“I picked myself up, dusted myself off and walked it to the top of the hill and rode the rest of the way home. Tomorrow, I ride again, in spite of the forecast for wind.”
Awesome EFFORT !
I know the ‘rubber-legged’ face plant.
That’s why I wear gloves and kneepads now, even though it’s been a year since that type of UPD.
How could it be embarrassing? As I told my 11 year old while he was learning to ride, - If you fall and some one chuckles, laughs, or makes a comment, point the seat towards them and ask them to teach you, when they decline answer with the mighty “Then who are you to laugh jack a$$?”
A trick I learned here on the forum, for riding hills: Place the heel of your dominant hand on the front of the seat or handle and push it slightly down… Just adding a touch of pressure changes your posture and tilts the cycle in a way that makes it easier to pedal because your “falling” up the hill (thats my therory of why it works at least)
Truly. I cant imagine how stupid you feel for laughing at somebody who falls off a unicycle when you cant even fathom how to ride one yourself.
“Who is laughing now sucker?”
I’ve been commuting to work for two months now, only 2 miles each way but all hills so both ways are difficult, its all on the road too so had to get good quick!
It takes a while to learn I’m still flailing about now but really starting to get more solid, it takes time and patience, just concentrate on not falling off and you’ll be fine, ignore others too commuting on a unicycle is hard!
When I first started I would be dripping with sweat, but u get better as u get fitter and now I can bear wearing the same t shirt all day!
Loving the tips about falling will Dec use that one!
I’ve been commuting to work for two months now, only 2 miles each way but all hills so both ways are difficult, its all on the road too so had to get good quick!
It takes a while to learn I’m still flailing about now but really starting to get more solid, it takes time and patience, just concentrate on not falling off and you’ll be fine, ignore others too commuting on a unicycle is hard!
When I first started I would be dripping with sweat, but u get better as u get fitter and now I can bear wearing the same t shirt all day!
Loving the tips about falling will Dec use that one!
One time (also in Flagstaff) I was riding down a steep hill going to class on my Coker, and I tapped a bit too hard on the brake, which sent me flying forwards off my uni. I ended up rolling off the sidewalk into the dirt. There were several people around me, and no one bothered to ask me if I was alright. I just heard chuckling and laughter. Scraped up, I brushed myself off, got back on my uni, and continued to class.
I also recall that kids around the college would always loudly shout at me when I was on my giraffe, trying to startle me off my unicycle (yeah, like that ever worked). Apparently, they found the idea of someone taking a fall from a tall unicycle and possibly injuring themselves to be funny. Flagstaff really isn’t very unicycle-friendly. 
Ya know, I find it to be a really mixed bag here. There are an aweful lot of bicyclists here and I find a lot of them to be sympathetic or at least curious about unicycling. But, there are an aweful lot of jerks here too (and probably everywhere I suppose). These last couple of days I’ve been able to catagorize the reactions to me on the b*ke path into 3 groups. Some people will give me a thumbs up or say,‘right on.’ Some just have no reaction at all and then some seem really uncomfortable and try very hard not to make eye contact as though I might be a crazy man or something. Weird.
Or learn to do a shoulder roll.
I don’t recommend learning from a web site just like the PK Tutorial says but it can be done if you go slow and look at a couple of different tutorials. (or 3 or 4 until you see what is common among them) The shoulder roll is the easiest ‘fall’ to learn.
But you have to be good at them until they are 2nd nature. Knowing a shoulder roll is almost 100% protection from a broken wrist in a front fall.
Yeah but this tecnique is a bad thing to teach without warnings… Not every roll out or style works for every situation. You need to be quick of the mind to diagnose the situation and decide how best to apply what will work… Therefore you need to learn a few types of falls…
In example - My shoelace was wrapped TIGHT around the crank and there were walkers to my left as I felt the drop begin. A roll would have the uni landing on me and then toward them possibly, and if it had bounced wrong, possibly breaking my ankle.
So I used a controlled palm / skid type landing in which you leave the elbows slightly bent so that they are “shock absorbers” and you slide in a pushup position untill your knees are down. Hence why riding with gloves is mandatory for me if I am doing anything more then putzing around my parking lot with my sons
Underdog, you are at the beginning of something great. This will be a learning curve that will take you places and make you feel younger, stronger and more confident! Stick with the 150s for now. Sounds like most of your issues are about just being new to the commute idea.
Another possibility, related to the flailing, is what may be a bad combination of tire vs. road camber. You may be able to improve things by changing your tire pressure. Or you may just need more practice to get used to riding on the camber. If it is camber. Practice just riding straight, comfortably. You’ll just keep getting better!
Where there are cars with people driving them, there will be jerks. 
When someone laughs at me for falling it’s usually me. 
I commute over a hundred miles a day so riding isn’t realistic. Sometimes I can work at home but the lady of the house doesn’t like the tire tracks in the hallway.
I’m finding that, too. I’m also just starting out on this unicycling journey.
As a newbie, I find that reminding myself to keep putting one hand on the seat handle helps me steady the flailing (somewhat).
