idling, riding backwards, hopping, obstacles

Riding Advice
1

Please post information on idling, riding backwards, hopping, obstacles. thanks

2

Re: idling, riding backwards, hopping, obstacles

In article <01bcbb43$14df1b20$86c229cf@alfonso>, “Alfonso Ortiz”
<alfonso@buffnet.net> wrote:

> Please post information on idling, riding backwards, hopping,
> obstacles. thanks

IDLING -

I learnt by holding on to a door frame then progressing to one hand on a fence
and gradually decreasing the amount of dependence on the fence. Your pedal
should move in a semi circle : () from here to here _ / '-..-’

Make sure you spend time practicing with your left foot at the bottom and with
your right foot at the bottom.

Another good exercise is to ride forward, back pedal half a revolution and then
ride forward again.

RIDING BACKWARDS -

Start learning to ride all over again only backwards. I find corridors are good
as they give you support on both sides. Start on half revolutions backwards and
pause, half rev back - pause - half rev back - pause - etc.

Make sure you progress beyond the corridor and into the big wide world. It is
important to learn to look over your shoulder whil riding backwards to see where
you are going!

Again try riding forwards, doing a few revs backwards and then riding forwards
again. Be warned it is going to take a while to learn riding backwards.

HOPPING -

The important thing is to make sure your pedals are level and then apply
EVEN pressure.

Your pedals should be horizontally in line :

  P----O----P You hop by pushing off your pedals and pulling the seat up
  with you. To do this you must either grip the seat with your thighs
  (OUCH!), strap the seat to you with a belt or hold on to the seat with
  one or both hands. The last one is probably the easiest. I grip the
  front of my seat with one hand, push off the pedals and then bring the
  seat up with me.

If your jump is good you should land with your pedals pretty much in the same
position. You can then jump again. With a little practice it is possible to hop
pretty much continuously.

WARNING - unicycle cranks are not to keen on hopping. Mine are already bent and
I have seen other people’s unis which look very sad from too much bunny hopping.

OBSTACLES -

Start by riding off small drops and gradually increase the height. Curbs should
be fairly easy to navigate off after a bit of practice. They are a lot harder to
go up. To navigate up bumps, again start slowly and gradually increase the
height. The position of the cracks is important once you get onto sizeable
objects ie:

   p / o | /______ _.-'|

This gives you the leverage to be able to get up the curb.

It is probably better for your wheel rim if you go up larger heights by
hopping up sideways. Practice hopping over a line and then gradually increase
the height.

Hope that’s a help catch ya, Peter

            o Peter Bier - computing student o O o pjb10@waikato.ac.nz o(|\o
            (delete nospam- to send a message)