OK Roger, your claim of 6 years riding without acquiring the free-mounting skill seems unbelievable for someone who has broken world records in unicycling, but nobody has yet been game to question your assertion in 3 days since your post. Is it a running joke of yours? Did you ride at a circus for 6 years where you waited, holding onto a rail, until the ringmaster gave the sign to ride into the ring and perform (without a UPD of course)?
I’m not a particularly good rider, but I learnt in pre-internet times in an information vacuum when I came across a unicycle for sale in a bike shop and learned by pushing off from a verandah post until I could go about 6 half revolutions. Then I wanted to be free of that verandah post, so I figured out how, and further riding learning proceeded at a faster pace. A couple of months later I was astonished to come across another unicyclist who had brought his unicycle to a barbecue - he let me have a ride and was amazed that I could free mount - which he deemed to be a “trick”.
So OK, maybe riding and mounting are separate skills and there is no need to acquire both!
[But anyway, Roger, if you are reading this, when is UDC going to make some sort of seat handle/bumper which is significantly smaller than T-bar handles etc., but is significantly larger than an ordinary seat front bumper? ]
It is true, I could not free mount for the first 6 years of my riding. Then I met an American guy in Eaton and he jumped on my unicycle and not only free mounted, but Idled and one foot idled! It then took me 10 minutes to free mount, half and hour to idle and a week to one foot ride.
We have done short metal handles in the past, several different types, but have no new versions on the books as you can cut the handle down to the size you want. People sometimes cut them asymmetrically to match their riding style.
When I could ride a few metres, I started practicing.
I started from trying the curb and repeating that over and over again until I got the hang of shifting my weight from the back of the unicycle to the front and pedalling off.
Then I just went for it. I put my cranks parallel to the ground and kept at it until eventually I got consistent.
After I learnt to free mount, I soon learnt to ride with control since now I could practice without having to go to assistance every time, meaning it was faster and I could virtually practice anywhere I wanted to.
I learned to ride about a year and a half before I got really into unicycling. Once I got really into it, I was frustrated by the need for support to mount, so I watched a couple tutorials and learned to free mount in probably 20 minutes. Then it was a lot of repetition and practice to have it completely down.
I practiced free mounting at the same time i learned to ride. I have a video after 8 days as a unicycle owner where I can do both. These days I use a pole or a curb or whatever to avoid free mounting to save energy. It took, a while, but I’ve now passed the point where I don’t care what people think (poor man can’t even get on the damn thing without something to hold on to).
I am still in the learning process @64 w/bad joints and arthritis. I am determined to get a new skill down. I am not able to jump to free mount. So I need something to get started. Currently I’m using a hallway to get my bearings. I am also using a balance board to improve my core strength and balance. 2024-01-07T00:00:00Z
I saw on line some guy using a tin can with a string. So once he got started he pulled it up. It looks like a good idea, as I can not jump at all.
I started riding last summer. I spent the fall practicing freemounts, 50 per evening, 4 or 5 nights a week. I was pretty sure I was getting a new 27.5” muni for Christmas and I wanted to able to mount it. I was getting over 80% success rate on my 24”. Then, in the span of a week and a half, I fell 3 times. It happened so fast I’m not 100% sure exactly how, but I THINK I caught my right foot under the front pedal on the way up, sending the uni backward. I went horizontal and fell chest first onto the concrete floor of my garage.
All 3 times, I finished out my 50 mounts, but that third fall did my rib cage in. I couldn’t take a full breath for a couple weeks or sleep on my right side very well. I stayed away from the uni and studied freemounting Youtube vids, especially uniMyra’s excellent video many times in slow motion to figure out what I was doing wrong.
Exactly one week after the third fall, I received a shiny new Nimbus muni for Christmas. Of course, I rode it. I took it to the school where I started last summer, which has a 50’ wall next to a sidewalk. By the 4th run, I was riding the length of the wall without touching. 30 runs, then out to the parking lot, launching by leaning on my car.
But I have a fear of mounting now. I have to get past it.
One thing that jumped out at me while watching uniMyra is how much time he had at the top of his mount. My mounts are very quick, so quick that I couldn’t really watch my foot come up when I video’d myself after the second fall. The only difference I see in technique is that I haven’t been deliberate about pushing on the seat during the hop. If I can work up the nerve to attempt it, I will pay more attention to that.
To answer the OP’s original question, I guess I’m still learning to mount. And I’ve got to figure it out before I can take the new one to the bike path.
