I’ve had my 24" Muni for a month now and so far can ride in a straight line pretty OK and sort-of steer (more like gently change direction!!) - all on tarmac - so would now like to start thinking about freemount - it’s probably too soon but I’d like to kinda understand the principle.
I’ve searched on here and watched some on Youtube but would appreciate some detailed help, what’s the theory, what and in what order do you do the various moves, etc, etc…also are there different ways? Or do you all mount the same way?
Your going to want to start with your basic mount, the step on mount. There might be a technical term, but I don’t know it haha. What you do is get your cranks horizontal, they don’t have to be perfect, whatever is comfortable for you will work, we don’t want them vertical though. Then with one for on you’ll learn forward, while transferring the weight onto the seat and step up the the empty pedal. Your going to want your weight over the uni, so it will not slip to the front, the back foot shall be used to stop the wheel from slipping toward your back. Sorry if this is confusing, I’m a bit tired, ask me to explain anything better if you not clear at all.
It should come somewhat soon, practice the motion holding onto a wall or fence to get the feel of what your going to be doing. You’ll be able to do other mounts later on, but most require better pedal balance. Good luck, have fun, free mounting gives you so much more to do and so much freedom.
Edit: When you start out this will be an extremely quick erratic motion, once better though you step on as easy as you walk up steps.
Start with a curb mount where you back the unicycle up to a curb with the cranks horizontal. Put your back foot on the rear pedal lightly and then put the seat under you, then step forward and put your other foot on the front pedal and pedal away.
Next learn to do it without a curb. I saw a great suggestion here a couple of weeks ago to practice jumping up to a cinder block a few times to get the feel of jumping without putting weight on your back foot. (search for the post)
Personally when I learned, I did not know about these kind of mounts and automatically learned to mount using a roll-back mount since that it similar to how I was mounting while holding on to things to mount.
Like learning to ride it just takes practice and patience.
It didn’t take too long. A couple good practice sessions and you should be able to do it some of the time.
The way I started was with one crank diagonally towards me at about a 20 or 30 degree angle to the vertical. I put the seat in my crotch, stepped on the pedal and got the other foot on the higher pedal. The stepping would turn the wheel backwards slightly, which I found helped me stay stable instead of toppling over quickly. I’d push to stop it from moving backwards (going backwards would also help me get in position to lean forward), and start pedaling.
The more comfortable I got at it, the less I had to go backwards, and now I don’t at all which is probably the better way to do it.
Now, the way I find easiest is to start with the pedal in a similar position, but move forwards as I mount so the cranks come parallel to the ground while stepping. There is no backwards roll, and the moving forward helps me start with some momentum which helps me move.
There are plenty of videos on youtube (and here, probably) showing different approaches to learning how to freemount.
Well when I mount.
I put my left crank straight down and put my foot on it.
Then I just step on the right pedal and go. Sometimes I have to roll back a bit.
For me, it clicked when I realized you really need to FEATHER your weight over the back pedal as you step up and put your weight on the seat. You want to try and keep the pedals as horizontal as possible until you’re mounted and ready to push on the forward pedal. I think Munigeezer did a great example of the feathering action on one of his youtube vids, you should be able to find it easily with a search.
About freemounting: I have used the “roll back-mount” for a long time, but has just begun to learn the static mount. On the German part of this forum I found some advice about this. Hold the saddle with the hand and press it sligtly forward as you put the second foot on the pedal, to prevent the uni to roll backwards. Another advice I found somewhere was to stand on your toes with the back foot. Both these things helped me forward, so the static mount is now not that impossible as I thought. But I am still practicing, as my “hit rate” isn’t that good yet. You can also try to start downwards at a light slope.
I improved my success rate to 90% by crouching down about 20-30 cm and then springing upward hard from the foot on the ground. This seems to eliminate the tendency to put pressure on the dominant foot. Feathering is thus automatic. Previously I concentrated on feathering alone, but it never worked for me.
Another help in getting momentum is to walk/roll into the mount, but that takes good timing to hit the pedal at the right time as it reaches the horizontal position.
Lots of skills are closely related: freemounting, riding slowly, stopping under control, starting again, idling, and going backwards.
I would get used to slowing right down and speeding up again, then coming to a stop and starting again, and then coming to s atop and pausing for a second before starting again. All of this builds confidence in that crucial moment before you start moving.
I prefer the 10 past 8 mount which is when (seen from the right) the front pedal is at 2 on the clock and the back pedal is at 8 on the clock.
I put the seat firmly in place and hold the front of it.
I put my foot on the back pedal, then give the uni a slight push so that the pedal starts to rise. then I sort of gracefully sail up into the riding position, and ride.
Welcome! At 46, I just started 3 months ago. I learned using the roll-back mount. My right foot started back, and I would jump my left foot to the forward pedal. My right foot would push down a lot in the beginning, but eventually I was able to “feather” it so now I do static mounts. The more you do it, the more you’ll be able to feather it. I never tried the curb mount, but it sounds like the best way to begin.
Have one crank slightly back 45 degrees to vertical, with your foot on it. As you jump up to put your other foot on, the uni will roll back directly under you because of the weight on the back pedal and therefore you are balanced and ready to ride.
2. Static (As you advance you will always do this because it is just quicker and more simple, but harder to learn as a beginner)
You have one crank back around horizontal, rest your foot on it. Then you lift your other foot from the ground to the forward pedal and YOU move forward over the uni to gain balance and ride off; the wheel is stationary (the fundamental difference between the two mounts- it means that with this mount you already have forwards momentum just after the mount and so it’s very easy to ride off).
The difficulty with the static mount is balancing your weight on the seat (causing the uni to be pushed forward) with the force on the back pedal (causing the uni to be pushed back). And you have to do this while lifting your other foot up and onto the other pedal.
Like others have said, the curb method works for the static mount. It is generally advisable to learn the roll back first just because it’s easier and gets you use to free mounting.
Nice age to begin!
You can also try to start downwards at a light slope.