Wheel Walking Question



G

GILD

Guest
(talk about getting ahead of yourself)
at the club last night i spent quite a bit of time trying to get that
first pedal revolution riding one footed
it's so close i can taste it
grrrrrrrr
anyway
i decided to have a go while holding onto a support and while getting my
foot onto the crown, it slipped and came to rest on the wheel
since i was going nowhere with the 1footing (and going nowhere quickly)
i thought i might as well try wheelwalking

dont get me wrong, i came nowhere close to what would constitute a
proper wheelwalk, but it felt waaay more do-able than i ever thought it
would
i got 3 to 4 walks a couple of times (unsupported)
what really excited me were the moments of stability i experienced while
letting go of the support
(jason's daughter's famous 'zen-moments' refers)

i mostly came off the front which i realise is a bad sign and from
searching thru old wheelwalking threads i realise that leaning back is
where it's at

my question is this
is there a 'this feels easier than i thought' plateau at the beginning
of learning the wheelwalk or have i justifiably impressed myself?
:)


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Same when I learned to do it! Try going up hill *slightly* it stops the
wheel from shooting off him front and you can get used to the feel much
easier without having to worry about pushing too hard. Keep up the good
work!


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one wheeled stallion - Guerilla Unicyclist

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Uphill works well because your quads (pushing muscles) are a lot
stronger than your hamstrings (slowing down muscles).
- Sit upright with your weight on the seat.
- Practice walking your feet on the tire without them banging into each
other
- Leave some space between your heel and toe. Remember, the heel and toe
have more traction than the middle of your foot, so use them.
- Wheel walking is much slower than regular riding. Expect to go
slowly.
- Twist at the waist and use your arms to help you steer.
- Cross training can include riding real slow, to get used to the
balance corrections you need to make when wheel walking.


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The first five minutes of my wheel walking was very promising. I decided
it was easy and all you guys who said it was hard didn't know what you
were talking about. After maybe 15-20 min i could go 4+ feet. I have put
in a few more hours and im now not going any farther. So yes I had great
improvement right at the beginning and then hit a wall. :(


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Rayden
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thanx for the feedback
i'm especially 'glad' to hear that my 'it can't be this easy!'
experience is not an isolated one
once again i'm reminded of how much i like this forum
:)
thanx for the cross-training tips john, those sound valuable
i've been trying to keep my feet as close together as possible
don't know why
it just felt as tho i should be
thanx for straightening that out
now, if u'll pardon me, there some practising to do...


--
GILD - Waffle-****** (ocfopgm)

-ORIGINALLY POSTED BY A FELLOW UNICYCLIST IN A MOMENT OF SUBLIME
INSIGHT-

"On the subject of 'significant others' it is a matter of timing and
topic whether 'significant' or 'other' is the defining word in that
phrase."
'[image: http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/sp/84255.gif]'
(http://tinyurl.com/ywxgb)
Namaste!
Dave
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once a person is able to wheelwalk, what is the best method for getting
the feet back on the pedals? I'm at the point where i can walk the wheel
for a little ways but i have trouble putting my feet back on. I'm trying
to actually look down to see where the pedals are then put my feet back
on. before i would kinda just throw my feet down there blindly and hope
i hit the pedals. any suggestions for this? thanks.


--
KozmicDoughNut
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I'll leave the advice doing to others for the most part, except to say
this. There is no good way to go back to pedals from a wheelwalk. Just
look down and try to sight your dominant pedal's downstroke, and within
one step, you should put your dominant foot down in back, an dhopefully
it'll land on the pedal, leaving you idling. That's what I do, and I
have a 95% success rate:p the only time I miss it now is if I'm lazy and
rush it, or if I'm exited, such as after wheelwalking up a steep hill,
and ruch it. Take your time until your pedals feel perfect and you're
set up, and then do it. Onefoot wheelwalkign is slightly easier to go
back to pedals from.


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johnfoss wrote:
> *Uphill works well because your quads (pushing muscles) are a lot
> stronger than your hamstrings (slowing down muscles).*
You are probably right about the quads being stronger, but I don't think
that is the main reason wheelwalking on uphill is easier at first. I
think the reason is that when you start, leaning back feels unusual and
freaky, which makes the tendency for falling off the front common. When
you go up a hill, there is no longer such an emphasis on leaning back as
far, so you get to concentrate mainly on placing your feet and other
important stuff.theamazingmolio wrote:
> *Is it actually possible on a 20" wheel? *
Of course it is possible. Wheelwalking has probably been done on a 12"
wheel. It's not that hard on a 20", but you are right, there isn't much
room for your feet.
> - KozmicDoughNut -
> *I'm at the point where i can walk the wheel for a little ways but i
> have trouble putting my feet back on.*
I am at a similar point that you are at. I can go about 40 meters or
something, and I'm getting better at balancing. I've only tried getting
my feet back on the pedals a couple of times and I was not too
comfortable with the results, so for now I'm going to continue
practising wheel-walking until I have mastered it a lot better, and then
I will figure out how to find the pedals, because by then I should be
able to concentrate on it better. It would look a lot more impressive to
spectators if you can go from riding to wheel-walking back to riding.


