I am delighted to have found this wonderful forum. This is my first post. I have been trying on and off to learn how to unicycle for 6 years. Six years ago, when my oldest daughter was eight, I bought her and myself unicycles. She learned how to do it quickly, but I could never do it. Six years later, I tried it again with a younger daughter (5 years old). She learned it quickly. I wanted to try again, but thought that I was too old (58) and that I might break a wrist. But after reading entries from similarly ancient people on this forum, I went ahead and tried again. I used my older daughter’s 20” unicycle, and that helped a lot.
I practice half an hour each night, at 11:00, after wife and all kids are asleep. I must look like a total weirdo; this ghostly geezer in a reflective vest riding and falling on the deserted street. After lots of practicing on the back porch between rows of chairs, I finally was able to do it. Now I am getting reasonably good at free mounting; by the end of a session, I can do lots of free mounts in a row.
I have had only bad bumps and bruises, but no broken bones. From lots of bloody scrapes, I have learned to armor up with all the knee/elbow/wrist/ helmet pads; just when I think that I’m getting good enough that I don’t need the pads, I fall flat on the pavement. Unicycling is a wonderfully humbling activity.
I’m having a total blast. I’m very grateful for the information and inspiration that I get from this forum. Thank you all for your contributions. It’s wonderful that such a community exists.
Boy, doesn’t that just say it? Just when you think things are going just right, down you go! Not only that, but some of my worst falls have been in the parking lot, before I even get to the trail!
Welcome to the forum! Glad to see you are in a “flexible frame” regarding learning and progressing. I have every confidence that you will be a skilled rider soon. (This coming from another “senior” rider. :p)
Could I get some expert advice? I’m getting pretty good now at turning and free mounting. I working now at riding while holding onto the saddle handle with one hand, rather than waving both hands around. What should I work on next?
Looking back at my own unicycle skills acquisition, “what next” was quite particular to my unicycling environment. For example, my street has no curbs; instead, there are gutters of sorts on the edges of the street. For me, learning to ride across them was a challenge. Most people don’t have this kind of feature in their environment. For them it is something different. There are trails in my neighborhood, and it was only a matter of time before I wanted to ride up and down them.
Now that you’re holding on with one hand, riding on resistant surfaces with small obstacles to ride over…might be a next step.
After reading a bunch of posts on the site, the next challenge I’m taking up is to learn to ride slow. Since that means that I fail and fall off a lot, it also means that I’m practicing a lot of free mounts.