Gliding help.....

. . . actually, Gilby (the guy who runs this site) is the guy to ask.

At MOAB, he "glid" the farthest on rough terrain.

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When I was learning to glide I used a different approach to most people
which seemed to work well for me. I used riding along with one foot
pedalling and the other acting as a brake on the tyre as an in-between
step. That way when you're practising that, you'll get a feel for how
much pressure is needed on the tyre without having to actually try
gliding just yet. So to go into a glide I do one pedal (or half a pedal
or so...but when I was learning it was more like 3 pedal revs) as
described above, then bring up the pedalling foot onto the crown of the
frame. I also found practising down hills was pretty useful. The other
thing is I have a 'gliding shoe' which I find helps a lot with my
gliding. It's one of those cheap shoes you wear for walking on coral,
etc. It was only $10 or so. I just wear the one shoe, which looks a
little odd. I like having a shoe that is very flexible so I can get a
feel for the tyre, but is just thick enough to protect my foot from
over-heating. I tried barefoot gliding, but after about 5m it became
unbearable. 🙂 Simon Wells introduced me to barefoot freestyle, but
barefoot gliding works for him because he doesn't have to put nearly as
much pressure on the tyre...he's very good at it.

Good luck!

Andrew

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I only glide in my dreams. --chirokid--

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ChangingLINKS.com said:

*he "glid" the farthest *

Ahem.... the proper term is 'glode'.

Some advice is to learn to wheel walk, then wheel walk one footed. Then,
when you can wheel walk forever, try it on a very slightly sloped hill,
and push yourself fast, then just let the tire slide under your feet.

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Quoted message said:

I only glide in my dreams.

I did that once...I also coasted really smoothly and confidently. You
can read all about it in the 'Gallery of Unicycling Dreams...' thread.
🙂

Andrew

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I'm no expert when it comes to gliding. I've glided over 10m a couple of
times though. There are a few ways to learn to glide.
The way i learnt is from one foot wheel walking and i found that it is
actually quite easy to make progress this way.

First i got pretty good at one foot wheel walking. Then i tried to let
the tire slide under foot. At first i didn't go very far and the tire
basically stoped moving almost instantly. Each time i tried to put less
and less pressure on the tire. After a bit of practice you can get a
metre or two and from there you just work on building longer and longer
glides.

It is VERY useful to learn on a slope, not too steep though.

The way which Andrew Carter posted is called pedalled glide. That's one
foot pedaling and one foot gliding. I can do this two but i personally
think the one foot wheel walk method is much better as you can build up
bigger and bigger glides. There is another way called pull gliding, but
it requires two people and i don't think its very good.

Hope this helps you.

Nick vb.

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Good advise Nick, I learnt the same way as you!

I love glding... one of my favourite, and most useful 'tricks'. I'm
learning to coast now.. rather challenging!

I love HSG (High Speed Gliding)... it rocks - and also wears out your
shoes!

Joe,

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Today i made a massive breakthrough in gliding.

Near my house there's this massive hill and i spent an hour gliding down
it.

I did a 50m glide which is by far my best ever.

HSG- I'm working on getting my speed up and going directly from the
pedals to gliding. This way i can go faster and go further on flat land.
I want to be able to do high speed gliding.

There's a cool site, you've probably already seen it but anyway here it
is:

http://www.unicycling.com/brett/hsg.shtml

HSG by Brett Bymaster. What i find amazing is that he's glided at 25.6
mph (40kmph). One day i gotta try that.

Coasting sounds like a good challenge. I've tried it a few times with
limited success, not being able to go more than a metre or so. I will
learn to coast - after i've mastered gliding 🙂

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<threadjack>
People who are proficient gliders: I can now easily wheelwalk into a
glide when I'm on a slight slope, but I can never keep my balance riding
into it. How fast do you ride before you do it? How long after the first
foot comes off the pedal does the second foot come off?
I can sometimes ride into a wheelwalk on the slope, and then just go
into a glide from there. But I'm still not very consistent at it.
</threadjack>

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how do you go from gliding or one foot wheel walk to pedals again? i am
a good one foot wheel walker but i just cant get from wheel to pedals
properly.

thanks

Austin

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James_Potter said:

*I can sometimes ride into a wheelwalk on the slope, and then just go
into a glide from there. *

This is how I learned to glide. I wouldn't worry about getting perfect
with one foot wheel walk before learning gliding. Only after mastering
gliding was I able to 1f ww for a good distance.

But to learn to glide I used to go on a nicely sloped hill, and start
wheel walking down it, then switch to one foot wheel walk, and glide.
After you can do this, it's only a matter of getting the move down where
you switch from pedaling to the glide position.

That "switch" can be tough. It also varies on how you do it. I know
that I have an akward method, and take both feet off at the same time.
It's probably better to leave a foot for a rotation or two before you
are in the glide position. I don't believe there's not really a best
method, just do whatever works for you.

