Re: Highest drops on a Torker?

[BoojiBoy]

Yeah, cheap cranks are terrible for drops. I'm pretty new at that stuff,
but i can tell you that the first time we (my brother and I) tried a 15
inch drop on a 24 inch Torker, the cranks got all twisted. Makes for a
pretty squirlie ride now. Enh, new cranks are in the mail.


--
BoojiBoy - Punk Rock Rider
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BoojiBoy's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3923
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[James_Potter]

My friend went off a 3 or 3.5 drop on his Torker, and came out okay. But
he has a feeling he might have slightly dented the rim. But that of
course can be prevented by inflating the tire more.
Also, Torker seats are awful for hopping. They're fairly comfortable,
but there's basically nowhere for you to hold on to.


--
James_Potter - Order of Merlin, first class

-"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided."

--Albus Dumbledore-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
James_Potter's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3807
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[john_childs]

If you're going to be riding "aggressively" on a Torker the first thing
you need to do is take the local bike shop and have them tension up all
of the spokes. The Torker wheel is made by a wheel building machine and
those machines don't tension up the spokes enough. Tell the bike shop
that you are going to be jumping around on the wheel and that the spokes
all need to be tight or else you'll taco the rim or flatspot the rim.
It's a quick and easy job for the bike shop. It will be in the $10 to
$15 range.

If you know someone who has experience fixing wheels they could do the
job too. Since the wheel is new they won't have to true the wheel or do
anything complicated. They just need to tighten up each spoke the same
number of twists.

The black Torker has a better than average rim. It's only a single
walled alloy rim, but it's still much better than the steel rims you'll
get on almost every other sub $100 unicycle.

I don't know how big of a drop you can do on a black Torker. You could
likely do drops from a picnic table. But the problem is that you'll
eventually break the hub doing drops like that. You likely won't break
the hub right away, but those drops will weaken and fatigue the hub till
it eventually breaks. When it breaks it may do so on a small drop or on
a small hop because it will fatigue enough that the small drop is what
eventually does it in.

You also need to use proper technique to save your equipment. If you
land like a 'lawn dart'
(http://www.gardengamesuk.com/outdoordarts/index.html) and just go THUD
you'll do a lot more damage to the uni than if you roll out the drops
and land smoothly and lightly. Technique is the biggest factor rather
than ultimate drop height.


--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo

john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
john_childs's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/449
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[Rowan]

john_childs wrote:
> *Since the wheel is new they won't have to true the wheel or do
> anything complicated. *
Using that logic, my sun doublewide built by Kovachi should be true. The
spokes all seem to be tensioned well, but ever since I got my Unicycle
the wheel has never looked true. The first indicator was the red line on
Gazzaloddi, which wobbled from side to side slightly when the wheel
spun. I did not take that as an accurate gauge of trueness and guessed
that it must be my eyes that were wonky. The other day, I put a small
grass stump thing next to the wheel and spun it, and the grass would rub
on the same spot on the rim on every revolution. I thought it might be
part of the breaking in of the spokes or something, but now I am
wondering if it is normal for a wheel to not be true when new,
especially one built by a master. Kovachi offers free trueing for wheels
built by him, but I can't be bothered sending it back to America.> If something works, don't fix it!



--
Rowan - •·.·´¯`·.·•
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rowan's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3772
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[john_childs]

UniBrier wrote:
> *I can't believe they're selling those in the UK. I like their quote:
> "Something very similar to this had actually been banned in the United
> States of America."
>
> I think they were banned because too many people absent mindedly
> walked in the flight path and ended up going to the hospital for
> Cranial Lawn Dart Extraction.
>
> So I guess a true Lawn Dart Landing would involve landing on someone
> who got in the way of your drop and extracting your unicycle from
> their head. *

I was surprised that they were still for sale too. While I was doing a
Google search to find a link with a picture of a lawn dart I found this
news article:
'Michigan City boy recovering after lawn dart mishap'
(http://tinyurl.com/ltyd)
The article mentions that lawn darts have been banned from sale in the
US since 1988. I played with lawn darts when I was a kid, but they were
always an adult supervision item.

I included the link to the lawn dart site because there are probably
people in the forum who have never played with them since they've been
banned from sale for 15 years.

I use the lawn dart analogy because a lawn dart just sticks abruptly
when it lands. There is no roll out. It just goes thunk in the ground
and doesn't absorb any of the impact by bending. It's as if you landed
a drop on a unicycle with your legs completely stiff, your body
completely stiff, and didn't do any roll out.

I have to admit that I've got too much lawn dart in my landings. I
don't roll out landings to flat ground as well as I should and I don't
absorb the impact with my upper body as well as I should.

When doing a Google search on "lawn dart" I also found the following
'definition at urbandictionary.com' (http://tinyurl.com/ltye), but we
won't go there.


--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo

john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
john_childs's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/449
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[thinuniking]

how do you land a drop smoothly when you say land and role out do you
mean ride away i do not understand so how do you land a drop correctly??


--
thinuniking - started trails unicycling

i have given up the wheel to live
------------------------------------------------------------------------
thinuniking's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/4294
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[john_childs]

thinuniking wrote:
> *how do you land a drop smoothly when you say land and role out do you
> mean ride away i do not understand so how do you land a drop
> correctly?? *

To roll out a drop you get the wheel rolling the instant you hit the
ground. To soften the impact of the drop you also should relax the legs
and collapse the upper body.

Jump off a 1 foot drop with the legs stiff, the upper body stiff, the
pedals horizontal with no roll out. Then do the same drop again with
the legs relaxed, the upper body relaxed, get the wheel rolling the
instant you hit the ground, and collapse the upper body. You'll notice
a big difference in how much impact and force the unicycle hub and
cranks have to absorb.

For an additional exercise watch someone else do a 1 foot drop with a
stiff body and then with a roll out. You can hear and see the
difference in how much impact the unicycle has to absorb.


--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo

john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
john_childs's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/449
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[Zelten Fire]

i bought a torker 20 inch and the hub broke after
3 4 foot drops


--
Zelten Fire
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zelten Fire's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/4416
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489

[ajp529]

Ya, Ive had my "new" torker for about a week and a half now. The spokes
are very creaky and the seat is also. Ive learned how to hop up and ride
down stairs properly, and how to ride backwards. I just hope I get a job
soon so I can get a "real" unicycle.

Alex


--
ajp529
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ajp529's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3936
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27489