I had only just learned to ride in 2001. I taught myself to ride, which was an accomplishment for an obese man. (I was about 300 pounds back then. I am 230 now)
I seem to remember even doing figure 8’s. But I had only been up and rolling for a month or two when I moved to Japan. I didn’t have time to ride there, but now that I am home, I got myself a “cokenstein” 36" uni.
Got it up last night and tried to ride it today.
Mind you, my back yard is under snow and wet and full of potholes. I feel certain that I would have done better on concrete.
However, I did manage to go about 15 feet before I fell off.
I am hoping my lack of instant skill is the result of 10 years off the wheel, starting over on a 36" uni and a snowy, muddy back yard.
I’ll try again later today and I’ll keep hitting it tomorrow.
The seat sucks but I ran out of money. Besides, it will be torn up bad until I get my wings back. I’ll spend money on a good seat later. My old UDC muni (a special edition they made - don’t know if they still make em) had a miyata seat with air cushion and red roach seat cover. I wish I still had it.
Welcome back to the sport. A fantastic sport and hobby shared by some lovely people.
I remember now. It was a Pashley fire muni with a 26" kovachi wheel.
Welcome back on the wheel.
Yeah, you’ll do better on concrete.
Not being on a 36 would also help, but that’s detail.
After a number of “I used to do this??” attempts, I managed to stay on for about 30 yards. As soon as I got off, I realized something. My legs were jelly!
This is going to take a bit.
Remember the golden rule: Keep your weight on the seat.
Legs only go to jelly cause you’re using them to carry your weight.
This is not only jelly-inducing tiring, it also compromises their ability to make the micro-adjustments that keep you balanced.
Sit back down, weight on seat, you’ll be going around the block in no time.
Oh, and remember, keep your weight on the seat.
Welcome back indeed! I just started back up as well after having stopped for about 2 years.
I totally agree with GILD, keep your weight on the seat. If you are using a bike seat post and adapter, tilt the seat back just a little bit so that the skinny part of the saddle has minimal pressure on it and the wide part of the saddle is where most of your weight is resting.
Welcome back, everyone shared good advice. I guess I will just say practice, practice, especially with the large wheel. Coker is a fun ride.
I got back in the saddle recently for a purpose - to put it into the “funny” clips during the end credits of a movie I was in. They filmed that ride this morning.
Oh man…got the uni built Wednesday, practiced Thursday (with all my weight on the pedals) drove out to location yesterday, this morning, put on costume including full-face mask that severely limited my vision, hopped on the coker and rode 50 feet on film.
I don’t know how I didn’t break a leg. (literally)
I will say this -about halfway through the ride I felt a kind of “oh yeah” thing going on and suddenly I felt like I might be in control. I actually turned around and headed back towards the camera…
I’m glad those cranks and pedals worked out. I’ve got to see this movie. What’s it called again? You told me but I forgot…
Any chance of seeing some of that footage?
The movie is in the last stages of editing, so hopefully it will be out in March.
(To film festivals)
It is called “The Art of Killing Bigfoot”
But dont mistake it as any kind of unicycling movie, that was just a funny thing for the end credits. I think the movie is part comedy, part tragedy.
If the editing goes well, it might actually be pretty good.