It’s rare that I join an online forum and post instead of lurk, but I don’t know anyone else with this hobby so I just wanted to share my progress with people that might care.
I got a unicycle about two weeks ago and I’ve been fiddling with it off and on since then and I’ve maybe put in 3-5 hours of practice in 15-30 min sessions when I can. I collect hobbies as a hobby so finding a slot of time to practice is hard, but I’m managing to practice fairly regularly.
Anyhow, to not be too long winded, the best practice spot I’ve found so far is the parking garage at work. Lots of space with long, unimpeded walls for support that can easily be pushed away from. Yesterday evening after work, after lots of single and half revs over the past two weeks, all of a sudden everything clicked and I went about 10-15 feet out in the open and it felt amazing; like I could actually unicycle! I think the only reason I didn’t go further was the pure excitement I felt!
I just want to say thanks so much to the community on here for all the great posts over the years documenting progress and tips and lessons learned. I had a hard time believing the whole, “just keep doing it and you’ll get it” or “one day it’ll just click”, but I’ll be damned if y’all aren’t right. I won’t doubt again!
I know my next few sessions will probably go backwards in progress, but I look forward to that feeling of “getting it” once again.
Welcome aboard! I’m a newbie who just managed to ride 2 miles down the bike path a few weeks ago after about 2+ months of a lot of work… I got a TON of great advice and encouragement here. I’m hooked…
for me this now works the other way around. I find it very difficult to just hold on to a pole and take off. Or like last year with the Uni championships, I didn’t mount the 32" right away and was offered a shoulder for support. When mounting unsupported, the balance is already good, but otherwise I’d just hang to the side too much and I wouldn’t have the momentum of getting on, I would otherwise have.
Way to go caseydanger and thanks for sharing! So glad you stuck with it long enough to see such encouraging results! You’re definitely on the right track. Hopefully you continue to devote time to your new hobby. I think you’ll be glad you did.
That’s awesome. You my friend are on the “high unicycle aptitude” spectrum. I am somewhere on the lower side with 8 weeks to get it. This means you may go far. Keep working on it learn new tricks and soon you will be on a 36" rolling down the trails. Keep on.
Thanks for the kind words of encouragement everyone! A couple days after I posted this I made it about 30’ and then a day later 50’! Holy cow! It’s nowhere near consistent as I haven’t made it to 50’ again (close, but not quite), but I do have more successful runs of 10-15’. I feel waaaaay more confident about getting this down. Currently struggling with keeping my weight in the seat and sitting up straight. You know, the usual learning curve stuff.
I am currently riding a 20" Nimbus II that I got brand new as payment for some side work I did for my boss. I’ve torn up the front and back bumpers on it from all the UPDs and I tell myself once I can ride it well I’ll splurge and get a nice gel seat
Oooh! Compensation in the form of unicycles! I think there should be more of this. That’s a very nice unicycle, and I’m about to buy one myself as I don’t have much hope of a deal like yours.
Haha. I agree! Honestly I would have ended up with a Club or something on Amazon if I hadn’t worked this out because it’s certainly more unicycle than I can handle. I guess I’ll grow into it.
I don’t know if it’s cool to keep updating this thread with progress, so if it isn’t, please let me know and I can start a new thread somewhere else. If it is IS cool, then:
HOLY COW have a come a ways since my first post!
I can pretty much go any distance I want with a very small amount of UPDs
I can turn left AND right (right was vexing me for a while, not sure why)
I can mount from holding onto a wall AND backing the wheel up to a curb and stepping on
And TODAY on my lunch break I TOTALLY FREE-MOUNTED!!! No holding onto anything, just in the middle of the parking lot I practice in I was able to pull it off about four times out of the 100 or so that I tried. I've been doing the sort of non-dominant foot on the back pedal, hopping up to the forward pedal with your dominant foot thing, not sure of the name.
Anyhow, I’m super happy with my progress and looking forward to the future. After I get the hang of free-mounting my next goal is idling and then juggling clubs while idling. Fortunately I already know how to juggle clubs
Nothing wrong with updating this thread it’s all relevant, one month in you’re doing very well, it’s great you’re making consistent progress and you’ll just keep getting better. Your turning will improve with time are jerking the wheel to turn? or smoothly turning your shoulders and hips in the direction you want to go?
