Good update, UD. I, too, have a hill that has, until the last two rides, had me beat. The last little piece of it kicks up, finishing in a T-intersection (which creates a bit of a mental aversion to forward movement). Once the cadence drops down to the “single-legged squats” level, my problem has been to lean forward enough to be able to confidently push down on the pedals. I guess it is just a stage of learning to control the efforts enough to be able to provide the balance reactions during a forceful push on the pedal (not that I’m over-analysing ). You just have to trust yourself, and use your inner thighs to hold the unicycle straight-ish.
On the issue of free-mounting on a hill, I try to even out the gradient as much as I can - pick the most favourable place to carry out the mount, which his usually by going across the gradient as much as is reasonable. My freemounts are anything but graceful, and rely on holding the wheel as I step up. I think this is probably not a good mount for improving techniques, but it does (for me) make it easier when mounting on a slope. Going uphill, the hand on the wheel can initiate the forward movement, and gives a little (much-needed in my case) confidence.
On your good day / bad day ratio, I would say that any day you manage to get out for a ride is a good day. We actually learn more from our failures than we do from our successes (although I must admit that the successes are a tad more enjoyable at the time), so every difficult ride you have, you are improving, as you are pushing your limits. Keep trying to ride in the wind, and you’ll get to see how your riding has to adjust to accommodate it. Reactions to gusts, like reactions to sudden changes in road conditions, is part of the growing intuitiveness of the balance reactions. To make those reactions automatic, we just have to keep trying (and failing).
It’s good to see the hunger to make the trip grow in you. Soon you’ll be getting withdrawl symptoms each time you don’t get to ride.
Thanks for helping to inspire me in continuing down the same learning curve.
With all of the positive support that you have received so far, let me be the first to say that you can’t possibly ever do this. I wish I had given up trying to commute on a unicycle years ago but here I am still trying like a clown to do it. I’ll give it up if you will.
My uni-commute route is about 3 miles, fairly flat, with about half via a riverside bike trail. I pick my days to avoid those with important meetings, and I also avoid bad weather (which I generally use as an excuse to bring out the motorcycle). I also bring a change of clothes. When it all works out, I really like doing the uni commute as a great way to start and finish the day. I also get in way more riding on the uni commute days!
I can certainly relate to feeling like I suck during the commute. Now that I’ve got freemounts down solid on the 29’er, my confidence about the whole experience is much higher, and it’s a lot more fun now than when I first started it last fall. I’m not yet consistent enough with freemounts and tight turns on the 36er to feel like I’m quite ready to commute on it – so I still feel like I suck, too.
Hey Good Luck! I hope you can stay motivated. From what you said i think your riding about 10km per hour so i think thats great. I ride a lot slower and would really like to get faster. I have a goal at the moment to fit as much riding in as possible into my life so i can become a better faster rider. The other night I rode home 14km from taekwondo training and it took me 2 and a quarter hours. There were some really big hills for me and i had to walk some sections. about 70% was bike track. the rest was a bit rough on grass and sides of rides and dirt.
Id like to do this every week but im struggling with motivation in my mind at the moment.I have to ride in the dark and riding by my headlight made it a little more challenging. the shadows made me slower as i couldnt see the terrain properly and would think there was a rut or something coming up but would discover it was just a shadow and i shouldnt have slowed.
Also i was riding alone , very late at night , in some very deserted streets. I started to worry about being hassled in these dark streets; but i have to admit the good side to that was i rode faster when i got scared. Probably this is my main deterent right now. i dont like riding alone late at night. Except for this i would probably do the ride again without much hesitation.
Oh and we are coming into winter and i did feel quite cold and tired at the end of the ride.
I have two days to decide if i will repeat the ride and try to make it a weekly thing. I know it would be a great thing to do but as i said i am struggling mentally to get the motivation to repeat it.
