Started this one in just conversation and a few people said it should be here instead so I’m gonna bite the bullet and put it up here and let the other one die a death.
OK, so we all know there isn’t any magic trick to learning to unicycle, and probably if there was it wouldn’t be half as much fun, but I suspect with many aspects of unicycling there is normally the “final piece” that clicks into place just before you first land that new trick you’ve been trying for days.
Now, they won’t be the same for everyone, but sharing learning experiences is a great side of this forum, and could well help other people, so I thought in this thread we could share what was the final piece for you.
So, for me, I was working on freemounting, and the last piece was definitely looking up and ahead! I kept looking at the pedals to find where to put my feet, but once I just trusted that my body knew where to put them now and looked ahead at where I needed to go right from the start I finally managed it.
So come on, any trick or skill on the unicycle that you struggled with, what was the final adjustment or realisation you had to make before finally getting it?
I definitely had a ‘click’ when learning crankflips. While it was mostly the realisation that I needed to commit, I found that I had to really lean forwards (more so than I was doing already) and push down, not out. It’s Somewhat hard to put to words. But hey, if I focus on those two things I get them every time
Same thing happened with wheelwalking and gliding. With wheelwalking I had to lean back more than I was comfortable with, once I did that I could go and go! With gliding, I just had to relax, lol.
When I mount I look at my feet and pedals, but as soon as I am mounted, I am looking anywhere from a point 10ft infront of me, to a point 100ft in front.
Wow, what are they doin to you in the hill of S.B.?
I too make sure my feet plant correctly when mounting. It’s probably an artifact of climbing; always making sure your feet hit the mark before moving on. As soon as I am planted, I look forward, or really, the direction I want to go. You should practice mounting so that your momentum is controlled and you’re not feverishly slapping down your forward foot. It should he controlled to the point where you can stall for a second then take off. That way, you’ll never mount with your feet on the wrong spots on your pedals (theoretically).
^ good info. A great way to practice your free mounts is to do them over and over again. Just mount, stall, then dismount. If you mount only to ride, then your mount is going to take much longer to perfect.
Another way is to ride as much as you can (see quote in sig) and at regular intervals ie every corner do a mout (or whatever trick you are trying to master) and don’t ride on until you land 1, cross the intersection, do another mount, etc. When that’s not so hard, don’t move on untill you land 2, then 3, etc.
Definitely doing this, my backyard is tiny so I can only practice small thing there, not general riding, so I practice freemounting if I don’t have time to go out for a proper ride.
On freemounting when out, it depends on my confidence, sometimes I get so worked up about other people being around and laughing at my failures (they don’t in reality, only in my head) that I just supported mount so I can get on with practicing my ride, also if my legs are just too darn tired but I want to push for the last bit of distance then I’ll do a supported mount, but I am trying to freemount more often than not when out.
It might be boring to practice free mounts, even if you can do them 90% of the time, but when you can do perfect mounts and take off, you will not only save a lot of energy for long rides, but you will also impress anyone watching. I always rolling jump mount my 29er so I can take off right away without wasting extra energy, and it always catches pedestrians off guard and they are impressed
Woohoo did my longest ride yet tonight (total of 2miles, walking and unicycling) and taking the advice from here I decided from the outset that I wasn’t going to worry how much I walked or how little I unicycled so long as every time I got on it was a freemount. Not only did I manage it, but I did unicycle probably 60% of the route. Not bad for the 1 week mark I think
But yes Dane M, will definitely be taking your advice and practicing freemounts on their own too.
Back to clicking moments, anyone got any? Didn’t actually mean to make this thread all about my freemounting adventures, it was meant to be for other people to contribute to too! lol
I’ve had a load of these clicking moments happen - when I figured out how to juggle 3 balls mills mess was a big one although unrelated. the day after my first 20k ride my freemounting went up from 50% to around 85% which I consider a bit of a click - I think it made me realise I was better off taking it slow. I started off doing static mounts but then once I was on I always did a rollback so I’ve now switched to a normal rollback and since then my mounts only seem to get put off by the environment (people, cyclists, cars, and steep hills still have me failing mounts). Aside from this though uni has felt like a pretty solid learning curve but I suppose the fear of a fall is something that clicks away at some point for most unicyclists.
I found that I have a “click” every time I go back to riding the 36er and freemounting it using a rollback mount frequently in sight of other people. After a certain point I suddenly realise that I’m all over the place because I’m in too much of a hurry to get moving. Once I learn to trust my balance in just staying up there and slowly tipping forwards, I can mount much more neatly.
Doing a stepover or (better) rolling mount would also avoid this but I’ve never put enough effort into practice on those (so far).