Newbie - experiences and questions

I forgot to include earlier. All my time was spent mounting, riding,
etc, no talking no drinking beer. I was sweating like a pig.

I ride a recumbent about 3000 miles a year, so my legs are in good
shape, but at the end of the 3 hours today, I could feel that they had a
work out. I rode 30 miles on the recumbent this morning before I
practiced the uni!!

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Way to go, dude! (how's my American coming along?)

I learned to freemount before riding too, and it was only when I found
this forum that I found out that most people learn to ride before
freemounting!

Keep at it though, you are making great progress. Sounds like you got a
decent learner uni too.

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s7ev0

s7ev0

Where there's a wheel there's a way
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Way to go, dude! (how's my American coming along?)

I learned to freemount before riding too, and it was only when I found
this forum that I found out that most people learn to ride before
freemounting!

Keep at it though, you are making great progress. Sounds like you got a
decent learner uni too.

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s7ev0

s7ev0

Where there's a wheel there's a way
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Hi there -

You are doing great. I hear you about needing to know how to freemount
once a certain amount of progress has been made - you get stuck in the
middle of nowhere without a launching pad! My nice boyfriend sometimes
comes along beside me & makes himself available as a launching pad as
necessary. But freemounting is the way to go.

I had my third extended practice session today, and successfully
freemounted twice in a single 3.5 hour session. I probably made 100 or
fewer attempts. My only advice is what I've heard from others - don't
give up, just keep trying. You will get it.

I think the amount of progress you've made in the time you've been
practicing is great. You will keep going further, and it will get easier
(that's what I'm finding). I'm now going up hills, through 18" gaps
between parking barriers. Just need to keep practicing those
freemounts.

Have fun!

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zuni
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Dude, you're doing awesome! I'm the same age as you, with the exact
same machine and you learned way faster than I did. In a few weeks (or
less) you'll be doing freemounts at 50% and 5 mile rides.

--
steveyo - new old guy

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steveyo

I complained I needed new shoes, till I met a man with no feet.
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n9jcv said:

I find I lean forward pretty much and my butt sticks out in back.
Should I be more vertical??

Yes, the consensus is that your upper body should be upright.

If after 4 hours of (intensive) practice you can ride 200 feet, that
is quite good. Visit <http://www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/talent.htm> to
find out 'exactly' how good.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
"The more you think, the less you have to do. - Leo Vandewoestijne"

Wow! That's great progress. I learned to ride a few months before
turning 40 myself and I could ride around the block before I learned to
freemount. I used street signs, trees & whatever I could find to launch
me then. To minimize leaning forward, try to look up and not down.
Goodluck and keep us posted.

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jawnz

Live without what you can do without.
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Klass, thanks for the talent meter, I used it and sent you data.

Everyone else thans for the suggestions.

Jawnz - I find myself looking about 5-10 feet in front. I am trying to
look farther away. Today I did sit upright more than yesterday, but
still I looked hunched over.

Today I started to put more weight on the seat. Once in a while I find
that I am up completely straight and my speed just picks up like crazy.

The inside of my thigh is very sore from trying to free mount so much so
I did about an hour of riding and mounting with the garbage can. I did
wear bike shorts, and it is not chaffed, but just tender from the seat
slapping it everytime I tried to freemount.

I am looking forward to the time I can go all the way around the block,
my kiddies on their bikes and me on my uni!!!!

How long or how difficult is it to get to the point where you can rock
back and forth and not fall. I still am not able to do this.

So far only one or two falls that were not on my feet. I stubbed my big
toe once. I wear my bike helmet and gloves.

My dream is to learn on the torker and then get a 36" coker. That looks
sooooo cool!!!
Thanks everyone

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n9jcv said:

*How long or how difficult is it to get to the point where you can
rock back and forth and not fall. I still am not able to do this.*

I've had my uni for exactly 3 weeks today and i can easily rock back and
forth (idling) with my left foot down all day. My right foot is still
odd but i can do it about 20 times normally. So the simple answer is not
too long. I can hop up curbs about 25% of the time too 🙂 I just started
that today so I'm off to a good start.

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Gobd, It sounds like you idle with one foot at 6 and the other at 12.

I was trying 3 and 9 o'clock.

