Anyone interested in helping out a total beginner…don’t even have a unicylce yet, but hope to buy one in the next few days…looking.
I come to Vancouver occassionaly. Will be there for sure on the 21st of July and probably the 22nd too, maybe the 20th as well?
Will be in Van on other dates though. Just looking for some people that can help me learn…quickly.
Thanks,
Whistler
Learning quickly is a very general term. As an example my son learned to ride in less than one hour. My wife learned in two months. My cousin which has polio on one leg learned to ride in three weeks. Now to ride with confidence and not fall “upd” most of the time you need several months depending on the person.
My suggestion if you can’t get anyone to help you personally is just to read the forum to get some tips. Learning will happen differently with every person. The real important issue here is to know that not everyone learns at the same speed and that the big clue here is to have patience. The rewards from learning will more than pay for the patience needed to learn to ride.
Get a unicycle and start as soon as possible. Don’t get discouraged, take the challenges with a positive note. When you master this sport you will feel like a very different person. Try to get a good unicycle if you can because they are easier to ride than the cheap ones you can sometimes find on bicycle stores. Go to http://unicycle.com to buy one. I would suggest one similar to this one if you are under six feet tall: http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=634. If you are over six feet tall try a 24 inch wheel. Later down the road you must then decide what your next uni will be. I like road riding so I acquired one of these: http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=1194.
I hope this helps!
Use the search function, there’s loads of newbie tips on this forum.
Just hold onto something, move around enough to get a feel for the wheel, after you feel pretty good about that just start riding along a wall or a rail for balance, then start coming away from the wall. It’s best if you don’t think about it and let your legs do their thing, just intervene if you start putting loads of weight on the pedals. And don’t try to ride on grass, it’s near impossible 'til you can actually manage the beast.
I learned to ride in 10 hours, 1 day.
Practice Practice Practice, you should get the hang of it if you just keep trying.
Re: Help, learning
On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:53:21 -0500, hectorqlucero
<hectorqlucero@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote:
>Learning quickly is a very general term. As an example my son learned
>to ride in less than one hour. My wife learned in two months. My
>cousin which has polio on one leg learned to ride in three weeks. Now
>to ride with confidence and not fall “upd” most of the time you need
>several months depending on the person.
>
>My suggestion if you can’t get anyone to help you personally is just to
>read the forum to get some tips. Learning will happen differently with
>every person. The real important issue here is to know that not
>everyone learns at the same speed and that the big clue here is to have
>patience. The rewards from learning will more than pay for the patience
>needed to learn to ride.
>
>Get a unicycle and start as soon as possible. Don’t get discouraged,
>take the challenges with a positive note. When you master this sport
>you will feel like a very different person. Try to get a good unicycle
>if you can because they are easier to ride than the cheap ones you can
>sometimes find on bicycle stores. Go to http://unicycle.com to buy
>one. I would suggest one similar to this one if you are under six feet
>tall: http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=634. If you are
>over six feet tall try a 24 inch wheel. Later down the road you must
>then decide what your next uni will be. I like road riding so I
>acquired one of these:
>http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=1194.
>
>I hope this helps!
Thanks for the tips for Whistler. I’ve been trying to learn on an old
20". Unfortunately I just seriously sprained (or broke) my left wrist
walking the dog so I can’t get back to it rightnow.
But Ifolowed your like to the uni if you’re under 6’ tall and it is a
20-incher. When I put my age, weight and inseam into the Unicycle.com
site it comes up with 24" which I think is too big. So I played with
the site’s input boxes many times and it never comes up with a 20"
recommendation. Being of an engineer mindset I challenged the site
with all combinations, and either my inputs were “wrong” or the
recommendation was 24". What’s your take on that?
I’m 66 years old, 150 pounds, 69.5 inches tall, inseam about 28"
beginner.
Thanks,
Old Martian
Ohio
I’ve spent several hours doing as you say about
Hawo friend, welcome to the forums. 
This might help on your guaranteed fun to unicycling. Hope it helps you somewhat.
Your good Greek Cypriot Australian friend.
