My new personal record is 3.5 miles juggling 3 bean bags while unicycling, 2 of those miles without dropping on a 29" Nimbus road unicycle. How far can you go, and how many miles without dropping? Keep in mind that I’m also a marathon joggler.
And on a related note, what is the world record for longest distance someone has juggled while unicycling? I can’t seem to find it after a lot of research.
-1 mile
for 2 years I have tried to learn juggling (I thought: since I learned Unicycling now it’s time to learn juggling) No way! still unable to juggle 
Everybody in the club could learn … except me!
I feel like I could juggle 3 clubs forever while riding my Coker, 29", or 24". Back in the day I used to go twice around this nearby park which was 3.2 miles around, plus a mile to get there and another mile back, so that’s 8.4 miles.
Once you get used to clubs, you’ll discover you’re less likely to drop a club than a beanbag or ball while riding.
Odd thing: A couple of months before I turned 60, I saw a uni-juggling video here that inspired me to learn double club spins, figuring I’d have it down by the time I turned 60. That was my goal. Well, I REALLY underestimated how long it would take me to learn doubles. They’d be on the ground in front of my tire causing a UPD, or my struggle to pull my body back or reach forward to make a catch severely disrupted my riding, causing UPDs. I actually cracked a set of fat bellied American clubs and switched to slimmer European clubs with a slightly faster rotation, because that’s what I had lying around.
Now 10 months into the learning process, MANY skinned knees and palms and a broken toe later, I can nearly consistently do several sets of 7, 9, or 11 without stopping (dropping into the single cascade for 3 throws in between sets). In each workout I can always get in at least one set of 20+. I now rarely drop them, either, but manage to grab them up in my arms as I’m losing it, so I don’t have to dismount and re-mount.
And my resting heart rate is 43.
To be honest, it must be very hard to learn, when your also wobbling 
Big respect for your persistence. I would have given up very quickly.
That’s great! Reminds me of how I feel left out sometimes among jugglers since I can’t juggle 5 balls(4 the most), and I still prefer balls over clubs.
That’s impressive, William. I still can’t juggle clubs, and that’s simply because I’ve never tried. Will work on it some day. Can you also joggle?
That’s some crazy trick you are working on, good luck with that! I hope you’re wearing protection now. Very impressed with your persistence. I can’t do tricks while juggling on the unicycle, that will take a little more time. Considering that clubs are more likely to cause UPDs, I think I’ll stick with small bean bags for now.
I also can’t juggle while idling since my idling needs a little more work(I’ve only been unicycling for 8 months now). I still use my arms too much for idling, even though I can often idle non-stop for over 10 minutes these days. I can do all sorts of tricks while juggling or joggling though with 3 or 4 balls, so long as I’m not on the unicycle.
Thanks for the props!
One secret for me is to only do tricks that somehow strike me. For example, I have absolutely NO interest in idling. Or joggling.
I barely have the patience to learn a juggling move on solid ground, because I so much want to be on the unicycle doing it.
I really should have more input here. I can juggle and unicycle, most likely indefinitely, but I rarely do. I like to pass clubs on the unicycle every now and then, and I’ve done a few stage shows with one person on a walking globe and me on the unicycle, or vice versa. Typically if I’m out and about I really don’t want the attention it would give me, nor the clown comments. If I’m riding, I’m riding. If I’m juggling, I’m juggling. Props to the folks who like both at the same time. For me it’s a bit of a novelty. By the time I learned how to unicycle, I already knew how to juggle 5 clubs/7 balls, so it was trivial to juggle 3 on a unicycle. Idling was a bit more tricky to learn for sure, but it all comes with time.
If you really want to get good at it and can’t get there yet, I would recommend working on riding with both hands on a handlebar or directly by your side without any arm movement, and work on juggling 3 clubs with double spins, high singles, tricks, etc. so that you’re completely comfy with morphing the pattern however you need to. The trick is to get your brain to dissociate the two thing and have them be independent. One or the other needs to be “brain-off”. In my case, that was juggling when I first learned it. If you can idle really well, maybe the unicycling should be the “brain-off” task for you. It’s all muscle memory, but with so much going on, you need to offload a few of those tasks to a part of your brain you aren’t thinking about.
40+ years ago, I used to play blues harmonica held in place with a holder, while unicycle and juggling. I enjoyed it, but like you, I really don’t want the attention it gives me. Adding anything to unicycling-juggling really screams: Look at me!!
I can idle on either foot, 2- or 1-footed, and can juggle 3 clubs and do lots of passing patterns. I can also juggle 3 beanbags while idling (4 as a pedestrian). Juggling clubs while idling, though, that still eludes me.
There are rumors that it’s easier to juggle on a giraffe unicycle. Is this true? I don’t own a giraffe. When I juggle on my trials uni, the clubs get way out in front of me and then they fall. I also don’t own any clubs, so they are always borrowed, and I am afraid of running them over. That may be part of why they get so far out in front of me. Any suggestions?
