Think you learn faster than most…good for you👍
I’m a slow and methodical in my learning.
Wish I could learn as fast as you did. But I’m happy with my progress in almost 6 months.
I think you ride a lot of muni…which probably helped to catapult your uni progress. It’s been full winter up here in Montreal. So I’ll hit the trails in the next couple of months when the weather gets better.
The handful of times that i went muni riding…i found it the most tiring and i felt it taxed my fitness the most. Also the ever changing terrain definitely improved my skills in that short time that i tried it. And they were not even hard trails.
I think your progress is really fast! I’ve been riding 4.5 years and only got idling after about 2.5 years and hopping after a similar length of time. I can’t say I am any good at idling on anything bigger than a 24" uni. I did get the feeling of hopping with my right foot to the back (my wrong side) but then I seemed to lose it, I think I need to work on that again. As to backwards, some success while on a 20" but I am not confident on it.
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When it comes to riding backwards, it sure doesn’t feel like I learn fast. I started trying in earnest at the end of August and for a week or so I spent 2 hours a day working at it. I didn’t keep that level of practice up for long, but I continued working at it on pretty much a daily basis until about December. Lately I’ve slacked off on the backwards practice, perhaps put off by my lack of progress. It’s disheartening when you practice daily for weeks and fail to ride any further than you did a month earlier.
I still work at it, but now it’s more like 10 minutes once or twice a week.
Thank you for your encouragement. Really look forward to riding as much as i can.
I can imagine your frustration in learning backwards.
I’m sure you will get it down this year👍
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Idling on the opposite foot came around the same time as backwards for me, so I guess it all depends. I don’t know if I could do 50+ idles on my opposite foot even now but I can ride backwards figure eights with not too much difficulty.
For me, idling on the opposite foot came easier than idling on my strong foot. I didn’t really try to learn symmetrically. I worked on my strong foot until I started to get it and then began on my weak foot. I’d guess it took me three weeks of practice, maybe 15 minutes a day, before I had any real ability at idling on my right foot. Switching to my left foot probably only took about 4 days however. I still idle significantly better on my right foot than on my left, but I can do either one now pretty much indefinitely.
A practice session that I typically attempt is 10 idles right, half rotation forward, ten idles left, half rotation forward, until I have crossed the width of my driveway. I’ll also try idling while turning 360 degrees clockwise, then 360 degrees counter-clockwise or while slowly moving to the right or the left. I don’t have idling down 100% yet, but I’m getting there.
From my experience and with my friends working on idles there seems to be 3 stages of idling.
If you are control freak like me you might check your technique and see if you can further refine it.
a.) Beginning idling: It feels like you are crushing down with the “down foot”. The top foot is really moving back/forth like you are waxing your car, or something. Finally, you are twisting your hips and throwing your arms like a maniac. However, it’s working and you are staying up.
b.) Intermediate idling: it feels like you can get into a nice sweeping back and forth rotation. However, you can’t quite relax where you can read a book, use your phone or juggle something. Most of your weight is on the pedal and not on the saddle, which is okay it’s what you need for balance at this level.
c.) Advanced idling: it feels like half the time you can just do a “still stand”. You can add subtle pressure on your top foot side/side balance without even pedaling. Your can feel “equal weight” and rotation effort on both feet. Most of all you feel “fully weighted” on the saddle and the smallest hip movement is all you need to rock forwards and back. At this point, you can start multi-tasking.
Enjoy…
I live was born in Nashville and live in D.C. and have seen/met 5 unicyclists and I know if i wasn’t riding/in bike shops often i would have only seen 2 of them. I think we tend to see more unicyclists than most people because of who we hang around. 95% of the people i see or meet have never seen or thought they were real.
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The surprise I genuinely see on peoples faces, and hear in their voices definitely supports this statement.
Some good discussions here. I’ll keep summing up:
- we’re still working on a definition of the term ‘unicyclist’ (I think John Foss is getting very close)
- we now have more info on Japan: 12 million unicyclists they have there
- there are probably a few millon unicyclist in the rest of the world WARNING: We have to be real careful here, so we don’t count a unicyclist more than once
- we’re not sure exactly how old George Peck is. He was 56 at some point, but now he’s much older
- there are 3 (sometimes 4) unicyclists in Bass Lake
- also 1 confirmed unicyclist in Ireland
- 2 unicyclist in Montana (one is not confirmed)
- several unicyclists would rather discuss idling than how many we are, but that’s ok
- there are 5 unicyclists in Nashville or D.C
- most people don’t think unicyclists exist (outside Japan obviously)
We’re getting closer.
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Yeah there’s gotta be at least 3
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Oh, that is so cool! That means I will be the weirdest guy in my subdivision. I can build on that. 
@aarons 70 in Houston? Really? Must be a real needle in a haystack. 
I know there is at least one in the Tomball area. I saw a picture of him performing at an event in Tomball. He was riding a Giraffe Unicycle. At least I assume he lives in Tomball.
I was tempted briefly
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There are many more than 100 unicyclists in NL. I believe that was roughly the amount of unicyclists that participated in the 2019 Dutch Championships, if I recall correctly. There are also those that don’t participate.
@Klaas_Bil has more accurate numbers.
That was my thought too and being annoyed that it is a picture.
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I just would not be able to stop myself. Obviously this would result in me no longer having any unicycling friends but… so hard to resist!
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you would have 93 new friends who will invite you for a ride in Africa. I wouldn’t pass up that invite.
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