I have finally gotten free from the wall mount.
Finally I got away from the wall.
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Beginner Freemount
Thanks to this thread I can freemount:
I got this one last night on my 24 but couldn’t pull it off on my 36er. soon I hope I figured that would take a little more work.
ok got it on the 36er. It worked great for my muni ride today I was able to ride a lot more and hit a lot of up hill that I could not with the roll back mount.
Way to go SOG316. Sometimes I think this is the best kept secret in mounting. But yesterday I started missing this mount on my 24". I would get my feet on then go off to one side or the other. Then I discovered I was choking; would try to balance before riding off - but if I just committed and kept the wheel rolling forward as soon as I got my feet on the pedals my percentage went way back up. Anyway, I still love this mount and its great to be free of the wall. I made my first commute to class (my apartment is on campus so it is only about 2000 meters) with a few stops. I thought the students (Chinese) would laugh but they were pretty much supportive or just in shock to see an old foreign teacher riding a unicycle. Its great to come out (as a unicyclist).
Tried the hand on wheel mount on my 26". Took me 5 minutes to get it right. A nice easy mount for beginners. I can’t do it on my 36" because the touring handles won’t let me reach the wheel with my hands.
Some days I have to command myself to PEDAL as I come over the top of static mounting a 29". Some days PEDAL is followed immediately by KEEP PEDALING!
I’ve started to hit a real clean one some days and that feels really good to do one where there is no arm waving and weaving. Just a simple motion into pedaling away.
On the original topic, there is no way my back would fold enough to hold my tire. Too many years of abusing my back in other sports. I have to watch that forward bending or I get a couple days of a pinched nerve in my back. And that means only turning in one direction!
- actually it means not riding at all, having to run out a forward UPD with a pinched nerve is unacceptable to the pain receptors in my brain
I learnt to freemount my 29" this way, after plenty of attempts at static mounts(which usually resulted in a pedal bite due too putting too much weight on the pedal, with metal pedals 
) When I got my muni i found could static mount it,so tried on the 29" and found I could static mount that too.
Yeah, this works when learning to freemount, but it is a bad habit to get into. If you get into mountain unicycling and you have a muddy tire or it’s really dirty, you’re not going to want to be grabbing it.
But do what ever works.
Hey All:
Just thought I’d add a few points to the discussion on this mount method as I have just finished learning it myself. I have been learning to ride for about a month, but was considerably slower at catching on than many folks on here seem to be.
I really love this method and found it quite easy to learn, especially since I am learning on a 24. I found the standard method quite impossible since it seems to rely on a person being able to balance and ride away immediately which is pretty difficult when you are new. With this method you have a lot more control over what you are doing and have a bit longer to get yourself set up before having to ride off. I started working on this mount when I was barely able to ride a few feet with the intention of freeing myself from having to use an object to help and I found that it was really important that I did everything exactly the same every time and the standard mount didn’t allow enough time to do that. Though I am still very new to the uni, I can hit this mount without difficulty even on uphill or downhill grades which are quite challenging when first learning to ride.
While it is really difficult to describe how to do something like this, I thought I would try to clarify a few points that are really difficult to learn from the videos and current tips.
I started by concentrating on trying to hop up onto the pedal and ride away but found that many times, despite grabbing the tire, I wasn’t actually getting myself far enough over the saddle to balance, resulting in the uni rolling out in front. After some trial and error, I discovered that the key to catching on to the mount was to concentrate only on getting the saddle to the vertical position and then catching the other pedal. It may seem to be splitting hairs, but when learning this I found that I really had to concentrate on each individual movement and changing the order of priority made a big difference. My standard method now is to:
-set the pedals near horizontal or where comfortable
-position the saddle exactly where you want it for riding
-walk forward to put pressure on the saddle
-here is the key point- hop up and do a nosedive directly over the front wheel as if you are trying to dive right over the uni while grabbing the tire. Not to worry here, you are holding the tire and will never go over the top. This shifts your weight directly up onto the seat and leans you enough forward to give the uni a bit of forward pressure so you will more easily ride away.
-You now have a tiny bit more time to get your other foot in position on the pedal without having to worry about missing it or positioning it awkwardly.
You will find that you can now ride away in a straight line without the first pedal stroke being so difficult to push.
No earth shattering insight here, I just thought that extra detail is often helpful and is easily forgotten once things become more automatic through experience.
Hope someone finds it helpful
Don
re: mounting on 24"
Not impossible, on near impossible, but it is a challenge coming so early in a Uni’ers riding. I learned to mount a 24" with no instruction and way before anyone had even heard the term WWW or even PC for that matter, and I knew no other unicycle riders so I was on my own for freemounting. So I learned to mount the way I mounted when I was holding on to something which ended up being what we call a roll-back mount.
I used that for all my unicycling until I got a 29" wheel and I set out to learn to static mount on a new size uni… took me a bit to get both skills down. But now I mount 1st try most days, but I’m still surprised when I do.
Congrats on the progress of your riding. I think you have given some useful advice for other new riders. You are not the first person to be challenged by freemounting and won’t be the last.
I can finally static mount! AT LONG LAST!
Good job, DT - Thanks for the tutorial.
Cheers,
Eoin
Thanks unatic. I bought myself a 24" Muni on my birthday in January and freemounted for the first time today thanks to you and Megan. Pound for pound freemounting must be the most liberating unicycle skill - chuffed to bits.
Yes it does work!
This mount is the best! I had been really frustrated by weeks of not being able to freemount, and with a little practice, this one works. Thank you!
I suppose this is only helpful if you have a very low seat position, because it makes getting into a straight sitting position that much more difficult.
On my 26" the shortest distance from the tire to the seat is between 41 and 42 cm (that’s around 16.5" for you imperialists out there). That’s quite a distance to bend down to and grab.
I needed a couple of tries to pull it off and for me it makes mounting more difficult.
I’m excited to try the freemount method in post 11 (the grab-the-wheel method). I’ve been riding for 9 days now and am really tired of walking back to my chairs every time to start over. Not that I go very far. I usually only make it about 25-30 feet, but the couple times when I’ve made it out to 70 feet or so (one time to 100 feet), it’s a pain to have to walk all the way back to try again.
Also, the video in post 20 (the horizontal pedal method) was very helpful. I had pretty much decided to give up on the freemount method where you start with the pedals horizontal. I somehow missed the point that you don’t put any weight on the back pedal as you jump. I had seen some other videos and couldn’t figure out how they did it without the wheel moving. Now I know and I’m excited to try that way, too.
So thanks to both of those posters and to the other helpful comments along the thread. I hope I’ll be reporting some good results soon in the freemounting department.
Don’t know. I learned on a 24 with my seat up pretty high and found no difficulty reaching the tire at all. Everyone is different. I found this mount much easier to learn though I certainly didn’t nail it the first try either. Took a bit to get the hang of it, but I still find it easier than the usual hop up method and though I can do both readily now, I still use this one on difficult terrain where I need to get up and balanced immediately.