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johnfoss wrote:
> *Uphill works well because your quads (pushing muscles) are a lot
> stronger than your hamstrings (slowing down muscles).*
You are probably right about the quads being stronger, but I don't think
that is the main reason wheelwalking on uphill is easier at first. I
think the reason is that when you start, leaning back feels unusual and
freaky, which makes the tendency for falling off the front common. When
you go up a hill, there is no longer such an emphasis on leaning back as
far, so you get to concentrate mainly on placing your feet and other
important stuff.theamazingmolio wrote:
> *Is it actually possible on a 20" wheel? *
Of course it is possible. Wheelwalking has probably been done on a 12"
wheel. It's not that hard on a 20", but you are right, there isn't much
room for your feet.
> - KozmicDoughNut -
> *I'm at the point where i can walk the wheel for a little ways but i
> have trouble putting my feet back on.*
I am at a similar point that you are at. I can go about 40 meters or
something, and I'm getting better at balancing. I've only tried getting
my feet back on the pedals a couple of times and I was not too
comfortable with the results, so for now I'm going to continue
practising wheel-walking until I have mastered it a lot better, and then
I will figure out how to find the pedals, because by then I should be
able to concentrate on it better. It would look a lot more impressive to
spectators if you can go from riding to wheel-walking back to riding.


--
Rowan - _________

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Rowan wrote:
> *Of course it is possible. Wheelwalking has probably been done on a
> 12" wheel. It's not that hard on a 20", but you are right, there isn't
> much room for your feet.*
Yes, I used to be able to do it (a little bit) on my 12" with super-low
seat. Now I'm a little fatter.

There is plenty of room on a 20". Don't suffer from the misconception
that both of your feet are supposed to be on the tire at the same time.
The only time they both need to be on there is when your toe is going on
just in front of the frame, and your heel is coming off, way down on the
front of the wheel. Keep working your fee on there and you'll see.

To get back to the pedals, you only need to look down for a second, then
wait until the pedals get to where you want them. The more you do it,
the more flexible you'll be on where the pedals can be to get back down.
I can pretty much do it at any position as long as I know where they
are.


--
johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com"
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"Hey, could I have some of that spinach? I need to get this pork rind
taste out of my mouth." -- Ryan Atkins to Kris Holm, on the way back
from Moab after sampling some of my pork rinds. They grossed out the
whole van!
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quick update
life conspired against me and i haven't been able to get on the uni
since last thursday night
:(
at the club last night i tried to make up for this lack of practise
with mixed results
i'm still struggling with one foot riding and decided that since misery
loves company, i'll alternate onefooting and wheel walking

i've decided to go to both from a one foot idle
i managed to turn that pedal over once, twice
sadly, both times resulted in rapid but uneventfull UPDs
i seem to have figured out how to maneuvre both body and uni in order to
allow the one pedalled pedal to move over the dead spot (i figured this
out quite by accident. once, while trying to set up the pedal for a
launch forward, i swung it slightly too far back and ended up doing a
single revolution backwards. imagine my surprise. by figuring out the
way my body leaned, i managed to reverse it in order to go forward.)
i now need to figure out how to maintain balance while doing that

going to wheelwalking from the one foot idle (or, more correctly,
attempting to go the wheelwalk from the one foot idle) turned out better
than i'd anticipated and by the end of the evening i'd managed to
(almost) replicate my 3/4 foot pushes on the wheel.
once again, fleeting moments of stabillity kept me coming back for more

in between these moments, the wheel feels exceptionally jumpy and the
overriding impression is that the wheel is about to scoot out from under
me
is this cured by leaning (anti-intuitively) futher back?
or by applying more foot pressure on the wheel to keep it 'stable'?


--
GILD - Waffle-****** (ocfopgm)

only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. i think
it's
in my basement...let me go upstairs and check.
~ m. c. escher

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Namaste!
Dave
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I'm trying to learn one foot riding at the moment. I can manage about 10
revolutions or so, then I usually run out of space.
I always start from riding 2 footed and take one foot off because I was
told this was the easiest way. I find it easier than starting from
idling.

Paul


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paul royle - Newbie
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I cant idle but i can one foot. Start riding, then slowly release
pressure from the foot youre taking off. then take it off all the way.
thats how i did it and i can do it pretty far.


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