Luckily, you don’t need to be very coordinated on a unicycle, but good general balance and good core tension helps.
Yes, more than a few give up before they get there. And a very small amount doesn’t seem to learn despite staying at it for a long time. That wouldn’t prevent me from saying that unicycling is very achievable for a majority of people.
I always say that unicycling isn’t hard when you compare it to a lot of other (skill based) hobbies, it’s just a very tricky initial learning curve that makes it feel very tough. To become halfway decent at playing instruments takes a long time too, but you tend to feel a lot more “linear” progress there
With kids, I would say around 6 hours of practicing time until they can ride for 30 meters or so, but there is a decently large spread. Adults tend to need a fair bit longer. I think kids are a lot more used to falling, practicing and failing, while adults need a bit more time to get into that mode again.
Just be prepared to fall a lot. Luckily, most falls are completely harmless and simply landing on your feet, I’m mentioning it more so you know not to be discouraged.
I asked Chat GPT:
“Can a blind person with no legs ride a unicycle?”
the answer was quite encouraging and addressed the main points with consideration… gulp!
What about this analogy, which I thought of while riding my KH36,
Jet fighters, with their swept wings are inherently unstable aerodynamically… I understand (maybe wrong) that it is the multitude of adjustments from onboard computers that allow the agile manoeuvrability of the aircraft.
Similar to riding a unicycle with our biological computers and muscle actuators?
Anyway, when people ask me ‘That looks like hard work!”
My standard return line is:
“Once you get it, if feels like floating”
and I do actually feel that way now, after a couple of years riding… I just love the feeling!
Now that I can ride a 36er, I can say that the 36” experience is different than any other size. They are all different, but when on the 36er I still feel like I’m riding, rather than “driving”. I compare it to a horse. I tell the horse to go over there, and he does, kinda, but ultimately does his own thing, and I am the one that adapts to the horse. As we ride together more, the horse trusts me more, and listens to me better.
On smaller sizes now, I tell it what to do, and it does what I tell it to do. The unicycle is dependent upon me for every cue. This doesn’t apply to my fat tire monster chopper unicycle. That beast still has a mind of its own sometimes, and like the 36er, I “ride it out” and make it change direction once “I am in charge”.
In the end, @Unicyc , I agree with you. There isn’t anything that compares. Like a toddler that realizes how great it is to walk upright (and later run) rather than crawl, I love feeling that exhilaration on a unicycle when “it’s all clicking”. I have so much progress to make to get to your level on the 36”, but look forward to it. I’ve seen your progress since you bought your 36”, and tracked your modifications, and I can understand how you might feel like you are floating when you ride at speed with your aero bars.
A decade of Stand up paddleboarding in choppy seas may or may not have given me some degree of balance ability on the 36er.
I’m actually regularly enjoying hill climbing with the Aerobars and 110mm cranks on the KH36.
I can really lean forward and also pull up really hard on the bars trying to attain that magical balance point for each grade %. My current limit is 13% grade. Average grade of 9% being just comfortable. I’m getting a real sense of satisfaction from extending that.
I’m inspired by Martin Charrier and that guy that had a video riding up the switchbacks in North America…I was trying to find his video to get his name.
Check out my recent strava elevation graph riding the eastern suburbs of Sydney, near Bondi Junction.
With commuting. When on a nice smooth stretch of road, I’m starting to feel comfortable just concentrating on steady Cadence… Leading to sustained higher speeds.
For me, the floating feeling comes from the see-saw effect of butt at back of seat, hands at end of Aerobars pushing forward (allowing weight/ unweight either side of the seat front (pivot point). To me it has a really forgiving balance envelope with the “fail imbalance situation” being to weight the back, effecting a slowing in speed.
Good timing to be getting my confirmation email from Florian for delivery of my 125mm schlumpf hub by end of May.
“Anyone can ride a unicycle”, as long as you are persistent in the learning process, because most peeps generally can’t learn it in a day or a week. I got into unicycling when I was 39 years old. I was getting bored of my life and wanted to do something new. I had read somewhere that anyone can ride uni as long as you don’t give up, because it does get frustrating and I took up that challenge. It took me 3 weeks of training 2 hours each evening and now, nearly 8 years later, I am still very much enjoying it.
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