Absolutely! But forget about skinny road tyres - they are no fun on a uni - and get a wide balloon tyre instead for the street, e.g. a Schwalbe Big Apple 60-622. It provides way more comfort and rolls very well.
UDC UK currently has a very good deal on a QX Q-Axle 29" at 393 quid now. It’s light and strong. You might want to get some shorter cranks as you progress and maybe a balloon tyre, as mentioned.
Since it was primarily downhill on the way in, I felt my times were “cheating”, so I timed myself back as well. I must admit I did push it this time, maybe not 100% of my ability but not far off. 
My time was 21 minutes. Exactly the same time and average speed but with 102m of ascent.
Richard C, please get yourself some wrist guards right away. I recall that as a beginner, my worst falls were from failed mounts. I suggest you either start using a tire-grab mount or a 6:00/12:00 mount…or something for the time being to make mounting safer. Your goal is a nice, slow static mount, but that could take time…so you want to be safe in the meantime.
Going to a larger wheel is going to calm down the skittish-ness of the setup. However, it’s better to learn how to calm the wheel down on a smaller wheel…then apply what you’ve learned to the larger wheel. The twitchiness of the smaller wheel is a reminder that it’s easier to turn on a smaller wheel than a larger wheel. IMHO, you should avoid thinking that a larger wheel is the answer to these problems. It’ll mask the symptoms, that’s all.
From reading your posts, it seems you’re somewhere between two significant learning benchmarks. The first benchmark is where you can ride a few hundred meters. The second benchmark is where you can do the same thing comfortably. I think we lose some new riders between these two benchmarks. The novelty wears off, and the rider is left feeling like they have no finesse. Don’t let that happen to you! Keep practicing, and things will get easier.
If you are concerned about not being able to run-out a UPD, then you might consider not going over a 27.5" for your second unicycle.
Got the wrist guards, and wearing them religiously after damaging a wrist! I’m doing quite slow 6:00/12:00 static mounts, occasionally into a 2 second still stand, and learning to bail early if it’s not good.
Precisely! I did a couple of 200 meter runs a couple of days ago for the first time, and could have gone a bit further. And it wasn’t comfortable. Having learned to ride in the first place, I appreciate that further improvement comes slowly.
Mine too. Part of the problem is the lack of forward motion so gravity takes over ending in a sudden stop at the ground rather than a slide.
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Small wheels are definitely a challenge of their own. One of my worst falls was casually riding the 20 inch from where I dropped of my car to work. Been riding a couple of years, had done it before. No protection. But this time I had been just riding my 29 for a while. I stalled the take off.
Just got back on the 36 recently after a lot of time on a lightweight 26. The forces involved in turning were quite a shock and I had trouble turning corners for a while. Had to go back to basics again.
Your next skill is to steer by leaning the unicycle. Lean your body to the side and you will either lean the uni the other way to keep your centre of mass above the contact point or you will fall off. This lean will cause the uni to turn. Eventually you will learn to lean your body in to the turn as well but this takes some experience.
You probably don’t really need a bigger wheel just yet. The need for constant correction comes from over-correction. The wheel gets ahead of you so you slow it down, but too much. It is a positive feedback loop that creates oscillations.
Stable riding involves putting the uni and your body into a quasi-stable relationship with the right amount of positive and negative feed back at the right frequency.
Your body reacts when you push on a pedal and to some extent you can control the direction your weight moves from that reaction. That movement can make the balance problem worse or better leading to either positive or negative feedback. When you pedal with the crank horizontal your reaction is essentially vertical. If you are leaning slightly backwards you will also move that way which is exactly what you don’t want. With your body slightly forwards the reaction is in the right direction.
Leaning slightly forwards causes the uni to counter lean slightly backwards just like when you lean to one side. In this configuration the unicycle is far more tolerant of imprecise control and helps with the right feedback. But that is just the start.
