I was trying to make a u-turn in a diameter of about 3 meters and found that I was having to trace the way I wanted to move with my arms first. Is that the way you do it too? And what is the smallest diameter circle in which you can move or make a u-turn
Yah I tend to pint with my arm the way I want to go if I am riding rough terrain or if I was to make a sharp turn. I think it just automatically lines up your upper body to make the turn better.
I sometimes feel myself steering the unicycle with the hand that is on the handle bar as well.
I guess I can do a U-turn in half a revolution if I am going pretty slow. Doing swoopy turns across a street can be fun too.
I’ve been wondering about this, too. Working on uni level two stuff, lol…their “tight 180 degree turn.” I don’t know how tight they want it to be. Anyone (sorry to thread hijack slightly, but it’s kinda on-topic), how do you interpret that?
As for small turns, thus far I’ve been leaning my whole body over so I’m not quite centered over the uni. I never figured out what to do with my arms for little stuff…But tracing it sounds about accurate to bigger (well, counting 3m as bigger) circles. I think my arms end up in sort of an L shape, one to the center of the circle, one pointing straight in front of me.
Yay, thank you! bookmarks
still new to navigating the unicycle worlds of the net.
when I started out, I used my hands a lot to “paddle” my turn. Now I tend to lean into it and pedal through the turn instead, if the turn is super tight and I have on large cranks I tend to do one full rotation at a time with more umphf on the inside pedal to twist the uni. I’m working on smoothing it out.
If turning right, reach behind with your right hand and touch the back of your seat. Ditto for the left.
Eventually you won’t even think about it but for getting smoothed out this helps most people a lot. Also, for making that u-turn within a 1 meter space pay attention to where your pedals are when you start the turn. Try starting the turn with your “inside” pedal up, then push it down to make the turn. Also try it with the “outside” pedal up…it works differently for different people.
This sequence also helps:
[LIST=1]
The key is the pause. This gives you a chance to lean ever so slightly into the turn.
Thank you very much for this post.
Let’s see if that advice helps me to outdate my signature 
Thanks for the tips Bluearmony. I can make a fairly reliable 90 degree turn to the left, but to the right even a more wide turn often results in wobbling and a series of “scallop” turns. I’m hopeful that the seat grab technique will help me get my position correct for the turns.
As you are making use of the Search feature that is highly valued here, type in “counter steer”. There are some old posts that are good reads.
Do you use your hands while turning? How?
“Sushi in my left hand, cell phone in my right.” – paraphrased from David Stone, commuting through New York City 