Hi I have been riding for about a month and a half now and have been working on freemounting. I have watched and read as many of the videos and articles I found on the subject but I am not understanding the “jump” in the Static Mount with the foot that isn’t on the pedal. I can’t seem to be able to jump without putting weight on the foot on the pedal.
I don’t know if I am missing something and there is another way to somehow pivot the frame up or if I am just not understanding the concept. I have watched the video from unimyra about putting pressure on the seat but even then it doesn’t seem to help to get weight off of the foot on the pedal. All the videos I have seen make it seem like they somehow just pivot the frame up with them on it.
Any sort of suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
Took me a while to get the hang of this one - I started by doing it with the back of my wheel against a curb. That way, even if you do push back on the pedal, it won’t roll back much if at all.
Next, try to imagine you’re jumping over the uni. Use your leg on the floor to provide all the spring, as opposed to the one on the pedal doing any pushing.
On anything less than a 36er, I think of it more as a squat and push off the rear leg. I don’t jump. I begin by squatting down until the seat starts taking most of the weight. At this point, I push forward with my rear leg. If you’ve got a front bumper or a handle, I would think about applying pressure to this as you push forward.
Thinking about it as a jump always screws me up. For me, the key is the drop. If I don’t get low enough, I tend to throw myself over the unicycle.
That makes sense. After work today I will definitely be trying and thinking of it like that. The whole concept of jumping up seems to throw me off and I put too much pressure on the wrong foot.
I will definitely be trying with my wheel up against a curb or something like that also I think that would also be beneficial to get the feeling at least.
I slightly lift the foot (on the pedal) up and forward as I jump up with the other foot that was on the ground. This usually helps me from putting too much weight on the first foot. Also quickly shift your weight up and forward over the seat. It takes lots of practice!
You don’t need to jump at all on anything smaller than a 29". It’s a bit difficult to describe how to do it. I start with the frame leaning sligthly in my direction. Then I put one foot on the back pedal. After that I kind of push the saddle “down” with the force going straight through the seatpost down to the wheel. Because the frame is leaning in my direction while pushing down, the wheel would move forward. With the foot on the back pedal you block this movement. In this position you can lift off your other foot and put it on the front pedal. When you have distributed your weight correctly (a little bit on the back pedal and the rest pushing the saddle down) this last step can happen quite slowly.
Static mount was the fourth or fifth mount I learned. I started doing it well when I was able to hold the seat with both hands during mounting, thus providing the amount of ‘push’ to counteract the ‘pull’ of the first foot on the pedal. For beginners, who are holding their hands out in the air, creating this isometric balance with their butt…is difficult. You might try raising your seat a little bit, using the curb method described above, or by practicing mounting on a downhill. For beginners, I suggest using ‘any’ mount which works for you. For me, that was a tire grab mount…not for everybody, but worked reliably for me. Later on the static mount will come.
I’ve been riding for about six months now but I only learned to static mount successfully and consistently within the last month.
As others have said, think of it as less of a “jump” and more of a step. The motion, for me, is mostly in the pelvis. I try to keep all my weight centered in the saddle and off the pedals, even with the mounting foot.
Thanks for all the comments! I have been practicing now for a bit and I think I am finally getting the feeling of it properly. I can do the rollback mount to a degree but I don’t always care for the feeling of instantly having to rollback to get into the proper pedal position.
Yeah Pierrox that is the tutorial that has helped me the most so far.
I seem to have an easier time with the static mount on my 24in over the 20in since no matter what I do on the 20in I cannot stop the wheel from moving like I can on the 24in.
Learning the static mount I found deliberately missing the front pedal and stepping right over it to land the front foot on the ground helpful as a learning drill.
I like unimyra’s video too. And anotherjohn makes the point well about getting weight onto the seat to offset the torque from stepping on the back pedal, although everyone’s been hinting at that one way or another.
Static mounting seemed like a total mystery for a while for me too. Part of it, I think, is that beginning riders don’t put much weight on the seat, for quite understandable reasons. But it’s hard to learn until you get that. Ride more and it will become more a natural actual. You’ll also get better at catching your balance and riding away from less than perfect mounts, which is at least half the trick.
I got it on a 24" unicycle first as well, maybe the only skill I learned first on that one. Having a wheel that rolled farther for x degrees of rotation meant that it backed up more and jammed the seat up where it needed to be harder. After I had recovered from the initial pain it began to make more sense.
I learnt the static mount (unimyra style) by holding on to fences and poles with one hand to stabilise. As I got better at it I needed less and less support until I could do it without holding anything.
Me too! I started with the the rollback mount and only learned the static mount more than a year later. One important difference between the two is that with the rollback mount, you jump upwards and bring the wheel under you, but with the static mount, you jump a lot more forwards.
My static mount on a 20" begins with my left crank slightly above horizontal. I still can’t do it on a 29," or starting with my right foot, even though I can now do all my other mounts on either side. The static mount is useful, even essential, for team sports because it’s quick (if your pedals happen to be in the right position) and because it doesn’t take up space, but I definitely don’t recommend learning it first. Many people do, though. Whatever works.
it began to make more sense.