Countersteering really works

I was riding again on Saturday (I'm not so good at getting on my unicycle
that often!) and decided to practise a couple of things. 1) Turning 2)
Coasting.

1) It finally worked. I've been reading a lot on countersteering and had
worked out that it should work nicely. The error I had been making before
was to not countersteer far enough before attempting to turn the other
way. It seems to need quite a confident turn of the lower half in the
wrong direction to instigate a good lean. Beforehand I was giving a little
flick of the hips and then failing to perform a good leaning turn.

So, if you're working on good turning, keep at it! It can work. I also
accidentally ended up in a spin for about 3 revs until my legs got
confused and I tried to put pressure on with my foot right at the top of
the circle. I fell off unsurprisingly.

Thanks to all who have commented on turning so far - all your advice has
been invaluable and I can only see things getting better from here!


2) I didn't manage a coast, but what I _did_ manage was to put small
plastic pedals on my uni so I wouldn't tear up the nice floor. I also
actually dared to take my feet off several times. Mostly falling forwards
suggested that I'm doing something to slow the uni down just before taking
my foot off, but on one occasion I came off the back, the pedal came up
and grabbed my leg and over I went flat on my back.

Somehow, I fell very gracefully and it didn't hurt a bit, so that's given
me extra confidence to not worry too much about falling off. Now I just
have to balance the fore-aft falling until I stay on.

Coasting is tough, but I can't wait until I can do it. 5 months and 3 days
until my target date!



Cheers,

Stu
--
:wq!

I think of it like skiing. Beginners learn to turn by letting their
body fall in the direction they want to go and following up by turning
when the center of mass is at the necessary angle. However, when
making performance turns you don't have the luxury of waiting that
long. Instead the equipment is quickly driven off to the side to
achieve the turning angle.

Ken