beginner

[ahollow]

Something else to help learn freemount is to start mounting by using the curb method. Placing the rear of the tire against a curb (or branch, etc) then lightly place your rear foot on the pedal. Holding the seat, jump forward and land your forward foot on the pedal. You are now in a position to ride forward.

More great infomation and a mini-book from Gregg Vivolo here: http://www.ridetheunicycle.com/ Check out info under FAQ’s, and the book has a lot of good info in it, also. I have an e-copy.

[snorkie]

Still need help

If you still need help, I live in St. Louis and can ride a bit… It took me about a year of off and on before I got the hang of it. I tried so many things, its hard to say what finally worked.

Hogan

[leo]

@DustinSchaap

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.

I’m not a fan of this method. It works as long the rider doesn’t push herself/himself out of the seat, which I think in almost any case happens unless you have someone with enough control (who wouldn’t need those sticks anyway). You have to learn to balance while being seated with full weight in the seat. Those sticks wont help you with that, and the risk you may hurt yourself (or someone else, or even damage your unicycle) seems to me bigger than the possibility those sticks really will speed up the learning process, also as it takes away the attention of to what beginners has to focus on anyway.

[BurnerDave]

I tried using stick (crutches) at first. They were worse than useless for me. They were more wobbly than the uni! Imagine a newbie sitting on a wobbly uni trying to use two wobbly sticks for support! I think using a solid rail is best but aim to hold it as lightly as possible as soon as possible.

edit:
A balance disc is great too. Your doc may even recommend it.

Redirect Notice

[ian.stockwell]

First of all, as has been said by so many others, keep trying. I think the most useful attribute when learning to ride a uni is to be a really stubborn SOB.
There are many ways to learn to ride, I did it without a wall or rail or crutches. That doesn’t mean I was any quicker it just suited me.
Opposite our house is a steel fence and two concrete steps up to it. The step for standing on while mounting and the the uprights in the fence, that are about hand sized, to hold onto until I felt stable. Then I would would face out into the road with my dominant right foot at the top of the down stroke and launch.
Ok so for the first few days that would result in about half a pedal rotation and the uni would bite the dust, but it gradually built up to few rotations ( I would count them to start with) and then riding the length of the road, 100 yards. I didn’t learn to freemount until I was riding far enough for it to be annoying for me to walk back to my block when I eventually had a UPD.

That was two years ago, I now have the bug bad.
Today I have 4 unis, the 20" I learned on a 26" muni a 29" road uni and I have just got a 36".
I competed in a 24hour team muni race last year and am seriously thinking about Riding The Lobster (search other threads for elaboration).
So keep going, there is a world of fun waiting for you when you have mastered how to ride.

As to finding local riders, try the map function.

[skilewis74]

Anybody notice this is almost a year old?

@mru2

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

So how is it going now?

It took me 40 hours over two months to learn. Wearing lots of pads helped my confidence a lot (I still use them for anything moderately challenging).

Edit: that was his last post so maybee he’s not hear anymore :o

[dtecum]

I am also 52 y.o. and bought a 24". I tried to ride it but couldn’t. I bought a 20" and started to ride it so I could get my balance first and also learn how to fall. Once I got my balance straightened out then I went back to the 24" and can ride about 300 ft now. I began to sit up straight and found I could ride farther, than leaning forward and riding. My big problem was keeping my weight on the seat. Sitting straight up and looking straight ahead improved my distance and also my balance. I practice 30 minutes a night in order to keep my coordination. Good luck. If you are looking for videos on unicycling the “links” header has some great vids near the bottom. My favorite video is on YOU TUBE called “Chinese girl on unicycle” This girl is awesome. She has become my mentor.