The reaction force varies continuously so is very complex and hard to describe but your body will work it out with experience. It already knows how to control your reaction when you run and picks up the nuances of the unicycle quite quickly. Just keep riding and you will master it but not before riding badly for quite a while. It is so worth enduring this phase. Many new riders lose a lot of excess weight in this phase.
BTW This probably sounds crazy to a beginner. Eventually, riding a unicycle, especially a big one, feels quite a lot like running, just much smoother. I remember the first time I rode a hill on my 20. I really felt like I was walking on steps.
I have never really had a bad fall (that I can recall) and certainly I have done no real damage to myself. I wear no protection except for a helmet in winter months, when UDPs are more likely.
People here often talk about common injuries like pedals hitting you in the shin. This hasn’t happened to me once and I have been unicycling on and off (sometimes off for very long periods) since I was a teen.
I guess I have either been really lucky or I am just not pushing myself enough (more likely the latter). I suppose I am a pretty boring unicyclist. My skill set is limited and I am generally quite happy just using them as daily transportation devices, in the way most people would use a bike.
I unicycle because I would have to cycle anyway, the speed is “good enough” and the feel of it (even when doing mundane stuff like commuting) is just more interesting/fun than on a bike. At least from my perspective.
They are also more practical than many people given them credit for. A 24/26” (even with a large tyre) can serve many of the same purposes as a folding bike but without the need to fold and unfold.
Yes, I feel this! I need a space where I can practise this, having perfected my 90° jerk turn on my L-shaped patio. I’ve found a couple of public spaces which I can fit into my schedule 1/2 times a week.
Thanks for all the insight into the physics. I’m not great at translating a physical understanding into the feeling of what my body is doing (or should be doing), so it’s just going to come from practise. I picture the process as making conscious adjustments to my position (on a timescale of seconds), feeling the result (on a timescale of hundredths of a second), and iterating until it becomes muscle memory.
I’ve done very little distance on the 20" yet, so you’re right that it’s premature to give up on the small wheel when it gets tough.
I’d bet that learning as a teenager has something to do with it. My shins look like a war-zone! I now wear shin guards (and wrist guards), and still whack myself occasionally when I think “I’ll just do a quick couple of free mounts, won’t bother with protection”.
This is pretty much where I want to get to in terms of skills. If I can eventually idle, ride backwards a little way, and hop, I’ll reckon I’ll have all the tools I need to navigate the streets. (And of course, just ride and turn accurately and comfortably).
I want to add something to that. When you lean the unicycle, you will have to compensate by pedaling faster. So, as you initiate your lean to one side or the other, be aware of your cadence, then increase it slightly during the turn.
If you want to know what leaning the unicycle feels like, find a fence or a wall, face it, then while holding on, practice the range of motion in your hips by sticking out your right hip, then your left hip. If my memory serves, this hip motion (and the accompanying turning motion on the unicycle) was a skill I lacked as a beginner. Then, one day, I started doing it. One of those “aha” moments. I think learning that skill coincided with my ability to make smooth turns, whereas up to that point, my turns were jerky.
Another principle of turning (and it almost seems too stupid to mention) is that you tend to turn in the direction you’re looking. To the extent that we look in the direction we are riding, this can make turning difficult. For example, you are looking in the direction of the thing you’re about to crash into, which increases the chance that you’ll keep riding toward it.
There is a lot of good advice on this forum, but you have to be developmentally ready for that advice. Sometimes it seems the attitude of more experienced riders is: “I’m going to save you all the hassle and teach you how to do it right from the beginning.” To some extent, however, I think we have to go through the “bad” technique on our way to the good technique. Unless, perhaps, you’re a “natural”. I’m certainly not.
Absolutely. I found the most difficult 180 degree turn to negotiate was a U-turn on a crowned street. Getting up that little hill as minimum speed isn’t easy.
Moreover you need the momentum to get out of the turn.
