i’m 52 years old but i want to learn to ride a unicycle,so i bought one-(24 inch)-i spent 3 hours with it by myself and got nowhere-i need to find someone in the st. louis ,mo. area who might take pity on me and give me some help-otherwise,its going to take me forever to get the hang of this-i been searching the web for unicycle lessons in my area,but came up empty 
i’m anxious to learn this fast-of course right now,here in st. louis,its rain and snow,so i probably need an indoor training area-no hidden agenda here or anything-i have a fiancee-i’m not trying to meet people,just need to meet someone willing to help me learn to ride the unicycle-and will pay u what? $50 i guess? for your trouble thanks,mike
I can’t help you out on that but im sure there are people around who need a riding partner and will help you learn for free. 
KH.
Let me just say welcome to unicyclist.com my friend. Me and everyone else on these forums will try to help you as much as possible with whatever questions you may have.
1. What exactly are you having problems with? If it’s freemounting (getting on the thing in the 1st place) Then here’s a link that might help
http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/freemount.html
and this
http://www.unicycle.au.com/View.php?action=Page&Name=Learntoride
2. For learning try finding a gym or something similar and try freemounting while holding onto the wall. When you’re up, stay up until you get a sense of balance. When do feel it, then you’re ready to shoot off into the unknown. This helped me alot
3. Sorry that i don’t live in the St Louis area. If i did, i’d be more than happy to come past your house 4 a visit and help you as much as i can.
Hoped this helped you in some way. Sorry if i couldn’t be more help. If you have any other questions you want me to answer or anyone else for that matter. Feel free to ask. 
Take care and have fun
Hazmat
Welcom!
I used this video from UDC
http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=344
These forums were also a big help. The smoother the ground the better, like a tennis court or gym floor (not gravel!) is helpful, but a long rail is more important in my oppinion. If you are falling towards it, push yourself away. If you are falling away pull yourself towards it. With a wall you can only push away.
unicycletips.com has a lot of good pointers.
http://unicycletips.com/
Get the outside pedal in about the 5:00 position (CLOSER to you than the axle). Step on that outside BACK pedal while stabizing yourself with the rail/wall. Put your inside foot on the other pedal and pedal backwards so the pedals are horizontal. For learning and general riding you want to keep 89-90% of your wieght on the saddle. Always keep a very slight pressure on the back pedal. Push down on the forward pedal and get the cranks horizontal again.
1st goal: get a full half rotation w/o grabing the rail
2nd: 5, then 10 half rotations w/ grabing the rail in between rotations
3rd: one full rotation, etc.
Make sure to become equally competant w/ the rail on either side of you.
4th: ride the whole length of your rail w/o holding on
5th: gracefully dismount w/ the unicycle in front of you, improve to 80+% success on both sides
6th: ride length of rail 5, then 10 times.
7th: learn to freemount. Most feel the rollback mount is the eiasiest to learn first. Other mounts some people think it’s easier to do first: static, rolling, or jump mount.
Start with Level one of the skills list.
http://www.unicycling.org/usa/levels/
You see mru2, we’re all like one big happy family working together here. So feel free to ask whatever questions or problems you may have and we’ll answer as best as we can.
Take care
Hazmat
A few more resources…
A progress chart by Klaas Bil:
And a roster of MO unicyclists
http://unicycling.org/roster/index.php?state=mo
Also, don’t get frustrated after only a few hours. It takes most people 10+ hours to learn. Probably took me closer to 20 over 2 weeks.
Welcome to the forums… Keep at it! You’ll get it!
Keld
Use sticks, nordic walking sticks prefferably or just 2 broomsticks to keep yourself on, it’s a good way to learn though I’ve learned by the basic fall and get up and fall again technique myself. There’s a pic in Uni somewhere but I can’t seem to find any other pics. Basic idea is that you can help your balance by using the sticks, kind of like skiing.
if you try this method remember to wear eye protection, dont want to lose one to the ends of those things.
begginner
I learned by myself, 18 years ago, back when I was 19. I did it for 10 hours straight until I got it.
I just bought my daughter a uni so we’ve been practicing in the basement. she’s light so I am walking beside her with a balance pole. As an adult you might need to find 2 patient friends who will let you hold on to their shoulders. I may switch to giving her 2 poles to hold on to. I’ve searched the web for a good training video and have only found one on unicycle.com. does anyone know of some free training videos? maybe on videos.google?
In the spring you can go to a tennis court, back patio or other flat surface and practice. I recommend starting on a sloped driveway and going down a slight incline. I put a block behind the wheel for mounting, held on to the side of the garage, leaned forward and let the wheel catch up.
mur2, I’m in the capital city of the state to your East. If you’re ever in the area feel free to stop by. I’ve never successfully taught anyone and had nothing better to learn off of than what is posted on uncycle.com
saraJEFF:D
A new beginner as well
My buddy and I (both around your age) learned on the local bike path. This particular section has a steel rail about 4’ high for a good long ways. On the advice of a friend who alreay knew how to ride, we held onto the rail for several days, just trying to feel the saddle under our ass, while slowly rolling forward. After the 3rd day, we just started letting go, after a day or so more, we never needed to go back to the rail.