In Australia I get all the usual smartarse comments you know so well, but not over here in Singapore - the people are far too nice to be obnoxious. The only trouble is that traffic tends to be a tad chaotic, with frequent momentary lapses in reason.
I work too far away for a commute, so do my riding in the evenings. Last night I managed to crest a hill that I’ve consistantly UPD’ed in the last steep 20’ (it rises into a T-intersection), and celebrated by completing a 6km hilly circuit (part busy road / part technical footpath - It’s like a new form of muni trying to negotiate footpaths that were never designed for human traffic), with no UPD, and one stop at traffic lights. That is the greatest distance per dismount I have achieved, and I loved it.
Keep it going, Underdog - All those little achievements can really make a day.
As other wiser and more experienced riders have told us, there is nothing to be embarrassed about in coming off, or failing a freemount - Be happy with what you do.
Cheers,
Eoin
I thought I’d give a summary of my first week.
Overall percentage of good rides to/from work vs. bad: About 17%. I was only able to commute 3 days and only one of the rides would I consider to have been really good/comfortable.
The first day was a really difficult ride and I think I was putting about 3 times as much effort into it as was really needed. I was just totally exhausted both directions.
Day two was better, especially in the morning but still working waaaay too hard at it.
Day three, I had a great ride to work. I took a lot of your collective advice to heart and relaxed and enjoyed the ride. I find a lot of it to be very mental. If I’m feeling a little nervous or anxious prior to the ride, I struggle more than if I start out with some degree of confidence. I think confidence will grow the more I ride. On the way home, however, we got winds of steady 35 mph, gusting to 45. It was blowing me all over the b*ke path and occasionally stopping my progress altogether. Wind; the infinitely variable, invisible hill . I ended up walking more than half the distance home just because I couldn’t get mounted on the slight uphill into the wind. Grrrrrr. It’s kinda funny how energizing it is to have a great ride and then how demorallizing it is when it goes badly.
Over the weekend, I made the time to get in a few practice rides around the hood. Friday evening was just a few laps around and trying to focus in easy spinning. It went well. Saturday I spent some time focusing on stuff that I know I have real trouble with. I worked on mounting facing uphill and also riding uphill. I even did a ride down the hill that I faceplanted early in the week, did a u-turn at the bottom and rode back up, successfully. Woohoo! That felt good. Saturday was a really good day riding. I’m excited and motivated for my second week now. I’ll post back by the end of the week with a progress report. Wish me luck. And thanks again for the support and words of wisdom.
Way to go underdog. I have been having a hard time commuting too. I also have a hard time feeling confident before I leave, but once I get going it is so nice. I have one hill that is giving me trouble, and I can hardly get half way up the thing, than I have to turn and go up another one. It is going to be a long time before I conquer this hill, but its great to hear that you are getting over yours.
Again, way to go.
Well the old weather gods have really conspired against me this week. Up until today it’s been extremely windy and my commute is pretty open. I have real trouble dealing with the sudden gusts and if it’s a strong headwind and I need to remount into it and facing uphill I’m totally hosed. I just can’t get on top of it. At least my neighborhood is somewhat protected from the wind so in the evenings I can get a few miles in doing laps around the neighborhood. So I’ve been getting out every evening and practicing stuff I know I’m not good at. Mostly riding uphill and then also trying to mount facing uphill. There is one really steep hill near me (low, low gear on a mountain bike and I’m a strong rider). I won’t even try that one yet. It’s a 9% grade I’ve been told. There’s another one nearby that is about half that grade and I’m getting it about 50% of the time now. I purposely stopped in the middle of it yesterday and tryed remounting, facing uphill and it took a good 8 - 10 tries but I finally got it!
It was a very shakey start but I mounted and rode the rest of the way up. That felt great. Progess. Yaaaaay!! I won’t be able to ride to work tomorrow cuz I’ve got another meeting across town. I hate it when that happens.
So, next week is ‘bike to work week’ here and I MUST get back to my commuting regimen. There’s another low pressure front coming in so it might get windy again:( I hope they’re wrong. Sunday is the big kickoff event downtown and they alway have a little bike parade so I’ll ride my uni in that and hope that I don’t run into anyone. If I flail my arms enough maybe people will give me a wide berth.
You don’t have to mount facing uphill; you can mount facing across the slope or downhill and turn or hop around. It also can help to stand on something higher than the wheel (like a curb, with the wheel in the road).
i learned how to mount facing downhill. it is actually easier because, in a mount, you step on the back pedal, which has more resistance on a slope facing downhill. so, as you step on the back pedal, it moves less than on flatground.
another thing- i live a mile away from school and tomorrow is a “ride your bike to school day” for a free donut. do i get 2 donuts if i ride a unicycle? it is even more ecofriendly than bikes are.
Today is BIKE TO WORK day. I rode my Ducati. I know. I’m naughty.
I have been really working on commuting as much as I can on the uni. Its rough. I wouldnt say I am quite sore today, just very worn down. It ended up being hard to sleep last night because my legs wouldnt relax, though I did an extra long ride yesterday just for fun. I love the 36er.
I still cant ride every day though, its usually every other day. Though I did ride yesterday and today both, so its getting better.
eh.