Re flailing of arms and so forth, if you have to ,then do so. But fitting a brake is not the way to correct it…
But keep in mind that at the end of the day you want a relaxed form, especially for distance. This can be sloppy hanging arms at the side. Or it can be a movement remarkably like a jogger, with the arms bent at the elbows and moving them al-la- choo choo fashion. Just watch a jogger who runs with arms high. I hang the arms dead at the side mostly but, for hills, or at speed, I tend to favour the joggers arms. Regardless, arms are always near the travelling line of the body, which has the extra advantage of being out of the way of cyclist passing me.
Ideally, the flailing arms should mostly wind up only happening for serious hill climbs where you have to zig-zag, and for sharpish turns.
Contrary to what others have said, I found that the transition to comfortable relaxed riding was slow. But I was more than happy after the first week or so. Even now, after nearly 10,000km of commuting, I am regularly having to address difficulty with maintaining symmetry. That may be due to assymetry of an old body or it may be a common experience.
G’day, Colin!
I don’t know if you remember, but you came and gave my daughter some advice on riding her uni (the ride down at Freo). Thanks for that - She has progressed well with her idling and backwards riding.
I picked up a uni for myself when she was away on holiday, and am now riding it up here in Singapore where I’m working. I’ll be back in Perth next week, and shall give you a call.
Back on thread, I’ve found that the flailing dies down as you become more relaxed. I’ve also noticed that at higher cadences, with no handlebar, I seem to gravitate towards holding one arm crooked in front (like holding a beer), with the other dangling at my side. The arm in front seems to act a little like a gyro in tweaking balance corrections, and stabilises the core. Then again, it may just relax me because it’s like holding a beer…
1: To help with uphill mounts I use a rolling mount… To me the momentum not only helps you get on top, but starts you in the foward direction… Taller the slope the faster you go to mount
2: My 11 year old was having an arm flailing thing and would snap his fingers each time the right pedal hit the bottom of the stroke (really annoying if your riding with him)… I gave him a stick of gum and it all stopped.
Here it gives him something to focus on and allows him to relax in the saddle.
And the biggest thing even for myself that I learned this weekend is to have FUN! I was getting tired of practicing hops and getting no where, then I realised that I was being robotic about it. So I made it a game with some kids on 2 wheelers of who could hop higher and more times in a row… Now up to 6 hops and ride away, can turn 90 degrees to the left (havent tried right), can hop left or right sideways, and they guessed that I was clearing 6 inches high!!!
Make your challenges and practice more fun somehow and it will relax you! Take your mind off your flailing using some method for now (MP3 Player? Gum?, playing banjo )
I sometimes join the bicycle polo crowd and it certainly improves my ride-in-busy-pedestrian-mall type skills. But like you I find it hard to practice those same skills purely as drills.
I took to commuting on a 20" first. I had a steep uphill, and only 5 minutes riding (half a mile). When I moved, I had a 15 to 20 minute ride to get to campus (at university) but it was mainly flat.
That is when I changed to the 29". It then only took 12 to 14 minutes to ride in. I quickly learnt that it is safer to ride a 29" on the road than on the pavement: nothing coming in the wrong direction, better visibility round corners and more space. Oh, and it is also not worth riding with an expensive media player in your pocket, even if setting it up uses your arms instead of leaving them to flail.
I also do the arm in front thing when riding. Far more the case when riding at speed, but then I have spoken to “pros” about this, and they do it too. Something to do with reacting to unforseen bumps.
Firstly, thanks for the encouragement/support. You guys are all awesome, even repraH, whom I notice hasen’t committed to quiting just yet;).
Two things I’ve done have made a marked improvement in my riding. I quit obsessing over ‘how fast am i riding?’ and I’ve quit worrying about UPDs. I mean, who really cares? I’m doing this because it’s supposed to be fun. Besides, a UPD is just another opportunity to practice free mounts.
After 2 weeks of commuting about half the time, I’m finding the motivation getting easier. Dig deep if you have to and just DO IT. You won’t regret it.
