Hi all,
I can do basic riding, but I’m keen to improve my free mounts, take sharper turns, and I’d like to idle and even learn to ride backward a bit.
I currently have 24" classic Sun unicycle.
Would there be a better unicycle option you’d recomend that would help me pick up these new skills faster?
Thanks!
Your Sun should be fine, the only small suggestion is a 20” is a fraction easier. But you can certainly learn on a 24!
Ps. If you don’t learn to idle within a year or longer, that’s ok. It’s not easy. It helps if you use a rollback mount regularly though.
I’d go for a 19" trials. It is more versatile than a 20" freestyle uni, though technically you can learn on it all on the 20" as well. The trials has a fatter tire and more easier rolls over bumps than the 20" freestyle (had a near faceplant with that) Maybe it is meant to be more of an indoors uni even.
Yep agree. If you want a second uni to learn skills, a 19” trials is what I’d go for.
Within a year! Are you serious? It should only take a month or so.
Keep your 24" to practice on. It’s fine. Get a trails if that’s what you like or a 27,5 for muni or a 29/36 for long distance. Depends on what you like.
I know plenty of people who’ve been riding a decade or so and struggle/can’t idle. Some people struggle enough with riding years on without trying to learn idling too!
Yes if someone’s practising regularly it absolutely wouldn’t be likely to take more than a few weeks, but if it’s not your focus to learn it then there’s no shame in not being able to idle.
Thanks, everyone, great info! I think I am going to look into adding a 19" trial to learn with 
Yep. What @mowcius says.
For me it was a case of trying, seeing zero progress, stop trying to idle for weeks.
Try again another time (though, I was trying to mostly do it on a 26er). No progress, and seeing zero progress, didn’t make it a priority.
I finally got it early last year, so after riding about 2.5 years. Using a 19/20" uni makes a huge difference in learning to idle. I never really rollback mounted, but when you rollback mount, it forces you to do one idle. Btw, I would still say my idling with my right foot down is a fail, and I can’t say I can do it on anything bigger than a 24".
Funny though, in comparison, hopping had a pretty minimal learning curve. First time I tried, there was reasonable ability to hop.
The only thing to really get was the ride-stop-hop-ride again sequence happening.
So, it’s like I said. Saying it takes years to learn is misleading, and frankly, discouraging to new riders.
You don’t learn it by trying, then stopping for weeks.
It’s clear that it is the learning process that’s key. How you practice. It doesn’t not take years to learn to idle. It is difficult, but it’s like learning to ride for the first time.
It’s best to practice everyday on a 20" until process is achieved.
You took issue with @Gockie’s comment that it was OK to not learn to idle within a year or longer.
We corrected you.
You changed your stance. Nobody said it takes years to learn.
Frankly your comments that “it should only take a month or so” is far more misleading and discouraging to riders who have not learnt to idle within a month or so.
And for some people even practising regularly this takes them a very long time too.
You seem to be taking your own experiences and ideas of how easy it is to ride and idle and applying them to everyone - I’d recommend stopping doing so.
I didn’t change my stance, and I don’t know what you corrected; no need to get sulky. It looks like you are applying your own fantasy to what I wrote. I wrote it is difficult.
“it should only take a month or so to learn” - that IS encouraging. That means it not nearly as hard it first seems.
I recommend you don’t argue anymore.
It does not really matter what unicycle you learn on. It is just important you learn.
Once you have learnt you will know more of where your focus is and what will be your next unicycle.
To anyone who wants to learn to idle: Don’t expect it to be easier than learning to ride in the first place. Put in the time. Approach it with a spirit of playfulness and experimentation. Stay away from the wall, because you will need to pivot freely to idle. You’ll be getting a lot of practice mounting while you’re practicing idling. Practice learning backward riding at the same time you learn to idle. Practice riding into a sudden stop to become inured to having your weight behind the unicycle. These recommendations are based on what worked for me. Idling, for me, took both a month and a year to learn. A month to become terrible at it, a year to be able to do it quasi indefinitely.
Yep. Good answer.
Anyway, for the OP. Get good with other skills, like riding, mounting, turning, stopping, riding up and down hills, dealing with tougher terrain. These all are the fundamentals and put you in a good place on a unicycle. By all means, work on idling, but it’s ok if your skills for it don’t come as quickly as they do for the other skills.