Yes this is a well known phenomenon. Never look at an obstacle. Always at the path you wish to follow. In a perfect example of obstacle fixation, this week in Australia a car loaded with $200 million of illicit drugs crashed into a police car outside a police station.
Knowing something about the physics can help but there is no substitute for experiencing it. Just keep riding and it gets better and better.
I entirely agree with this.
That said, for this specific example, I think turning your body/shoulders to be at right angles to the direction you is the key bit, i.e. you face it with your entire upper body (not just your head or eyes). It is the active twisting of your upper body and the rest of your body and uni naturally following that seem to be causing the turn from my perspective. I could be wrong but that is how I have always interpreted it.
If that doesn’t work for people, then yeah… just keep riding/practicing and it will eventually just happen 
Thanks all for the advice about turning, I’ll give the wall exercise a shot at home, and apply the other advice when I get to my open space. There’s more info and detailed explanations in this thread than I’ve found in many youtube tutorials.
I have one question about turning: my hip-jerk turn seems to work best when I initiate it as the inside pedal goes down. Is the same true of a proper leaning turn? (i.e. does the position of the pedals matter when initiating the turn?). This seems to be a feature of unicycling: to perform a manoeuvre, you have to plan ahead so that the pedals are in the right position.
Accelerating is part of coming out of a turn so it can be helpful if you are in a position to apply power as you exit the turn. However, ultimately you have to turn when you get to the corner so you need to be able to do it from every position. More so on a big uni because they go so far on each rotation.
All turns are proper turns. They are required under different circumstances. The hip jerk is an essential skill for low speeds particularly during free mounting. The counter-lean turn is a medium speed technique.
Leaning the body in is for high speeds where you use your momentum to lift your weight back up by doing what is essentially a controlled “high side” to come out of the turn. It can be initiated by accelerating and/or turning a little harder into the corner. You will eventually intuitively start doing it once you master the counter-lean.
Don’t stress over the details. Subconsciously your brain is taking in all these experiences and will automatically set up your movements optimally for manoeuvres without you consciously knowing you are doing it. You are at a phase of learning where you mainly need to just keep riding to build up familiarity and embed the basic techniques as reflexes. Once you get through this you will continually be surprised by what you body just does without you thinking.
Falls at speed
My concern about speed is running out of a UPD – bad knees stop me running at all. So I’m looking for comfort rather than speed.
My advice would be to stick to smallish wheels if running is a problem. My worst injurys have occured because of UPDs at high speed on a 36", that i could not run out. Ranging from bruised hips gashed knees and elbows even when wearing pads as they can get dragged out of position and the worst was a dislocated shoulder that is still bothering me nine months later. I found that when learning most falls are very minor, and it is only when ability and confidence grow that you then start to encounter harder falls.
Good luck Phil
Turning Technology
I know someone mentioned to “just lean” when you turn, but I think that’s very simplistic. In fact, we all try that first don’t we? From other sports like biking, skating,…etc. we learn to do this. However, on the unicycle that doesn’t simply work, because there is so much else going on with balance, weight and pedaling. Unless, we are talking about merely “power twisting” to turn such as in a stall, stop, going slow… Now I am just talking about normal riding speed control.
So, I would say to “focus” on your pedaling, are you kicking forward(weight on seat riders) or stomping down(crouching forward riders). If so, are you doing it evenly on both sides? If not, more force on your left pedal? Right pedal? Which way does it make the unicycle favor? Ah-ha.
If you ever want to ride straight and keep both hands down on the saddle, how do you keep going straight? How do you correct if you start going left or going right? Leaning? Seriously?(if it works, great, then stop reading this post)
No, It’s the pedaling and how much pressure you apply on each side that creates the turning or off center tendency. So, just be aware and “compensate” by balancing with more force on the other side…or (what I prefer) just “lighten” the pressure on one side and you will see the unicycle respond from your pedaling adjustments.