The type of freemount you’re describing sounds like static mount where your pedals are roughly horizontal when you attempt to mount. I find this is the better mount for general riding to learn as it scales very well with larger wheels. However since your goal is to learn idling you may want to learn rollback mount where your pedals are roughly vertical with the bottom pedal slightly angled towards you as this mount naturally leads into idling and is very proficient for small wheels like 24" or lower. This mount can work on larger wheels but it’s generally harder to pull off since larger wheels require more strength to use.
If you really do like the performing side of unicycling like juggling maybe a giraffe is something you might want. Might want to master the 20" before you start though so you don’t have too many UPD’s when you start.
Right on, then I’ll just keep posting progress here every once in a while! Thanks!
I started out having to jerk the wheel to get going in the direction I’ve wanted and I still do sometimes. Over the past few days though I’ve been able to more or less just turn my shoulders and head in the direction I want to go and I just go that way, so it’s definitely one of those “as you keep doing it you’ll get better” things.
Cool. I thought it was called a static mount but wasn’t sure. I’ve seen rollback mounts mentioned but I haven’t attempted one yet, as I read, like you mention, that it’s good for leading into idling. I’ll start peppering in practice on that as well.
And yes, I am SUPER into the idea of a giraffe but man, mounting one of those just seems so daunting! One day… I think for my next unicycle I’d just like to get a larger wheel like a 29" so I can ride longer distances more comfortably. And muni seems super fun too, but I don’t even have experience with mountain biking so I’m not sure how I’d even start with that.
Larger wheels are fun and great if your goal is to ride distance but if your goal is to idle, you will find you won’t practise it much on bigger wheels since it’s harder to do. As such it sort of falls by the wayside when your wheel size increases.
As for getting into muni I’d recommend a wheel of 24-27.5". Muni requires very good control and in the early stages UPD’s are frequent. So you will want something easy to control and easy to mount as you’ll be dismounting a lot, not to mention muni is exhausting. I’ve never mountain biked before and muni on mountain bike tracks is very difficult, you may also want to get appropriate safety gear. UPD’s in mountain bike tracks can be quite bad depending on what you trip and land on. Of course just manage your risks and expectations learn to ride on pavement first then try grass, dirt, gravel etc. Should prepare you for the more technical parts in muni, I’ve been riding for a year and muni in mountain bike trails is very hard for me still and tiring. If I’m just doing off road around where I live it’s pretty simple though.
Easiest way to mount a giraffe is to have a friend hold it near a pole and you climb up and steady yourself on the pole and push off. If a friend isn’t available a fence works well or picnic tables. Still working on freemounting a giraffe myself. I know the theory but execution is another matter.
Atta-boy Caseydanger! Another one.
So now about the wheel… get the 29. It’s where you want to go. Faster…smoother.
You can play about on the dinkey 20 on your weakdays.
Like Unigan said, “it falls by the wayside”, …because the 29 is so much more fun.
I took up muni about 6 years ago (roughly) and just started mountain biking 2 years ago. So I say go for the muni.
I’m 6’3" and my go to is a KH29 with 127mm cranks. It’s an incredible ride. Almost euphoric when everything is clicking just right.
So do that then we’ll talk you into getting your 36er.
When I first posted I had made my first breakthrough with a ride of 10-15 feet or so. Three months later and with lots of practice time now that I’m working from home, I can ride around my neighborhood without falling off, I can static and rollback free-mount 98% of the time I try, and as of yesterday I’ve been able to decently idle! Video proof!
My best idles only last 10ish to 20ish seconds but I can do them more consistently. Next I need to work on a calmer, less flail-y idle so I can start thinking about juggling. I can juggle three balls while moving forward, but my goal is juggling clubs while idling. Thankfully I can already juggle clubs
Otherwise I’m at a loss for new goals. My original plan was 1. Learn to ride 2. Learn to free-mount 3. Learn to idle 4. Idle and juggle, so I’m close to the end. I guess I’ll look at riding backwards next? I’m also hoping to order a 29-er in the next month to make riding further a lot more manageable and then further in the future some sort of Muni for trail riding.
Hope y’all are staying safe and still managing to get out!
Excellent! I like your plans
I think add hopping as a skill too. Backwards maybe not really necessary, but you can do whatever you want.
The 29er and muni-ing is a good thing too. They are very different to your 20” but will add huge amounts of versatility to your riding
Hopping! You don’t mention hopping, but if you haven’t mastered it, it’s an easy skill to pick up (idling still eludes me after a year, but I can hop), and really useful when you’re out and about (turning in a tight spot, pausing).
