JohnnyReggae

All this talk of work and changes in Tokai ..... I would pay good money for a lift of sorts to the top of the mountain I'd like to spend more riding time riding downhill... uphill is well .... not as much fun

Entombed - Wolverine Blues

Pot ... kettle ... black ... ? You seem to be suffering from the same affliction you claim others have. You know what you are doing is wrong from a safety point of view, but you do it anyway..... Would you ride your bike in the middle of the freeway because you can ? And seriously ... your last comment is just off sides. I'm actually ashamed to share the mountain with you .... *sigh* ...

Bloodbath - Cancer Of The Soul

The guys that ride up the DH sections are not novice riders. They know exactly what trail they are riding up and that there is a strong possibility that a DH rider may come hurtling down the trail at any second .... but still insist on riding up the trail. This to me is just pure arrogant stupidity, placing yourself and someone else in intentional danger when you *DO* know better. As mentioned by a previous poster, it's not about ownership ... it's about safety.

Swallow the Sun - Plague of Butterflies

I wish I had Ethan's skills The dude is a machine.

Last week the Monster roamed Tokai ... It is the Nimbus Oregon 26" Unicycle with it's 3.8" SURLY Larry Tyre, and custom disc brake. Video done by OddWheel Unicycles showing Ethan rocking the monster on the single track in Tokai. http://vimeo.com/26714103 This really is a MONSTER of a unicycle. Makes my 26" uni with it's 3" tyre look like a little toy. Took it for a ride on Saturday morning, and it is something else. It just ate up the snake trails and the drops didn't feel like drops ... just small bumps really.

2 guys did the Freedom Challenge on 29" Unicycles .... 2470km's over 44 days http://www.counterbalance.co.za/

Chat to the guys at OddWheel ... you never know... If you're going to use the uni for riding around the neighbourhood and down to the local shop, then the cheaper options are best. My R500 no-name chinese import bought around 2004, lasted me well and I did many km's on it until I started to expand my skills and wanting to ride offroad. You may be able to fit a 24" MTB tyre on it, but it's not going to last offroad. The cranks, hub, and rim are not designed for abuse. You'll be able to ride jeep tracks and the like with it, but as soon as you start doing any drops or hitting obstacles the rim and cranks will feel it. Plus it won't handle the gravel as well as a Mountain Uni. If you're going to want to ride any gravel then rather spend a little extra cash to get the entry Mountain Uni the 24" Qu-Ax Cross. The Qu-Ax Cross comes with a 3" Duro tyre which loves the gravel You can get it with the cow saddle if you want to 3 guys did the Argus on Uni's this year, the first making it in a time of 5h15. One of them was a Johnny, but it was not me

We could ... but we don't There have been some that have tried and love it but they are in the far minority ... as in a dozen or slightly more around the world. For myself ... not a chance. I come off fairly regularly, mostly landing on my feet and also have an occasional face plant. With clips the face plant ratio would increase dramatically. Stay away from clips if you're doing any tech downhill. The grip on the pedals and your shoes should be enough to keep you on

There are some options based on how much you want to spend and what you may ultimately like to do in the end. For plain learning go for the cheaper option, the caveat being that once you learn how to ride you will more than likely want to upgrade to something better .... 24" Only One ... is a great Uni to learn on. Not as good in quality as the 24" Luxus ... A good option IMO would be to go for a lower entry Mountain Uni, the 24" Qu-Ax Cross ... It's a tough Uni, except maybe for the cranks which are aluminium and prone to bending if you really start launching off drops of a couple feet or more ... but they are easily replaceable with something stronger. The rest of the Uni is really tough and can take probably everything you would care to throw at it. I rode one for a couple of years before changing over to a Kris Holm 24", and now onto a Kris Holm 26". If you feel that you're quite serious from the start, then rather spend the money up front and get the best you can afford. Learning does take perseverance, and it does feel impossible when you first get on. But if you the fighting/driven type then take the plunge and get the best you can. For adults I would also recommend a 24" over a 20" for learning. That's just my opinion mostly because I learnt on a 24". The 20" feels really small, even now that I have a 20" Trials uni. At least with the 24" you can put some distance and time in without killing yourself pedalling.

I agree. Along with the workout is the honing of skills which are crucial. I'm still convinced however that unicycling is an awesome cross training workout and skill.

Unicycle ... in particular you probably saw the dude riding a Mountain unicycle. There are a few guys in Jozi that ride Mountain Uni. I can put you in touch if you want to get hold of them and perhaps join them for a ride. As for getting a Uni, the best place is OddWheel Unicycles. They are based in Cape Town, and also have a small branch in Pretoria. In terms of a workout ... IMO ... it's a killer particularly Mountain Uni

I remember Tiki He was awesome. I remember him visiting with his wife and daughter. I was about as tall as him back then. My dad recently told me some great stories about Tiki when he was working for my grandfather on the Circus. His great foresight for coming up with very entertaining shows.

