Wizards 50th Birthday

Quote: Ayecarumba

Wow, that's 50 miles in less than 6.5 hours. With a significant elevation change too. Well done!

Thanks! The elevation change was not that much on this ride. The further west I go, the worse it gets.

On a different note, if any aspiring unicyclists should read this in the future, I noticed an improvement when I switched to newer shoes with harder soles. Wearing old shoes with broken-in soles seems to waste energy. Just look at serious bicyclists, they all wear shoes with hard plastic soles and sound like tap shoes when they walk.

Quote: Wizard

Record for the longest single ride today at 25.2 miles.

Impressive! Plus you haven't used the shorter cranks or biggest wheels.

Thanksgiving Parade.
Watching on TV
Saw a bunch of Unicycles :-)
All sizes, low and high.

Quote: terapined

Thanksgiving Parade.
Watching on TV
Saw a bunch of Unicycles :-)
All sizes, low and high.

Cool! I wish there was a unicycling community here in Vegas to ride with.

In other news, the Strava app has caused me to use up a huge amount of data (172 MB) on my iPhone. To keep using it I'm going to have to pay an extra $15 per month for a greater quota of data.

Quote: Wizard

Cool! I wish there was a unicycling community here in Vegas to ride with.

In other news, the Strava app has caused me to use up a huge amount of data (172 MB) on my iPhone. To keep using it I'm going to have to pay an extra $15 per month for a greater quota of data.

Don't turn on mobile data when riding, you just need to capture the GPS info when out, not the map. When finished, your upload online will put up all the data and create the map and route. Cheaper still, pay $99 for a GPS watch like the forerunner 10.

I'm surprised it's that data hungry.

A friend let me try his electric unicycle yesterday. Unfortunately, it didn't go very well, as I managed to separate the tire from the rim so far. The longest I was able to ride was about five seconds.

I did a 16.4-mile ride today on Strava. This was my first ride after moving the pedals to the 110mm position on the cranks. I was hoping it would improve my speed but when I compared it to doing the same route on Nov 19 my moving time was only a minute faster. In both cases my riding speed was about 9 MPH.

Maybe the shorter crank size will just take a little more getting used to. I do think I'll have to move them back when doing anything hilly.

Edit: The previous time I did this ride it was 15.9 miles, a half mile less. The reason for the extra half mile is I rode past a friend who was walking the other way so I stopped, turned off Strava, and walked back half a mile to chat. So a half mile extra and a minute less is good news.

I often peruse Ebay for unicycles and you can always find rip-offs like this one. Here we have a POS generic unicycle for $999. You can buy a nice Nimbus unicycle for about $300. That low-end Walmart-quality unicycle I'd value at $100-$150.

Who are they kidding? Are they hoping that somebody shopping for one as a gift won't know any better and just buy it out of laziness? You can say how much you respect the free market all you want, but this still bothers me. I'd never significantly overcharge for anything, even if I could.

Quote: Wizard

A friend let me try his electric unicycle yesterday. Unfortunately, it didn't go very well, as I managed to separate the tire from the rim so far. The longest I was able to ride was about five seconds.

I once let my neighbor's friend try out the electric bicycle I owned, and he promptly ran it into a nearby bush. Not sure what people expect, but some are completely thrown by the little power boost.

Quote: Wizard

I'd never significantly overcharge for anything, even if I could.

I congratulate you on your attitude, especially since you have had your own business for so long.

For business owners, the idea that someone could pay too much gets a little laughable, the problem being though, that only some of your trusting customers will be the ones paying the extra.