Now that I’m actually riding for some distance each time I ride (usually 100-300 feet or so), I’m noticing something that’s happening with my feet, and I’m wondering if it’s indicating a problem.
I always start with the balls of my feet on the pedals, pointing straight forward. But they seem to “creep” a bit. By the time I UPD (or PD, if I’m getting tired), I’m usually pedalling with my arches directly over the pedals, and my toes are usually pointed out slightly.
I’m not moving my feet intentionally. In fact, when I try to move them intentionally, I usually get very wobbly and/or fall off, because I don’t seem to have enough control yet to be able to keep the pedal revolutions going without pedalling forward with both feet.
So I’m wondering a few things. Is this normal, or does it indicate a problem? Should I just start out with my arches on the pedals instead of the balls of my feet? Since I’m used to riding a two-wheeled vehicle, it feels wrong to be pedalling with my feet farther forward, but is it better/more natural/whatever when riding a one-wheeled vehicle?
Keep practicing. You’ll be able to move your feet all over eventually. I have a bicycling background too, so I still pedal on the balls of my feet when riding a uni. I think a lot of the trials riders that do a lot of jumps tend to ride more on their arches. I don’t know that one way is always better than the other. It just depends on what types of things you’re doing on your uni.
If your average ride is 100-300’ it’s too early to worry about the small stuff. Your feet aren’t yet ready to relax and make circles to match the pedals. As the riding becomes more controlled in general, all this stuff will probably clear up automatically.
If it doesn’t by the time you can ride a quarter mile consistently, please offer your shoe tread type, pedal type and seat height in relation to leg extension. All of those are factors in pedal grip. Is your seat too low?
That’s good to hear. I thought that might be the case, but I didn’t want to let a bad habit/practice/problem get out of hand.
I think it’s about right. With my heel on the pedal, my leg is mostly extended. I might try it a half-inch to an inch higher, but I think it’s about right where it is.
I’ll take a picture of the pedal. Apparently, my brother-in-law, who works in a bike shop and assembled the unicycle, didn’t think the stock pedals that came with the unicycle (a Sun 24") would take much abuse, so he swapped them out for some pedals that were on a mountain bike that someone had just returned. When he saw how scraped up they were after hundr-- er, a few UPDs, he told me that he was pretty sure he’d made the right decision.