Howdy! I bought my 24" Torker in June and since then have been training a lot on riding and freestyle tricks, and now I can say I master one-foot pedaling, wheelwalking, backwards riding, idling, onefoot wheelwalking, seat-out-in-front and hopping.
I’ve now been practicing on gliding for a couple of weeks, and I can do some ten meters. Sometimes I get it going nicely but maintaining the right pressure on the tire still needs a lot working on.
I’d like to ask you gliding pros, how long did it take you to get it going in a natural and smooth way? Does it become so ‘automatic’ at some point, that you can just roll down hills whistling and watching the flowers as you go? At the point when I was still learning to ride, I had to keep all my concentration on riding and I thought I would always have to. Now after a few months of continuous riding it goes almost as easily as riding a bicycle. I wonder if this happens with gliding too? I’d also like to know what is your average speed when gliding?
btw., I’ve found that a rather easy way of getting into glide is to transition to wheelwalk by slowing down and putting the non-dominant foot on the tire when the pedal comes up and after that setting the other foot on the tire too, then taking one step with both feet to get the non-dominant foot on the crown and the other one on the tire. Do you know of an easier tehnique?
cheers!
Sorry,I cant Glide.can barley even wheel walk,so i cant help you there.Do you mean to say that you learned how to unicycle in june!!!And now your gliding?If so WOW!
I have noticed (with regular riding) how at first your concentrating and once you get better you just ride along automaticlly
Sorry I cant help you.ive been trying to learn wheel walking,but im not trying to hard.Good Luck on gliding!!
Yes I received my Torker in june, and since then I’ve been uni’ing a lot, almost everyday. It has taken a lot of training to be able to wheelwalk, but it has definately been worth the effort! Looking at the unicycling levels list, I’m barely at level 3 now, since I haven’t really practiced on the things that are needed to advance on the levels. I’ve concentrated on the skills that most appeal to me and practiced them day after day. I’ve noticed, though, that along with practicing the more advanced skills your ability to control the unicycle generally gets better too.
Try dedicating one or two training days (almost) only for wheelwalking and I’m sure you’d get it right!
Thanks !
I would be level 6 if only i could wheel walk.I think maybe i will practice more.i can W.W one revolution of the wheel than get back on the pedals but thats about it.I’ve just done what i wanted to,instead of following the levels.I also MUni alot and trials.wish i could help you with gliding.
I pulled my first succesful landing on pedals from wheelwalk just two days ago. I had never really practiced that before, but it took many tries, wasn’t that easy after all.
I mUni and trials quite a lot too. Mainly I spend my uniing time practicing on the street skills though. How lame it is now when the school started. Not much time for uniing anymore Actually, I should be making an essay of ‘electric cars - the future of commuting?’ (or something like that) right now.
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I’m at basically the same place, but my wheel walking is really erratic. Sometimes I can go 50 feet, and the next time, 10 feet. When I start sketching my feet start moving like Fred Flintstone and I quickly go out of control (way too fast). And just now my balance isn’t good enough to go super slow with any consistancy. Practicing WWing is boring (for me), but I’ve got to get this consequent to learning to glide so I don’t have to peddle down all the fire roads around here (Santa Monica Mountains) while MUning. Any hints on smoothly getting back to the pedles is most welcome.
I have heard of two ways of returning to the pedals from wheel walking. One way is to one foot wheel walk, then put the non-wheel walking foot on the corresponding pedal when it is near the top. Although this seems to work well for some people, I have never tried it. I usually return to the pedals by wheel walking normally and as smoothly as possible, waiting until the right pedal is between 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock. Then I place my right foot on it smoothly and firmly push it all the way down. Now the left pedal is at 12 o’clock and I place my left foot on it and ride off. The most important thing to remember is to wheel walk smoothly and fairly slowly. The hard part is getting the first pedal in the correct position. I think this is a good method because it is basically the reverse of going into wheel walking.
On the subject of gliding, does anyone have any suggestions on how to glide without ripping all the tread of the tire and wearing through the sole of the shoe? I was trying to learn gliding, but gave it up because I was ruining my tire and shoe.
unicycling since june and you can 1 foot wheel walk? the only advice that can be given to you is keep practicing. i learned to glide last months after 7-ish months of hard (daily) riding.
I can glide well(110 revs down hill), or i used to be able to i am unsure now i have not done it in soooo long.There is no point where suddenly your just like gliding as well as you can ride. Though you notice you get faster and faster. Once your shoe is woren it becomes easier. Just stick at it find the best places to glide from in general i found the ball of your foot is quickest and th heel area more controling and slows you down. DO IT DOWN HILL best tip ever!
Ben
Gliding is, in my experience, much easier when going down hill. Nevertheless, it is actually preferable to do it “flatland” since otherwise it doesn’t count for the skill levels. Of course if you have no interest in the skill levels go ahead and do it any way you want. My best glide is only about six meters, so I don’t really no for sure, but I suspect that there eventually comes a point at which gliding requires very little concentration. Certain people have glided farther than a mile or at speeds above 25mph. Anyone who can do this is probably also able to glide without thinking about it very much.