Harry a.k.a HAZMAT
Re: Help, learning
On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:59:13 -0500, hobo_chuck
<hobo_chuck@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote:
>Just hold onto something, move around enough to get a feel for the
>wheel, after you feel pretty good about that just start riding along a
>wall or a rail for balance, then start coming away from the wall. It’s
>best if you don’t think about it and let your legs do their thing, just
>intervene if you start putting loads of weight on the pedals. And
>don’t try to ride on grass, it’s near impossible 'til you can actually
>manage the beast.
>
>I learned to ride in 10 hours, 1 day.
Kibbitz:
A couple of weeks ago I tried learning basically by what you suggest:
Hold on and get familiar with the darn thing. I hit a stall point
after a while. I’ve been learning between cars but can never get more
than one crank beyond the cars. Guaranteed fall. So I took a “break”
(slipped on grass and “broke” my wrinst. The quotes is because it was
the same wrist I boroke 1.5 years ago by slipping on the ice. The
wrist isn’t too bad, but has slight sharp pain that worries me enough
to stay away from non-stable devices (read: unicycle) for a short
while.
I am constantly mulling over my unicycle spills trying to get my mind
to accept being on what appears to be an masocist-designed device such
as a unicycle. I ride a bike while juggling and am quite comfortable
with that. With the unicycle I can’t get my mind working in the
direction that there isn’t any coasting.
I need more practice, but I have to pause for a few weeks because of
the damn wrist.
Old Martian
Ohio
I recommend a 20" to start even if the site gives you a 24" as suggested. If you use a 24" to learn it will take longer to learn than using a 20" specially when older, in my case I am 51 years old and my height is 70 inches and I weigh 220 lbs. When I started I used to weigh 260 lbs. The unicycle for us older riders is very intimidating at first. To feel more comfortable use full protection i.e. wrist, elbow, knee and a helmet.
Try to make your learning experience a three step process:
Mount the unicycle with the help of a rail, wall or whatever and just try to sit on it trying to balance. At first try just to fall forward and land on your feet. It is very important that you get comfortable with falling, so that you can mentally picture that it is not as dangerous as it feels. Feel comfortable with this, until you can sit without wobbling all over the place. Keep your back straight, look forward into the horizon, don’t look at the ground. Try to just hold to the rail, wall with one hand only. When you can master this, you can move on to the next step.
Try to pedal half turns of the wheel while holding on to the rail or wall until you can pedal one full turn and then two and then finally letting go of the rail or wall momentarily as you perform these revolutions. When you can master this, you can move on to the next step.
Hold on to something, a rail, a post, a wall, a car, a person or whatever you can use there as support. Mount the unicycle and position the pedals at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions. Try at first to just fall forward to get the feel of falling forward and on your feet. After you feel comfortable with falling forward then hold your back straight, try to sit on the seat and slightly lean your whole body forward and start pedaling to keep the wheel under the seat. At first you will fall and fall again, until suddenly you will start to pedal one revolution, then two etc… Try to set goals, and try to get to your goal. Don’t set goals you feel you can’t achieve. Everyday you do this, don’t leave until you feel good about a goal you achieved. Try not to end the day frustrated. Remember this should be fun. Most of all have patience. Not everyone learns at the same rate. Don’t compare yourself to anyone or use anyone as a reference point. We are all unique individuals and we all learn at different rates and in different ways. One thing I can definitely assure you is that you will learn sooner or later so don’t give up, because that is the reason people don’t learn. There is no better feeling than to look back ans say; WOW! I thought that was impossible!!!
Note: Don’t ride on rough surfaces when learning. I know riding on grass sounds like a good idea because it won’t hurt as much if you fall, but it’s totally the wrong thing to do. I suggest a tennis court because they usually have a good fence or rail to hold on to.
Note1: When you get to this point you just learned to ride a little. Then you need to learn to turn, and finally mount the unicycle. Now you will be ready to buy your main mount. If you like touring than it will be a 29" or a 36".
Hope this helps, and feel free to ask any questions.
One word to begin with…oh wait, two…RELAX, AND CONFIDENCE. (oh crap that was three) Anyway, try not to tence up when you first try it, and your probably gonna crash, so just accept it, and say I can ride this. Also, try to concentrate on one area in front of you, it helps you balance a lot. And, if you have like a basement or something, I recomend that you work down there for a few weeks, I did that for about a month before I took it out of the house.