2015 Unicycling Anniversary

Amy and the kids surprised me with a unicycling anniversary cake!  I had forgotten!

Before cake we had a unicycle jam session in the driveway.  Syd's been favoring my 20" trials.  Kyle's been riding more and is more stable.  He free-mounts sometimes too.  Unfortunately he's so tall he wants my seat post raised too high for me, so it makes sharing difficult.  Perhaps he needs a uni of his own!  He does ride some of the cheaper 20" unicycles I have, but the seats aren't nice.

Kessa's tiny unicycle that I got her for Christmas 2013 is actually too small.  It's too bad the seat height isn't adjustable.  It was a cute uni and very well built, but not at all versatile.  It's good if you can actually get a 3 year old to ride it, but that's not realistic.  I didn't expect her to, but I thought it would still be rideable at age 5.  A few weeks ago at the Empire State Muni Fest, Robi let us borrow his small uni, which is actually a 12" wheel like Kessa's.  I swapped the cranks with Kessa's, which were slightly shorter, and shortened a seat post from Syd's first 16" uni.  This made it an acceptable size for Kessa.  I too can ride it! lol  I think I had more fun on it than Kessa so far.

Hojack with Kyle 2

Awesome weather this weekend.  50's and sunny.  Today I decided to ride but choosing where was a chore.  I thought of West Bay but my 24 uni still in pieces in my garage since the last time I swapped parts to my 29, and I'd prefer it on those trails.  The problem is I only have one brake and moving it from one uni to another is tedious.  I should probably buy another brake soon.

For today, I didn't want to spend time moving parts so I chose to ride where my 29er would be fun.  Also, Amy wanted Kyle to get some exercise before he played video games, so I decided the Hojack would be best.  Kyle rode his mountain bike.

The ride was good and about as exciting as can be expected for the Hojack.  The areas that are muddy continue to be muddy.  Kyle didn't complain that I was going too slow or too fast, but I suspect he could have ridden faster on his bike.

Looking back, I did an almost identical ride a year ago with Kyle.

We rode close to 13 miles.

At one of the crossroads, a man who looked like a runner made some comments, and mentioned a unicyclist named Eric Scheer who rode some big rides and something about Mt. Washington.  I had never heard of him, but he shows up on Google.  Anyway, just leaving myself a note here in case it comes up some day.

Hojack with Kyle

(over the shoulder blind video frame)

Today I rode the Hojack trail and my son Kyle came along with me on a mountain bike.  It was a bit chilly out and the winds were strong, especially as we rode west.

It was a fairly uneventful ride.  Though on the way back there was a woman jogging in the same direction we were riding.  She was in the middle of the trail so as we approached her from behind I gave her a "hello" warning, expecting she'd give us some room to pass.  She was listening to music and didn't hear us, so I repeated my "hello" getting progressively louder and closer until I was basically yelling at the top of my lungs right behind her.  No response.  What the heck!  I dismounted and ran up along side her pushing my uni until she finally saw me and took her ear-buds out.  I told her I had been yelling to alert her and she must have her music way too loud.  I'm sure she could tell I was pretty irritated though I was smiling and laughing about it.  She apologized, also smiling, so hopefully she didn't feel too bad. We passed her and moved on.  Seriously though, if you're gonna listen to music in public you should be able to hear what's going on around you.  Personally, I like to hear the sounds of nature and even suburban noises as I ride.  In more twisting trails, hearing is important to avoid turning a sharp corner and running into someone.

Muni on Road and Hojack - 2013-05-25

Kyle's Uni

Last week I saw another unicycle on craigslist. This one was a 20". It was of the China factory made style, not something that would hold up for myself. So I thought maybe my son Kyle would like it. He has had some interest since I've been riding, and Syd got hers.

The guy wanted $30, but it seems like a brand new uni of this caliber can be purchased for about $45-50 on eBay. So I told him so, offered $25, and he accepted. But when I went to check it out, I found one of the crank arms was very loose. The guy (college student) only had pliers, but I was able to remove the crank arm on the spot and and see the damage. The spindle and crank arm were both worn from being ridden loose. I wasn't sure I should even both buying it. If it was worn too bad the crank arm would always wobble no matter how tight it was tightened. I explained this and the seller lowered his price to $20. Sold!

I took the entire uni apart, cleaned it up, and swapped the crank arms to opposite spindle sides, tightening them extra hard. In the end the uni looks great and seems to work fine. I rode it a tiny bit, nice and easy. As a bonus, the rim is double-walled, which means its stronger.
For $20 it was a great buy.