Reposting what I wrote a few hours ago but it got stuck with needing “approval” status.
Excellent! I like your plans.
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! Duh. How could I forget that? I’ll start working on that next. It’d be super useful to get up the curbs in my neighborhood. Thanks, y’all!
STANDING IDLE > leads to STALLING, HOPPING and BACKWARDS skills
I’m currently working on my backwards, which I can competently do between 8 to 16 revolutions.
A big key to my breakthrough is being able to hold a stall at 3/9 o’clock position. (not long…just for a second or two, but it’s a distinct pause/stable condition that you can feel)
Then if you can do this guess what else you can learn to do rather quickly.
From idling you learn to be rock solid stable in the 6/12 o’clock position, so when riding backwards it’s only “scary” when you are in between each 6/12 position.
That in between position is the 3/9 o’clock position. Both pedals flat. The stall and hopping position. If you can master this, then rolling backwards becomes easy.
So, how do you master the standing idle? Simple, just add more pedal weight and “get off” the seat and then idle. As you idle you will reach the stall point in both direction.
However, since you are putting maximum weight on the pedal and reversing direction you will naturally stall if you can stay on. Keep in mind this is the “opposite” of what you want to do for perfect idling, but this skill(standing idle) will get you closer to stalling/hopping/backwards than if you just developed a perfectly efficient idle. A perfectly efficient idle: full weight on seat, very light pedal pressure does nothing to prepare you for stalling/hopping/backwards riding. I know this because I developed a super efficient idle, but it didn’t lead to anything else. (unless you go into super idling which is 1 and 2 revolution idling…however…at that point you are actually learning backwards)
Anyways, keep working on your idle and as you get better(efficient and automatic) before you move on give the “standing idle” a try.
Standing idle = gateway to learning 3 more tricks!!!
Well I went and did it. I got a 29" Nimbus Road! I missed out on the sale Unicycle.com was having on the road custom, unfortunately. But holy COW this thing is awesome! It took me a few tries to free mount it but one I got it I was flying around the neighborhood! Getting on the 20" afterward felt ridiculous and I get why everyone uses the word ‘twitchy’. I plan on making sure to spend equal amounts of time on both so I don’t lose any skill with the 20".
Otherwise, idling and hopping are coming along great. And yes, I’m already dreaming of a 36" uni, amongst others.
Cheers!