The last free-mount thread was from 2016 or something.
I’ve been riding many years, but every time still when not riding for a few months, the free-mounting gets really frustrating.
Four years ago our son was born and in these past 4 years I haven’t had much time for unicycling or any sport for that matter. I also have a full-time job and in my spare time I need to look after the kids while my wife works.
Every now and then I find some spare time to ride, and whether it be my trials uni or 26" muni, I kind of don’t dare to take the leap of faith right away and get on and ride away.
It takes 5 or 6 times before I feel comfortable of staying put. Naturally once I actually sit it feels right again and I can ride several hundred metres or kilometres, but just the free-mounting is a problem every time.
Do others also experience this or are there any tips other than just getting through the drama and try to ride as much as possible.
The best solution is to lead them all into unicycling, so you’ll have many opportunities to unicycle regularly.
I’m fortunately not suffering of the freemount problem. The 36er is a bit different for quite obvious reasons. Because of its height I’m not able to “casually” mount it like my other unis, and the start of the ride isn’t always smooth and predictable. That said, objectively this works at the first try nine out of ten times.
Maybe there’s a different type of freemount that is easier for you. You could do some intensive freemount training - that could lead to a breakthrough moment where you realise wherein your main problem with freemounting exactly lies. You could also try different crank lengths to see if you’re more comfortable with longer or shorter cranks.
Terry has videos on that subject. Here’s one for the 36er, but that could be helpful for mounting other size unicycles too:
Hey Setx,
Are you talking about the “trad” 3-9 o’clock(flat pedal) step up free mount?
That is not an easy mount and requires commitment, feel and “regular” doing.
I will let you reply back before I unleash my venom about that method and everyone who espouses it. Yes, I have tried that and nearly broke my knee caps.
Then I will talk about the easier more/reliable method the rock back mount or “half-idle” mount, which I will also shut up about for now.
Since you can already ride the uni, I’d highly recommend that you give rolling mounts a shot. Walk forward, unicycle in front of you, at about the pace that you’d be rolling if you were on the wheel. Keep your eyes on the pedals as you walk, when the pedal of your preferred mounting foot reaches the bottom let it roll just a second longer, step onto it very gently, push off from your other foot and bring it to the other pedal, immediately start pedaling forwards. Since your feet hit pedals when they’re neither vertical or horizontal you have free range of motion in both directions. Since you’re already walking forwards and do a slight kick off to step up onto the forward pedal, you already have momentum to begin leaning and pedaling forwards.
Rolling mounts are a big help, especially if you intend to move onto bigger wheels.
Well I still can’t reliably freemount, ~4 years after getting my first uni. Most of that is my own fault-- I get very little practice time, and I find freemount practice to have a "high struggle-to-fun ratio*, so mostly i just tried to get better at riding with the little time I had instead as that was more enjoyable.
I got a 20er recently and statrted practicing idling instead. I feel like i am really close to getting that one down. Maybe I will be one of a small group who can idle, but not freemount
Actually I am hoping being able to idle will make mounting much easier, as @slamdance points out, a rollback mount is a half idle mount.
When you wake up one morning and discover that your wheel is to big, your cranks to short or more likely, both, then idlemount is NOT your friend.
When your wheel barely moves when you step up on those pedals, then static mount is your friend indeed. No risk to your kneecaps whatsoever!
It sounds like you are riding way to long cranks!
I think both idle mount and static mount should be used regularily. Idle mount is great for flats, but static mount is my go-to because it allows you to mount in really challenging conditions, with some practice. Downhill is quite easy. Idle mount is not an option here. Bumpy grass, holes etc. may also trap your wheel while attempting an idle mount. Uphill is difficult, but doable with a static mount and a twist.
Edit: Yes. Static mount is unreliable, in the sense that when switching wheel size or crank length, I often miscalculate and fail the mount first try. Or when I am tired. You kinda need to know the response of the uni before you commit to the mount. This is the main advantage of idle-mount. You get to feel the response before you commit to the mount.
You could also add that it’s good to master both since roll back is much easier that static if you’re facing uphill, and vice-versa if you’re facing downhill.
Hi Slam, the 3-9 method is more like a 4-10 or 5-11 method. The front pedal needs to be higher than the back pedal. While I get on the wheel will roll backwards say 5 minutes if we talk in this terminology, anyways. So then it is a mixture of static and roll-back mount.
Then my first movement is always a side-ways sway to the left, which will give me the momentum to continue. Yesterday I took the trials again, coz the kids came along with their kick scooters and with any other wheel I am too fast for them, but again from the start it took a while to free-mount.
As soon as I get on and do a few hundred metres and step off, then the static free-mount hits 9 out of 10. So basically it is the cold free-mount that is the problem, and not the warmed-up free-mount
As for crank length, I run with 150mm on the 26, 29, 32 and 36, so when doing the static mount, the other pedal will always be at the same distance. I have dual hole cranks too, but with inclines, I prefer the 150’s. Also I don’t care much for high speed trips. I prefer just leisure rides. Static mounts have never hurt my knees.
