A big factor keeping your cadence down might be fear of falling. I don’t know how the spinning classes would work out for your cadence, but two other suggestions are:
just give it more time: keep on riding so that your confidence builds up.
do short sprints (like 50 m) on the smallest setup you have (that would be the 24") as fast as you can so that you get an impression of what is possible, and engrave it in motor memory. If you can record progress, all the better (I’ve used both a GPS and a stopwatch.) The latter technique has helped me to increase my cadence on longer distances.
Thanks to olduniman, I’m finally going to join this forum. Thanks to EVERYONE whose posts I’ve read for many months now. The advice and information found in the forum have been a great help.
I bought my first unicycle when I turned 40 figuring that would be cheaper than a little red sports car. Never thought about unicycles too much as a kid, probably because we didn’t see many of them. After the first 10 years, I learned that practicing only a few days a year wasn’t going to do much to improve my riding skills. At one point, one of my daughter’s boyfriends borrowed our unicycle and learned the basics in a couple weeks. That motivated me to finally get to level 1 riding. Meeting Unicycle Max during his New England ride in 2006 motivated me again. And THANKS to all the encouraging words from olduniman, Max, Team Unicycle Max, the Surely Speed Goats, American Mojo and other people I met while watching the Ride the Lobster this summer, I’ve finally gotten more serious.
This year I’ve used some of my Free Fridays to concentrate on riding and I’m now at a point where I can ride almost a 1/2 mile at a time without a dismount and I can do a roll-back freemount most times with just 2-3 tries. At this point, I own 2 20", 2 24" and 1 26" uni. My short term goals are to get better at turns and maybe to start working on idling.
Having too many other toys and things to do, and not having someone to ride with are my biggest hurdles. But with 3 (very) young grandchildren, I hope to have them riding with me within the next couple years. With the economy being the way it is, I doubt enough people would be interested in attending, but I’d love to find someone that would be willing to teach some local learn-to-ride or how-to-teach-your-child-to-ride workshops. I ride for the fun of it and for the exercise and wish others would too.
welcome to the community of grand-parents on one wheel (I have also 3 grand-children but they do not appear to be keen on unicycling).
Two bits of advice:
try simple Muni: just riding through the woods will soon become a drug (even if you do it alone)
try to get rid of the roll-back freemount (it took me a while to get rid of it and go to static mount).
Inspired by Klaas Bil’s advice I bought a better cycle computer (Sigma 906) and tried to do a few sprints on my KH29. I managed 120 rpm peak in one run, but today in a 9 km ride the peak was lower at 110 and the overall average a poor 84 rpm. More work is needed, but there is a glimmer of hope.
On another topic I wonder if any of you have trouble sitting straight especially on roads with a crown? I have a bad habit of leading with the opposite shoulder (that is left shoulder forward for the RH side, etc) unless the road is dead flat.
I have learned uniing after retirement at 65y.o.Become very ‘technicaly’ enhusiastic getting the stable of 14 unis.Managed to free mount up to 26" with the rate 4 to 10 and to ride 29’‘. Short distances(500m.+) on almost daily basis.
Some 3 years ago I’v sold my stable bar 2 unis and…had a senior moment until some 4 weeks ago when I bought 20’’ and (24’’ as ‘challange’) and started again.I still have to relearn free mount. The fun ratio+++ .Riding almost daily I do slow progress. Now I am 73 and 11/12.
Sad part of it is…I have to reduce vine consuption, a bit
Well 66 km at 66 coming up for me in November seems a bit much. How about taking up furlongs (1 furlong = 0.201 km) as our measurement of choice for celebrations marking significant events? In my case 66 furlongs = 13.2 km so it is something I could handle.
Started riding my 20 inch Torker CX last month. Of course everyone (under 30) thought I was out of my mind. Nice to know other people around my age still think young. I can ride about 200, feet forward only (no idle, no backward, just forward for now). I just bought a 24 inch Torker CX and hope to be able to ride further. I want to put shorter cranks (127 or 117) on the 24 inch.
Welcome! By 117 you probably mean 114? I’ve never seen 117 being offered. Less than a year ago I wanted something between 125 and 114 and searched in vain.
Just back from a ride to round out my first year of distance unicycling. An amazing 300 km altogether (roughly 1,500 furlongs) in many, many outings.:o Next year I’ll try harder!
It’s great to see more people signing on to this thread, thanks for joining.
You’ve inspired me to dust off my uni and get back in the saddle. I was going to go for a distance ride about three weeks ago when my child bride (she’s only 55) reminded me that I was banned from uni riding within three weeks of vacations. A few years ago I managed to break my right hand (necessitating three pins in the hand) just before a two week trip to Hawaii. Anyhow, we just got back from a two week trip to Europe and I really need to resume one-wheeling.
I did one distance ride a few weeks ago and got the inevitable “what happened to the other wheel?” question. I responded, “I never learned to ride a two wheeler.”
I don’t mind being called a senior. It gets me in the movies at a great discount!
I turned 60 last friday … and it does not make any difference ! we should stop considering our age ! (impossible: being a snob I find irresistible the grin on the face of people learning my real age !)…
Just back from a 10 day family visit in Geneva where I rode my daughter and son-in-law’s 20 inch Qu-Ax free-style almost every day. I tried to interest some of the other residents in my daughter’s neighbourhood in unicycling so two women and one man gave it a go. One of the women, who is not otherwise sporty, seemed very keen and quick to learn. She was talking of getting one as soon as possible. May never happen, but it was fun to do for everyone. Riding a unicycle is a great conversation starter as I have proved on several trips.
I also attended a practice session of the local club
Friendly people and several good riders. Alexis, the president of the club, rides a freestyle uni with 70 mm cranks. I tried it out for a few minutes, but needed a hand on the wall to keep me upright.
Freemounting has always been a challenge for me. It is hard to get the necessary momentum to rotate past top dead center and ride away. On my 24 inch I always have had to use a (slow) running mount. Until this week I have never been able to manage a static mount starting with the dominant foot on a horizontal pedal.
Now I can do it nearly always thanks to the picture of Mike Penton on page 51 of issue six of The Unicycle Magazine. It taught me to crouch down much more and push off hard on the non-dominant foot. That seems to keep the weight off the dominant foot so the wheel doesn’t rotate.
I remember a stunt from childhood: get a kid to lie on his back, then you walk over him placing a foot on his belly as you go over. The trick is to hop yourself over him using power from the other foot, never putting any weight on the kid’s belly. You hop but you do it to appear as if you’re walking, not hopping. It’s helped me get the proper use of the dominant foot on the pedal during a static mount.
(ooops, I notice I’m under the specified age for participation in this thread) :o
(ooops, I notice I’m under the specified age for participation in this thread) :o
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No worries, glad to have your ideas. Time rolls on and you will be with us soon.
BTW, are there any women out there who might join in?? I am working with such a person who is very, very close to riding out into the abyss. For her the abyss is an open space without a nearby railing (that she doesn’t touch) for security.
[QUOTE=olduniman;1123413
BTW, are there any women out there who might join in?? I am working with such a person who is very, very close to riding out into the abyss. For her the abyss is an open space without a nearby railing (that she doesn’t touch) for security.[/QUOTE]
I’m a woman but I don’t qualify for this thread for another twelve years (of unicycling hopefully)