EASY freemount for Newbies really works!

[SOG316]

I can finally static mount! AT LONG LAST!

[EoinC]

Originally Posted by Ducttape

haha as long as we're bumping threads for mounting tutorials might as well post mine here.
YouTube- freemount tutorial

Good job, DT - Thanks for the tutorial.

Cheers,
Eoin

[saddlepunk]

Thanks unatic. I bought myself a 24" Muni on my birthday in January and freemounted for the first time today thanks to you and Megan. Pound for pound freemounting must be the most liberating unicycle skill - chuffed to bits.

[Singleminded]

This mount is the best! I had been really frustrated by weeks of not being able to freemount, and with a little practice, this one works. Thank you!

[kamikaze]

I suppose this is only helpful if you have a very low seat position, because it makes getting into a straight sitting position that much more difficult.

On my 26" the shortest distance from the tire to the seat is between 41 and 42 cm (that's around 16.5" for you imperialists out there). That's quite a distance to bend down to and grab.

I needed a couple of tries to pull it off and for me it makes mounting more difficult.

[Darth Elevator]

I'm excited to try the freemount method in post 11 (the grab-the-wheel method). I've been riding for 9 days now and am really tired of walking back to my chairs every time to start over. Not that I go very far. I usually only make it about 25-30 feet, but the couple times when I've made it out to 70 feet or so (one time to 100 feet), it's a pain to have to walk all the way back to try again.

Also, the video in post 20 (the horizontal pedal method) was very helpful. I had pretty much decided to give up on the freemount method where you start with the pedals horizontal. I somehow missed the point that you don't put any weight on the back pedal as you jump. I had seen some other videos and couldn't figure out how they did it without the wheel moving. Now I know and I'm excited to try that way, too.

So thanks to both of those posters and to the other helpful comments along the thread. I hope I'll be reporting some good results soon in the freemounting department.

[FrostyDon]

Originally Posted by kamikaze

I suppose this is only helpful if you have a very low seat position, because it makes getting into a straight sitting position that much more difficult.

On my 26" the shortest distance from the tire to the seat is between 41 and 42 cm (that's around 16.5" for you imperialists out there). That's quite a distance to bend down to and grab.

I needed a couple of tries to pull it off and for me it makes mounting more difficult.

Don't know. I learned on a 24 with my seat up pretty high and found no difficulty reaching the tire at all. Everyone is different. I found this mount much easier to learn though I certainly didn't nail it the first try either. Took a bit to get the hang of it, but I still find it easier than the usual hop up method and though I can do both readily now, I still use this one on difficult terrain where I need to get up and balanced immediately.

[Darth Elevator]

Sweet! I managed 3 successful free mounts using the grab-the-wheel method. My success rate was pretty low (3 out of about 40 tries), but I think that's probably mostly because I still don't have the greatest balance in general. But 3 out of 40 is a major improvement, compared to 0 out of the previous 40 attempts.

[Darth Elevator]

With more practice today and yesterday since my last post, my free mount success rate is now up to about 1 in 4. It feels great to start getting some more consistency in the launch. The times when I do fail is when I launch to one side or the other and only can maintain one or two pedals before falling off to the side.

Unicycling at 2 weeks: free mount on Vimeo

[Kava]

Thanks to all the examples here I freemounted multiple times on Saturday using the tire-grab method. Having took on the challenge of learning on a 26er I was struggling with how to freemount given the larger wheel. I just got fed up with finding a support to hang onto so I thought I'd finally devote some concentrated time to freemounting.

Previous attempts of having the dominant pedal at 8 o'clock and having the wheel roll back under me just wasn't working.

Using the method in Megan's video, I found having my dominant side's pedal (right) straight down allowed some forward movement and momentum to get up and over the wheel while my right hand goes onto the tire and left foot comes onto the other pedal. Bringing the weight onto the left pedal helps get me rolling.

Ahhhh, the freedom this gives is awesome!

[Darth Elevator]

Kava, congratulations on getting the free mount down. Or should I say the freedom mount?

[Jt00]

The tire-grab method seems like a good way to start, but as was pointed out earlier, there are times you don't want to grab your wheel covered in mud and dirt and whatever else you've rolled through. It's worth it to learn the regular freemount. You can have your own variation of it as well. For example, instead of rolling my uni up under me, I start with the pedal all the way down, get on the seat, then rock backward a little with my foot on the up pedal to gain my balance. This also lets me get a first push with the down foot - that is, the one all my weight's on.
But whatever works for you is fine.

[aracer]

Another thank you for the wheel grab method. Got directed to this forum last night and spotted this thread. Tried the wheel grab this morning and it seemed really scary so I decided to try the other methods. None of them were working so I went back to the wheel grab and after about 10 attempts I got it. Now after a few hours I'm getting going about half the time on average. Never thought I'd be freemounting this soon - on Friday the furthest I'd ever got (starting with assistance) was 25m - though with a bit of solid practice I've broken through 100m today. The critical thing it seems is that whilst like all uni it's dynamic, it's a bit less dynamic than the other methods, and you have a bit more time.

Thanks!

[scott ttocs]

Originally Posted by FrostyDon

Don't know. I learned on a 24 with my seat up pretty high and found no difficulty reaching the tire at all. Everyone is different. I found this mount much easier to learn though I certainly didn't nail it the first try either. Took a bit to get the hang of it, but I still find it easier than the usual hop up method and though I can do both readily now, I still use this one on difficult terrain where I need to get up and balanced immediately.

I agree with your latter point: I still use a grab-the-wheel mount on my 29" Muni in difficult terrain where I want to mount into a still-stand before riding off. I find it more comfortable on an exposed trail than a static mount.

In most other instances I will just hop one my uni: I roll-back mount my 24" on the street, I use a rolling mount for my 36", and I will static mount in most other situations.

I think the grab-the-wheel mount is a great way to learn mounting, particularly with a large wheel.

Scott

[Young at heart]

Yes....Over the last couple of days I was able to get this mount more. It is great to not have to walk back to my car or house to remount, especially since my distance is improving. Rain forecast now for a couple of days. I hope I don't lose it