Widen your pattern, relax your shoulders, throw close to your chest/face, but off to the side. Practice against a wall if you have to, off the unicycle. If you do club passing, you should be familiar with making your pattern wide so you can get under it. When idling, it’s so your hands can stay by your side. Work on minimizing the movement of your elbows when juggling clubs. Make it mostly forearm movement. Make sure you’re sitting up straight and your back is in the same position it would be without juggling. (don’t lean towards the clubs)
Make sure you’re sitting on the seat and idling lightly. Try idling at different speeds, keep your juggling at a comfy pace, don’t try and change the height/timing to suit the speed of the idle. Practice that kind of club control off the wheel. If you need to tweak it a bit, that’s fine, but no super crazy high lofty throws that allow you to throw, then recapture your balance between throws. That’s cheating and wont get you much progress.
Focus on the thing that you aren’t as good at. It’s a general rule of thumb when practicing multiple tricks at the same time. It sounds like you may be better at unicycling than juggling, in which case make darn sure you keep all the focus you need on the juggling, and if you fall off the wheel, that’s fine. I had to do that for learning to balance a club on my head while juggling. Had to focus on balancing, and let the clubs fall if things got out of control to make SURE I would prioritize the balance no matter what.
Lastly, change up the way you practice often. Try riding forward, getting the juggle going, then bringing the wheel to an idle until you feel things start to fall apart, then ride forward again (which is much easier to juggle while doing) and get it back under control. Rinse and repeat. Then try idling and doing 3 throws at a time, stopping, going back to an idle again. Come up with your own ways to get in and out of juggling + unicycling, and change it often. The more ways you can come up with, the faster you’ll learn. You just have to get your brain to think about it in a lot of different ways until something sticks.
edit: I would recommend getting some cheap, one piece clubs, like dube airflights if you’re worried about damaging them. If you are working with wooden-core clubs, like renegades, yes, you could potentially break one if you came down on it, but it’s more likely that you’ll break one from stepping on one rather than riding over one. A club will just shoot out from under the wheel if you happen to hit it while idling/riding. You’d have to hit it just right to break it by riding over it. Keep that in mind, if you drop, just keep idling and you’re very unlikely to damage it if you come off the wheel controlled. If you’re working with plastic-core clubs like PX3s, they’ll just bend, don’t worry about it. The one piece airflights are good for parades, you can tape them up for the occasion if you get white ones, they’ll go with everything, and they’re incredibly durable on concrete/asphalt, so they’re right at home in a parade, but they will force you to juggle properly so you don’t hurt your hands. They’re not as soft as a typical club with a wrapped handle, so just keep that in mind, or wear gloves or something. Lastly, if they are someone else’s clubs, try and use ones that are relatively new, so if you break one, you’re not breaking in one of their nice, worn in clubs. Buying a new club for a friend is no big deal, but if they have an old set, a new one won’t fit in to the set properly… nobody juggles my worn clubs but me. : P
Yeah, you’re right, I really ought to get my own clubs. PX3s are excellent, and they are what I’m used to. When I experiment with other clubs, I always feel depressed.
Rumors, eh? I would say to that one, but only assuming two things:
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While riding, your body motions are relatively the same between a giraffe and regular uni (in terms of juggling), with the disadvantage of a bigger hassle each time you drop.
If you are doing shows, most of your uni-juggling will be in the form of an idle, simply because if you don’t, you’ll have to go in circles or keep running out of space.
I could probably ride pretty far while juggling if I wanted to. …I guess I haven’t wanted to and I’m okay with that. One time I was in a circus-themed commercial for a department store in Detroit (can’t even remember the name but it wasn’t Hudsons). I spent the greater part of 8 hours idling on my Schwinn Giraffe (not juggling). That definitely got old after a while.
Before long, with concerted effort, you’ll be throwing a juggling club under your leg while riding one-foot!!! I’m not kidding.
I don’t know about miles but a couple minutes for me, it’s kind of hard as my only practice time is at night in poor lighting. Are there any tips for juggling & riding?
I can only do a 3 ball flash while idling, then I come right off. I’m still not at the point where I can idle mindlessly. Strangely, I keep getting better at idling even though I practice it 2 or 3 times a week for maybe 20 minutes at a time, on the 24". By “better”, I mean I can usually stay on longer and it feels like it requires less effort. I use my arms less also. I can idle on the 29", but only for 20 cycles at most and it’s very tiring.
I dislike clown comments, but what can we do? At least all this attention I get has helped me deal with my shyness. I am not an attention-seeker by nature; some of my best times unicycling or unicycling while juggling is when I’m all alone on a bike path in the middle of no where with no one watching.
BTW, how long did it take you to learn how to juggle 5 balls? I can only do 4, though I occasionally try to learn to juggle 5 when I have the time.
I’ve noticed a lot of people saying that on the forum, that idling on a giraffe is easier than on a regular unicycle. It didn’t make much sense until you explained it.
I don’t think I’ll get a giraffe any time soon, but it would be fun and a little scary experimenting with one.
8 hours of idling!? My foot hurts just thinking about that.
Anyone here ever try juggling while municycling or is that just too crazy?
I’d MUni down a volcano in Mexico if I could find wrist guards that would not get in the way of my juggling. Let me know when someone invents them.
As you may have guessed, going from 4 to 5 is a much larger step than 3 to 4. I bashed it out in a month during my freshman year of college. I picked up juggling quickly though. By my first year in I had qualified 7.