I tried searching the forums here, and youtube. Found many video’s on a backflip dismount… but not how to get off gracefully???
I can fall off the darn thing more ways than I can count, but am not too sure how to get off of it while staying in control? Should I get off backwards or forwards? Forwards is easier, but that may be because I have more practice at falling forwards… and it’s always with a stumbling lurch… never with any semblance of control.
I’m super super super new. Today was my 12th ride. I’m getting somewhat proficient at pedaling along a fenceline and away from a fence line. But can’t get up on it without some support or get off gracefully without support.
Enjoy the learning process! It’s a special time in the life of a unicyclist. IMHO, it’s way too early for you to worry about graceful dismounts, or possibly even graceful anything just yet. First make it work, and then you can start paying attention to technique.
In the Skill Levels, when they refer to a graceful dismount it generally means to stop riding and then step off the back of the unicycle. That means you come to a stop with the wheel a little bit in front of you, and step off the back as your momentum comes to a stop and goes in that direction.
At this stage it’s probably best to spend time practicing coming off the front and landing safely on your feet. So you do it without thinking.
The graceful dissmount to the back took me about a year to perfect after learning to ride…but I am an oldie with a slow brain I found it to be a more advanced skill than I thought. It was the impact to my knees and ankles when dissmounting off the front of my 29" that made me concentrate on dissmounting off the back…much kinder on old joints and second nature now
Dismounting off the back with the uni in front of you?
You are cracked, that’s a sure way to get hurt!
A graceful way to get off a uni in a planned dismount is to come to a slow crawl and simply step forward with your non dominant leg and walk onto the ground, just like walking off an escalator. I grab the back of the seat with my dominant hand so the uni doesn’t clatter to the ground.
For a safe UPD, I add a little “pop” by pushing off on both feet and the seat, using the seat like a pommel horse literally springing into the air; the uni is on it’s own. I spot my landing from “up high”, and stick it.
Of course there are times when sticking a landing means sliding on my arse for twenty feet, so instead I’ll run down the trail until I have enough friction to slow down. The other day I was riding ln super saturated leaf litter and on one UPD I needed a good thirty feet of running before a friendly tree reached out a helpful branch.
I almost never come off backwards unless I’m on a super steep hill, even then I try to come off forward because falling downhill over my uni is a sure way to get hurt worse.
Trust me, leave the uni behind you, it can survive a lot more than you.
There may be some skill level test that requires a variety of dismounts, but you are almost always safer coming off the uni in the same direction as you are facing and moving, esp when you are learning to ride.
Dismounting with the unicycle in front of me never occurred to me until I found this forum, now I use it most of the time. I just slow down and do what I guess would look like the reverse version of a slowed down free mount.
With the smaller wheels I find it doesn’t matter whether I come off the front or the back but with the larger wheels it feels a lot less jarring to come off the back. With the large wheel there’s certainly a jolt that comes when the ground suddenly stops your forward progress when dismounting off the front. When dismounting off the back I feel like I’m just taking a small step to the ground.
Dismounting off the back of the uni is certainly not something I would suggest for someone still in the learning stages. I think it would be dangerous in those stages. I knew how to ride with decent stability before I even attempted it and it felt very awkward at first. I’m sure I posted about it somewhere in these forums.
I’m not saying I don’t dismount to the back, clearly it’s just a way to get off your uni, but it’s not the way to get off safely when learning unless you like having your calf torn to pieces or enjoy bouncing on your tail.
Don’t you all remember learning to ride and coming off backwards while your foot slip forward on the pedal, then having the wheel rotate forward and cheese grader your calf? I bought leg wraps for that reason alone; got some nice scarring from those days.
Even for UPDs on the trail, I probably leave my uni behind me a hundred times for every time it lands in front of me…
For the OP: When you were learning, did you do any “walkovers”, where you step up onto the uni and simply walk over the uni and step back to the ground? Try that and make it into your dismount, nice and clean, just take a step off the uni as your pedal comes around.
Certainly not to be used when new, but I try to dismount off the back whenever I can. The impact isn’t as great when it is done just right.
The forward momentum that is left over lowers you to the ground. On a few occasions when doing it it felt like I didn’t step off anything - like I was lowered to the ground. I can’t nail it most of the time. I have trouble killing just enough forward momentum and end off coming off the front anyway. And I always have to remind myself to leave the lower foot on the pedal.
Once you ride fairly well, practice stalling. Ride a long and come to a complete stop for a split sec, then continue on. From there you’re only a bit of practice away from stepping your foot off the pedal and dismounting.
I’d say 95% of my “on purpose” dismounts are off the back; it’s a lot more controlled, especially on downhills. A front dismount gone wrong is a good way to do one of those “no footer” coasts down the hill to disaster!
I don’t remember having much trouble learning it. As my right foot comes over the top I lift it off and set it down to the back; my left foot’s pressure against the now-rising pedal controls the uni. I probably use the pedal stroke before the dismount to roll the uni in front of me a little. There shouldn’t be a time when a pedal has a shot at your calf.
On bigger wheels, I prefer to dismount back. Since I am short, I tend to use my brake on my 29 and come back off of it very slowly. I could do it without the brake, but it would require more backpressure and using the brake seems to make it more controlled.
There’s a big difference between UPDing off the back and dismounting intentionally off the back. I’d go so far as to say that every dismount where the wheel is behind me is an UPD, as I don’t ever dismount to the front intentionally (though I still dismount to the front when I’m intending to dismount, but not in enough control to get the wheel in front of me). If I dismount with the wheel in front of me it is always very controlled - I sometimes try and see just how slowly I can do it by controlling the rotation of the wheel.
I have always felt more controlled getting off the unicycle by stepping off with the unicycle in front of me. Big wheels or little wheels. Especially on a downhill. Coming off with the unicycle behind makes you travel a lot farther before you hit the ground on a downhill slope. If I go faster than I am comfortable for a UPD, I may land forward of the unicycle and run (hoping I stay upright). If I plan the dismount, I get off with the uni in front.
So it looks like I’m the odd one out, and so you all really like coming off the back better, hmmm, not me, especially on a nasty UPD, I want that uni thing behind me so I have a clear landing pad.
Yes I did walkovers. I’m currently mixing my practicing to about 10 minutes of leaving from a curb or trying a static mount grabbing the wheel (whichever’ll come first I’ll be happy) and then just pedaling up and down the fence until I’m tired. I thought maybe learning how to get off gracefully would be a nice thing to learn so I can do “something” with a little bit of class…
Any UPD I do I usually don’t have time to think too much about which way I’ll fall/step. If I’m close enough to the fence I’ll just touch or grab it. If not it’s usually a forward fall, though learning to get on is adding a bunch of sideways tip overs.
I’ve also learned it’s quite hard to get on when you roll the wheel onto your shoe. Somehow I’ve done that TWICE.
You guys have been a great help reading all your posts. Sometimes a little bit too inspirational…
I found it to be a more advanced skill than I thought. It was the impact to my knees and ankles when dissmounting off the front of my 29" that made me concentrate on dissmounting off the back…much kinder on old joints and second nature now 
A graceful planned dismount is simply reversing the steps used to mount. I usually mount with the uni I front of me so that’s how I dismount.
