Journal of a New Unicycler

[Daniel.Foster]

good question... anyone?

[Borges]

The journal is a really good resource for beginners, so editing it and putting it on the webspace is a great idea.

Originally Posted by dudewithasock

They do? How do I access it?

There was a thread accessing the unicyclist.com webspace not long ago. Try a search for e.g. "webspace".

(IMHO don't PDF it. A regular html page would be better)

[dudewithasock]

Aight guys, I've figured out how to utilize my FTP-based webspace. For the next week or so, I will probably keep updating with entries, while simultaneously going through each entry and meticulously editing it, and also preparing all of the content for transfer to the web through Dreamweaver. I'll keep everyone updated on my progress with this.

[Daniel.Foster]

how do u do the ftp stuff?

[dudewithasock]

Type in:

ftp://yourusernamehere.uncyclist.com

To log in, use usernamehere@unicyclist.com for the name, and your password.

Then, just use any number of editing tools (such as MX Dreamweaver) to upload content to the FTP.

[dudewithasock]

Learning to Unicycle: Day 33

Today was a big ol' 'having fun' day.

I'll go ahead and come clean; I didn't do much with idling practice today. I just messed around with some of my current skills and improved a lot, I think.

I dropped a lot of curbs today. I've pretty much mastered turning on the sidewalk and still making it off a 7"-8" curb, and I've actually gotten good enough with my balance that I don't even need to hold on to the seat, which I really like for some reason.

I practiced my rougher terrain riding a good amount today as well. The house behind mine, across the alley, has nice, bumpy terrain around the side of their house out into the front yard, starting from back in the alley. It took a few tries, but I eventually could ride from my driveway in the back, across the alleyway, and all the way around, past the side of their house, and out onto the sidewalk, going through that bumpy part pretty smoothly and recovering myself to ride along the sidewalk.

I also went even further and combined those two things, making it across that same bumpy part, onto the sidewalk, then a few yards further and right off the curb, landing it nicely, and then dismounting (with the unicycle in front of me! ).

My friend Alex was there most of the time. He practiced a little bit, and once while I was off getting some more water, he told me that he had made it about 15 feet without the fence. That made me proud.

We were going to tape some of my riding, but my camera is all out of whack, so we didn't get to do that.

Tip from today:
1. When riding offroad, you're going to want to ride fairly quickly, at least for your first few times. All riding slowly does is magnify the nuisance of every little obstacle.

[dudewithasock]

Alright, 35 seems like a nice, clean number. I think I'm going to go ahead and bring my journal to a close after that.

Unless there are any major objections from the readers. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

[maestro8]

Originally Posted by dudewithasock

Alright, 35 seems like a nice, clean number. I think I'm going to go ahead and bring my journal to a close after that. Unless there are any major objections from the readers.

No objections, but a congratulations and a thanks. From your first pedal revolutions to your newfound muni skills, you've taken us all back through our "unicycle golden days" where all we had to worry about was one more pedal revolution (not one more mile) and a graceful dismount (not a leg-around unispin suicide mount while running at full speed). And now, it appears, you are ready for a fat tire and some skinny singletrack. Oh, I'm about to start crying! *sniff sniff*

Cheers!

[dudewithasock]

Originally Posted by maestro8

No objections, but a congratulations and a thanks. From your first pedal revolutions to your newfound muni skills, you've taken us all back through our "unicycle golden days" where all we had to worry about was one more pedal revolution (not one more mile) and a graceful dismount (not a leg-around unispin suicide mount while running at full speed). And now, it appears, you are ready for a fat tire and some skinny singletrack. Oh, I'm about to start crying! *sniff sniff*

Cheers!

That actually got me a little teary-eyed. This is the most rewarding community I ever been apart of, and-oh wait, I can't say too much. I'm planning a final speech after my last entry.

[dudewithasock]

Learning to Unicycle: Day 34

Today was more of a relaxing day today. I worked on idles back and forth in front of my house for about 30 minutes, just nonstop, and I'm getting pretty good at just doing a single idle and pedaling out of it. I'm continuously picking up little extra techniques for learning to idle, and they're all adding up to help me do a lot better each time.

But then, these two little 5 year old Mexican kids came outside...and they started taunting me...they would just yell out "Why you always riding that bike? Go inside! You suck! Just go away! BYEEE! BYEEEE! Go inside!!" They've actually been doing that for the past few days, and it's just so annoying, that I actually rode to the next street over to practice for the next 45 minutes.

I just sort of dropped a lot of curbs, rode figure eights, worked on some tighter 180 degree turns, and of course, practiced more idling. All of these things improved a little bit, just in that I can pull them off without falling off the majority of the time.

I also worked on the offroad stuff a bit, until I had a nasty bail. I was riding across someone's yard whose house was on the corner of the street, and I was riding over from the grass onto the sidewalk, and I didn't see the little 2 inch wide, 3 inch deep ditch between the grass and the sidewalk. I wasn't going fast enough, and as I hit the ditch, my unicycle just stopped suddenly, and launched forward. I sort of flew up in the air of a couple feet and then landed on the side of my arm, both hands taking the bulk of the impact. Luckily I had my gloves on, and my arm didn't really scrape the sidewalk, just landed right on it, so there was no blood. But I had to lay there for a minute to recuperate.

