I probably had over 100 attempts but successful pulled it off about 7 times! I’m pretty stoked, though! The mount I am doing is the rollback mount where the wheel goes back as you get on. Thats what the guys I ride with are teaching me. This is also giving some preliminary experience at idling. The only real problem I am having is my ankle keeps rubbing the crank as the wheel comes back and it is pretty sore. I have to try to remember to put my foot on the pedal a little out from the crank arm. These guys want me to ride with them in a parade next week, but I’m not sure, I really need to get this freemount wired first! I told them I would just ride my old BMX bike and do wheelies!
good job the first is always the most exciting. but id say go for the parade on your uni and if you fall off the they will help you get back on!
woop woop go you
Yeah they said they would help me get back on, so I will probably go for it. Most of these guys are jugglers too, but it will be a long time before I can do that!:o
Try to ask them to teach you a static mount. it was allways SO much easier when I was trying to learn. The rollback mount can be a pain in the ass sometimes, literally.
The static mount is where the wheel stays stationary as you get on, right? I can’t figure out how to keep the wheel from rolling!:o
Yeah, thats the one. You push yourself up on it, I kinda get a moving static mount I guess. I’m not sure of the exact name. But I push the unicycle forward and when the pedals get in the right place I put my foot on and it brings me up nice and comfy and I just ride off.
Yeah I’ve seen that mount, and it looks real easy unless you’ve never done it. I tried it a couple times and failed miserably.
But I will try it more often.
i mean, if you want to keep on with the rollmount. then more power to ya, just I allways found the static to be much easier. Anything can be done with practice.
Congrat’s!
Now you will never be satisfied with using a support to get going. In fact, a wall or fence will just start to seem like it’s in the way when you are trying to mount.
I nailed my first freemount a few weeks ago - on a back roll. But I haven’t become reliably proficient at the back roll mount - I haven’t got passed the stage of random hits (few, often on my shin) and misses (lots).
What opened the freemounting door for me was watching a Coker video from this site, and using my hand on the wheel just as I lean into a static mount. I use my hand to keep the wheel from moving, just long enough to mount and go. You might try it - it beats using a support. Thank you to the video author whom I don’t remember… I can’t find the link as I sit here writing. It is fair to say that I ride a 26 and a 29, so my wheel is easy to reach with my hand.
In steps: Set up the pedals near horizontal, with the seat in your crotch, lean the cycle sideways slightly, away from the rear pedal, place a foot on the rear pedal, lean way forward and touch the wheel with the hand on your ‘forward’ side, commit your weight over the cycle (which brings the seat up), step on the forward pedal, and start riding.
While I will learn other mounts in time, this is working great for me right now. Sometimes I just fake the hand touch on the wheel, resulting in a clean static mount. But when I need a bombproof mount, a firm hand grab really helps, especially if I am getting tired and sloppy.
Have fun this weekend.
interesting, i’ve always found the rollback mount much easier even on my coker. find the one that feels easier for you, it’s just a matter of practice anyway.
Hmmm… I don’t think I could rollback mount my coker, but then again, I’m not 100 years old either so what do I know :).
Actually, the first freemount that I nailed was a rollback mount. Quite accidental though. I was really trying to do a static mount and just put too much pressure on the back pedal. Somehow I managed to get my left foot to connect with the pedal as it swung through the top of its stroke. I was pretty shocked. I continued to focus on the static mount though and got to where that’s my normal one. I started trying to static mount with my weak foot last week and am hitting it probably 70% of the time now. Still do a rollback mount every now and then just to make sure I haven’t forgotten how.
I do a rollback mount on all my unicycles, including the 29er.
Cathy
I find my standard mount to be the static mount. The great thing about the static mount once you get comfy with it is that it doesn’t matter where the pedal is, you can just step on and go. The rollback requires you to change direction to get going, so it’s a bit slower. I even find myself doing a static mount to rollback when I want to just get on and idle.
It’s an awesome feeling when you can freemount 100%, and the same feeling comes again when you can freemount at any time, without changing direction or speed. The freedom and look of grace that comes from that is definitely a thing to practice towards.
lol when i was learning i did the rollback naturally, i cant do the static mount very well though lol. things are different for every person. i learned to hop the day after i learned how to free mount. people are dfferent, do what is easiest for now
rollback mount
one unicyclist friend suggested i not do the rollback cause of backing into someone and pis them off or upd them. so i did the time and learnt the static and (front) rolling.
i took 10 minutes to learn the static. it is easy when you get good at doing it by a post or by holding onto something first. all i do is when i am going to mount, i put as much weight as i possibly can on the seat and as little as possible on the foot that’s already on the pedal, then i push off the ground and put my other foot on the pedal as fast as i can (if that makes any sense)
Well, I looked at one of those tutorial videos on the static mount. I went out and pulled it of after about 4 tries! I pulled it off several more times after that. So I would say the static mount is definately easier for me. I think I will practice that as my main mount for now. I wonder why those silly guys that I ride with didn’t show me that? 
Something strange I noticed is when I do the rollback mount, I prefer to have my right pedal down. But on the static mount, it works better if I have the left pedal down. So I am a bit confused at this early point of unicycling as to which foot is dominant. When I used to BMX trick ride, I always level my cranks in preparation for any given stunt, and my left foot would be forward and my right foot would be back to control the coaster brake which was integral to alot of my tricks.
So am I right foot dominant?
yeah i think you’re right foot dominant. i don’t know how other people do this, but i had a hard time learning the static mount with my dominant foot on the pedal. if i start with my weaker foot on, i’m less likely to want to push down on that back pedal.