The Unicyclopedia/Street

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Basically, street is doing various tricks, preferably while tackling various obstacles. If you only occasional use obstacles, what you do may be considered flatland, but if you lack tricks in your riding, instead of obstacles, it may be considered trials. The crankflip, unispin and their variations are the most used tricks for street, but as only you set the rules, you may even do the most difficult freestyle tricks if you feel the urge to.

"The best definition I have heard thus far is that street is skateboarding on a unicycle."

~ Muniracer


Street styles

Even though street itself is a riding style, there is different kinds of street, which I will try to explain here:

Big street

Big street is generally when you do scary things. Like jumping down a huge flight of stairs. One can argue that tricks on flat can be scary as well, but I don't think they are, at least compared to big street. But you are dearly welcome to edit this good page. Anyway, big street often doesn't contain the more technical tricks, like sejflip and such, but it doesn't have to be like that. The opposite of big street would be small street. Watch this video if wondering what that would look like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqwb6WD8Tmk

Technical street

This is going big, not obstacle-wise, but trickwise. Landing as difficult tricks as possible. The opposite of this would be simple street, but just like small street, this term isn't used.

Oldschool street

The difference between old-school and new-school is, roughly, the crankflip. Oldschool is when you ride like people rode before Mike Clark invented the crankflip. This includes tiregrabs, no- and one-footers and shifties. Newschool is the style most people ride today, with lots of flips.


Feel free to add more street styles

Coronation Street?

Street Skills

Stair sets

This is my way of jumping stairs, it may not be the best way, but I can do 5 sets with it so, here we go. Basically I place my pedals in my preferred hopping position at the edge of the top stair. Ride backwards or roll the uni back around 2-6 revolutions, depending on what you like best and the length of the sets, so that if you were to ride forward, toward the stairs, when you reach them you would be in your preferred hopping position. From there get on the uni and ride forward at a comfortable pace and rolling hop the stairs. You may want to speed up if the stairs are particularly long. Hopefully you will clear them. Remember that you can still land on the stairs and ride them out, if you're lucky. Remember to BE CAREFUL because you will not only fall, you will fall down the stairs.

Zeroplant Crankflip

This is the first step to learning a crankflip. You basically ride forward, jump, kick the cranks, plant one foot on the ground and jump back onto the uni once the cranks have done one or more rotations. You may want to learn the rolling jump mount before trying this as it teaches you how to land on moving cranks/pedals. Firstly you ride forwards at a reasonably slow pace (go faster as you get more confident). Then lean forward slightly over the uni, jump and kick the front pedal downward and quickly suck your foot back up. Whilst doing this plant your other foot on the ground. Don't "camp" ont the foot. If you do, kick the cranks faster instead. Then jump back on the uni, land on the pedals and ride away.(By the time you land on the uni the cranks should be back where they started)How long you have your foot on the ground depends on how fast the cranks are spinning. This trick teaches you how to flip the cranks for the crankflip. Also, check out Shaun Johanneson's crankflip tutorial on youtube. it covers zeroplant and footplant crankflips as well as normal ones. Crankflip Tutorial Here (Video no longer available)

Footplant Crankflip

Same as above except do a footplant on an object. See above for video tutorial.

Crankflip

The crankflips is, as you may have guessed, is letting the wheel do a revolution, without your feet on the pedals, while in a jump.

  1. Ride slowly fowards.
  2. Lean over the uni, right before you plan to jump.
  3. Kick your front foot down while moving your backfoot away from it's pedal, and jump up in the air as high as possible. The kick is more important than the jump.
  4. For safety's sake, pull the uni slightly out in front of you while you are in the air.
  5. Spot the cranks (they should be attatched to the pedals and hub).
  6. Plant your feet back on the cranks or pedals and ride away.

See above for tutorial.

When I tried crankflips, my uni always landed in front of me. It was reaaally irritating, but I then I began experimenting with different ways to kick, different places to put my legs while in the air and such. It suddenly clicked when I put my feet way too high in the air. So the morale is, experiment, for God's sake! try to find what works best for you, not what works for everybody else!

180 Unispin

Firstly, you want to be comfortable hopping with the seat in front. Once you can do that learn the 180 jump mount. Simply jump, spin the unit 180 degrees, and land with your feet on the pedals. Once you can do both of these reasonably well you should be ready to try a 180 unispin. Get on with the seat out in front, holding the seat with one hand on the front and one on the back, and steady yourself. Some people like to do small bunnyhops in order to find their center of balance. Then, when you are ready, jump up while keeping the uni more or less on the ground. You do not want the uni to come up with you. Then spin the uni 180 in whichever direction you feel most comfortable, and then land with your feet on the pedals or cranks. If you are not sure that you are going to land correctly, try to land on the ground next to the pedals. One thing that really helped me was keeping the wheel on the ground and using the saddle to keep yourself in the air. This trick should take around 45 minutes, more or less, of solid practicing to learn. Even then, you may not be able to do it every time. Remember to wear shin guards in case you miss the pedals. Remember that your feet do not have to go out too much. I jarred my wrist really badly doing this, so wristguards or tape may be a good idea. The unispin is also in the freestyle section, but this is also a street skill, and this has more detail.

Here is a video tutorial. (This link is broken)

And in this video Leo Vandewoestijne shows how to do a 180 unispin without any needless hopping

360 Unispin

The 360 unispin is somewhat different to the 180 unispin. To do the 360 unispin you want to be able to do the 180 unispin well first. Unlike the 180 unispin the 360 jump mount is not necessary; I actually find the mount harder than the spin. Okay, there are a few things to learn. First, you want to figure out how you are going to spin the uni. Some people let go of the saddle when they spin the uni, some do not. I do not, I am not that coordinated. Once you figure this out practice practice practice. get comfortable doing this. then figure out whether to spin seat in or out. I spin seat in so that it stays under me. Then practice some more. One day it'll just come to you. Remember once your feet leave the uni it is key to snap them back in as quick as possible.

In this video Leo Vandewoestijne shows a 360 unispin to wheel-walk

Skill descriptions

Stances

Trick Descriptions & Tips

Unispins

Eli Brill recently landed a rolling 1080 to be the third person to land a 1080 unispin

Varial Tricks

Flip tricks

a donkey kick and a hickflip combined. accredited to one of Shaun J's friends.

Flatland Tricks

Flatland tricks are peculiar because there are so many of them and so many different variations that many of the tricks do not have names. Style and creativity can be added to these tricks to make them original and look better. Here are a few:

Note about tricks - all tricks that rotate on a vertical axis (hoptwists, unispins, etc.) can be spun in the opposite direction to which you are comfortable. In street unicycling terms, the trick is known as 'blind'.

Street skill levels

These skill levels are in no way official. They are intended to help the street rider develop a basic set of skills, and to rate those skills after difficulty. When you feel confident with the skills in this list, only your imagination is the limit of what can be done!

If you are are just beginning to learn how to ride a unicycle, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with at least level 1-5 in the IUF Skill Levels first.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Level 10

Combinations



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