It took me a long time to feel comfortable freemounting my 20 inch unicycle (a year or two after I learned how to ride). I’ve had a few bad falls as I freemount. Seems like they were caused by my second foot hitting the pedal instead of landing on top of it. My forward momentum then throws me onto my hands and chest. I now ALWAYS wear wrist protectors (and a helmet). To successfully freemount, I don’t start with the pedals level - the forward pedal is a little lower and the back one is a little higher. My dominant foot is on the back, higher pedal. I jump up and the second foot lands on the forward pedal. Doing it this way makes it easier to land on top of the pedal. It also makes it easier to prevent the wheel from rotating during the jump. If I now have no forward momentum, I’ll pedal backwards maybe a quarter turn, then take off forwards.
I have been practicing in the garage, mounting both the 24 and the 27.5 next to a vehicle (my wifes; don’t want to scratch mine ). Just the mount, no riding away.
I have learned several things:
Pushing down on the front of the seat makes a huge difference. Being the know-it-all engineer I am, I had dismissed the value of pushing the handle straight toward the axle. However, once the hop is started, the handle is out front, and pushing down on it propels you over the top.
Focusing on the front pedal. I think I was actually looking at the ground right in front of the pedal before. Not the same thing. Watch that pedal like a hawk until your foot is on it.
For me, the hop is mostly for “up” and the seat push is mostly for “ forward and over the top”. These are not completely separated, but they work together, helping each other in different ways.
I find that I like my rear foot to be about 10” off the ground when I start. That means the cranks will be horizontal on the 24 and the rear pedal will be slightly lower than horizontal on the 27.5.
The 27.5 reacts a lot slower than the 24. I like that, at least for now.
Last weekend I thought I was ready to try my skills so I went to the bike path. I was wrong. Out of 70-80 attempts, I only had 6 successful mounts.
But yesterday, I took the 27.5 over to the school where I started, which has a wall next to a sidewalk. I did 30 assisted launches at the wall, riding 50’ each time, then 10 assisted launches from my car, riding 140’ each time. (On one of those, I got brave and tried to ride into the grass. Immediate UPD). Then, I practiced mounts next to my car, using it as a safety net. After a few minutes, I moved to an open area and did 10 static mount attempts. 5 were successful. As far as I’m concerned, that was a major success!
Next weekend, I’ll try to repeat yesterday and, if I’m having the same success at mounting, I’ll go to the bike path.
I just got a 29+ after riding a 24". It is more difficult to mount but after a couple weeks I rarely need more than a couple attempts.
For me, I don’t grab the handle. I put the seat in my crotch and my left foot on the back pedal. Then I just jump up and try to not put weight on my left foot.
I think it helps having both arms free to help me balance. Especially since I often twist during my jump on to the bigger unicycle.
Yesterday I did a long (by my standards) ride before I had to dismount because a dog was running towards me and barking at me. After the dog did finally obey to his mistress and left me alone I tried to re-mount the 36er to continue my ride. I didn‘t succeed at the first go because I was too tired (but not 2 tired). So for my second try I grabbed the wheel and… did indeed mount. I was actually a bit surprised that it worked, since I don‘t think I have ever mounted a uni like that before.
But yeah, this mount is probably better suited for small people on big wheels than tall people on small wheels.
Free mounting was the first “trick” I learned on my unicycle. It took me about an hour of steady practice to be able to freemount anywhere. I use the basic freemounting position where one pedal is all the way down. I push off the ground with one foot, while the other foot is on the bottom pedal. I find I have to lean forward quite a bit to get going, which is hard on uphills. On uphills I just put a stick behind my wheel and am able to freemount quite easily.
But overall, I found this to be the quickest and easiest way to freemount.
This seems like a good place to celebrate since I just recently got comfortable mounting and dismounting with no safety net.
Learning on a 29" probably made it more difficult, but starting from the point where I could only ride with my hand on a wall, it was about 2 months of throwing myself at it for 20-30 minutes per day before everything clicked into place. The rollback mount also ended up being the best fit for me, so I guess I went against the grain in a few ways. I was curious if shorter cranks make static/jump mounts feel a little more stable, since those felt way too wild to me when I tried.
…and no fear of crushing my . That‘s what so far has kept me from trying a real jump mount. I sometimes did some sort of jump mount when I was learning to ride one foot and other stuff a year ago. I had to mount so often in a short time that my static mounts first transitioned to rolling mounts. At some point I got confident enough to jump on the uni, with the rear foot landing first on the pedal, followed almost instantly by the front foot.
That was on the 20er. On the bigger wheels it‘s static mount most of the time and the occasional rolling mount, though not on the 36er. That‘s a bit unfortunate, since the big wheels are where I could profit most from a rolling mount.
). Just the mount, no riding away.
