For some reason I’m trying to do some difficult mount. It’s where I start
with the uni in from of me, the right pedal is vertical and low. I step on
the right pedal, the uni wheet comes back towards me, I’m now on the seat,
I pull back on the left pedal with my left foot, that pulls the uni back
(and my weight forward), then I start going forward. This is what is
supposed to happen. It’s very hard though. I saw it on a video on the web
so I copied it. But there must be an easier way. I saw the simple mounts
on the unicycle.org page. Are those the easiest? Where you start with the
pedals about horizontal?
that’s a pretty standard “roll back” mount. fairly easy. just practice more, free mounting takes some time. I found that “static mounting” is much easier, but i was a long time bicyclist before unicycling and my legs are quick enough to do it. anyhoo, here’s how i do a static mount. Pedals at 4 o’clock and 10 o’clock (if 12 is the top) 4 in back. put foot on pedal. tilt uni down and put weight on seat. now in one quick motion and putting almost NO weight on the back pedal, give a little jump and put the other foot on the front pedal really really quickly. remember keep your weight on the seat and off that rear pedal. its mostly a speed move, so go fast. i hope that helps.
>
> that’s a pretty standard “roll back” mount. fairly easy. just practice
> more, free mounting takes some time. I found that “static mounting” is
> much easier, but i was a long time bicyclist before unicycling and my
> legs are quick enough to do it. anyhoo, here’s how i do a static mount.
> Pedals at 4 o’clock and 10 o’clock (if 12 is the top) 4 in back. put
> foot on pedal. tilt uni down and put weight on seat. now in one quick
> motion and putting almost NO weight on the back pedal, give a little
> jump and put the other foot on the front pedal really really quickly.
> remember keep your weight on the seat and off that rear pedal. its
> mostly a speed move, so go fast. i hope that helps.
Thanks that does help. I think I was putting too much weight on the back
pedal AND not moving fast enough, the few times I tried that.
For a roll-back mount, any tips?
What about getting up with the help of a wall/structure, then riding from
there? Beneficial? or hindering development?
i also recently got up the proverbial balls (hah) to do a suicide mount on monday night. it was really scary and hard to make myserf do. then as soon as i was in there air it was easy and not scary and i felt like a total muss for not trying it sooner. a tip though:lower the seat a bit. i had a couple close calls.
just lots of practise for the most part
a couple of things to keep in mind
once u’ve pulled yourself onto the seat, just before u pull back on the left-pedal (r u left-handed?), u should be sitting just behind the balance point on the uni
in other words, if u didn’t pull back on that pedal (and roll the uni in under u), u would start falling backwards
make sure u don’t sit too far forward because then pulling back on that pedal will simply cause u to fall off the front
it’s a gentle movement, so relax into it
make sure that u put as much of your weight on the seat as soon as u get on the uni
this takes a lot of stress off your legs and the wheel-movement will be less jerky as a result
the roll-back mount is a very kewl one to learn as soon as u can as it contains some of the basics that u need to to master in order to learn idling
it’s beneficial if u just want to ride but it does nothing for your freemounting
if u want to hold onto a pole with one hand while u practise to get the basic ‘form’ of the roll-back mount under control, that might be a good thing
but then only for a lil’ while and then u must start practising it on it’s own
make the commitment that u won’t ride unless u can freemount
if u have the discipline to stick with that, u’ll master it in no time flat and u’ll then be able to take your uni anywhere
that kind of freedom is worth the irritation of not ‘allowing’ yourself to ride unless u freemounted
DG,
About a 2 months ago I was finally able to freemount consistently. I started with the roll back mount. If you ask me its the easier mount to start with when you’re a noob and you don’t intuitively know everything there is to know about unicycling.
I did finally learn the static mount in January, but I found that the only reason I was able to do that was because I had been riding for a while and I understood what I had to do with my body to move myself up and to keep my weight off the pedal at the same time.
I do know people who started with the static mount, so obviously the roll back mount is not easiest for everyone. Just keep at it. It took me what felt like forever to learn to freemount, but the more you do it, the better it will get!
I personally found the static mount much easier to learn. I spent ages trying to do a rollback mount (because that’s what was suggested as the easiest mount in the book I had) without success, then tried a static mount after reading this forum. I could do that within a couple of days (probably only an hour or so of riding). Now I never use any other mount unless I’m purposely trying different mounts - it’s just so much easier for me. The thing I found helped get the static mount is to put almost no pressure on the back foot and concentrate on getting weight on the saddle as you jump. That was with a 20" wheel, and the same technique works for the 26", just with slightly more weight on the foot. Weirdly, I can mount either of my unicycles with either foot, but I find a right foot mount slightly easier on the 20" and left foot easier on the 26" - no idea why!
Oh, one more thing I found helpful was mounting on a slight downhill slope - it doesn’t take much of a slope to make it MUCH easier. That should apply to any type of mount I suppose.
>
> DG wrote:
>> For a roll-back mount, any tips?
> just lots of practise for the most part
> a couple of things to keep in mind
> once u’ve pulled yourself onto the seat, just before u pull back on the
> left-pedal (r u left-handed?), u should be sitting just behind the
> balance point on the uni
> in other words, if u didn’t pull back on that pedal (and roll the uni in
> under u), u would start falling backwards
> make sure u don’t sit too far forward because then pulling back on that
> pedal will simply cause u to fall off the front
> it’s a gentle movement, so relax into it
> make sure that u put as much of your weight on the seat as soon as u get
> on the uni
> this takes a lot of stress off your legs and the wheel-movement will be
> less jerky as a result
> the roll-back mount is a very kewl one to learn as soon as u can as it
> contains some of the basics that u need to to master in order to learn
> idling
> DG wrote:
>> What about getting up with the help of a wall/structure, then riding
>> from
>> there? Beneficial? or hindering development?
> it’s beneficial if u just want to ride but it does nothing for your
> freemounting
> if u want to hold onto a pole with one hand while u practise to get the
> basic ‘form’ of the roll-back mount under control, that might be a good
> thing
> but then only for a lil’ while and then u must start practising it on
> it’s own
> make the commitment that u won’t ride unless u can freemount
> if u have the discipline to stick with that, u’ll master it in no time
> flat and u’ll then be able to take your uni anywhere
> that kind of freedom is worth the irritation of not ‘allowing’ yourself
> to ride unless u freemounted
Your way of mounting is sometimes called a “beginner mount”. The
difference with a regular rollback mount is in the initial position of
the down/back pedal.
