Crank Grabs

This has to have been one of the scariest moves I've learned to date. So the first thing I'll say is to be brave and armour up. The minimum of wrist guards just didn't do much to help me feel okay with taking a spill so out came the Roach knee and shin pads. To be honest I don't think I ever had cause to thank myself for wearing them but they did boost my confidence to try!

This skill can be broken down in to two clear sections: jumping and landing your pedal and crank on the object then jumping up to land on the object. I've discussed the first part in crank hangs so I won't go over it again here in any detail but a few pointers on the crank hang part are:

• A couple of wooden pallets stacked on top of each other make and excellent practise platform. The wood helps stop you from beating the hell out of your bearing holders if you happen to land on them.
• It's easier to do them with the seat out in front. This makes landing and catching your balance that much easier and I also find it a much better position to be in for the second part.
• Keep your weight on the planted pedal.
• Use your free arm for balance. Keeping it straight and swinging it from pointing straight in front out to the side is normal.

So, once you've got crank hangs to the point where you can land on something and maintain your balance before jumping back down, you're ready to take the next step and jump up on to the object:

• Keep the tension tight between your hand holding the seat and the uni.
• Spring upwards (this is the scary bit!) keeping the tension between hand and uni. Because your weight is over the planted pedal the uni kind of swings in under you. So you don't need to worry too much about springing up *and* sideways.
• On a 20" unicycle it really is more of a spring than a jump. . If you're learning on a bigger uni then a bigger spring is required. Definitely think of it as a spring and not a jump - this makes it both physically and mentally easier to control. For the larger spring required for 24"+ wheels I found it helped greatly to hold the seat further away from my body.
• It also helps to only slightly pull (or push depending on which hand you're holding the seat with) the seat towards the object as you spring upwards. If you find yourself landing on the object but being off balance towards the edge of the object then I'd say to pull / push a bit more. The same can be said for landing and being off balance away from the edge of the object - pull / push slightly less. It's something that comes with practice but isn't really worth too much thought or worry - it's only a minor thing.

This really is an indispensable trials move to learn. It opens up a whole new world of things to ride on... and off :-) At the moment (February 2002) I can get myself on to 2' walls with my Monty and slightly higher with my 24" uni - and there's plenty room for improvement as the folks in UNiVERsE are seen grabbing on to 3' and 4' obstacles.

The hardest thing I found was in overcoming my fear to make the first few upward springs. Wearing Roach pads helped here ;) Once I'd done it a few times the fear diminished and I could concentrate more on the actual move itself. Stick at it and you will get there.

Once you've got these down the next step is to learn the pedal grab. This is basically the same as a crank grab except you jump on to the object and land with only your pedal hooked on and not the crank itself. The pedal grab is more versatile than the crank grab in that it allows you to get on to much thinner object because you only need enough room to plant a pedal rather than the pedal and crank. I'd also say that the pedal grab lets you get on to things that bit higher as well - when I try and crank grab high objects I invariably land on just the pedal and have to lift and place the crank on before spring up and going to rubber.