Interesting stuff guys. I’ll be out riding this weekend and may even get to ride a gravel road…my first venture off of smooth pavement. I think I’ll switch the pedals on my 29" back to the 150mm slots for more control. I’ll also try the 24" on the gravel.
Progress, progress, progress. I took Lunicycle’s suggestion of switching back to 150s on the 29". They give a lot more control that the 125s, on which I find myself picking up too much speed for my comfort level. I also found it harder to freemount with 125s on the 29" because unless I hit it perfect, I couldn’t get enough torque to ride out of the mount, if you know what I mean.
Each day I’m getting more and more distance before my legs tire out. I doubled my previous 800 foot distance with the 24", making it completely around a large block in my neighborhood and back to my house. I’m also able to turn street corners in a moderate arc now using a little extra ooomph on the inside pedal. My weak point is still having too much weight on the pedals though and that is what drains me. Saddle time will cure this. I have good overall stamina since I can paddle my kayak 25 miles without a break (no legs required!). My legs need some building up big time!
I tried freemounting and riding on my front lawn and couldn’t even go 2 feet! My lawn is really bumpy - I don’t take care of it! So my next step is to practice on uneven surfaces. I’ll be going to a big gravel parking lot near the Ottawa River that has enough dips and lumps to get me to that next level.
Anyway, that’s my blurb for today! I gotta get back to work. Feel free to tell me to shut-up!
Au contraire, mon frere, keep it coming.
Phew!.. cuz I don’t know how I got up to 245 posts. yak yak yak.
hey cool Dave, yeah keep it coming!
Started unicycling end of Dec 2007. Can freemount, can ride as long as I want (well, until my crotch hurts 
, that is after 3 miles or so, can be extended a bit by riding a few meters standing on the pedals). Can hop around a little, can ride up and down hills, can ride on gras and gravel by now.
If you want to watch my progress, monitor this tread. If you speak German, check out the whole history.
I’ve got a lot of sympathy for BurnerDave 
Keep posting Dave, I love reading about your exploits!
I just spent a weekend camping in the mountains, and unfortunately, bikes were not allowed on any of the paths, so there was little riding to be had. I did, however, discover a FANTASTIC system of trails near my home on Thursday evening. The main trail is mostly flat, but there are many smaller trails that shoot off from it. The other trails vary in terrain from uphills to downhills, and technical to non-technical. Some places are rooty, rocky, hilly…it’s just awesome! There’s even a spot with fallen logs for practicing hops and skinnies (neither of which I can do yet), and a little natural half-pipe that was fast and scary to ride down and a fun challenge to ride up. I could get lost in those trails for hours and just have the time of my life!
Aw man…get that husband working!!! I’d love to see some video of you on that terrain - including the bloopers!
Here’s something weird. Now that I can freemount my 29" and 24" consistently about 1 in 4 tries, when I went back to try to freemount the 20" I almost killed myself! I do a static mount on all the unis, and on the 20" I can’t keep the weight off the back pedal. I push it down like I’m starting an old motorcycle as I mount. The result is a uni flying backwards and me falling forward as the free pedal whacks my other leg and prevents me from landing on it! Absolutelty no brain-leg communication going on! And to make it worse, I figure since I’m in the basement just practicing a few freemounts, I don’t need nothin’ but a helmet, right - wrong! No injuries occurred but it’s back to full padding no matter how short the practice session is!
I’m hoping to get a little bit of footage tomorrow, so we’ll see. 
I hear ya on the 20" uni, I am actually really uncomfortable on my mine these days. It feels like a little toy, and my freemounting is not as successful because I always overshoot the thing - I’m just used to mounting larger wheels. I loaned it out to a friend a few weeks ago and saw it again for the first time this weekend (my friend came with us to camping and she brought the uni). I had several failed attempts to mount and riding it felt REALLY awkward.
So do you have a favorite wheel size yet, Dave?
