Hello all. In preperation for the arrival of my new Onza unicycle, I’d like to learn 1 footed riding backwards. I can already wheelwalk, wheelwalk 1 footed, ride 1 footed with ethier foot, all the basics, and idle 1 footed. I just can’t do backwards 1 footed. Help here. I’ve been practicing from a 1 footed idle because going from a normal backwards is simply terrifying. I build up the length of the 1 footed idle until it’s more than 1/2 a pedal stroke, then do a super push, and go backwards 1 pedal revolution. Then I stall and I’m idling 1 footed again. I can’t get past that first pedal revolution! Help please. Will the 140-mm cranks make it easier or harder than the 127-mm. Thanks for the time.
P.S. Can anyone think of a time when backwards 1 footed could be useful? Just wondering. I’ve always practiced skills on a usefullness basis. All the other ones led up tp gliding, which I can do OK now. Problem is that it is only useful on certain hills, which is pointless to me. I always imagined myself bombing down all the SF hills on the way too school. A coker would be better.
I’m learning bw 1f as well. One difference when you go from one rev to two is that, with one rev, your balance point doesn’t move very far so you can get away with not being risky and then cover it up with the second idle. When you go to do more than one rev then you actually have to travel backwards in a steady-state way, which is scarier.
I’m about 20% on attempts to go from 1f idle to 2 revs bw 1f to 1f idle again, depending on the day. Stick with it; it will fall with perseverance.
Stay with the 127’s is my opinion. Probably it’s harder on the Coker.
Another really helpful mental thing for me is to remember to lift up my leg at the top of the stroke. The wheel won’t carry it over, at least until I get better.
Hey!
The way I learned bkwds 1ft is riding into it. Start by going backwards at a medium speed and place your foot on to the frame as your dominent foot pedal is up. This way, you have momentum into the first hump.
The tricks you can learn from backwards 1ft include:
bkwd 1ft extended, bkwd coast, bkwd glide, bkwd 1ft seat in front, and bkwd standup wheel walk.
I can’t do backwards one-footed. But from my experience with other backward tricks I would heartily recommend wearing a good helmet and a really big backpack stuffed with pillows.
>Hello all. In preparation for the arrival of my new Onza unicycle, I’d
>like to learn 1 footed riding backwards. I can already wheel walk,
>wheel walk 1 footed, ride 1 footed with either foot, all the basics, and
>idle 1 footed. I just can’t do backwards 1 footed. Help here. I’ve been
>practicing from a 1 footed idle because going from a normal backwards is
>simply terrifying. I build up the length of the 1 footed idle until it’s
>more than 1/2 a pedal stroke, then do a super push, and go backwards 1
>pedal revolution. Then I stall and I’m idling 1 footed again. I can’t
>get past that first pedal revolution! Help please. Will the 140-mm
>cranks make it easier or harder than the 127-mm. Thanks for the time.
I Learned backwards one footed the same way. If one doesn’t use a
powerful backwards stroke, one remains stuck in a long cycle idle. Just
add a bit more power on each backwards stroke and the cycle will finally
continue going backwards.
Longer cranks will provide more leverage and will make backwards one
footed easier to learn, especially using this method (transition from
idling one footed to backwards one footed).
>P.S. Can anyone think of a time when backwards 1 footed could be useful?
>Just wondering. I’ve always practiced skills on a usefulness basis. All
>the other ones led up to gliding, which I can do OK now. Problem is that
>it is only useful on certain hills, which is pointless to me. I always
>imagined myself bombing down all the SF hills on the way too school. A
>Coker would be better.
Backwards one footed is a prelude to backwards coasting which itself is
considered by many to be the ultimate standard unicycle skill.
I personally think that backwards standup swan one footed gliding on the cranks (hopping from one crank to the other as they rotate) is the ultimate. Or backwards onefooted swan standup coasting pirrouetts. Extra points if you can drink a soda while doing it, too. If anyone would like to demonstrate these skills? Please? Thanks for the advice everyone.
I prefer to mount to one footed and go immediately into one footed backwards without idling. If your presentation is good (that excludes me then) it looks as though you are going to do a standard mount then instead you go backwards one footed.
Of course unless you can unicycle most people don’t seem to understand how much practice it takes and prefer to see a suicide mount or something.
I may have to try again this way, but I found less scary to do it from an idle. My problem was that I was better at one foot forward with my left foot and better at one foot idle with my right. So I’m learning 1ft bwd with my right foot first.
If I tried it according to Ryan’s suggestion, I could use my dominant riding foot, which might be better for longer distances. My max is about 10m.
It’s interesting how my dominant riding foot is my right foot, but my dominant wheelwalking foot is my left foot. It works out well, though, because then I have more control in transitions, because I’m always using a dominant foot. After 1 foot backwards I’ll do wheelwalking 1f with my right foot. Or standup wheelwalking. The advice you guys gave me has been really helpful, and I’m pretty close to getting 1f backwards. Thanks.
Today I took another backwards freefall to asphalt from about 1.5 feet; long enough to think, “wow, this is a long ways dowXXXXXX”. I’m glad I was wearing my helpet and elbow pads. The helmet band loosened up from the impact. I was ok and just popped back up and kept trying. I finally got two revs backwards from 1f idle, then ride away in control. That was my 5th successful time today of about 70 attempts.
BW 1f is an adventure to learn! This is about my fourth big back fall working on this. If it weren’t for my pads and helmet I would have stopped long ago.
My tire is uneven from wear now and bw 1f really brings that out.
