A normal uni was to normal for me. I could not resist and wanted a girafe for a long time… So finaly I got one…
I can ride it okay…( I have been riding only a few time, got it for less than a week…) No tricks yet…
However I’m looking for pointer how how to get on top of the damn thing without any outside help. (I know it can be done, but I have yet to realize it)
Right now the Landing are my first precocupation. It is something else to dismount when you are rifing on top of a 6 feet pole monted on a wheel… My contact with the ground are more crashes than merly just stepping down.
Freemounting a giraffe is quite hard. The way I have been taught to do it is as follows:
*Wedge your foot that you don’t mount with first between the frame and the tire.
*Next, bring your free foot to the pedal on its side.
*After that, quickly bring the foot that was previously wedged between the frame and tire to the other pedal.
*Idle until you can put the seat under you.
*After the seat is under you, continue riding.
It takes a lot of practice, but it looks good once you get it.
On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 22:41:29 -0500, “digitalattrition” wrote:
>*Idle until you can put the seat under you.
Personally I can’t freemount a giraffe, but I doubt that the bit
quoted above is recommended practice. Search the forum for giraffe and
freemount and I think you will see that you put the seat under you as
part of the mount, without prior idling. Anything seat-out is
difficult on a giraffe!
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“The more you think, the less you have to do. - Leo Vandewoestijne”
I mean that you need to keep your balance up until you get the seat under you. I didn’t mean that one should idle seat out on a giraffe for practice. Idling just seemed to help me out some. Also, the other guys that I have seen freemount a giraffe have done this (I learned it from a stage performer named Larry Vee).
The tutorial on www.unicycle.2ya.com that Peter mentioned before is for mounting a 5’ giraffe. From what I gather, the best way to ‘step up’ mount a 6’er is to wedge on foot against the frame and on top of the tyre, then do what’s shown in the video. You can rolling mount a 6’er too but apparently it’s quite a bit harder.
Have a go at one foot idling on your giraffe. That’s the first ‘trick’ I learned on mine. I actually find it easier on a giraffe to do it (and idling in general) smoother and with a smaller footprint because, being a lot higher, it takes so much longer for the thing to lose balance.
All I’ve got is a six footer and I always run jump mount it. I still can’t do the climb up The most helpful hint, (as dumb a it seems) is to jump really high. Like, your hardest. Then just force it to be ridden…
This is from someone who never worked out the climb-up mount.
For the regular (climb-up) mount, you don’t need to jump high at all. A running mount is more spectacular, but harder to learn and harder on the equipment as well.
You put one pedal at the bottom, step on the tire with the opposite foot, then on the pedal, then get up on the seat, then put your second foot on the other pedal and push it rearward. If you’re still upright at this point, you ride away.
Do a search on freemount or giraffe freemount (note the “ff”) to find much more detailed instructions.
well spotted klaas
putting your second foot on the pedal before getting your butt on the saddle will hamper your freemounting for a long, long time
in case u haven’ this thread might be handy
it also includes a link to the thread i actually wanted to link u to
that’s the one with DUANER’s description of the raffie freemount
I am in a similar situation, recently getting a giraffe (a Torker 5ft.) a
few weeks ago. It has taken me quite a few attempts, but I have finally
gotten a few successful mounts. The technique that works best for me is
the side mount. I put the left pedal down, right foot on the tire. Step up
quickly, once the left foot is on the left pedal, it becomes a regular
side mount. I tried this after watching the tall unicycle section of the
video “One Wheel No Limit”.
For me my first attempts were failures because I was not comfortable
riding the thing in the first place. After a few hours of ladder mount
riding, I am able to at least get in the seat most free mount attempts.
My success rate is about 2/10.