Before The Dawn - Reign of Fire

No Friends Of Harry - Competition Rules

I agree with your sentiment about getting involved. However I do not live in the Hermanus area, and very seldom get to ride there when I am around there. The guys at Euodia were very uninterested in chatting about the trails in the area. They mentioned one track which in their words was 2 minutes long and not very technical. When I mentioned that I had the Fernkloof trail in mind they quickly said that was my only bet and left it at that. I tried to solicit more info hoping that mentioning that I MUni would give them an idea that I'm not looking for long XC type trails ... their response was go ride Fernkloof. I appreciate that they are and have been helpful to you and probably many others, but from my experience with them I have no reason to go back there again.

So I finally got to do the Fernkloof ride yesterday. Nice route which is quite different to what I'm normally used to. Tokai is very different, probably because of the downhill. The route is exactly as timM described. I met a really nice MTB'er, Riaan, who felt like a mellower ride on the day. He very graciously took me around the whole route. It was quite a mission trying to keep up with even him even though he was going at a very leisurely pace on his MTB. Good to have some company on the ride though, especially from someone who rides the trail very often. I'd definitely do the ride again On a side note, I went to see the guys at Euodia cycles to chat about single track in the area. They were ... well lets just say ... unhelpful and uninterested. I felt a little annoyed walking out of there after being kinda patronised after mentioning that I'm looking for some tech downhill to do some Mountain Uni. Don't think I'll be heading back there again. I'd rather drive into Hermanus to go to another cycle shop to get anything I needed.

You don't need brakes actually. The brakes that are fitted are Magura hydraulic brakes which are used as a drag brake to take some of the pressure off the knees. More useful on road riding with larger wheels. Although off road they help with very steep sections where the uni would run away from you. I have a brake fitted on my 26", but have still not used it on anything technical. I've only used it on long descents to give my knees a rest. I still only trust my legs on the tech stuff. Riding tech require a lot of concentration and at the moment I prefer not having to think about pulling a brake, and there is nothing in Tokai that is that steep that you could not control with your legs. Edit: the standard brake for a uni is a Magura, some folks have converted to using disc brakes as in the pic I posted earlier.

It has been tried and done before. Essentially it does make it harder to ride a uni due to your changing position relative to the cranks. Consider a pendulum ... a unicycle is similar to an upside down pendulum. Changing the end of the pendulum relative to it center would make an erratic swinging pendulum. A few people have built their own uni's with suspension the best looking ones I've seen are shown here, both made by the same guy using bike frames that have been cut up. Personally I prefer not having to think about suspension ... besides all the suspension I need is in the high-volume 3" tyre I run along with my legs

Kris Holm has some serious skills, also considering that the Freeride video is about 6 years old already. As for racking yourself.... very rarely ever happens and never happens when doing any hectic technical stuff (well for me anyway). In my case the only times I've racked myself was while doing something small or while I was initially learning to ride a uni. Hasn't happened in a very long time though. Although having said that, it happened to a mate of mine and we managed to catch it on camera The beginning of this video .... Riding in Tokai Forest.

Thanks Drongo, was kinda expecting a response questioning why I bother browsing and participating on the Hub. Not sure why you assume I've landed on my head .... does unicycling conjour up the idea for you? I've landed quite hard a few times, some writhing in pain, but never on my head. You are probably right about the reason Unicyclists seem more civil, we are a fringe group which we revel in, in some respects. To be honest I had never thought about why the Hub seem somewhat different based on numbers and competitiveness. I suppose it kinda makes sense. Still ... doesn't make it right. I'll definitely be sticking to Unicycling as I don't see the point of limiting my fun by introducing a 2nd/spare wheel I'll continue on my "civil forum", and I'll continue to stick around here. Some of the threads are quite entertaining just for a read, and others I try participate in. Why ... well because it's local and I'd like to encourage more to try unicycling. See you on the trails

The legendary Kris Holm ....

So the endless debate is raging on about 29'ers vs 26'ers. Quite entertaining to read in some cases actually. A similar debate it raging on in the Unicycling community. This one about the best Unicycle for Mountain Unicycling, with options of 24" vs 26" vs 29". Then a geared hub gets thrown into the mix, and it's just chaos As with anything everyone has their own opinion about which is best suited to what type of ride and terrain. So far general rule of thumb, to which there are always exceptions .... 24" for hardcore technical downhill 26" for technical downhill and some XC 29" for light Mountain Uni and XC 24" geared for technical downhill and XC 26" geared for technical downhill and XC 29" geared for XC The geared hub is not rated for drops larger than 4.5 foot (1m37cm), hence not really an option for hardcore downhill. I am rambling a little I know, but the point I wanted to make I suppose is how I see both debates going down. On the Uni forum the debate is quite civil, people giving their opinions which are respected by others even if their own experience says different. Occasionally new/duplicate threads are started asking the same question, and people are politely told to use the search function and the talk continues.... even in the newly created threads. On the Hub however the debate is ... well not that civil ... and in some cases people are extremely upset about the fact that some people ride different size bikes to them, and bemoan the fact that "The MAN" is trying to force something down their throats.... and how dare they .... The main difference I see is the Unicyclists act like a community. ie. if someone asks a question it is answered in a fashion to provide the most help or usefulness. They do not take the opportunity to attack one another. Now I'm not saying everyone should "group-hug" or sing kumbaya around the fire, but it would be nice if everyone was a little more respectful of one anothers opinions. Although what do I know, I ride on 1 wheel ...