Last weekend when my cat disappeared I was busy having fun doing some mountain unicycling. I might as well remember the good stuff.

Saturday a group of us rode Mr Toads Wild Ride as a 13′ish mile shuttle. I think it was my fourth time riding this trail (hopefully by writing it on my blog I can keep track better). Here’s some info here on singletracks about the ride. It is one of my all time favorite rides in California. It is very taxing on the body, and tough to ride all the way up. This was my first time riding it on the geared 24 mountain unicycle, and it was totally fun to blast past the easy stuff towards the end — nice and curvy with a few bumps and tough parts mixed in every now and again.

Nathan got a great video of me doing an epic crash:

It hurt a bit, and I ended up bending the neck of my frame about 10 degrees back. I also bent my handlebar! On the ride: Aaron, Jason, Nathan, Geoff F., Bevan and myself. We carpooled up in double priuses.

On Sunday we rode “Hole in the Ground”. Bevan captured a map with his iPhone 4.

It was about 13 miles, with lots of up and down. It feels as though you are climbing the whole time. This ride was epic; it started hailing, then turned to light rain, and later was snowing a bit. Nathan had a good fall and hurt his shoulder and fingers a bit. John Foss also came for the fun. This was my second time riding the trail; I rode it last year at muni weekend; both times on my geared 24.

This weekend I’ll be going to Vancouver for some more epic unicycling at the “VanUni” muni weekend.

Muni Ride Log – Stevens Trail, Colfax, CA (another link to info about it).

I started using the iPhone app “iMapMyRide“. It dumps things back to a website and generates a nice map. Unfortunately, some data points seem to get lost, and it shows straight lines. The ride really took 1:35 mins (roughly), which is right, but I don’t think the mileage is correct. Most sites say 4.5 miles each way, and 9 miles total, which sounds more correct given the time. I rode it on the geared 24 KH muni; mostly in the high gear on the way out ,and in the low gear on the way back.

I think the elevation profile (1200′ of loss and gain on the way out) does seem right:

Overall, the program is pretty cool! Especially considering it is free. The thing I don’t like is that the map information (data points) are stored online only; I would like a local copy. Now..only if JR finishes his app.

Ride: Home to work. RTL training ride. Totally tired, and I forgot to get stats. Something like 12-13mph average over the 20 mile ride, and about 10 minutes longer than usual. i crashed riding to work due to being too tired! Plus, there was a major headwind that made it really hard to ride in.

I then discovered that the Santa Cruz mountains were on fire, and rode home at 5pm with Shane and Curt (on bikes). I barely kept up, and we averaged 16.0mph on the 9.66 miles from work to Los Gatos. 37 minutes of riding time, and a slightly longer route than what I usually go. Shane gave me a ride from downtown Los Gatos up the hill to home..which was nice!

Ride: Los Gatos to work. With my MacBook Pro 15″ in a backpack that also contained my camel back with 2 liters of water.

Time: 8:00′ish to 9:40′ish

Riding Time: 0:38′00

Distance: 9.21 miles

Average Speed: 14.5 mph

Max Speed: 22.0 mph

ODO: 960.7

Notes: Hit lots of lights red. It is difficult to ride with a 15″ computer in my backpack, and I think that slowed me down a bit. I also took it easy, since I rode yesterday. Before I left, I had a large bowl of cereal. At work, I had a small bowl of oatmeal. Now I’m almost ready for lunch.

Ride: Home to work. RTL training ride. I finally fixed my cycle computer to be more accurate.

Time: 6:35 to 8:05?

Riding Time:

Distance:

Average Speed:

Max Speed: 26.2 mph (that can’t be right, but I reset it before the ride)

ODO:

Notes: I’m still pretty slow….my legs were a scosh sore from Sunday’s ride. I felt like I was riding slower because of that. I hit a lot of red lights on the way to work.

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Ride: Work to home. RTL training ride.

Time: 5:15? – 7:00?

Riding Time: 1:44′42 (cycle computer)

Distance: 20.28 miles

Average Speed: 11.6 (slow!) I think I was averaging 13.x before I hit the hill. I also hit a lot of stop lights

Max Speed: 22.4

ODO: 951.3 miles

Notes: Ate frozen yogurt at 4pm. Ate one bar at the start of the Los gatos creek trail (before the dirt park). Did a stupid shift-fall when up shifting. I thought I was done with those! I kept it in the high gear more often on the climb up when compared to prior rides. I feel pretty good tonight, despite having done 40 miles today.