Good luck,

Jess

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James_Potter said:

*<threadjack>
People who are proficient gliders: I can now easily wheelwalk into a
glide when I'm on a slight slope, but I can never keep my balance
riding into it. How fast do you ride before you do it? How long after
the first foot comes off the pedal does the second foot come off?
I can sometimes ride into a wheelwalk on the slope, and then just go
into a glide from there. But I'm still not very consistent at it.
</threadjack> *

First, the foot that goes on the crown comes off the pedal as it nears
the top of the wheel from behind. the gliding foot then follows almost
immediately afterwards as the other pedal comes to about horizontal or
somethin.

as for speed, just go at a comfortable pace to start with, not too slow
or you'll find it hard to get the uni to glide and not too fast as it
becomes more difficult to stick the glide.

as you get better at making this transition speed becomes less of an
issue and u will be able to go almost as fast as you like, but to start
with just go at an average pace😉

- in answer to another question about returning to the pedals:

i just look for the pedal that your crown foot usually goes on and wait
for that to reach horizontal at the back (helps if your goin slowly) as
soon as it's in this position i then quickly remove the foot resting on
the crown and put it on the pedal as fast as posible. the foot remaining
on the tyre will give some stability for now so you have half a second
or so to quickly place that foot on the other pedal. it also helps if
nearly all fo your weight is on the seat instead of the pedals so the
wheel is not being moved by your crown foot on the back pedal. the whole
manouver only takes about half a second and as soon as its done just
start pedalling again and regain your balance.

hope this helps, iain

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I was working on gliding today on a gentle slope, and had my best runs
yet. A problem I was having for a while was that my crown foot's toes
were accidentally rubbing the tire. I fixed this by putting my crown
foot farther back so that just my toes were on the crown. The real
breakthrough I had was just leaning back a smidge more than I had been.
This forces your weight to be on the seat and gives you lots of control.
Lots of fun! Happy gliding!

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aust said:

*how do you go from gliding or one foot wheel walk to pedals again? i
am a good one foot wheel walker but i just cant get from wheel to
pedals properly.

thanks

Austin *

You need to be able to check your pedal/crank position while you are
wheel walking. This can be tricky because your legs tend to obstruct
your view. But during one-foot wheel-walking/gliding you should be able
to look down and glimpse the pedal on the same side as your
wheel-walking/gliding foot. As this pedal passes just beyond its lowest
position, take your other foot off the frame and place it on the other
pedal (the one you can't see). Now take your other foot off the tyre and
it should, hopefully, collect the remaining pedal as it rises.

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I'm having a real problem with this....

After removing my second foot from the pedal and entering "glide mode" I
try to put it on the crown next to the gliding foot....

BUT every time i do this it steps ON the other foot, jams the wheel and
I go flying forward.....

anyone else have this problem?

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My main method of getting to the glide is from riding one foot. This
will eliminate that particular problem.

Though I can get to a glide directly from two-footing, since I learned
it the other way I'm more comfortable with that. Also I think it's a
less abrupt transition if you're already riding one foot.

As for getting back to the pedals, the most common mistake people make
is staring down at them for more than a second or so. That's all you
need to see where the pedal is. If you need to wait for it to get to a
different location, you may need to look again in a bit, but with
practice you won't. You'll be able to tell when it gets there, just as
you can ride toward a curb or other obstacle and "know" where your
pedals are going to be when you get there.

I can pretty much get back on the pedals at any position, though my
least favorite is probably the bottom. I always seem to get my dominant
foot down first, and the easiest place to work on if you're just
learning it is to aim for the pedal when it's straight back. But in the
front can work fine too, you just need to lean forward and pedal into
it.

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Thread ressurection:
i've been learning the glide from 1ft wheel walking and have made very
little progress in the past 2 weeks. is this normal? does gliding
"click" after a certain amount of practice? My main question is: What do
you think about while gliding? (on a shallow slope) currently i'm trying
to be light on my foot without excessive 1ft wheel walking- is this a
good way to go? any other tips that havent been mentioned earlier? is
pull gliding worth the hassle?
thanks a bunch for the tips already mentioned.

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I started practicing gliding on a level surface and got nowhere, at
least so far. What I was doing was to rest my glide foot (heel) on the
frame and place the toe on the tire. I would pedal with my other foot
for a while. This arrangement doesn't give much feel or control on the
amount of pressure I can put on the tire, and the pressure is usually
way too much and I grid to a stop quickly when I move my pedal foot to
the frame.

Then I started gliding down my street. For this, the glide foot was
removed from the frame, just touching the tire. I seem to be getting
pretty good at this, but I still can't do the glide on level ground
going from one foot riding (with the foot bridging the frame and tire).

Question: should I be gliding on level ground like this? Maybe my shoes
are too sticky?

Oh, tried pull gliding a few times. Lots of fun. If you get a chance,
try it out.

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If you are doing flat land gliding you should definetly glide feet on
frame with one (or two? some people do two) foot overlapping onto the
tire. This way the transition into gliding is much easier because you
can just ride 1ft into it (non gliding foot pedaling) allowing you to
make a smother transfer and not lose momentum as i find i do when i go
to gliding foot out front. There is a lot less friction this way so you
can go way way further. It's slightly harder to balance this way because
you don't put as much pressure on the tire but this can give you better
balance and probably helps to learn coasting if you only very lightly
touch the tire. My gliding feet on frame is not much better than my
coasting but thats coz i haven't spent any time learning it well. Also
you need to be gliding feet on frame to stand up glide.

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