Your vids inspired me to go out to the garage and practice hopping and other skills. To my delight and surprise, I discovered that I can indeed hop! If I get myself comfortable while holding onto a wall, I can hop (without holding the wall) an average of about 20 times, but sometimes even as many as 60, before riding out of it successfully. I definitely still have work to do when it comes to riding, stopping, then hopping…but it’s good to know that I can hop and at least ride out of it.
I also tried the rolling mount, which turned out to be surprisingly easy. I’ll need to work on my timing somewhat, but practice will smooth that right out.
Thank you for sharing!
Yeah Dave, I hear ya! I can move between riding the 29 and 24 and it all feels good, my riding atm is mostly split 50/50 between those, but getting back on the 20 after the 24 and 29 feels weird for sure. I sometimes get on the 20 at night in the house to try out new stuff or just mess around, and I guess it takes 10-15 mins before it starts to feels good. Maybe that would improve with more practice at swapping between the three.
One thing that always amazes me is how small the 20 feels now, compared to how big it felt when I started off, and how far I used to ride the 20 once I could ride forward … no wonder there was some serious chaffing going on!
Impressive. What kind of pedals do you have? I’m wondering if I try to hop on plastic ones they’ll snap off.
(No riding in the last 2 days for me; it’s been rainy and cold.)
Today I was hopping around in circles and back and forth and right and left but sometimes my right foot is about to slip off the pedal and then I have to ride a few meters to get the foot back into position, and then I can continue to hop. That happens although I have those Odyssey Jim Cielencki Pedals with replaceable pins on my 20" QU-AX trials.
I also tried to hop seat out, but man, this is tough.
Sometimes I also try to stand still for a few seconds between the hops, and then do a really high hop, possibly sidewards, from that still standing position. This is a good training for the balance in preparation to jump onto something (which I can not yet do)
Eventually I tried to do a rolling hop, but I only managed to land it one time.
I am hopping around a bit every day and I feel that there is a slight improvement every day.
I’ve got the metal DX petals that came stock with Nimbus from UDC.
I’m so excited. My mom bought a bike from REI tonight and she’s hitting the trails with me tomorrow. She wants to start riding 3-4 times a week. I’m so glad to have a riding buddy (even if she’s on a two-wheeler)!
Wow nice one, hugo… I’ve only started to hop myself (on the Nimbus 19" with Odyssey pedals), and I just wanted to say the foot slipping IS DUE to the Odyssey pedals. They are not very grippy at all, even with the “replaceable pins”. Actually, that’s the reason I like them and switched them over to the Nimbus…
They were initially installed on the KH29, on which a much bigger inertia is present, and for that inertia, I needed stickier pedals than the JC Odyssey, so I installed Atomlabs Aircorp pedals : hyper flat (less than 1.5cm) and super grippy (and super expensive, I must have been temporarily insane when I bought them). I can’t reposition my feet on them once they’re on, which is perfect coz I don’t want any foot slipage on a steep uphill at that height (I’m still impressed by the 29er while the 19" feels now like a toy.)
That was a perfect switch for the 19" where I needed less grip so I could reposition my feet after freemounting. I don’t know about you all, but even now that I don’t miss any freemount (static mount) anymore, my right foot (I’m starting with the left) is not always straight of well positioned on the pedal (then you wobble coz different pressures are applied on both pedals). Though it seems to get better with time.
Of course it’s all a matter of personnal preference, like most parameters in unicycling 
Initially, I had the DX pedals too on the Nimbus 19".
Solid, wide, grippy, I found them quite good. But too grippy in fact, so if I were to use them again, I’d have to find a way to shorten the pins and remove a few (there are 12 pins on each side of the pedals !!)
hugo’s foot slippage may not be necessarily due to the Odyssey pedals e.g. I use them on the 29, 24 and 20 -the pins bite well into the flat soft sole of the shoe, good grip overall. For sure though, personal preference!
Might be shoes too, but maybe the slippage hugo described has cured itself already, and just a technique thing when trying something new.