Hi PuzzleMax, now that you describe this, I have tried this while learning to mount the 36". In the end I decided that the 5-11 method was easier, even though it feels contradictory coz you won’t have any momentum that way. Nevertheless I will give it a shot again. Thanks.
I am an older riders that rode as a kid and started back later in life. for me free mounting was an on again off again skill for a long time. I feel it is very much a two part equation , one part proper technique and one part confidence.
What I taught myself as a kid was a roll back mount and took to it very easily when I started back riding. While at a unicycling event a couple of wise crackers felt the need to passive aggressively joke about my mounting style and my 1970’s 24 inch Schwinn. It shouldn’t have but it broke down my confidence a bit. After that I taught my self to mount with my cranks at 3:00 and 9:00 which I continued with mixed results for a few years, always struggling when mounting in front of people. I became very determined to fix this and I will share with you how I accomplished my goal . I started with my 24 nimbus muni in a private space where it was just me and my unicycle, I applied the principals that I knew and repetitively practiced with success and failures over and over, several days a week for a month.
I practiced mounting, landing my feet in the right placement and riding off over and over again in a small private space. I then practiced adjusting my self in the saddle and adjusting my feet.while riding off. After I was confident and could do this comfortably over and over I moved to my 26er, going then to my 29er and then on to my 32. The key was for me to practice and build confidence without an audience. I now can mount very consistently and confidently . You can do this in a garage a basement or an alley way, anywhere you can zone in without outside distractions.
Whatever technique you choose, take the time to learn proper execution and take the time to practice and build your confidence, for me confidence was the true key, it will come to you.
I like videos from Unimyra and Hobo Dan, both have videos that give good tips and also show you their learning curves, successes and failures, falls and all, check them out on YouTube . Best of luck
Confidence plays a big part in my mounts as well. I prefer to ride where there aren’t so many peeps, but The Netherlands is a small country and there are people everywhere. Even at 6-7 am those that want to walk their dogs. Unicycling is a niche sport and where ever you practice it, there are peeps around who stop to look. When trying to mount, I always look around to see if there are any people around, because it makes me feel stupid when I fail the mount.
I know I shouldn’t care and ignore glances and remarks, but I’d rather not have them. I learned unicycling at a big parking lot in DK at a fitness centre. Expecially in the evenings when the centre was closed it was the perfect spot to do my own thing. Here it is harder to find such a place.
Oh something else I do when mounting is turning the pedal the right way, so my foot will land on the flat side, because I fear my foot will slide over if I would land on the narrow edge of the pedal. Do yous adjust the front pedal as well before free-mounting?
It depends if I bother to adjust the pedal to flat position. Sometimes, most times not. If they are completely wrong I usually do it (I don’t want to put my foot on the short side) or of the mounting conditions are sketchy.
A static 3-to-9 mount is my default mount for pretty much every wheel size I have, and for the most part it’s the only mount I really know (apart from being able to do rollback mounts on my smaller wheels when I want to mix it up a bit). When I’m accustomed to whatever wheel I’m riding I usually have no problem mounting either the first or second try, except the 36er which might take me one try or ten depending on my luck on that particular day
Usually I do yeah. I figure a second of my time is worth it to avoid mounting with my foot in a funny position when I do eventually get it flat on the pedal
On the 36er, yes, because getting up there is hard enough by itself. On the smaller unis, only in difficult circumstances, but very rarely. I watch the pedal before I mount, though, and if it‘s way off from being horizontal I usually decide in advance, which way I will rotate it when placing my foot on it. The movement and angle of the foot is then adjusted accordingly.
I’ve decided the not being able to mount from the start has everything to do with lack of confidence. Today went 10K with the 26" and though it took about 5 times from the start, all free-mounts after having ridden happened in 1 go. Also the 150mm cranks feel like hitting home.
Though halfway the ride, my mind must have been wandering. I was riding on a flat asphalt cycle path without bumps, yet all of a sudden my balance was gone and I UPD’d. I’ve no idea why. Just landed on my feet and static-free-mounted and took off again.
Many years ago I was relatively new to my 28", confident in riding, but suddenly I lost contact to both pedals shortly before normal dismount. The problem was that I had perfect balance and didn’t know to which side to UPD. 1m-2m of freewheeling and I landed backwards on the floor.
I idle mounted the 28".
There‘s a thread about one‘s scariest unicycling moment. That was one of two that came to my mind. I was a boy, learning to unicycle and would start off a wall with only about 4 meters to ride before running into a 50cm wall and some bushes. I UPD‘d a lot, of course, but once it happened that I was off the pedals with my feet, yet I continued to move with no way to get off the uni - and the wall with the bushes kept coming closer and closer… This loss of control was indeed very scary for this then novice in unicycling. I don‘t quite remember the outcome but suspect nothing bad happened, otherwise I would not have forgotten about it (yes, bad things often tend to be harder to forget than good things, don‘t they?).