Leaning does simply work. An unconstrained wheel on a lean will turn in the direction of the lean. It is fundamental to the nature of a wheel. Yes, on a unicycle, you need to move your body’s centre of gravity to stay balanced. This is by counterleaning the body at first and eventually also leaning the body in to balance the “centrifugal force”. Unless you are leaning the wheel to turn you are still doing a “power twist” as you termed it.
Most beginners struggle with turns as they try to move on from the twist because they slow down and lose the momentum that is keeping them up. Often it is because they are steering by backing off on one pedal. The acceleration in a turn is about getting back up again at the exit. High speed non-trivial turns cannot be achieved without leaning the wheel. I expect you would be surprised how much you lean the wheel yourself.
I don’t relate to your pedalling categorisation. Whether I’m fully seated or standing and leaning forward on a hill climb (crouching?) my focus is on using as much of the available pedalling arc as possible.
Moreover I don’t think about pedalling in terms of pressure at all. For me it is about position. I know my foot needs to reach a certain position at a certain moment for me to stay balanced. The force applied is secondary in response to that.
I have actively developed my technique to minimise the effect of pedal thrust on the direction of travel. I believe it is important to be able to decouple drive and directional control.
Seriously yes. Sideways movements of the hips tilt the uni to steer it. The response is instantaneous so the adjustments are small and frequent. You don’t have to wait to do a thrust correction when the pedal is in the right place again, which can be quite a distance on large unicycle.
Limitations on opportunity to make adjustments when steering with thrust is a technique likely to induce a weaving track.
Moreover, how do you turn at a precise point if your pedals don’t happen to be in the right position as you reach it?
I used to steer by adjusting pedal thrust but soon learned of its shortcomings. Backing off for a single pedal thrust looses way too much momentum on hill climbs where every thrust needs to contribute.
I left commenting on this to the end. In effect you are saying, “I don’t want to hear your alternative opinion.”
Yes, leaning. I didn’t even know there was another way!
I don’t have much to contribute at the moment, but I’m following the discussion with great interest. Thanks everyone!
I’ve ordered a 26" Nimbus Muni from UDC! Damn they’re quick, I ordered it last night, and it shipped before 9 am this morning. It’s arriving on Monday.
Here’s my reasoning behind this choice, which I’ve been going back and forth on for a while: It’s a bit of a jump in size from 20", but I’m tall so maybe it won’t be too steep a learning curve. I’m confident with static free-mount on my 20", but realise free-mounting the 26" will be quite different. I’d be interested to give offroad a go, starting with some flat trails, but I have the option of putting on a road tire. If I really have trouble with the larger wheel size (quite likely, it took me a couple of months to get basic riding on the 20"), I can also get a 24" wheel built by UDC.
In terms of my progress, I’m definitely on a plateau. Riding is fine, but I still feel quite insecure and tend to bail out rather than attack quite small obstacles. I have one and a half “skills”, namely static freemount and slowly dismounting from the back. I can ride with one hand on the saddle in smooth straight situations, but have to let go if there’s a bump or a turn (I know that holding on is exactly for handling bumps!). I can ride very slowly, with momentary pauses. Gentle gradients are OK. Idling and riding backwards still completely elude me, as do any kind of transition. I can do a few hops, but only from support to support. I’m managing about an hour or two of practise a week.
Congratulations!
You’ll have a lot of fun on your new wheel.
Just keep riding and you’ll feel more secure over time.
The larger wheel size and fatter tire compared to your 20” makes it roll over smaller bumps much easier.
I recommend you take it off road as soon as you can, start with relatively smooth paths and gradually you will be able to tackle more uneven paths.
As to specific skills:
I’ve been riding a little over two years now and I cannot idle or ride backwards either.
My free mounting is also just so-so.
In order to improve these skills I should put some dedicated practice in…
But I enjoy the actual riding too much and I have not yet felt the need to put time into idling and riding backwards.