Ride: Strawberry Fields Forever 2008 – Watsonville, Corralitos, and Santa Cruz.

Time: 7:15′ish to 3:30′ish

Riding Time: 5:13′08, moving time on cycle computer

Distance: 65.52 miles.

Average Speed: 12.5 mph

Max Speed: 25.3 mph

ODO: 910.8 miles

Notes: 150mm crank holes. Geared nimbus 36 with KH hub.

The mileage should have been 62.55 according to the map. My computer is 2.97 miles off according to it! According to the mileage, my cycle computer should read 2740, but I had 2862 as the value input into it. I guess it is finally time to do a roll out test. I rolled the wheel out (Nightrider tire, 34 psi) several times and consistently measured right around 2825. I used a marking on the tire, and the floor of my shop to ensure I went in a straight line and that the cranks were exactly parallel at the start and ending point (using a square and a level to verify). So, that alone tells me I have too high of a number. I repeated three more times with myself on the tire (130 – 135 pounds, depending on what I’m wearing and water weight). I consistently measured 2780. So, that’s the number I’m going with. It is slightly higher than what the ride should have been, but only by a slight amount. Given that a unicycle doesn’t ride in a line as straight as a bike, that makes sense. So, all my values up to (and including) this ride are 3% higher than what they should have been (2780/2862 is the ratio to convert). Ah, my 26 mph max was only 25.3 mph (rounding up). Still, over 25 is insane. What is sad is that my 13.3 averages turn out to be only 12.9 mph. I guess I have to work on being faster!

26′ish mile ride, “Rob’s ride” plus Sick and Twisted. On geared nimbus 36, with Chuck, Beau and Mike also on geared 36′ers, Tom on geared 29′er, and Nathan on a traditional Coker. Lots o fun. I like offroad better than the street. Tourists by the beach suck; I almost hit one as they hopped into the bike path by the boardwalk.

Ride to work on “Bike to work day”.

Ride: Ride from home to work (Los Gatos to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA). The path: Corbin’s house to work.

Time: 6:30 to 8:00 — then stopped at the Apple ride to work station to get a snack.

Riding Time: 1:28′50 (cycle computer), 1:30 minutes by my watch. I hit most lights green again.

Distance: 20.79 miles

Average Speed: 14.0 mph

Max Speed: 24.3 mph

ODO: 795.8 miles

Notes: 150mm crank holes. Geared nimbus 36 with KH hub. Clear glasses, instead of sunglasses. Half full camel back (1 or 1.5 liters). Cold cereal for breakfast, bagel after I got to work. 1/4 cinnamon roll snack (from Chris). Sandwich + salad for lunch. Plan to eat a large frozen yogurt + berries before I leave, and one bar on the ride home.

Ride home from work today. Louise also rode home, and I caught up with her going up old Santa Cruz highway. Louise crashed going down our super steep hill to the house; she had 125’s on her Coker and wasn’t using the brake. She has a bit of road rash on her arm and a bad scrape on her side, but she’s been healing fine. It was probably my fault; I was encouraging her to ride the hill, when she normally walks down it. I felt really bad, needless to say, but I took good care of her! So, I zoomed home after she crashed to get the car and pick her up. I lost track of the details of times/hours and reset my speedo a few days later.

Ride: Ride from home to work (Los Gatos to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA). The path: Corbin’s house to work.

Time: 5:15 – ?

Riding Time: 1:45 or 1:50 — I lost track

Distance: 20 ish miles

I rode to work today. Crashed down Mt Charlie going about 17 mph. Ran it out while skidding on my feet. Lost the battery for my tail light.

Ride: Ride from home to work (Los Gatos to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA). The path: Corbin’s house to work.

Time: 6:30 to 8:00

Riding Time: 1:28′17 (cycle computer), 1:30 minutes by my watch. I hit most lights green.

Distance: 20.76 miles

Average Speed: 14.1 mph

Max Speed: 24.2 mph

ODO: 754.1 miles

Notes: 150mm crank holes. Geared nimbus 36 with KH hub.