I’m 52 myself and my goals reflect that. I want to be able to ride 10 miles at a time on the 36er and 3-4 on the muni. I want to be able to ride intermediate mountain bike trails, hop obstacles up to about 8” and do drops of about 1 foot. I’d like to be able to idle and be successful frermounting nearly every time I try it.
That’s mostly it. I have no intention to ever do big drops or anything that might be considered extreme. Things like backward riding and wheel walking might be something I try too in the future, but they’re not really goals of mine right now.
I love your comment: “The most dangerous thing I ever did on the unicycle was being a beginner.”. I believe it is applicable to most unicyclists, especially if they don’t wear appropriate protection.
I think when you rode off the curb on a whim, more or less, that is how you get over the fear of trying new things. You just go for it. At our age (I’m 61) it’s not as easy as it is for the younger guys. I started riding at 53. It’s a lot tougher mentally now. Sometimes I’ve brain locked and bailed on a 12" drop that I’ve ridden dozens of times in the past. Brain just says ‘Nope.’ After 3 or 4 or 10 more unsuccessful attempts, I convince (force) myself to stay on and ride it out. Piece of cake. Why was it so hard? Same thing happens on new lines or tricks. It’s hard to convince yourself that you can do it safely. Even knowing that in past experiences you usually land on your feet and just run it out. I guess irrational fears start to creep in as we age. Maybe it’s self preservation. Maybe it’s hearing that the number 1 cause of injury in old men is from thinking that they are still young men.
Of course I’m going to keep at it as long as I can. I’m just having too much fun to find an old man type hobby.
Good luck.
Life is dangerous! I agree, that when you are getting older you are getting more cautious. But everything is better than thinking you are too old to unicycle.
Never too old to unicycle. I think you just start to take fewer and smaller risks. And not always by choice. Sometimes my brain stops me from doing things that I still really want to do.
You get conditioned to taking fewer and smaller risks as you get older as injuries accumulate and no longer heal quickly or completely. I don’t even know how I injured my knee at the end of summer, but I ended up wearing a brace for two months while it recovered. Stuff that you just shrug off in your teens and twenties lays you up for a month in your fifties.
I really would like to do downhill muni, but it just isn’t in the cards as I’m pretty sure my body couldn’t take it. If I’m riding cross country and doing 1’ drops I’ll still be doing something 99% of people wouldn’t consider.
I’m still trying to up my muni game. Whenever I ride with the younger, more skilled guys they make it look so easy. Sometimes that helps get me ‘get over the wimp factor.’ I’ve done things in the past few months that I wouldn’t have done a few years ago when I felt I was in my unicycling prime. Never any peer pressure. I just watch the others and think I should be able to do that. Of course, I have my limits. I think riding with others is a huge part of getting over fear. It doesn’t even have to be someone that’s a better rider than you. Sometimes just having a person there to help you if you fall can boost your confidence. And muni is all about confidence. When I first learned to ride it was just so I could do muni. Spent 3-4 years riding alone. That whole time I could never do much more than ride down the trail. Then I met two riders at or below my skill level. Within 6 months the 3 of us gained so much skill it amazed us all. Back to riding alone for a few years and my fears slowly began building to the point I had thought about giving up muni and just riding the 36er around town. I thought it was just my age catching up with me. I was 60, after all. Then a few months ago I found a few low experienced guys to start riding with and suddenly my skills came back and the fears diminished right back to where I’d left off when riding with the others. I’m a better muni rider now than I ever have been. Still mediocre by most standards, but I feel pretty good for a 61 year old that started riding at 53.
And like you say, I’m doing suff that over 99% of the population, young or old, would never even try.
There is only one way to deal with fear - by contacting it. Someone is afraid of mice and this fear is treated precisely by contact with mice and the gradual realization that they are not scary and will not do anything bad. When it comes to extreme sports, fear is due to a healthy sense of self-preservation. Therefore, you cannot do complex things without prior preparation. The body and mind must be prepared for such a load.
