Air pressure experiment w/ Big Apple

underdog said:

Anybody got any suggestions or comments? Something I might have
overlooked? Should I maybe try a Nanoraptor or just keep riding 'til I
figure out how to overcome this whole crooked thing?

I think it's just a question of practice. One thing you might try is
changing which hand is on the handle to see if that straightens you out
(or overcorrects). But mostly, you'll just get straighter as you get
more comfortable on the 29er and are fighting it less.

I don't think a Nanoraptor is likely to solve your problem. The
Nanoraptor does perform better in loose dirt situations, but on the
road the Big Apple is significantly better.

--
tholub
------------------------------------------------------------------------
tholub's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/804
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614

Try lightening the pressure on your pedals until you're just barely
pushing them. Be sure to concentrate on each/both sides.

Sometime leg dominance gets into a state where it gets worse and worse,
and in this situation the body's set gets way off. By doing the
lightening bit, you help back the dominant side off to match the
non-dominant side better.

It wouldn't hurt to work on this on a non-inclined surface for a while.

--
U-Turn

Weep in the dojo... laugh on the battlefield.
'LiveWire Unicycles' (http://www.livewireunicycles.com)
'Strongest Coker Wheel in the World'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albup39)
'29er Tire Study' (http://u-turn.unicyclist.com/29erTireStudy/)
'New York Unicycle Club' (http://www.newyorkunicycle.com)
-- Dave Stockton
------------------------------------------------------------------------
U-Turn's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/691
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614

I ride 2 29ers - one with 150mm cranks and kenda claw tyre and another
with 125mm cranks and the Big Apple tyre. I find that there are similar
problems with road crown with both of them. I am quite heavy and I ride
them both with the tyre so hard I can barely get any more air in with
my littlest pump. Probably about 70 psi.

Although I would hesistate to give anyone advice as most people are
much better than me, I do have an observation to share with you.

I have been practicing riding with my hand on the handle - I'm not very
good and with anything approaching bumpy I still have to wave the old
arms for balance. BUT I have found that sometimes when I'm riding along
my right shoulder and arm 'twists' inward and my left arm goes out
behind me. I find that this is rectified by putting slightly more
weight onto the left foot. My arms just sort of naturally return to
being relaxed and facing forward.

I don't know if this will help you at all.

Cathy

--
cathwood

Say no to unicycle genre discrimination! - MrBoogiejuice

http://www.chuckingandtwirling.co.uk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
cathwood's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/9425
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614

I ride a big apple on my 29" and it's a bit low (my air pump is f'ed
up). I haven't had any notice of leaning one way or the other.

I don't hold the handle other than mounting and I ride on all sorts of
uneven surfaces (the parking lot that I tend to ride in has a very
uneven grade).

I'll see if I notice anything subtle tonight, but I haven't noticed
anything yet.

--
bmemike
------------------------------------------------------------------------
bmemike's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/11148
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614

underdog said:

"OK. So I've been getting really frustrated with a riding problem I've
been having with my 29er. I tend to ride it pretty crooked. I'll be
cruising along down the road, and in order to keep it straight, my
body's twisted WAY to the right with my left arm pointing ahead and my
right arm pointing behind. This is really starting to p*ss me off. I
don't have this problem with my 24" Torker but it's prevalant w/ my
homebuilt 29er. The uni is straight. I put it on a super flat welding
table we've got at work and used precision gage blocks under the forks
and there is no twist at all to the frame. The wheel is nice and true
and I've got a friend who's ridden it and he said it feels just fine to
him. Oh yeah, the seat is on as straight as I can possible get it by
eyeball."

I think you might be on to something with the tire thing. I have
exactly the same thing happening. onl I didnt switch to a new uni I
switched to a new innertube in my tire. Where I live they are building
a lot of new houses so I was getting flats all the time to i switched
out my reular tube for one of those thick rubber "puncture proof" tubes
filled with slime (that green stuff that seals punctures). Right after
I swapped tires the weather got bad and then I got busy so I didnt ride
for about a week after I changed the tire. The first time I got on I
noticed I had to fight the Uni to stay in a straight line and I was
riding left shoulder forward and pumping hard with my right leg. I put
it down to something I had adjusted incorrectly when putting my tire
back on. So over the next few weeks I started tweaking the uni before
every ride, loosten the bearing clamps, tighten the bearing clamps ,
twist the seat more one way then the other, I even went as far as to
put padding under one butt cheek to see if I was just sitting crooked.
It never dawned on me that it might be the tire since i pumped it to
the same psi as the old one. I think I'm going to change back to a
regular tube and see if it helps...

--
sticknui

"Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it
holds the universe together...."
~ Carl Zwanzig
------------------------------------------------------------------------
sticknui's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/9806
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614

It's true that the Big Apple is prone to this behavior anyway. I don't
have any experience with them on a uni but I have them on the my road
bike which I use to commute every day. I can tell when the pressure is
getting soft becasue I get under steer when cornering and it twitches
going over the edge of manhole covers etc as the wheel tries to grab a
line I am not steering in. Obviously it isn't a big prblem with two
wheels but very noticable and it corrects as soon as I pump up the
tires again. I think this tire squishes around at low pressure like a
studded tire does. Also on a narrow rim there is very little lateral
stability.

Andy

--
andytait
------------------------------------------------------------------------
andytait's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/11766
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614

U-Turn said:

Sometime leg dominance gets into a state where it gets worse and worse

To correct this problem, I recommend tieing your dominant foot to your
waistband for a day or two, and hopping around on your non-dominant
foot. Build up the muscles in your non-dom leg and you'll be in better
shape.

--
maestro8

Those are my principles. If you don't like those, I have others. --
Groucho Marx
------------------------------------------------------------------------
maestro8's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/7871
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614

maestro8 said:

To correct this problem, I recommend tieing your dominant foot to your
waistband for a day or two, and hopping around on your non-dominant
foot. Build up the muscles in your non-dom leg and you'll be in better
shape.

That's a good idea🙄 I've taken a slightly different tact to
correcting a very dominant right leg. I've been trying to do more of
my mounting left footed and trying to idle left footed. It's really
hard for me to stay focused on it though. At my meager lever of
riding, a little frustration goes a long ways. I still relish the
successes so when I start getting a little frustrated at not being able
to mount or idle consistently I revert back to my dominant foot.😠
and my 24"

I'm hearing real mixed reviews on the Big Apple here. I'm thinking a
good experiment might be to put something like 700c X 32 road tire on
it just for fun and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

I'm still betting that it's just bad technique.

--
underdog

'I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody
tell you different' - Kurt Vonnegut
------------------------------------------------------------------------
underdog's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/6197
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48614