I’ve had my first Muni (Onza) now for a week , and it sure is harder than I thought (why I thought I’d pick up balancing on one wheel quickly is beyond me!!), after a couple of hours in the sadle I can wobble about 3 wheel revolutions - as everything I’ve read/seen says I think it’s just a matter of practice, practice and more practice.
I’ve read everything I can (this forum is fantastic) and think I know how to carry on learning, however a couple of questions that might seem daft but…
Tyre: It’s a really knobbly Kenda - would I be better to change this to a smoother tread for learning?
Tyre pressure: At the moment its 50psi (3.5 bar) and feels hard, should it be more, less or doesn’t it make a difference?
Pedals: The pedals have 1/4" pegs/pins to grip my shoe sole’s, as I use walking type treaded shoes for riding moving my feet about is difficult, should I just get used it or would I be better removing them.
Thanks for any advice…probably more things to answer than I can think to ask!
I’ve heard that it’s easier to learn with a smooth tire. Personally I felt it was too troublesome to change back and forth, so I learned to ride on my knobbly 26x3.0 tire anyway.
You should have quite high pressure in the beginning, it gives you more control. I don’t know how much 50 psi is, but if it feels hard it should be OK.
You’ll eventually get used to it. However, I recommend to use plastic pedals in the beginnig - especially if you don’t have shin guards. Pedal bites can be quite nasty. It’ll probably also increase your confidence, which is very important when learning.
Sounds like you are doing OK in the learning department, once you can get 3 revs in a row you are half way there. It took me two weeks to be able to go 100m.
Most people agree that a smooth tire is easier to learn on, one that is highly regarded is the Maxis Hookworm, It is a nice round tire with inverted tread and decent volume.
Most people like a harder tire for learning, I liked a softer one, it is all personal preference. A harder tire will roll faster and be easier to turn, a softer tire will have more resistance and be harder to turn. For some reason I did better with less pressure, I guess I am weird, you might be too.
I would suggest removing the pins and see how you like it, If you find the pedals too slippery without them put them back in, this is a cheep and easy way to see which is better for you. I learnt with plastics (Odyssey Twisted PCs) and am sure that I would have suffered more shin injuries if I was using metal pedals. If you haven’t been hurting yourself I wouldn’t bother with getting new pedals.
Good luck with learning and let us know how it goes!
I agree with Saskachewanian on the hookworm tire. My uni had a hookworm tire that I learned on. Once I could ride, I switched to a knobby tire (just to see). But I found that the tire just stuck to the ground way too much for me and I didn’t have the wiggly side to side control (=very technical terminology!) the hookworm had.
I’d get some plastic pedals like the P.C’s and a Hookworm tire. Why waist your knobby on roads, you will prob need ride on the street for at least a few weeks before going off road (it took me months).
I liked air pressure near the max ~ 50 psi. Later on I lowered it to help absorb the bumps on technical road riding during my commute (took me a while to get used to it).
The knobby tire won’t roll as easily and harder to turn, but when you go off road the resistance to turn from all the grip will be desirable. For me on even mildly challenging dirt the wheel turns drastically w/ each half pedal stroke while using a road tire, unless I’m ridding fast
I also learned on a muni. A KH 24. I think you’ll be fine learning on it. I don’t think the knobby tire will make it much more difficult.
Lower the pressure. 50psi is way too high. It should be at 22 psi. The softer tire will make learning easier.
General tips:
Put your weight in the seat, not in the pedals.
Go from parallel (to the ground) crank position, to parallel crank position – don’t stop at the “dead spot” (vertical cranks).
Lean slightly forward.
Thanks guys, I’ve lowered the pressure to 25 psi and it feels alot more stable (I still fell off quickly though!!) so I’m going to carry on with the original tyre at the moment, although I do like the look of the Hookworm for more ‘normal’ riding.
Also removing the pedal pins has improved my confidence in relation to moving my feet about abit. I never ride without full shin guards on (I learnt this VERY quickly!!!).
I went out last night to my local park, it was very dark and poorly lit so I nearly didn’t even start - however when I did I strangely found it easier due to hardly being able to see anything but just ‘feeling’ my balance more. I was probably just having a better time of it but I’m going to try it again in the dark and see how I get on. It could be the way to learn!!!.
I am a relative beginner and learned on a 24" Nimbus Muni with the 3 inch knobbly tire that came stock with the bike (24x3 Duro).
I have just purchased a Hookworm as just about all of my riding is on the street at the moment (though I do intend to go Muni when my skills increase).
I will be testing the Hookworm this weekend and will report back with how it compares to the Knobbly.
My son and I have been riding unicycles for five months. It took a week to ride across the yard, a month to ride around the parking lot, two months to learn a decent free mount, three months to ride gravel roads and some easy double track, four months to start getting into technical trail riding, and at present I’m still working on technical riding.
Unicycling has probably the flattest learning curve of any sport I have tried, including surfing and whitewater kayaking.
If you want it, then you need to be obsessive about practice, daily if possible, push yourself to try new things, start riding on grass and gravel as soon as you can handle pavement, work on downhill skills, get your freemount, learn to hop, etc…
I ride 3-5 times a week, so over the past five months I have ridden my muni nearly 100 times and I still suck compared to the majority of the riders on this forum, but I know that with time I’ll be good enough to ride my local trails with a UPD, logs, roots, rocks, and all
I’ve just had a try out on the Hookworm. Initial thoughts were that the tire felt quite twitchy in comparison to the knobbly. However after a very short adjustment period I found that I could turn more easily.
Now this could simply be that I am getting better in general but the ease that I found myself turning to the right (my hard side) I really think was due mostly to the Hookworm.
Freemounting however was more difficult. I guess this makes sense as the slick Hookworm offers less road rolling resistance making it easier to lose forwards momentum during the static mount.
I am currently riding with 165mm cranks (24" wheel) but picked up some 150s when I ordered the Hookworm. I will try the 150s tomorrow as I did not want to change too much at once. I hope that the shorter cranks (and hence less torque) will counter the loss of road rolling resistance and make the freemount a little easier for me - we shall see!
Been out on the 150s and I think I prefer them over the 165s. Easier on the knees and I can spin better. I’m surprised 15 mm in crank length makes so much difference.
Freemountng may be a little easier too because of less torque, but I cannot be sure as I am still learning to freemount but it was definitely not harder to mount.
I also think being slightly higher off the ground helps too, however I am glad I had the 165s as I think they helped me along the way in the early stages of learning.
i would definitely say lower your tire pressure. usually on the tire they have a recommended pressure rating. so you might want to check that out and then go for the lower end. dont go so low that your tire is smooshy though
it took me a while to learn…but once i got the feeling for it i was off.
after countless 2 or 3 revolution rides…it finally just clicked and i was able to do like 20…then 30…and now just however much i want