Personally it’s a case of carrying doing what you’re doing, get up, dust yourself off and go again.
I don’t know how old you are, I’m 55 and had a couple of nasty UPDs recently which have knocked my confidence, but I’ve steeled myself to get back on and am so glad I have. Age doesn’t help with confidence sadly.
It’s been awhile since I made my original post and I’ve gotten over some of my fears. Right now I’m concentrating on muni in general and riding backwards, but the next skills I need to concentrate on are hops and drops and I’m going to have to screw up my courage to work on those. At some point I want to get to where I can hop obstacles up to around 30cm and do drops up to around 60cm and I really need to concentrate on forward hops. Currently I’m doing sideways hops up to around 20cm and mostly forward drops of about the same distance.
I had a pretty bad fall last summer and invested in protective gear afterward. That helps a bit with the fear factor, but it doesn’t erase it completely. You’re less likely to be injured when you’re covered in padding, but it still happens. There’s also only so much of it you want to wear, especially if it’s hot out or if you’re trying something difficult and want all your dexterity. It’s good for your confidence though when you want to try something new.
I only saw that after i responded, I’m not sure how some of these older posts pop up like that.
I hear you there.
Until recently, beyond the odd minor scrape or bruise I had never injured myself, then within a month I mashed my knees quite badly and then broke my arm so that really dented my confidence. It’s coming back as I’m enjoying riding again, but my fear of falling is far higher than it has ever been. I guess my age also contributes to that. It was only after mashing my knees that I started using leg protection and only after breaking my arm that I bought some KH wrist protectors, I seem to like closing the door after the horse has bolted
This is quite a problem here in Cape Town, especially as we head in to summer.
Anyway, I’m glad to hear that you’ve gotten over some of your fears, keep on enjoying your riding.
Interesting thread, what constitutes risks within the world of unicycle riding and is there a consensus on this, or is it individualised specific to experience, skill level, and attempted task? I guess confidence comes and goes, as a newbie sitting on the unicycle and pedaling seems like a fairly substantial risk at the moment, I guess this will improve considerably and then something else can be found to fill the challenge/risk to overcome.
For the municycling the adrenaline for overcoming risks would reinforce it perhaps so keep wanting to take more and more risks. The phrase ‘positive risk taking’ comes to mind, where risks are calculated with the outcome being measured against the potential for things to go pear shaped. Think this is along the lines with what others have said…
It seems with unicycling that once you get over one fear you are confronted with the next one. Hopping up curbs or riding down them now seems ordinary, (even on the 36er), but it had me scared last spring. Doing a forward hop up a curb is something I still haven’t tried.
I had fears of falling on my back when learning to ride backwards. Putting on a ridiculous amount of gear and just trying it over and over and over helped me get over 90% of my fear there. Pedaling backwards while leaning into a potential fall is something that I doubt I’ll ever be completely relaxed doing however and I haven’t had the guts to try it on the 36er yet.
I’ve been watching my daughter get over her fears of wheel walking and it’s inspiring how quickly and completely kids can go from totally intimidated by something to completely comfortable with it. At first I had to coax her to even attempt it and was holding both her hands tightly and a day later she was wheel walking all over using a couple of sticks to help keep her balance and I suspect that within a week the sticks will be forgotten.
Hi, I really appreciated your post, I’m also 61 and a complete beginner, 1 revolution and I end up on my back so its nice to know others are out there nailing it. The Fear is a real thing isn’t it, sometimes my legs just know better than my brain and say no way!
That point where your legs think they know best is when you should focus your brain on ignoring them and just go for it. I find that when I approach my top speed, more like top rpm as this happens at a different speed on each size wheel, my legs just hit their limit and don’t pedal faster, but when I focus on not pushing so hard and just spinning around and around faster and faster I can squeeze a few more rpm out of em.
