beginner

Something else to help learn freemount is to start mounting by using the
curb method. Placing the rear of the tire against a curb (or branch,
etc) then lightly place your rear foot on the pedal. Holding the seat,
jump forward and land your forward foot on the pedal. You are now in a
position to ride forward.

More great infomation and a mini-book from Gregg Vivolo here:
http://www.ridetheunicycle.com/ Check out info under FAQ's, and the
book has a lot of good info in it, also. I have an e-copy.

--
ahollow
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If you still need help, I live in St. Louis and can ride a bit... It
took me about a year of off and on before I got the hang of it. I tried
so many things, its hard to say what finally worked.

Hogan

--
snorkie
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DustinSchaap said:

Use sticks, nordic walking sticks prefferably or just 2 broomsticks to
keep yourself on, it's a good way to learn though I've learned by the
basic fall and get up and fall again technique myself. There's a pic in
Uni somewhere but I can't seem to find any other pics. Basic idea is
that you can help your balance by using the sticks, kind of like
skiing.

I'm not a fan of this method. It works as long the rider doesn't push
herself/himself out of the seat, which I think in almost any case
happens unless you have someone with enough control (who wouldn't need
those sticks anyway). You have to learn to balance while being seated
with full weight in the seat. Those sticks wont help you with that, and
the risk you may hurt yourself (or someone else, or even damage your
unicycle) seems to me bigger than the possibility those sticks really
will speed up the learning process, also as it takes away the attention
of to what beginners has to focus on anyway.

--
leo

*+1 866-UNI-CYCL
'www.unicycle.net' (http://www.unicycle.net/)
'www.unicyclist.org' (http://www.unicyclist.org/)*
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I tried using stick (crutches) at first. They were worse than useless
for me. They were more wobbly than the uni! Imagine a newbie sitting
on a wobbly uni trying to use two wobbly sticks for support! I think
using a solid rail is best but aim to hold it as lightly as possible as
soon as possible.

--
BurnerDave

Dave 😄

This is me, this is my video:

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First of all, as has been said by so many others, keep trying. I think
the most useful attribute when learning to ride a uni is to be a really
stubborn SOB.
There are many ways to learn to ride, I did it without a wall or rail
or crutches. That doesn't mean I was any quicker it just suited me.
Opposite our house is a steel fence and two concrete steps up to it.
The step for standing on while mounting and the the uprights in the
fence, that are about hand sized, to hold onto until I felt stable.
Then I would would face out into the road with my dominant right foot
at the top of the down stroke and launch.
Ok so for the first few days that would result in about half a pedal
rotation and the uni would bite the dust, but it gradually built up to
few rotations ( I would count them to start with) and then riding the
length of the road, 100 yards. I didn't learn to freemount until I was
riding far enough for it to be annoying for me to walk back to my block
when I eventually had a UPD.

That was two years ago, I now have the bug bad.
Today I have 4 unis, the 20" I learned on a 26" muni a 29" road uni and
I have just got a 36".
I competed in a 24hour team muni race last year and am seriously
thinking about Riding The Lobster (search other threads for
elaboration).
So keep going, there is a world of fun waiting for you when you have
mastered how to ride.

As to finding local riders, try the map function.

--
ian.stockwell

A chocolate unicycle tastes great but is a bugger to ride.
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Anybody notice this is almost a year old?

mru2 said:

appreciate all your messages-i never mentioned the reason i'm going to
learn the uni is cause something happened to my equalibrium and
balance-i went to many doctors and had many m.r.i. x-rays,but they dont
see whats causing it-one doctor thinks i had an infection in a balance
nerve in my ear and it damaged the nerve-anyway he said one way to
improve my condition is physical therapy(the brain can learn to
compensate for the balance problem)-the hospital actually has a
physical therapy program for people with a problem like mine-its just
walking exercises and stuff like that at hospital-but i want to really
challenge my equalibrium,so riding a unicycle occured to me-i know i
can learn it-i'm just going to have to try harder then most people-my
balance isnt so bad that i'm falling down or anything,its just bad
enough to be very annoying-the uni i bought is a Summit brand-the seat
sucks-its small,skinny,and shaped like the letter "U",and made of hard
rubber-i definately need a more comfortable seat b-4 i try it again,so
i have a Kris Holm Freeride saddle ordered-should be here
tomorrow-when i get the new seat on and try riding,i'm going to
concentrate very hard on FALLING SAFELY WITHOUT INJURY,for those times
that i do fall-talk later

So how is it going now?

It took me 40 hours over two months to learn. Wearing lots of pads
helped my confidence a lot (I still use them for anything moderately
challenging).

Edit: that was his last post so maybee he's not hear anymore :o

--
skilewis74

Ride everywhere and never just ride anywhere. If you can ride where you
are going within a hour, do it, and if you can do a trick 50-75% of the
time do it along the way.
Bob Burnquist on how to improve significantly.

yunisyko said:

it's all about balls. i lose them often and then get em back.

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I am also 52 y.o. and bought a 24". I tried to ride it but couldn't. I
bought a 20" and started to ride it so I could get my balance first and
also learn how to fall. Once I got my balance straightened out then I
went back to the 24" and can ride about 300 ft now. I began to sit up
straight and found I could ride farther, than leaning forward and
riding. My big problem was keeping my weight on the seat. Sitting
straight up and looking straight ahead improved my distance and also my
balance. I practice 30 minutes a night in order to keep my
coordination. Good luck. If you are looking for videos on unicycling
the "links" header has some great vids near the bottom. My favorite
video is on YOU TUBE called "Chinese girl on unicycle" This girl is
awesome. She has become my mentor.

--
dtecum
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