The best way to get comfortable to glide is to have someone pull you. It’s best if they are pulling you on a unicycle so you go at a nice speed but someone could walk/run and pull you to. This helps you get used to how much pressure you need to put on the tire. After doing this, it shouldn’t take long to learn it by yourself. Good luck!
Also, once you learn it well, it is like riding and is pretty easy where you can do it without thinking about it and enjoy the flowers along the way while whistling! Just have to watch the road for any bumps and watch your foot from starting on fire.
tuna6869: I’ll definately try out the pulling technique. It might come a bit frustrating for the person who’s pulling you after tens and tens of UPD’s though ;).
I’m training hard on gliding because my school (senior high) is just a 100 meters away from my home, and it’s all downhill. So it would be cool to come it down gliding every morning, wouldn’t it!
TheBadger587: I had practiced one foot wheelwalking for a few hours until I got a hang of it (something like 1 rev). Then I went for a hill. After many days of training I worked it out to about ten meters of gliding. After all the work on gliding, I realised I could one foot wheelwalk quite well too. It’s nowhere near perfect though, I find myself lying flat-back on the ground very often (well especially when trying to glide)
Thanks to you all for your replies, they’ve provided me and others lots of help!
go downhill! it is easy! I can’t glide in flat ground. gliding on flat was hard and boring for me so I just kept to the downhill. Once you get good you can bump over small roots, off road is fun.
Dan Heaton filmed me from his car gliding downhill for a following shot. He said that I got up to 17mph. It’s not too fast, but it is enough to bend the crank when you crash.
If you are only going to glide downhill raise your seat up as high as you can.
I was gliding today for a couple of hours, and made sort of a break-through on the technique. I realised that you get the lightest and most controlled feel on the tyre when you use only the tip of your toes (not the very tip of the shoe). At least it worked for me on my 24". Other things I’ve found about the placement of the foot: I keep my feet quite near each other so the gliding foot won’t get too stressed. I then bend the gliding foot on the tire in a similiar kind of way that ballet dancers do. This helps keep the foot light like a feather. I made about 30 meters today with this technique.
wait a sec, do you use just your toe, or do you sorta wrap your entire foot around the tire? im still struggling to find the right amount of pressure (90% of the time the pressure is too strong). whenever i very lightly put my foot on the tire, my foot sticks to the tire and thus follows the tire around towards the ground till i run off the front of the uni. ill try your technique of only using my toe to see if i can keep a lighter amount of pressure on the tire. maybe im having so much trouble cuz i have a very knobby tire and shoes with lots of tread.
I have been able to glide for quite a while about 4 months at least i think. I’m getting pretty good at it - i can go forever (well not forever but a long way) on a good hill and just under 40m is my best on flat land. When i’m gliding down a decent hill i don’t have to concentrate hard or anything I’m sureit would never become as natural as normal riding.
Once you get good you upper body doesn’t really move unless you get heaps unbalanced. The key to gliding is using the pressure put on the tyre effectively. Also once you “get good” you’ll find that you put less and less pressure on the tyre and you only need the slightest changes to retain balance. Gradually the steepness of the slope you need will decrease.
That’s good to hear. I’m a very passionate freestyle rider. There is a bit of a lack in freestyle riders on this forum. Stick with it.
Wheel walk until the pedals are at the position u want them to be. Take off you’re dominant foot first. I prefer putting my dominant foot on the pdal when its between 3 and 9 oclock but i can do any orientation. After doing this transition so many times (from ww and glide) it seems so easy that its hard to imagine not being able to do it, i guess thats just the way it is. With practise its not a problem.
Thats best for learning however i find myself rarely doing that now. I like doing flatland gliding now and putting almost no pressure on the tyre. This is really good for coasting. THe more i practise gliding the better i seem to get at coasting even if i don’t practise coasting much.
You don’t know what you’re missing out on…
Well i use the ball of my foot. As for wrapping the foot round the tyre…its not going to happen.
Start on a slope with lots of pressure…but not so strong as to stop the wheel if that makes sense. Decrease pressure once you get good.
I bought a pair of dunlop volleys for $20…wore through them in 2 days!!! I guess you get what you pay for.
My other shoes that cost about $60 or something have not lost any tread and i’ve done a lot of gliding on them. Try and find a shoe that will not lose tread i guess.
THere’s not much you can do about the tyre. I’ve fully worn down 2 tyres but its not that big a deal. I rip tyres of sojme old bmxs in my shed that happen to have 20inch wheels. THey don’t cost that much anyway.
I read your post. Actually I don’t know what ‘ball of foot’ exactly means. Now I guess it means just what I explained in my latest post. Sorry for that.
nickvb123: Thanks for your post, it was very interesting and helpful. What’s your brand of unicycle by the way? I’m thinking of changing to a 20" too. It feels a lot easier to keep control with a smaller tyre.
How is gliding in wet conditions? I can’t do any. The tyre slips off immediately.
I’ll answer the brand one for Nick. It’s a no-name brand. So we have no idea. And it’s really bad aswell. He’s going to be getting a good freestyle uni soon, and he deserves it!
Actually, I should be making an essay of ‘electric cars - the future of commuting?’ (or something like that) right now.