I have been playing around with my new 29 uni but havent had much luck or stamina to go much further than half mile. Last nite I went out for a ride and did the mile loop around the neighborhood, it was the longest ride I’ve ever done. It wasnt the most smoothest ride, I had 4 or 5 dismounts but I made it. Now I know I can do it I just need to build up my confidence and I think my rode to a century is only a few years out.
It is a good feeling indeed to realize that you can ride pretty much as far as you have time for. Congratulations. You will absolutely be riding 5, 10, or more miles with a bit of practice.
Congratulations on the milestone! I still remember the first time I rode a 1/4 mile loop, complete with UPDs and freemounts.
Congratulations!
I’m a bit ‘thick’ as far as Unicycling goes. I didn’t realise it would be that much harder than normal bicycling (which I had not done for years anyway) so my first proper outing on my 20" was a 2.5 miler and I was exhausted afterwards, hehe.
A week later I accepted an invite from some other Uni-riders to accompany them on a local run the full length of the Greenway and back while trying out some bigger Unis - which turned out to be 5 miles. I have never felt so unfit in my life!
It’s taken me 7 weeks to figure out that the problem is more how hard unicycling is as a sport, rather than me being unfit. I Thai Boxed for 4 hours a week before taking up unicycling and that just does not work the right muscles.
It seems that only unicycling or hard cycling/spinning build up the right endurance, so I’ll concentrate on those now.
Welcome to the ‘Mile Long Club’ 
Well done! It’s a great feeling isn’t it.
I think my first mile had mor impact on me than actually learning to ride if I remember correctly
Congratulations! It’s a great feeling, knowing what you have done, and what it means about what you can do next.
I vividly remember my first long ride. My learning-to-ride process had a 3-year gap in it due to a broken p.o.s. unicycle, after which I completed my learning process on a Schwinn Giraffe. About a week after I started riding that Giraffe, my friend and I set out on a ride to a McDonald’s that was 5 miles away. Pretty amazingly stupid, considering our experience level and the fact that the Giraffe, and the regular Schwinn 20" we were using were both, uh, 20" unicycles! We made it there, eventually, and were rewarded by our first experience of painful burning urination. After a nutritious meal (there was also an event there related to our high school), we mostly walked toward home. We were too crotch-destroyed to ride much, and neither of us could freemount the Giraffe. Then, miraculously, my brother showed up, driving a route he didn’t normally take, and gave us a ride the rest of the way home.
{edit}: Oh damn, I just Google Mapped it, and it said the distance was over 7 miles!
Congratulation!
Quote from Wheelie Daft;
"It’s taken me 7 weeks to figure out that the problem is more how hard unicycling is as a sport, rather than me being unfit. I Thai Boxed for 4 hours a week before taking up unicycling and that just does not work the right muscles.
It seems that only unicycling or hard cycling/spinning build up the right endurance, so I’ll concentrate on those now."
It’s not a fitness issue per se (well it might be as well 
). Basically a technique issue. The more you ride the more you will get the right weight on the pedals, and most of your weight on the seat. Then you will understand why there are so many threads about uni seats 
Oh, and congratulations on your mile (1.6km).
James
Thanks for the kind words of encouragment. Now to leave my neihborhood is my goal for March, just need to get a little more comfortable with it and practice my freemounting some more.
I would go around the block because I felt like I could only free mount in my driveway. It took me forever to ride anywhere that was not just a short walk back to my driveway. Believe it not, it gets easier from here.
Confidence be damned. You’ve done a mile. You already have it now. 
Unless you worry about looking silly about a public UPD or a public failed or less than perfect freemount. No-one can sort that out except you.
Congrats. It feels really good doesn’t it?
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Your 29er probably has 125mm cranks which are good for starters.When you get used to it ,you might consider progressing on to 110mm cranks and then to 100mm cranks. Shorter cranks means less pedal revolutions over a distance,so it’s less tiring. I put 89mm cranks on my 29er last week but hey are only good on a very level surface.I prefer the 100mm cranks for general use.
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Your 29er probably has 125mm cranks which are good for starters.When you get used to it ,you might consider progressing on to 110mm cranks and then to 100mm cranks. Shorter cranks means less pedal revolutions over a distance,so it’s less tiring. I put 89mm cranks on my 29er last week but hey are only good on a very level surface.I prefer the 100mm cranks for general use.
:thinking: :thinking: :thinking: :thinking: :thinking:
I thought we’d seen an end to this kind misinformation. Fact is that plenty of people run 150mm cranks on their 29-ers, as it suits their riding style and riding conditions better than 125s and shorter.
For example, in my case, because my area is hilly enough to make 150s a better choice (for me), or, in other cases, because their ride includes some muni, or, because they just prefer the extra control that comes with longer cranks.
100mm cranks are only going to be any use on flat runs- any degree of downhill isn’t going to work (without brakes).
The length of the cranks does not change the revolutions required by the wheel to travel at a particular speed.
I live in a hilly area where longer cranks decrease the effort required to go up and downhill and that’s all they really do, which is basic physics.
Cranks that are shorter by 50mm each just reduce the radius of the circle your foot describes by 50mm, but not how many circles you pedal. This means that once you get up to speed, less leg movement is required to stay there.
I believe crank length is down to the rider’s style and the terrain. There is no absolute.
Ok…who’s going to invent the AVLC or ‘Automatic Variable Length Crank’? 
:,
Hello Dave. The reason I suggeseted he try shorter cranks was because he said that he didn’t have the stamina to go further than half a mile. Turning long cranks takes more stamina. I take your point about hills and Muni and peoples own preferences but I didn’t set out to write a comprehensive manual on the subject. It was a suggestion that he might want to experiment with, subject to his terraine and common sense. Isn’t that how we all learn. I personally can cycle up a moderate hill using 100mm cranks and you’re right about BRAKES although most unicycles only have one brake including my own lol!!! I may have slipped up with my spelling or diction,if I have I’'m sure you’ll let me know lol!!!
Hello wheeiedaft. You are correct .I should have said SHORTER pedal strokes not LESS pedal pedal strokes.It is a fixed wheel after all!
Yeah!! How about a crank with a slide bar with a number of different settings.Any engineers out there??