Yeah, they are definitely grippy. For at least the first month I couldn’t readjust my foot if I landed not-quite-right on the pedals after mounting, but now I can do it fairly easily. It took a lot of practice, though. I’m really happy with them now for MUni and distance.
You’re right, it’s probably a mix of all the above. But independent of shoes, or personal preference (I just looove them on my 19"), they are much less grippy than other pedals. Many people on the french unicycling forums confirmed the fact. But the pedal itself is great, and the pins ARE replaceable by longer/pointier/stickier equivalents.
Back to topic, (learning unicycling ), I’m astonished by the fact you all seem to get more comfortable on the bigger wheels than the 19-20". For me it’s still the opposite : my skills improve much faaaster on the small trial wheel. I think it must be linked with fear, as I’m almost fearless on the 20" now : yesterday I rode 10km in the center of Brussels, which was full of tourists, loooooads of fun ! Riding behind people slower than walking pace teaches a lot about the balance (and you can’t UPD throwing the uni behind without cutting a few pair of legs, so gotta be extra careful in controlling.) Amazing exercise !
Again, all the kids and the elders, pointing fingers for the first, asking questions for the later… It’s a very social sport, it’s impossible to feel alone when riding this stuff
I don’t know if it’s the belgian climate (disgusting, rainy), but unlike many of you in “anglo-saxon” countries, I’ve only got praises and encouragements in the street. Even the teenagers are supportive, shouting “RESPECT” while whistling (sp?) - and I get red faced in a split second :o
That is only in the street, of course, while my friends are amused and find it silly (but it’s ok, they got used to me getting started with silly things all the time ;))
I can idle for a few seconds too (only with right foot down), ride - hop 60ºx3 - ride, ride over very bumpy terrain (pavement, gravel, grass), turn a little better everyday (still can’t do tight figures of 8 ), climb steep uphills and steep downhills (djeez are those tiring for the legs !), ride standing up on the pedals (my saddle is too high to try a seat out), …
My next steps are (I wish ) :
- figures of 8 in large then tight rotations
- hop up borders on the side then upfront while riding
- ride backwards
- rollback mount
- ride down stairs
- turn 180º sharp (like on a pedestrian sidewalk)
- …
- Wheel walk, glide, kick start mount, do everything like Kris Holm
Hrmmm, all that to say I’m feeling comfortable on the 19", while on the KH29… It’s simple : it’s so high I just ordered a KH 24" Wheel to replace the 29" wheel in my KH29. Because really the 20" is too slow when I want to make any distance bigger than 500m - after my 10km in the center yesterday, I couldn’t feel my knees nor walk for a few hours - and the 29" at the opposite is still too big : it’s soo high I’m not confortable yet. I had a QU-AX 24" Standard, probably made to do light freestyle, but the tire had so low a pressure I hated the feeling, so the KH 24" wheel seemed like a reasonnable solution : it fits the KH29" frame while still being rideable, much cheaper than a full 24" muni, and doesn’t stop me to put back the 29" when I’ll be more confortable riding bigger wheels.
I’d like to be comfortable enough on a uni to be able to idle on it, because I just noticed - for me of course - that once you can idle, you start to master and fully understand the balance of the object - the uni. I control the 19", but the 29" still controls me… Even if, of course, time helps and every ride on the 29" feels better.
So, about the JC Odyssey Pedals, there seem to be different opinions. I’ll watch the situation for a while and hopefully the problem will go away when I feel more comfortable while hopping. My shoes may be a bit problematic too but I’ll buy a new pair of shoes very soon anyway (for a different reason).
Thanks for your comments!
@costo: My goals are the very same (except that I can only do the rollback mount).
I also share your opinion that learing is easier on the 20". Although I learned riding on my 24", I am making much more progress since I have a 20" (and then I can apply the new skills on the 24")
Maybe I’ll ping you when I visit Brussels next time