After I got up, I realized it was pretty much dark, so I just made one more relaxing ride, wrapping around a couple streets, just taking it easy. It was very quiet and serene, so this short round was very therapeutic. Those are always nice.

Tip from today:
1. When you idle, try not to lean either forward or backward when you first start the idle process after slowing down. I've tried it both ways, and all it does is make you fall when you swing the wheel either backward or forward, respectfully. Just keep a very straight posture, and you should be fine.

[theotherguy]

about the little mexican kids, just think of it this way:
When you're 30, you'll be a millionaire unicyclist (somehow) and those little mexican kids will be 25 year old high school undergrads working at hand car washes for a living.
does that make you feel any better?

[Daniel.Foster]

lol.... god i love stereotypes..but yeah... unicycling is awesome

[dudewithasock]

Learning to Unicycle: Day 35

Today was very nice.

Alex came over around 3:45 or so, and I showed him the progress I had made on my idles. I practiced some U-turns, curb dropping, etc. He wanted to practice some, and I suggested that we ride over to this little park near my house where there is a fenced in concrete area that people use for roller hockey that he could use to practice in, since the fence was just the right height.

Well, we rode over there, but it was being used by a bunch of kids riding around in it, so we had to ride back.

I wasn't really paying attention, and just following him, and apparently he doesn't know my neighborhood as well as I assumed, and he led us into a street that only turns in the opposite direction as my street. Instead of just turning around, we were going to ride out to where the actual main road is, and ride along the sidewalk outside my neighborhood back to where the nearest opening back into the neighborhood was to get to my house.

Well, on the way there, we passed this big concrete drainage ditch. I mean big as in like, 20-25 feet wide, and it leads from where we were stopped, pretty deep into the neighborhood, but closer to my house. So we decided, eh, why not, and climbed down into it and rode down it. It was a pretty cool little place, because it was out of view of a lot of the houses, and there were tree trunks and random tables and even an old swingset down there. Plus, the sides were pretty steeply sloped, but angled enough to where I could probably learn to ride on them. We made a mental note to ourselves to come back there just to mess around when he got his own unicycle and learned to ride better.

So we followed it to the end and rode back to my house, where he practiced for maybe an hour on my driveway. He actually made a lot of progress, and was riding from the top of my driveway down to the other side of the alley, where he was forced to fall, at least 5 or 6 times. I could tell his control over the unicycle was increasing exponentially at every practice.

We were interrupted for about 15 minutes watching this loooong line of birds fly over us...and I mean literally, they were flying over us for at least 15 minutes. It was really weird.

But anyway, he kept practicing, going to area 'B' for a little bit and continuing to make progress, until he had to leave again when it started getting dark. I practiced my idling a little more, making those single ones more frequently, until the street lights when on. I decided to go on a short night ride before I went inside.

I absolutely am in love with those after-dark rides. It is so cool, quiet, serene, and just very emotionally and physically refreshing and calming. I rode around my neighboring streets a bit, and then rode over to the park. There was a family there playing some hockey in the dark, and as I made my lap around the fenced in rink, the little girl in there yelled out, "Mommy! Look!" And the mom turned around and smiled at me. "Yeah, it's a unicycle!" And the daughter audibly gasped a bit. "Oh boy! A uni-wheel!" I laughed out loud and made another lap around it, so the girl could watch a bit more, and then rode off into the night, on my way back home.

As I neared my street, I turned into the alley rather than the street itself, to avoid any cars or pedestrians. I lived at the other end of the street, so as I rode down that alley, I just let the pedals fly, zooming down that smooth pavement like a bird taking flight. The cool wind brushed my face quickly as I flew down the alleyway. I didn't slow down or stumble one time, and I was disappointed when I saw my driveway nearing in the distance. But, all wonderful things must come to an end.

Except unicycling. Because I will be out there again tomorrow, hitting that pavement, the wind in my face once again, flying down the road with nothing stopping me except my own free will. And next month, I will experience the same thing. And a year from now, I will still be flying.

It's not an easy thing to be a unicyclist. You must suffer from all those nasty UPDs, undergo the ridicule of many a closed-minded, and many times, be tempted to quit, just because of the difficulty of it all.

But the rewards far outweigh any of those things. You are a unique individual, flying without wings, zooming without a motor, and sailing with no water. Your determination will carry you farther than anywhere you could have dreamed possible, and we will be there waiting for you. You will fly forever.

You are a unicyclist.

And so am I.

On behalf of my beloved Torker CX 24", all my past UPDs and the many yet to come, and any aspiring unicyclists that I have instructed or will in the future, I would like to thank each and every one of you here on www.unicyclist.com for the constant support and advice. There are just too many of you to thank individually, but those of you who are especially thanked, know who you are. I never could've become what I am right now without all of you.

To all of the supporters of my journal, whether you have been following my progress since day 1 or are just reading this journal now for the first time, I hope that my experiences have aided in some way to your enjoyment of this incredibly hobby. And if not, well, then I hope that you have at least enjoyed revisiting those golden days that are now already written history of my own learning process.

Here's to the past 35 days worth of riding, and here's for the years to come - for both me, and every single one of you!

Cheers!

~Matt

[harper]

And an outstanding final entry. Thanks, Matt.

[theotherguy]

very nice indeed, too bad it couldn't continue for reasons unknown to me. Very nice ending there.

oh and are you sure the birds weren't vultures?