coasting

Roger gave us a quick intro at Kidderminster. Basically learn to WW
first, then 1 foot WW, then all u need to do is push hard with 1 ft and
control ur speed with the pushing foot resting on the crown. You have to
be able to balance with both feet on the crown though.

Good Luck...

Loose.

P.S Jagurs going to tell you to use the search feature. Just try it, you
never know.

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uni-matt said:

can any 1 tell me how to coast pleese i just cant do it😠 😕
😕 😕 😕

Method 1:

Ride along, take one foot off, ride 1ft, take other foot off, fall off.
Repeat until you can coast.

Method 2:

Learn to glide.
Use your braking foot less and less.
You are now coasting.

Note that this advice comes from the man whose maximum coast is about 3
metres. I find falling off most unnerving when coasting because you're
balanced so carefully that you don't know if you'll come off the front or
back.

Cheers,

Stu
--
:wq

Quoted message said:

Roger gave us a quick intro at Kidderminster. Basically learn to WW
first, then 1 foot WW, then all u need to do is push hard with 1 ft
and control ur speed with the pushing foot resting on the crown. You
have to be able to balance with both feet on the crown though.

As long as one of your feet is touching the wheel, it's gliding. For
coasting there is no contact between you and the pedals/wheel. Instead
you maintain balance by how you move your upper body, and one of your
legs, if you're coasting leg extended.

To learn to coast, first get really good at one-footed riding, so that
you can ride along smoothly, at a steady speed, and without accelerating
or braking the wheel in any way. Actually you don't need to be quite
that good at one-footed riding to start learning to coast, but after a
little while working on this skill, you will have one-footed riding down
this well. Although it would probably be advisable to learn to glide
before working seriously on coasting, this isn't necessary, since the
balancing mechanisms are quite different for the two skills.
Now you can move on to the actual coasting. From smooth one-footed
riding at a not too fast or too slow rate, take the pedalling foot off
and let it hang next to the spinning pedal. In all likelihood, you will
fall off immediately. It is of utmost importance that at this point you
do not kick the pedal or affect it in anyway. You need to coast off at
the same speed, balanced in the same way which you were before starting
the coast. Practice this step for a while until you are comfortable with
taking your foot off the pedal and falling off. You will find that you
sometimes coast short distaces without trying very hard. It is a great
feeling when it does happen.
When you are comfortable with this, you can start working on balancing
in this position and experimenting with various postures. There are two
basic ways to coast; either with one leg extended and the other on the
fork, or with both feet resting solidly on the fork. I recommend that
you experiment with both to find which way works for you, keeping in
mind however that most unicyclists seem to find coasting with both feet
on the fork easier. Although it is harder to get into and easier to fall
from improperly, it offers more stability. The basic balancing mechanism
for coasting is a rocking motion that is rather difficult to explain. I
suggest watching some videos or actually watching other unicyclists
coast if possible so that you will know when you are balancing properly.
If you are falling off forwards, you need to lean forward by bending at
the waist. This will cause your waist region to move back and the wheel
to move forward also, thus correcting your balance. If you are too far
back, lean back. I find the forward adjustments a lot easier. One
important tip to balance yourself properly is to keep your arms straight
and raise them nearly vertical. Some riders keep their arms farther down
when they coast, but almost all extend them in some way. Experiment with
various arm positions and find what works for you. I suggest trying to
switch to coasting with both feet on fork after you have worked on the
leg extended variation for perhaps a a while. Try to plant both feet
solidly on the fork. I find it even helps to squeeze the seat post
tightly between my feet. This will probably work best if your frame has
a nice solid square fork which offers a lot of support.
Coasting is an extremely difficult skill, and one which requires a lot
of commitment to learn. It took me six months of hard practice. But if
you keep with it, you will have a highly enjoyably skill that is very
satisfying and also impressive. It is worth it.
Once you can coast smoothly for a ways, try getting out of it. The
easiest method is to switch to gliding, then to wheel walking, then to
the pedals. Getting out of coasting is a relatively easy skill, which
probably does not require much advice.

Quoted message said:

Method 1:

Ride along, take one foot off, ride 1ft, take other foot off, fall
off.
Repeat until you can coast.

Method 1 worked for me, although it took at least six months.

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Loosemoose said:

Roger gave us a quick intro at Kidderminster.

So who were you at Kidderminster? What do you look like? I was there and
rode a two wheeler.

