I was thinking of seeing what personal targets you all had set yourselves for 2009, and whether you achieved them. It’s not a chance to show off how good/talented etc you are, but unicycling (as with other circus skills) seems to allow oneself to set personal targets in order to progress. For some it might have been to go on a unicycling holiday, for others a target might have been to learn a “hop skip and a jump”. Some people have modest personal targets, others have world shattering ones. But it’s the achieving of them gives you the buzz, whatever they are!
Here are my successes and failures for starters…
Success: Riding my “furlongs per candle” today!
Failure: Learning to idle and go backward.
My success is important as it is the furthest I have ever cycled before. Six and a quarter miles is nothing to some of you, BUT IT IS TO ME! The main problem was trying to find a safe route to do it. We now have the Cambridge to Huntingdon Guided Busway that has a cycle track beside it. The route is a tad boring, but it is traffic free and relatively level. The guided bus is not running yet, so most cyclists we saw actually go along the concrete busway itself. A gravel path still has a chance to throw you when you hit holes, ruts or soft spots. I have just completed it with my son as my riding buddy on his bike - he’d never ridden that far either. The winter afternoon light was just about gone when we finished, and I couldn’t see clearly to weave between the potholes and dog sh*t. I am absolutely knackered!
As for the “failure” - I did get some way along the learning curve to idling - stopping, back pedalling a quarter turn, and going forward. Hopping too is better. I can add that to my 2010 target list. To “fail” in PC terms can be more of a “not succeed”.
I’m all about goals so I like this thread. Earlier this year I decided it would be cool to ride in our town’s July 4th parade next year on my uni. It will be a special event because it will be our town’s 150th anniversary. With that in mind I thought I would only do it if I could ride backwards somewhat. I have well exceeded that goal because I can ride backwards somewhat well right now and I have all spring to add to my skills. I’ve purchased a giraffe and successfully ridden that which I would have never dreamed of 8 months ago.
So here are some of my long term goals and my status with them:
Level 1: Done
Idling: Done
Backwards: Usually good for 10-20 feet right now. Record is around 50 feet.
Giraffe riding: Ownership and successful riding is achieved.
Freemount giraffe: Not yet!
Hopping: Just getting started with my new Trials uni.
Hop on and off curbs: Not yet
Kickup Mount: Sometime before I die
Frontspins and Backspins: Sometime before I die
Ride one footed: Next summer hopefully
Idle one footed: Next summer hopefully
Idle one footed while doing a CanCan dance move: Sometime before I die
Juggle while unicycling: Probably this Spring. Basic juggling skills are coming along.
Unicycle Jousting: I’m totally ready, just need an opponant.
Failures:
Like many others, I’ve fallen off my uni - crashed and burned, so many times I couldn’t even venture a good guess as to how many times. I spent MONTHS learning how to idle. Despite these facts, failure doesn’t come to mind with my unicyling endeavors. Failure to me would be to decide on a unicycling goal, attempt it for a while, then decide I could never do it. I now accept that I can learn any reasonable uni skill, but it might take a long, long time! That’s OK by me, I love a good challenge. I think that everyone reading this does too.
I started on September, so my list of successes is short… but then so is the failure list.
Successes
Talking about a uni enough that my family gave me one for my birthday
Actually learning to ride the thing
… without any emergency room visits
Venturing offroad
Riding 8+ miles on the MUP
Free mounting a few times
Stop and go
Finally figuring out a proper dismount
Joining an OUT the game competition
Failures
Free mounting reliably
In other words, I’m level 0
Idling
Two short climbs on the offroad trail have me stumped
Not challenging myself to advance enough
For next year, I want to learn
Idling
Reliable free mount
Hopping
Maybe backwards riding
Climb those bumps
SIF
Having been riding for about 3.1/2 years, I still haven’t mastered the “proper” dismount. Perhaps I’ll add that to my list for 2010. I’m just too scared of landing on my posterior! Falling forwards is much easier to handle than falling backwards.
Freemounting I found for me requires different approaches depending on the size of wheel. However, towards the end of yesterday’s furlong per candle ride I was just too tired to get on on my own and needed my son’s shoulder for help for the last 50metres.
In the cold winter earlier on in the year I rode my longest ride ever - 30 miles. My biggest problem was my continued inability to freemount the 36er and there being no toilets on the route.
Since then I don’t think I’ve ridden the 36er. So next year my goal is to ride it a bit more.
On the other hand I’ve been riding my 29er much more because I can freemount it. We’ve also started a new circus club and I have once again got somewhere inside to ride. consequently I have been riding my 20" more and am continuing to work on my juggling whilst idling. (It is much harder than it looks). I am making slow improvement.
So goals for next year are:
to ride the 36er a little bit more
to improve my juggling whilst idling
to get to BUC
to generally ride a bit more because this is probably the year that I’ve ridden the least since I started.
Successes this year:
Riding again after about 9 months off due to a mt bike injury (seperated shoulder) and ax injury (broken tibia).
Taking myself from broken-down-middle-aged-guy to somewhat-fit-middle-aged-guy, lost 30 lbs which I can attribute most of to unicycling and wanting to be better and faster, all of which is easier when you weigh less. This was HUGE for me, and I couldn’t have done it without this place and the people here who help challange eachother to become better riders and offer the great support for eachother.
Idling, riding backwards (only about 10-20 ft), sif riding, rolling hops, hopping up (10"), hopping down (22"), juggling (beginning), a bit of skinny riding.
