but kinda fun.

6. get a good bounce, on your way up, push the seat back so that it hits the ground behind you at the height of your jump, then slam the pedal to the ground so that it pulls the seat right back up into your butt. the logistics of this are perhaps beyond me, but you never know until you try, eh?

anyhow, have any of these been done? are my ideas even mildly original?

[AlisterBurt]

Originally Posted by riverman

neophyte that I am, I've been watching some of the videos floating around youtube, the tutorial vids in the forum, and the videos of you guys playing OTG.

as far as speaking about my style, there is little I can do but speculate considering the fact that I can't even ride in a straight line yet, but there are things I want to do on a unicycle that I haven't seen yet, ranging from potentially simple to complex.

1. seat post grinds. unicycle on its side, one foot on the seat, one food on a pedal. sounds extremely difficult, but extremely cool.

good luck, not sure how you'd go about getting into that, or how long the uni would hold up!

2. in the same vein, unicycle upside down, grind a rail with the top of the seat. bouncing the wheel, grabbing it with a hand, riding it down the rail, and bringing the seat back up before you hit the ground sounds extremely difficult, but totally awesome.

that'd be insane, but i'd go as far as to say impossible

3. in another similar vein, a small hop up to a tall rail, catching the top of the seat on the rail while the uni hangs below, sit on the seat like a champion, ride it down, and maybe pull a sweet unispin on the way down. this sounds like a bit of a party trick, but it also sounds fun.

I think this has been done before, I know i've done it but never thought much of it, i guess it it pretty cool though

4. you know that trick where you hop, then spin your frame forward or backward, making it do a 360 around your wheel, then land it? what about stopping it at 180, stall on the ground balancing on the seat, then do a cool transition back to riding?

so you're standing on the seat?
if seats weren't so fragile, i reckon this would be possible/awesome, getting back to riding would be insane though!
Unfortunately, seats/seatposts seem to be among the parts that break the most, especially plastic seatbases

5. not sure if this has been done, if it is a simple crappy trick or what not, but transition the uni to its side, one foot on the seat, the other on a pedal, and balance on the pedal that is touching the ground, maybe doing some cool spins or something. sounds kinda lame, but kinda fun.

dont really get you

6. get a good bounce, on your way up, push the seat back so that it hits the ground behind you at the height of your jump, then slam the pedal to the ground so that it pulls the seat right back up into your butt. the logistics of this are perhaps beyond me, but you never know until you try, eh?

Can't see this actually working

anyhow, have any of these been done? are my ideas even mildly original?

some pretty cool ideas, you can always try eh?

[Hung Like Saddam]

Originally Posted by AlisterBurt

some pretty cool ideas, you can always try eh?

Yeah, just don't try the trick where you land a drop badly and break stuff

[maestro8]

Those tricks are child's play.

I've seen Harper hop in the air, disassemble his unicycle (with only his teeth), re-weld his seat post, repack his bearings, and land in a headstand, pedaling with his hands.

Down a 12-stair set.

With his eyes closed.

In the rain.

You shouldn't bother unicycling. You'll never be as good as Harper.

[riverman]

Originally Posted by maestro8

Those tricks are child's play.

I've seen Harper hop in the air, disassemble his unicycle (with only his teeth), re-weld his seat post, repack his bearings, and land in a headstand, pedaling with his hands.

Down a 12-stair set.

With his eyes closed.

In the rain.

You shouldn't bother unicycling. You'll never be as good as Harper.

screw that noise! I'm not sure how many hours of practice it usually takes to get to the level where you can hop up onto a pole, ride it, and do some cool flip off of it, but my goal is to reach that skill level over the course of this upcoming summer.

I may be biting off more than I can chew, but I'm sure going to try.

[trepper687]

I'd LOVE to see a wheel walk while the seat is dragging on the ground.

[riverman]

Originally Posted by AlisterBurt

some pretty cool ideas, you can always try eh?

1. I would imagine that seatpost's aren't designed for that particular kind of abuse, but who knows!

2. I could imagine it working on a really low rail, like a half footer

4. you'd land the 180 with the uni completely upside down, while you balance on the pedals, and would look like a cool cat while doing it. I would imagine that you would split any plastic or fibre seat trying that trick. a metal seat should be fine, though catching that in your crotch doesn't sound pleasant.

