I just got a unicycle, (20 inch torker unistar {is this a good uni? got it for 80$ new}) and I have learned how to ride it pretty well, just around the street, up and down hills and such. I can turn. How do I idle and hop and such? Tips please.
One good way to learn to idle, is to ride forward, stop, pedal halv a revolution back, and go along forward… try this a few times till you get the hang of it… and then, try to pedal back-front-back, and proseed as you learn.
This is the way i learned, but takes a whole lot of practice!
Hopping is much easier than idling. According to John Foss, it is the easiest thing to do, even easier than riding. All that you have to do is ride, allign your cranks up horizontally, and bounce up and down (flexing your ankles not your knees). Many people would probably suggest both these for further instruction: unicycle2ya and The Unicyclopedia.
The Torker CX, if that’s what you have, is an acceptable beginner’s unicycle, but it’s not meant for anything very rough.
I suggest you try to learn idling and backward riding at the same time, by stopping and reversing direction as lleberg explained. One of the two will probably come easier, and you can use it to learn the other. Also, try idling while holding onto something, in order to get a feel for the motion. It takes a lot of patient practice, but if you ever want to learn more advanced freestyle skills, it’s a must.
Hopping is similar to idling in one respect; in order to get into from riding, you must learn to stop the pedals. For going into idling, you usually concentrate on stopping the pedal that is forward and down, while for hopping, you want to concentrate on the pedal coming up in the back. So ride along, then try to rest your weight on the back pedal and bring the unicycle to a stop. Now stand up on the pedals with the pedals level, and try to hop. This is actually fairly easy, and it’s not much different from hopping on a pogo stick. Give it a few tries, and you’ll certainly get it.