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Managing curbs upwards


Mono

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I wonder about your technique to get up (small) curbs. Obviously, jumping is an option. In this case, how do you time a jump? Using constant speed, or decelerating before the jump? Does anybody do this on a regular basis with traffic around? 

What are the alternative, less "violent" ways that help going over curbs? My current state of affairs is to soften the knees as much as possible and/or even deliberately bent them at the point when I expect to hit the curb. It doesn't always feel terribly safe though (yet). 

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I also think the "stiffness" setting (e.g. soft mode / madden mode on gotways) have an effect.  I think if "madden mode" it will spin wildly midair and interfere with landing.  I'm not sure though.  But that has been my experience with the geared Rockwheels which are fixed at "super duper madden mode".  Regular curb jumpers please chime in.

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On 8/1/2015 at 10:42 AM, MarkoMarjamaa said:

Jumping was much easier with lower tire pressure. Now I use 35 PSI and jumping not possible anymore because the tire does not bounce anymore.

The physicist of my trust told me once that tire bouncing is irrelevant for jumping with a bicycle. Watching videos of jumpers also seems to suggest that the riders catch and lift the wheel with their feet or lower legs.

EDIT: just made the experiment with my poorly inflated bike: pushing it down and then releasing it doesn't really do much if anything.

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How high are these curbs you are thinking about jumping?  The curbs I am accustomed to seem at minimum 4 inches high (10 cm) and possibly 5 inches.  To me, there is no way to get up a curb like that without jumping?  But I can't jump with my wheel yet.  It is too heavy or I am too weak.  

But I am interested in going up smaller curbs too.  How high a curb do people suspect you can simply ride up, maybe with some lifting action to lighten the load, but without actually jumping the curb?  I know I can ride up 1 inch in this manner.  How high is too high to expect success? 

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Jumping up 10 cm curbs is much easier than we might think.

Start with a loop attached to the wheel's handle to lift the wheel by your hands when jumping. It is to take confidence and train your speed, balance and synchronisation (don't decelerate, keep a constant low speed).

Then try to squeeze more the wheel between your legs when jumping until you don't need the loop anymore. It's the only tricky part because depending on the trousers, the grip might be different. The Firewheel (and probably the Ninebot too) is particularly hard to grip because it's heavy and because of less thickness at the top contrary to other wheels). On the contrary, because of the geometry of its housing, the Gotway 14"  and other Ariwheel clones can always be lift up if the tops of your feet are turned insided enough, you'll never "mis-squeeze" them. I don't fear jumping 20cm with the Gotway, I'll think twice if it where the Firewheel.

Once you are synchronized enough, you'll see the climb up can be ensured as much by your lifting of the wheel as the rolling inertia of the wheel itself. Even with small curbs, I try to jump more or less to reduce shocks to my wheels.

As a side note, for jumping down a curb, don't decelerate either and don't do at low speed because you might get stuck with the pedals (in fact, the wheel gets stuck, while you fly).

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On 8/1/2015 at 3:24 PM, hobby16 said:

Jumping up 10 cm curbs is much easier than we might think.

Start with a loop attached to the wheel's handle to lift the wheel by your hands when jumping.

sounds like a good idea, I didn't think about this. 

On 8/1/2015 at 3:24 PM, hobby16 said:

It is to take confidence and train your speed, balance and synchronisation (don't decelerate, keep a constant low speed).

Then try to squeeze more the wheel between your legs when jumping until you don't need the loop anymore. It's the only tricky part because depending on the trousers, the grip might be different. The Firewheel (and probably the Ninebot too) is particularly hard to grip because it's heavy and because of less thickness at the top contrary to other wheels). On the contrary, because of the geometry of its housing, the Gotway 14"  and other Ariwheel clones can always be lift up if the tops of your feet are turned insided enough, you'll never "mis-squeeze" them. I don't fear jumping 20cm with the Gotway, I'll think twice if it where the Firewheel.

Once you are synchronized enough, you'll see the climb up can be ensured as much by your lifting of the wheel as the rolling inertia of the wheel itself. Even with small curbs, I try to jump more or less to reduce shocks to my wheels.

As a side note, for jumping down a curb, don't decelerate either and don't do at low speed because you might get stuck with the pedals (in fact, the wheel gets stuck, while you fly).

I found that catching the curb with the pedal when jumping down is usually not detrimental. It happens in particular (naturally) if I don't go straight. Still, in this case I could always remain control, so far. On the other hand, catching the curb with the pedal when going upwards meant always loosing it.