5. stradle a uni, let it fall to the left side. left foot goes on the seat, right foot goes on the right pedal, then balance the whole thing on the left pedal. not sure if cranks can deal with that kind of stress though.

6. after seeing some of your videos, I am going to take your word for it, much to my dismay. when I get good enough to try things like this, I may build a custom metal seat for trying things that current seats aren't really built for. I'm thinking a small steel base with a rubber bumper on the front and back, and a hard plastic top mounted over a layer of gel to take some of the impact. who knows!

[AustinLee]

I would love to see something that goes a little like this:

You would ride as fast as you could straight at a concrete wall. About four feet away, hop as high as you could at the wall, leaning back and hitting the wall with your tire. Bounce off the wall, backflip, and land.

Think that's possible?

[Clint May]

Originally Posted by AustinLee

I would love to see something that goes a little like this:

You would ride as fast as you could straight at a concrete wall.

Think that's possible?

I thought that post was going to end differently

[Julia B]

Originally Posted by AustinLee

I would love to see something that goes a little like this:

You would ride as fast as you could straight at a concrete wall. About four feet away, hop as high as you could at the wall, leaning back and hitting the wall with your tire. Bounce off the wall, backflip, and land.

Think that's possible?

It doesn't matter, I doubt anyone would be willing to jump full speed at a concrete wall to find out

[Dane M]

Originally Posted by Clint May

I thought that post was going to end differently

Same.

As for the OP's proposed tricks, The only one I can imagine happening is the seat post grind, with the rail between the post and the crown, but unis aren't designed for that, and you would probably go through a few uni's just learning how to DO it.

The others seem either ridiculous, or impossible considering that seats are not designed for any of those things.

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but I can see a sort of half-whip, meaning that you would hop, throw the seat back, and have it bounce off the rear bumper shooting it back up to you. But I would think the timing would have to be absolutely perfect, and the ground you do it on would be a factor, and if the rear bumpers would have enough bounce-back to do it.

[Dane M]

Originally Posted by Julia B

It doesn't matter, I doubt anyone would be willing to jump full speed at a concrete wall to find out

You'd be surprised.

[tholub]

Originally Posted by AustinLee

I would love to see something that goes a little like this:

You would ride as fast as you could straight at a concrete wall. About four feet away, hop as high as you could at the wall, leaning back and hitting the wall with your tire. Bounce off the wall, backflip, and land.

Think that's possible?

It should be possible. Heck, a back flip on flat ground should be possible; we're seeing guys with enough hops to do it, now it's just getting the technique down.

[Dane M]

Originally Posted by tholub

It should be possible. Heck, a back flip on flat ground should be possible; we're seeing guys with enough hops to do it, now it's just getting the technique down.

I can already think of several ways of practicing and working up to this in a safe way.

I would think a 19 or a 20 would need to be used, and you could work your way up to it by simply doing repeated normal bounces off the wall, until the proper height is achieved.

From there you would work with 1 or 2 other people, and they would slide a mat under you as you jump to flip off the wall. It's basically having spotters.

I can see it happening as well.

EDIT: But again, timing and angle would be incredibly important, because people that do normal wall run-up flips, they have 2 points of contact which stabilizes them and lets them have better control of their flip.

[riverman]

Originally Posted by Dane M

Same.

As for the OP's proposed tricks, The only one I can imagine happening is the seat post grind, with the rail between the post and the crown, but unis aren't designed for that, and you would probably go through a few uni's just learning how to DO it.

The others seem either ridiculous, or impossible considering that seats are not designed for any of those things.

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but I can see a sort of half-whip, meaning that you would hop, throw the seat back, and have it bounce off the rear bumper shooting it back up to you. But I would think the timing would have to be absolutely perfect, and the ground you do it on would be a factor, and if the rear bumpers would have enough bounce-back to do it.

that is exactly what I was talking about, but of course it would make more sense on a seat built to take that kind of abuse.

as far as the rest sounding impossible, I now have a goal. once I get the hang of this thing, I am going to learn to grind a rail with the seat post.

I will hurt myself many times in the learning process, but I promise you that I will land this before the summer is out and upload a video of it. if anything, i think grinding a seat post sounds easier to pull than a darkside grind on a skateboard, which is a pretty simple trick for seasoned skaters