Cheers,

Roger

jsm said:

To learn to coast, first get really good at one-footed riding, so that
you can ride along smoothly, at a steady speed, and without accelerating
[...]
fall off immediately. It is of utmost importance that at this point you
do not kick the pedal or affect it in anyway. You need to coast off at
[...]
suggest watching some videos or actually watching other unicyclists
coast if possible so that you will know when you are balancing properly.
[...]
you keep with it, you will have a highly enjoyably skill that is very
satisfying and also impressive. It is worth it.

Blah blah blah... and what would YOU know about it? Huh?

😉

Seriously... many thanks for this highly informative and interesting post
- lots to think about and try out. Makes me want to jump straight on my
uni and try it out! Six months from today... let's see...

Cheers,

Stu
--
:wq

You must glide, grasshopper. Gliding is the gateway to coasting. Gliding
is freedom from pedaling! To glide is to not have to have your feet
going round and round constantly. Ahhhh. Coasting is the ultimate
expression of this.

Coasting backwards? That's more points, and more hard.

Balance is maintained, aside from tons of practice, by one or both feet
on the frame. The best frames for this have square crowns and clamps you
can hook your heel behind.

My best competition coast ever was on a *borrowed* unicycle that had a
fat clamp and a square fork (like a Semcycle XL). I went about 80
meters! Somewhere out there is a picture of the top five coasters from
Unicon VIII, of which I had the honor to be one (along with Yuichiro
Kato, Julien Monny and others). I couldn't find a copy.

With both feet on the frame it's easier to go straight. With one foot
extended it's easier to turn in the direction of that foot. With no feet
on the frame (as seen here:http://www.unicycling.com/things/index.htm#3)
it really doesn't work.

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can you glide yet matt?

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Quoted message said:

You must glide, grasshopper. Gliding is the gateway to coasting.

I don't think gliding is really necessary for coasting. I started work
on coasting well before I started work on gliding, and although I did
get gliding first, because it's so much easier, I think I would have
gotten coasting in the end without gliding.

Quoted message said:

Balance is maintained, aside from tons of practice, by one or both
feet on the frame.

Maybe you coast different than I do, or maybe I'm not quite getting your
point, but when I coast, my feet are hardly involved in the balancing
process at all. (unless I coast leg extended) They just sit tight on the
frame. I maintain balance by moving my upper body, my arms especially,
up and down as necessary.

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jsm said:

*I don't think gliding is really necessary for coasting.*

The idea in coasting is to help the athlete find the best/easiest/most
educational (sometimes different priorities) way to do the skill. In
this case, you can learn to glide first, which is like training wheels,
or skip the training wheels and go straight to the bike with no
spotter.

Quoted message said:

*Maybe you coast different than I do, or maybe I'm not quite getting
your point, but when I coast, my feet are hardly involved in the
balancing process at all.*

Try it without your feet on the frame and you'll know what I mean. 🙂

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matt has been working on it all day and can go a few metres. here is a
pic.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Attachment filename: matt coasting.gif |
|Download attachment: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/319994|
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

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Quoted message said:

matt has been working on it all day and can go a few metres. here is a
pic.

That's pretty good! How long it takes to learn coasting varies wildly
between different riders. Jesse Berg, for instance, told me he got it in
one day. So keep up the practicing. You never know what might happen.

Is he doing it on a 24" wheel in that picture?

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no. he is on a 20" kh freestyle. it looks bigger cos he is quite
small!:p

amanda😉

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yeah, it is possible to learn in a short period, it took me well over a
year but that was infrequent practise. a friend of mine learnt to go for
at least ten metres, quite consistently, at a BUC! which annoyed me
because i couldnt get it😠

i advise learning gliding first because its just as much fun, maybe even
more, and its 10 times easier (at least it was for me).

keep it up dudes,

iain

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When I lived in London a firiend of mine, Trevor (not that one), decided
he wanted to coast and just went for it. I think his only other trick
was riding one footed (Certainly no wheel walking or gliding). He just
rode as fast as he could one footed then took the other foot off.

He fell off a lot but he got the hang of coasting pretty quickly. Took a
few weeks. He won the coasting comp at BUC that year.

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nickjb said:

*When I lived in London a firiend of mine, Trevor (not that one),
decided he wanted to coast and just went for it.*

I'm pretty sure that same Trevor was the 1st ever person I ever saw
coasting. I was stunned when I saw it in front of me, even though I
allready read before about it. Two weeks later I was able to do it
myself. I took the "gliding-gateway", but I will never say you MUST
learn gliding before coasting. I rather agree on Nike's slogan: Just do
it!

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