On 8/1/2015 at 2:34 PM, dpong said:

[...]

But I am interested in going up smaller curbs too.  How high a curb do people suspect you can simply ride up, maybe with some lifting action to lighten the load, but without actually jumping the curb?  I know I can ride up 1 inch in this manner.  How high is too high to expect success? 

It should depend pretty much linearly on the wheel diameter. In my experience with a 14" wheel, 2cm seem easy, 3cm seem still relatively safely doable, 4cm I will probably already avoid, unless I see a rounded edge.  

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I haven't jumped up "straight" curbstones but for a couple of times (but without falling, yay ;)), mostly what I go over look like these (side section):

curbstones.thumb.png.53c49039e95d6fd8a4c

The "ramp" like ones are mostly easy, you pretty much just ride up those. The"blocky" kind is harder, and I use constant (low) speed, and pull the wheel up to lighten it (so I grab it with my shins and slightly jump up/pull the wheel up with my legs, but not enought that the tire would actually lift off the ground) just when the tire hits the stone.

 

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the question is, what is are the absolute sizes in your schema

The angle and height for the "ramp" stones varies, usually they're about 45 degrees, sometimes less, and the vertical rise is about 10cm typically, sometimes more, sometimes less. The blocky kind are more standard size, I quickly measured one in front of our house coming to the driveway:

curbstone2.thumb.png.046a44a22b25b3821dc

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I manage kerbs up to 100mm or so by Un weighting the wheel rather than actually jumping or gripping the wheel. I find that if I can compress down and jump enough so that my weight is off the wheel whilst I am still in contact the wheel climbs the small kerbs easily. Timing is obviously critical and I spent several days doing circuits in my driveway over a concrete block laid on its side.

It's not a pretty spectacle when you get the timing wrong I promise you! :)

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I manage kerbs up to 100mm or so by Un weighting the wheel rather than actually jumping or gripping the wheel. I find that if I can compress down and jump enough so that my weight is off the wheel whilst I am still in contact the wheel climbs the small kerbs easily. Timing is obviously critical and I spent several days doing circuits in my driveway over a concrete block laid on its side.

It's not a pretty spectacle when you get the timing wrong I promise you! :)

For which wheel(s) does this technique work?  16 inch and 18 inch?   Interested, thanks!

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  • 1 year later...
1 minute ago, freetheoranges said:

Bump.

 

I'm having a hard time hopping or jumping up... 

I don't want to use a strap but I guess I could give it a go. I'm a confident 14" rider with two months experience but fear I may be too weak.

 

Dint use a strap. . It will duck you up. 

Either clench a little with your ankles when you jump, or just "lift" to take your weight of the wheel so it can lift itself. 

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19 minutes ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

Dint use a strap. . It will duck you up. 

Either clench a little with your ankles when you jump, or just "lift" to take your weight of the wheel so it can lift itself. 

Right, I understand the mechanics of it...

When gravity grabs hold, the euc always lands first and then I land on the pedals. I can't seem to grasp it any more than I always do..

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On 6/18/2017 at 1:47 AM, freetheoranges said:

Right, I understand the mechanics of it...

When gravity grabs hold, the euc always lands first and then I land on the pedals. I can't seem to grasp it any more than I always do..

Unless you are a feather, all objects fall at the same rate. So possibly you are jumping too high or jumping and bending you knees too much. That would make you feet be much higher that the pedals when the wheel is on top of the curb. 

Youtube has some nice tutorials. 

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Going up curbs was clearly the single hardest part of riding for me to learn. I'm not able to jump (not interested in the learning process), but I think I have a pretty good technique for the curbs. I have ridden 2000km, so I get up exactly the pictured angled curbs (Finnish trademark?) many times every day. I go up lower squared curbs and atleast 5cm high roots with this technique as well.

I slow down to a fast walking speed, bend my knees, and just before touching the curb I do a "fake" jump. My feet never leave the pedals and the EUC never leaves the ground, I just aim to remove my weight from the equation for the incline.

But this is very important: While doing the "jump" I focus more of my weight at the front of the pedal generating acceleration. The Lhotz is probably slower to react than the modern power houses, so the strength of this step might largely depend on your ride and softness settings.

 

When learning to do this, I was able to find a decent curb followed by flat grass. That made me confident enough to try, and to repeat a dozen times since first I didn't feel being in control. A slowly steepening/rising angled curb would be ideal, so you could increase the challenge bit by bit.

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