I can’t understand how you do a static mount in the first place. When I try it on my freewheel uni, rear pedal is rolling down to the dead point (I do static mount on a regular uni perfectly well). Also I tried a static mount stepping on a front pedal first (pedals wouldn’t roll away) but jump mount is easier for me.
I linked to a video of the static mount in the previous post. I have my right foot down but I’m using it to pull the saddle against me then I hop up on the saddle and tap the brake. Do you have a normal seat height when you do a jump mount or is it lower than you’d normally ride. I’ve seen freewheel jump mounts but they were on unicycles with really low saddles (more for tricks than general riding).
I made a short Youtube video of the same footage I put in Instagram:
Neither the video nor your explanation can help me understand it. Nevermind, I will do jump mount as always. Actually I can do it on a 5’ giraffe (jump to the pedals with bended knees, then straighten them and sit to the saddle - like a side hop in trials), so 26" freewheel with a normal seat height is not a problem for me:)
Have you seen my freewheel video?
Yes, I liked it on YouTube when it came out. Nice work! The jump mounts were at the end with the bails/UPDs so I didn’t realize that was the normal way to get on. I see that you hold the brake and then do a jump mount. I don’t think I’m coordinated enough for that!
Since today’s ride I’m starting to use more of inverted static mount (stepping on front pedal first) because I was tired of jump mounts after a great deal of UPDs on deep snow 
Jackshaft model in the works
I thought I’d keep it in this thread but JR Drift Trikes is continuing to innovate in the field of geared drift trikes (which carries over to freewheel unicycles). This is a link to the photo of the second version of a prototype for multiple gears:
It’s jackshaft-based, similar to Justin’s 3 Speed Unicycle Build.
All sort of baked-into the crown… Interesting!! 
Seeing a bit more of it makes it less like Justin’s design which had the cranks mounted on the spindle through a custom hub. This is more like a reverse Huni-Rex with a jackshaft.
- Gear 1 - 100% (Direct Drive)
- Gear 2 - 130% (Gear 1 + 30%)
- Gear 3 - 148% (Gear 2 + 14%)
- Gear 4 - 169% (Gear 3 + 14%)
- Gear 5 - 192% (Gear 4 + 14%)
- Gear 6 - 220% (Gear 5 + 14%)
- Gear 7 - 250% (Gear 6 + 14%)
- Gear 8 - 325% (Gear 7 + 30%)
From My point of view a geared unicycle must have a separately gearbox. One with low play and moving in both directions.
I am making plans (so far in my head only) to make a prototype. As I have no CAD, paper and pencil only, and no possibility to machine things on my own, it makes the decision hard to start this project.
But in general the idea how to do it is born (in my head :p)
Looks fairly complicated. 3 seperate points in the chain (per side too?). How easy is it to ride a uni when the pedals aren’t on the same line as the seat + wheel?
Super interesting though, and looks clean all built-in to the frame like that!
Still… Freewheeling… Hmmm 
Here’s a longer video I shot.
Hello Waalrus, I think attaching a t-bar would be beneficial on your free wheeler. 
I’ve no info to justify this idea but instinctively I think it’s the thing to do. 
How?! I keep my hand on a brake almost always to be ready to use it anytime
You’re doing great, it must be really difficult to ride. Now that you got this far through practice, how would you rate how tiring this ride is compared to a normal unicycle? Would high-gear freewheeling unicycles have a future in racing or touring? I’d guess not, but you are in a better position now to answer.
You could have your brake set up close to hand allowing you to feather it for control.
I think the the t-bar set up would give you more stability meaning less torso movement, ( a bit like a biker pulling a wheelie ) The t-bar could be weighted which might temper backward rotation of the frame.
Again, as with normal unicycling there would be a learning curve to develop an even more refined sense of balance but in the long run it would be less tiring.
BUT, this is just a guess.
You wont know until you try it and if you don’t try then you’ll never know. 
I’m not a big fan of handlebars even on my fixed unicycles. I have a Shadow handle on my 36" fixed but it’s cut short enough so that there’s just enough room to use the regular handle if I want. I don’t have bar ends but just put grips on the ends of the T. Except riding up a hill pulling up with any pressure on the handle on one of my freewheel unicycles results in a UPD. I do put pressure down on the handle when I’m pedalling a lot but it’s straight down. I feel that down pressure from a longer handlebar would make it difficult to stay balanced. Where does the balance compensation come from down pressure on a longer handlebar on a fixed unicycle? I don’t think you shift weight backwards but just use pedal back pressure which isn’t possible on a freewheel unicycle.