What is the best way to idle?
Thanks

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Welcome to the club, man!
I'm 44--I have not rode the uni in 30 years, but I finally got one last
May, and I've been having a blast since. I had to totally re-learn. It's
good to see that you are going for the freemounting right away--I was
wall-stranded for a long time!
I have a 29 inch wheel (nimbus MUni, Yuni Frame, I've just put a
hookworm tire on it)
I am embarrassed to say that my freemounting is still [censored] after all
these months. In fact, it took me a really long time before I could go
50 feet--slow learner I am, but with no complaints. The exercize is
great--I feel great and everyone tells me that since I started the uni
thing, I physically look a lot better and (yikes!) younger!
When I ride along the west side highway, everyone smiles.
It's sort of like belonging to a special club of people who can fly (I
mentioned this today in another post, that riding the unicycle is like
flying a few feet off the ground.)
Rock on with the one-wheel!

--
dogbowl - Freemounting--20% of the time!

"Got an urge, got a surge, and it's out of control now. Uncontrollable
urge I want to tell you all about it." --DEVO
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n9jcv said:

*Gobd, It sounds like you idle with one foot at 6 and the other at 12.

I was trying 3 and 9 o'clock.

What is the best way to idle?
Thanks *

I do. I was watching a Kris Holm movie earlier today and he idled at 3
and 9 like you do.

According to unicycling.org 3 and 9 is correct. I tried this way after
watching the movie and it does seem like it leaves you with more control
and it's easier to hop from that position.

So now I guess I have to learn to idle again.

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n9jcv said:

Gobd, It sounds like you idle with one foot at 6 and the other at 12.

I was trying 3 and 9 o'clock.

What is the best way to idle?

The standard way of idling is oscillating around 6 and 12. This is a
basic skill, still takes time to learn but not too difficult.

Idling around 3 and 9 is called 'horizontal idling'. It is a more
advanced skill, useful for idling in a small space, and for setting
you up for a next move, e.g. a jump.

n9jcv, it sounds like you could benefit at this stage from reading
"Learning to Unicycle" by Andrew Carter and myself. You can grab a
free copy at <http://www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/uni_beginners.htm>
(towards the bottom of the page). It describes idling and other basic
skills.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
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Thanks Klass for the book, I will read it!
b

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Congrats,you got on it quick. It took a long week before I rode a 1foot.Almost 6 wks. later I can ride till my legs quit.Ive practiced almost daily on 20 and 24in. unis .I learned riding first ,with the aid of golf irons,and long hallways.In the end on the street with a single golf club.Looking up or ahead was the best advice I recieved.
Freemounting--I practiced every session ,spreading groups of 4 or 5 attempts
throughout my riding practice .Starting after getting up there took till the 2nd-3rd week.A week ago my misses were left, right ,or overshoots mostly. Now the minority misses consist of ,1-landing perfect
2-after 2-3 strokes either my ass,2nd foot, or unit are not perfect and I bail.At 48 the unit is not priority.Sometimes inflight corrections of the not right foot are made then a stab at standing and fixing the rear is possible.Do women have problems with their pee-wees not being "right" on the saddle, causing bailout? Beware ballsurfing, when 1 of your legs locks straight down and you ride on your bag until the uni scoots out from under you.You can either roll on to your rear or launch off that locked leg to save your little buddies..When you start to nail freemounts its kinda magical.Not looking down, is again very good advice.I started with the peddle almost straight down,now its sneaked up to 4:30 or so.Good luck finding video on fmounting.Please keep us posted and again ,congrats.

cheechee said:

* either my ass,2nd foot, or unit are not perfect and I bail. *

I recently learned (or should I say, I got the guts to do) the
"in-flight correction" of my butt and foot placement. Even this small
accomplishment feels terrific. Something else that just came to my very
slow-learning self is that I often had no momentum on a freemount to
actually pedal once on the uni. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to do an
exaggerated forward movement with the hand that's not holding onto the
seat (think of, for lack of a better example, the way a standing
long-jumper's arms move right before the jump.) That little extra
motion has improved my freemounting from 10% to about 50%.

So now, my whole rural road is my uni practice area! I can hear a car
coming from a mile away. The road is about a mile long; probably got
halfway to the end today without bailing.

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digigal1 - level 1 on a good day

Raphael is my hero.
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Incredible progress for such a short amount of time! You're in danger
of creating a unicycle widow family!! I'm a 41 year old who has picked
up the old unicycle for the first time and everything I knew is back.
I'm converting my old Schwinn to a Muni and am studying the tips and
techniques here:

http://www.muniac.com/tips.htm

They're really thorough and helping me tons. I'm setting the goal of
taking my Muni to the Tetons next summer for some trails that I've only
ever done on my bike before.

Another huge benefit of this is my kids get such a kick out of it. I
have hopes of getting them up on one wheel.

Congratulations on the riding and thanks for the excitement and
enthusiasm you've expressed and are generating in this thread!

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