I’m finding this to be key for any distance. If I can stay relaxed I’m MUCH less tired when I get to work. I’m trying to really concentrate on this and it makes a huge difference; when I can do it. It seems to improve a little bit week to week.
I seem to do this too, only, it’s not like it relaxes me, like holding a beer (mmm, beer:)). I really feel like I’m riding quite crooked sometimes and it’s a struggle to go straight. Sometimes I even feel like the uni is tilted a bit to one side or the other and I’m fighting it. It seems like what I’ve read about road crown issues but it happens with the SLIGHTEST tilt to the road surface. Any thoughts here would be really helpful. Tire pressure? I’m running a 29" Big Apple at about 40 psi. It feels pretty hard.
I’m afraid to ask…
One last thing. On my ride home from the parade (bike parade downtown yesterday) I tried to ride with both hands lightly grabbing the seat handle. I actually rode for a couple of blocks like that. First time ever. I was using up more road width trying to stay in balance but I did it.
Hi, Colin.
Yes, you have me tagged right. She took her uni over to Thailand and Myanmar last Christmas.
I look forward to catching up with you when I’m back in Australia.
On the flailing arms deal, I’m finding I do a little flail when I’m freemounting, but am fairly flail-free once I get some motion going. Over here, with gap-seeking tin-top missiles, flailing has some constraints applied.
Good job, UD.
I think this is a good exercise. I frequently ride with one hand on the front of the seat (when I remember), and bringing the second hand down there, provides a reminder of the balance issues going on.
I can see, from riding in that position, how beneficial a handlebar could be, even without considering changing body position, etc.
I much prefer riding on the road over here (Singapore) to riding on the footpath. There is a lot of traffic, but it generally gives some space to me (which is more than the vehicles do to each other), and the road surfaces are excellent. The footpaths, however, are often afterthoughts, generally initiated by needing to cover monsoon drains, and pedestrians are a little less predictable.
It’s a good feeling getting from A to B on a unicycle, and B to A works well, too…
I’m finding a handlebar to be very helpful. I’ve used it more on my 36 than the 29, but for both it seems to add some stability, and avoid flailing arms and body twisting. So far I mostly just have one hand out on the bar. I suspect a longer handle bar is probably more and more helpful the taller your torso is – picture a triangle from shoulder to handle location to seat – the angles will change with height of shoulder & length of handle. I also like the KH handle bar for mounting my brake – now I just need to get better at actually using the brake.
OK. A few people seem to have the problem of asymetry - so probably it is a common problem.
For what it is worth, an easier way out is to put one hand (dominant?) on the front of the seat. It still looks cool and relaxed, and means you don’t have to fight it.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that I find the asymetry I have on the regular uni manifests itself so much more on the giraffe, I would have taken that easy route myself. It really is only that the giraffe makes it impossible to hide the problem. And so looks S-O-O-O daggy.
If you can’t ride with a hand on the front (or behind on the back if you want) it really is easy to become comfortable with it, albeit after it may feel a bit queer initially. It is also a necessary prelude to hopping.
In case I forget to mention it when we get to ride with each other, I will be VERY interested to hear some detail on how she packed and transported the uni. Did she get a special box for it? What were the airlines requiremetns? Did she have to give prior notification? etc. If I forget to ask when we get to gether, pls remind my addled brain.
Some time when you are riding and the sun is EXACTLY behind you, check your shadow and see if your shoulders are level at the same height. Ir is important in this test though to be riding EXACTLY away from the sun. (Five or ten degrees off - like you might get as you ride the path - will not suffice. Try it on a netball or tennis court where you have exact control over your direction.)
Furthermore, when the sun is very high above you (so your shadow is almost below you - between 11:00am and 1:00pm - check that your shoulders are straight across. Not with one leading and one trailing.
If you pass on both of these, then I am envious. If not, then at least you know. It is then your choice what you do about it.
). You just have to trust yourself, and use your inner thighs to hold the unicycle straight-ish.
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