Failures:
My goals were not set excessively high, and I can’t really think of any unicycling failures I had. I do pushups a lot to keep my body in shape for when I’m flung off my uni onto the ground, I really think it helps a lot. I did have a goal of doing 100 in a row, never got there.
Goals:
Backwards (being able to ride as far as I want).
Hopping up (20")
Hopping down (48")
One footed riding and idling
Juggling while idling
Skinny riding (not naked riding, but riding on skinny things
Dropping another 10 lbs
Successes this year:
Riding again after about 9 months off due to a mt bike injury (seperated shoulder) and ax injury (broken tibia).
Taking myself from broken-down-middle-aged-guy to somewhat-fit-middle-aged-guy, lost 30 lbs which I can attribute most of to unicycling and wanting to be better and faster, all of which is easier when you weigh less. This was HUGE for me, and I couldn’t have done it without this place and the people here who help challange eachother to become better riders and offer the great support for eachother.
Idling, riding backwards (only about 10-20 ft), sif riding, rolling hops, hopping up (10"), hopping down (22"), juggling (beginning), a bit of skinny riding.
Failures:
My goals were not set excessively high, and I can’t really think of any unicycling failures I had. I do pushups a lot to keep my body in shape for when I’m flung off my uni onto the ground, I really think it helps a lot. I did have a goal of doing 100 in a row, never got there.
Goals:
Backwards (being able to ride as far as I want).
Hopping up (20")
Hopping down (48")
One footed riding and idling
Juggling while idling
Skinny riding (not naked riding, but riding on skinny things
Dropping another 10 lbs
Failures:
Hardly used my 24" Muni this year.
My 36" riding speed has slowed down, to a fast walk.
A long 36" ride this year was 5 miles, not like the 20 mile rides of 18 months ago.
Success:
Haven’t run anyone over. (Been riding my 36" in some crowded situations.)
Riding is still great fun.
Failures:
learned no real “tricks” (other than idle & backwards)
don’t have pads or a front light yet
Success!:
learned to ride a unicycle.
Got a 36er, freemounted on the first day, and now ride it regularly.
Gave up road biking because of the uni.
Rode the 36er on intense singletrack without killing myself.
rode 20 miles at once.
first 6 club flash, first 8 ball flash!!
I don’t really have any failures for 2009, other than I was very sluggish to learn to ride. I started learning in late 2008, but would go for weeks without practicing because it seemed like so much work. It took me a really long time to get to the point to where I can ride/steer more or less without thinking about it when just cruising around the neighborhood.
Most of my goals for 2010 involve learning how to do things that will let me advance from beginner trails to more technical Muni. In particular, I hope to accomplish the following by the end of the year:
Master rolling drops from at least 6" up (I am close, I have ridden off ~4" drops successfully, but my landing them is not reliable yet)
Develop the ability to hop up and down obstacles of ~6" (I actually just did my first hopping practice today: I can pedal forwards, hop 1 or 2 inches in place, then pedal forward again, so I have a long way to go with this one)
Other goals:
Master free-mounting (I can free-mount, but it is shaky, particularly on slanted ground)
Master the “proper” dismount (I can do this, just not reliably yet).
Failures:
Didn’t make enough money to get to Unicon
Didn’t do the really long (including 100 miles in a day) rides I wanted to
Still not as good as [_______]*
Successes:
Learned to ride an inverticycle, including freemounting and turning etc
Proper dismount learned and put in to practice (it’s actually surprisingly easy)
Anodised a KH frame
Generally got a little bit better all round
2010 goals
100:10:1 challenge
Idle on inverticycle
learn a bunch of flatland tricks
And another one that I’m keeping quiet about for now, but will announce in due course
STM
Insert name of your favourite rider or Kris Holm here
I have learned to ride about 20 years ago (about 100m, turning left, freemount ~10%). And than did not do it until 3. of september this year.
Successes: riding over 10km without upd, freemount ~95% even on steep offroad ascends, sometimes using my break, riding s0 singletrails and some simple narrow serpentines.
Failures: idling, riding backwards, riding down more than one step.
Goals for 2010: perhaps a short mtb-marathon (~30km) and/or a 3-4 days singletrailtour.
Started around Sept 08, so 2009 was good for me.
Got right:
Freemount 36’’
Riding an Ultimate wheel
Idling and limited backward riding
Riding and idling on my newly aquired giraffe
Juggling 5 balls
Ride off 2 stairs
Hopping
Riding 66km in a race.
Disappointments:
Not getting the hang of a BC wheel
rolling hop onto pavement
SIF riding
Freemount Giraffe.
Thats about it. At this rate I’ll be able to do what I intend to do after 2010. No ambition to do extreme trials, crankflips etc.
Success
Did Canada Day Parade on Unicycle
Was in News Paper twice this year for unicycle
Shaved 5 min off time doing Terry Fox run and raised more money than Previous year.
Learning to ride backwards
Failures
Wanted to travel and meet other unicyclist in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario.
Resolution
2010 is my 25th wedding anniversary, want to do something special for wife.
Continue to ride often and put more km’s on 29" and 36" unicycles.
Meet other unicyclist
2010 is 30th anniverysary of Terry Fox run. This year the Confederation bridge is the site for 13 km run. I need special permission from organizers to ride my unicycle in the event. I hope I can convince organizers to permit me to ride in the event.
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