Fargo Street bicycle challenge

You may recall I said I was going to go down to LA and attempt the Redondo Beach challenge, as seen in this video. I flew down so had no choice, or so I thought, to do it on the 29" unicycle I keep at my mom's house in that area. Hopefully Ayecarumba won't mind if I say that he met me down there last Saturday and was kind of enough to record the challenge.

Let me say that I failed. Miserably.

However, the story doesn't end there. After my third or fourth attempt I saw another unicycle at the bottom of the hill. He had a 20" unicycle with him and said he noticed me riding down the path earlier and followed me. Very good guy. He let me try it on his unicycle, which would be much more appropriate for this hill. And I failed again.

However, I did make it up a couple of less steep hills on his unicycle. He also made it up these less-steep hills on mine. Then I challenged him to go up the steep hill on his, which he had never done before, although he has gone down it on his own. After a little badgering, he accepted the challenge. I'll leave some suspense for the video.

Lest you think I was bested by some random unicycle guy, this guy was a young strong buck he is also into surfing and kite surfing. He works as an engineer for a company, Two Bit Circus with a unicycle in the logo. He said several people in the company ride them. If I were a gal, I think I would have been falling in love.

Aye nicely volunteered to put all the footage, and there is a lot of it, together into a video.

Why did I fail, you might ask? I don't think it was for lack of strength or that I just rode all the way from Venice Beach, about 15 miles. It was just strange to climb a hill on a unicycle about twice as steep as anything I had ever climbed before. I simply need to practice more on hills 15-30 degrees steep to be more familiar with riding up such steep slopes. As I've lamented before, Vegas has no hills this steep that I know of.

I can see why Terry might have advised doing Fargo Street on a 24" unicycle rather than a 20." The 20" is simply very slow and it is a challenge to go fast enough to not fall over.

Where is the video? Did I miss it?

Quote: Evenbob

Where is the video? Did I miss it?

I think it hasn't been posted yet.

Quote: Pacomartin

I think it hasn't been posted yet.

I don't think we've ever seen the Wiz
fail at anything. I wonder if he could
have done it at age 49.. Probably.

Quote: Evenbob

I don't think we've ever seen the Wiz fail at anything.

In March 2011 the Fargo Street Hill Climb Challenge celebrated it's 25th anniversary. Although it had been tried on a unicycle a few time 55-year-old Terry Peterson made history by becoming the only person to ever climb Fargo Street on a unicycle (for that time). Contest rules specify that you cannot touch the pavement even a single time (zig zagging is permitted, but as TP pointed out zig zagging has it's own challenges as it is difficult to make those turns).

The LA area must have over a million people who qualify as "athletic" by a fairly strict sense of the word. So "fail" has to be used very loosely in this instance. As in the Wiz failed to bench press 500 lbs.

An interesting question is how many unicyclists have made the Fargo Street climb in the last four years? We know that TP did it four times in one day, and he also did it without zig zagging.

Quote: Evenbob

I don't think we've ever seen the Wiz
fail at anything. I wonder if he could
have done it at age 49.. Probably.

Thanks. Yup, I failed on this one. It wasn't a matter of my age but more of skill and confidence.

Quote: Paco

An interesting question is how many unicyclists have made the Fargo Street climb in the last four years? We know that TP did it four times in one day, and he also did it without zig zagging.

I would lay 3 to 1 Terry is the only one. There are probably at least 100 in the country who could but just haven't heard of it. I never heard of Fargo Street until I happened upon Terry's video, and I have deep roots in the LA area. For one thing, is it in a very residential part of LA that I'm sure doesn't draw many tourists. If it had a location like Lombard Street everybody would be walking up and down taking photos.

Quote: Evenbob

Where is the video? Did I miss it?

Ayecarumba just posted it!

Without music

With music

Enjoy.

Will is 20 years younger than you and
is shorter. He has shorter legs which
lets him get more power to the pedals,
is my opinion. You both approached
at the same speed but his shorter
legs let him keep the speed up. It
seemed like he was leaning out more
than you also.

Male dancers have the same problem.
Most are short. They have shorter more
powerful legs that allow them to do
things long legged dancers cannot.

Quote: Wizard

Thanks. Yup, I failed on this one. It wasn't a matter of my age but more of skill and confidence..

He did say that he practiced on hills a lot. Watching the video he had a particularly good sense of balance because he was going very slow at the top.

Quote: Wizard

I would lay 3 to 1 Terry is the only one. There are probably at least 100 in the country who could but just haven't heard of it. I never heard of Fargo Street until I happened upon Terry's video, and I have deep roots in the LA area. For one thing, is it in a very residential part of LA that I'm sure doesn't draw many tourists. If it had a location like Lombard Street everybody would be walking up and down taking photos..

So my point is that it is a very rare skill. It's not like saying after months of training I failed to finish a half marathon. You can only say you "failed" if you are being ironic.

Quote: Wizard

Ayecarumba just posted it!
Enjoy.

Always!
What are those girls saying at 5:28?

Quote: Pacomartin

...
What are those girls saying at 5:28?

Haha, that's actually my son commenting on some folks riding bikes with super fat tires on the bike path.

Edit:

Quote: Pacomartin

So my point is that it is a very rare skill. It's not like saying after months of training I failed to finish a half marathon. You can only say you "failed" if you are being ironic.

Thank you. Yes, I look at this more like a first attempt.