I’m not sure if Dmitriy’s comment refers to the issue of (1) using a brake with the t-bar as unibokk interprets above or more generally (2) why I don’t have my hands in ready position to use the brake so I’ll try to answer both.
(1) I find that my braking on a fixed wheel vs. a freewheel is very different. On a freewheel I push up on the lever with the middle part of my middle fingers without touching anything else. On a fixed wheel I usually have a thumb or palm on the regular handle or on the bar of the handlebar and pull more with the tips of one or two fingers. The videos of people riding freewheel unicycles don’t show the braking motion in detail and I’m curious to know what other people are doing.
(2) In general I try to use the brake to control my speed and not to maintain my balance. On rough terrain I generally either have my right hand in ready position to use the brake (or actually braking) with my left hand out for balance or have my left hand holding the saddle with my right hand out for balance. I don’t do a lot of coasting on rough terrain but when I do I keep my right hand in ready position to use the brake. On smooth terrain like a paved road I’m able to keep both hands out in front of me for balance. This lets me use torso movement for balance as well as pushing the wheel forward and backward with my feet.
It’s a different kind of tired compared to a fixed wheel unicycle. I’m riding so slow now that it doesn’t register at all in my lower body. My back is what gets sore after about an hour of practice. I need to keep my abs engaged and keep a rigid body position so that’s what gets the workout at this time. I’m sure that could be trained or conditioned for longer rides. The main limitation of the 3.8x geared freewheel is that it’s not really viable on any kind of elevation. I also am not comfortable riding it around cars at this time. It’s perfect for beach bike paths or rails-to-trails. Unfortunately I don’t have long trails like that where I live. The riding pattern on the geared freewheel would make long rides a lot easier than non-geared. With a freewheel you’re pedaling up to the speed you’re no longer comfortable pedaling which leaves you with the choice of braking to get back under that speed or coasting and using friction to get back under that speed at which point you pedal again. On a non-geared freewheel the “speed you’re no longer comfortable pedaling” is when the wheel goes too fast for your pedaling to keep up. On the 3.8x geared freewheel this doesn’t happen and for me is the speed at which I don’t want to have a UPD. While tire friction is similar on both types of unicycles there’s significantly more friction and loss of efficiency on the 3.8x geared freewheel. That, combined with the pedaling issue, means the riding pattern on the 3.8x geared unicycle has more pedaling, less coasting, and far less braking. I’ve done 20+ mile rides on a non-geared freewheel unicycle and the limiting factor on those was more crotch pain than anything else since I don’t ride with a handlebar. When my core got tired I resorted to braking to rest. As far as racing goes I haven’t been pushing speeds too hard. If I had some longer flat sections I could easily cruise at 10-12MPH and push it to 15MPH without a lot of effort. I personally am not comfortably going faster than that. The Gear-Changer (pictures above) would make a much more flexible unicycle but it’s probably not going to make it to production.
Out of curiosity, why so high a gear if you aren’t going to be riding fast?
Waaalrus, you definitely seem to be at the cutting edge of freewheel unicycling. You even seem to be taking unicycling in a new direction; basically “going somewhere” with freewheel unicycles rather than riding them around as a novelty. You make freemounting a Schlumpf 36" in high gear look like the easy stuff.
That sounds funny coming from you.
As you lean down or into the handlebar, you are just bringing the wheel forward to compensate. It’s just a matter of getting used to having the longer handlebar there, and getting familiar with how it responds to riding movements. Should be no problem for a balancer of your skills.
You’re pedaling so slow you look like the Six Million Dollar Man (for those who remember that TV show) when you pedal it. I saw in your riding movements and tension the same type of movement that’s used on a BC Wheel. I remember having sore abs when I practiced on the BC a lot. Abs and lower back got a great workout on those as well.
Thanks for the feedback, John!
From your description the biggest stumbling block for a longer handlebar comes from my own limitations and not the freewheel’s. I have really poor coordination. I do fine with proficiency-based skills where there’s some simple technique and I just have to practice it (coasting as an example) but I do poorly with more complicated skills which require coordination of multiple body parts (downhill gliding as an example). In particular, your description of balancing with a longer handlebar is reminiscent of learning to manual on a bicycle. I practiced that for a couple months with very little progress. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t eventually learn either but it would take me a lot longer than the norm and I’m not sure I would reap a commensurate benefit. On longer freewheel rides the interspersal of pedaling and coasting allows for saddle relief since I coast with little or no down pressure on the saddle so it’s only on long sections of uphill when I miss the benefit of a longer handlebar (and get some soreness in my triceps). This type of terrain doesn’t apply to the 3.8x geared freewheel but it’s possible if I start riding the Gear-Changer or something like Justin’s 3-speed design I may have to revisit a longer handlebar.