As everyone will tell you, you just need verticle time on the wheel so your body can figure it all out. I found the long rail on a section of our local path perfect for being able to sit on the wheel and stay up, without actually being able to ride. I wore out a cheap pair of gloves doing it, but now I can ride!
Don’t get discouraged if it takes a while. Those of us who are not as young as the rest of us sometimes take longer to get the hang of it. But keep going. You can do it! (If I can do it anyone can - I am a total fraidy cat, have no balance skills and very little spacial awareness).
I say again - keep trying. People can give you hints and tips to make things a little easier, but it is only you who can learn to ride (if you see what I mean).
its like anything else, you have to stick with it. it took me a month or so total before I could go around my coul de sac. mind you i wasnt riding every day due to alot of reasons including inclimate weather.
i started off up against my fence in the back yard and quickly found that grass doesnt really help you that much neither does falling down backwards against it.
your best bet honestly is to simply find somewhere, WEAR A HELMET, practice practice practice. just accept the falls and dismounts and most importantly get back on. keep getting back on it. rome wasn’t built in a day.
i tried the wall riding thing but quickly found myself leaning towards the wall. then i started just trying to ride away from the wall. then i started using my car to mount and keep going over and over and over again.
i remember the first time i got 4 pedal strokes i was really impressed because i had tried soooo hard just to get those. and fallen sooo many times… then 10… 20… etc… each little barrier feels really really good.
maybe give it an hour or two every day that you can.
AND wrist guards and possibly knee pads. A friend of mine wouldn’t wear my wrist guards and got too couragous, fell (before learning how to safely) and broke his wrist. Now he won’t make another attempt, even with pads and a longer rail.
I think a rail is key.
That’s why you do both sides equally and eventually you don’t need a wall or rail. I did this and had a tendency to veer left, so I practiced a lot of circles to the left and problem fixed (I started w/ a radius like 40 ft.).
Yeah I focused on the small successes w/ the immediate goal of riding the 2.5 miles to school w/in an hour. It took me just under two months at 5 hours a week to learn the basics, at four months I could ride to school, and at 5 I could do it at knight. I’m a pretty slow learner apparently:o 
Try ski poles or a shopping cart to help you stay up and ride
In my family we have alway learned free mounting first, even though i have heard it differently with other people.
My little sis just learned a month ago, it took her forever because she like never practiced.
But shes 9 to if she can do it you can!
I thought this would be a good idea but never tried it until I could ride fairly well, and it seemed much harder. I think it would have been easier if I were on a 20 than a 24, had a smoother rolling cart, and I was shorter. Having to bend over a lot and hold onto the cart’s bar was very difficult.
I learnt about 18 months ago. I wasn’t getting anywhere using walls or railings (not helped by the lack of anywhere really suitable with those features) and so I used a pair of crutches left over from the missus breaking her leg many years ago. I very soon got to the point where I could mount and cycle around the playground with the help of the crutches, but it took ages until I got to the point where I could throw them away.
The breakthrough came when I realised that I was pedalling too slowly, and with the recognition that unicycling is a constant process of pedalling to keep up with ones falling off the front.
I may be unique in that my first unassisted ride when I mounted with the crutches and then dropped them was over thirty metres.
Keep practising. It took me nearly three months to get to that point. If I can do it, anyone can.
Martin/
thnx for replies
appreciate all your messages-i never mentioned the reason i’m going to learn the uni is cause something happened to my equalibrium and balance-i went to many doctors and had many m.r.i. x-rays,but they dont see whats causing it-one doctor thinks i had an infection in a balance nerve in my ear and it damaged the nerve-anyway he said one way to improve my condition is physical therapy(the brain can learn to compensate for the balance problem)-the hospital actually has a physical therapy program for people with a problem like mine-its just walking exercises and stuff like that at hospital-but i want to really challenge my equalibrium,so riding a unicycle occured to me-i know i can learn it-i’m just going to have to try harder then most people-my balance isnt so bad that i’m falling down or anything,its just bad enough to be very annoying-the uni i bought is a Summit brand-the seat sucks-its small,skinny,and shaped like the letter “U”,and made of hard rubber-i definately need a more comfortable seat b-4 i try it again,so i have a Kris Holm Freeride saddle ordered-should be here tomorrow-when i get the new seat on and try riding,i’m going to concentrate very hard on FALLING SAFELY WITHOUT INJURY,for those times that i do fall-talk later
One thing I found that helped me was to make sure that I had a firm tire. You want to turn in the direction you are falling to correct yourself, and this is hard to do with a flat tire that resists turning. In learning, both me and my friend used the railing method and I highly recomend it. After you can get 3-5 pedal revolutions I would suggest leaning against a lamp post and then pedaling off, getting as far as you can. Falling isn’t a big deal as you land on your feet 99% of the time. Expect to get tired quickly at first because you are tense but after you get comfortable it takes no more effort than walking. A helmet is always a good idea. Don’t give up it’s completely worth it when you get it.
Good luck eh.