I think the only unicycle I regularly idle on is the 24" hockey unicycle, I mostly ride that hands free (it doesn’t have a handle anyway). I can idle the coker, but it’s way more effort than hopping + stillstanding. I idle the muni every so often if I’m waiting for people to catch up, but while I’m actually riding I’ll pretty much never use an idle, a quick hop is more useful as you stay in the power position.
Idling is useful for circus tricks like juggling on a uni and for playing hockey, but not so important if you ride to get somewhere rather than to do freestyle tricks.
I think hop stilstands are less effort than idling if you’ve got them right, cos most of the time you’re doing nothing, and you only do a tiny hop every few seconds. I’d guess the people saying idling is easier aren’t muni or trials riders, so aren’t used to doing stillstands and weeny corrective hops and hop like people used to do which takes more effort, with lots of hops and big hops.
I’ve seen the Kris Holm video on hop-stillstanding
I do occasionally give it a try. Hopping at all on a uni where the tire won’t even compress when you try to squish it with your fingers is harder I guess. I’m going to look into hop-idling when I get my muni in a few days, mostly because with a larger, squishier tire, it’ll probably be annoying to do the micro-turns required to keep an idle going, and easier to do the little corrective hops.
Also, my giraffe is at the lbs getting a smaller gear put on it. I might end up with a 40" theoretical wheel, and frankly, I don’t want to idle that.
On small light unicycles with higher tire pressures, idling is still a good skill to have.
