Seeing as there isn’t an introductions section, I figured I might as well post an intro here!
I just bought my first unicycle tonight, and I just got in from an hour and half of riding. I have to admit, it is odd how fun something can be even when you suck so bad that 5 feet is almost an unrealistic goal… oh well.
I even had my first “you forgot a wheel!” joke yelled at me today from across the road… I hadn’t even ridden the unicycle yet.
But yeah, I guess that’s all. If anyone from Edmonton is interested in going for a ride, I should hopefully be ready in a month or so
Ciao!
PS: Shin pads are a godsend. I am so happy that I used to freeride and have a pair handy, or else I would have swiss cheese legs right now.
5 feet is a good goal, after that, start doing destinations goals, across your driveway, across the street, down the block, forever.
A few tips on rising, is to put a lot of weight on your seat, assuming your a guy, junk goes in front of you so your not sitting on anything. Straight back, and swing your arms as much as you need to to keep balance.
Any chaffing you get on your thighs is normal, its the seat rubbing on your legs from pedaling, but you’ll get used to it, and will go away and not happen anymore.
Glad you already ahve shinguards. They will save you some money, blood, and give you some extra courage knowing you wont get hurt badly.
I’ve been reading the 35 day journal by dudewithasock, so I’m getting all the tips from that.
Thankfully I have a fair bit of mountain bike experience, which at least helps somewhat with my balance. I am also not being truly fair to myself… I had one freak accident where I somehow managed to pull about 10’… then I fell because I was so amazed with myself.
Oh oh. Another Canadian is learning to unicycle. Canadians learn too quickly and get too good. Has there ever been a Canadian unicyclist who doesn’t have amazing skills?
Welcome Bennedetto.
I read The Dude’s journal as I learnt too (earlier this year). It let me know I wasn’t doing quite so badly as I thought and gave some good tips along the way. Most importantly, it was written so much from the heart that I was able to feel pride in his first successes as I read of them, and felt inspired to keep trying until I could feel the same for myself.
Dudewithasock, I reckon you have written one of the most important documents in unicycling history.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I still mountain bike, and will most likely continue to do so.
Which leads me to a question: does continuing to ride a regular bicycle hamper one’s ability to ride a unicycle? Or does it really not make much of an impact?
I simply meant that in my worldview, there are two kinds of people.
Those who can ride a unicycle, and ‘the others’.
With you purchasing one and setting out on the path to learning, even getting as far as 10 feet, I thought it was a good time to indicate that there is now ‘one more of us and one less of them’.
Two quick things.
We are an extremely tolerant online society here (and keep it that way by kicking the crap out of the intolerant ones!), we do ask that if you are going to mention one of the ‘evil ones’ on the forum, you use a * instead of the i, as in ‘b*ke’, just to keep things tidy you understand.
(Somebody will be along shortly to tell you that you can actually ignore me if you so choose.)
The other things is more serious.
Many unicyclists, myself included, have mentioned that we will happily ‘unlearn’ our ability to ride the unicycle just so we can once again experience the thrill of going from 10yards to 100yards for the first time.
That thrill still lies on your path.
Look out for it.
Enjoy it.
It is probably the closest to flying you will ever come in this life.
And I promise you, once you finish that run, you’ll understand why I say ‘one more of us and one less of them’.
There is no harm in mixing bicycling and unicycling other than the time spent on a bicycle is not time spent on the unicycle. We joke about bkes being a taboo subject, but that is just in jest. Many of us here also bicycle to some degree. I have a MTB and a singlespeed/fixie road bike. Bkes are fun and useful in their own way.
The only time I’ve found that unicycling and bicycling can cause issues is if you mountain bike and muni. When I muni on singletrack trails I often take a different line than the bikes just because on the unicycle I can. I can cut to the inside of corners on the muni without worrying about the rear wheel. Bikes have to swing wide on tight corners cause the rear wheel doesn’t exactly follow the front wheel. That causes a problem when I get on the MTB and try to take the same lines around corners as I do on the muni. When I do that on the bke I can end up hitting my shoulder on trees or riding the bke off the trail. Because of that I can be a klutz on the MTB. But I’m a muni rider first and a mountain biker a distant second.
I’ve been riding the singlespeed/fixie road bike around a lot recently. That seems to have given me some new strengths and some new fitness that I didn’t have before. Pedaling a bike is different than pedaling a unicycle so it works different muscles and gives you some different fitness.
Last week I did a muni ride that includes a 1200 vertical foot climb. I did the climb faster than I have ever before. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been riding the fixie around or what. But playing on the road bike didn’t hurt my muni riding. Did the climb in grand style and finished the 12 mile muni ride feeling better than I have in the past.
Wow… I’ve never seen so many posts in an intro thread!
A small update… it seems I have already broken my new toy
One of the cranks is coming loose, and the other is completely missing the bolt that holds it on (yet is still firmly attached… hmm)
I’m gonna eat some supper and then head off to the bke shop (see I got it!) and have them fix it up. I’m just going to assume something was put on backwards… dumb bke techs not knowing front from back!
That actually wouldnt be surprising. Ive had bike shops put the seat on so the left crank ends up on the right, so the pedals unscrew themselves and strip the cranks.
