Idling: Weight on the pedals?

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Hi all,

I’ve been trying to learn how to idle for the last few weeks and it’s been pretty rough, to say the least. For a while the most I could do was four half-rotations before losing my left-right balance. Eventually it got up to about 5 or 6. During this time, I was putting most of my weight on the seat, because I read somewhere that that’s what you’re supposed to do while idling…

Well today, frustrated, I decided to go against what I’d heard and put most of my weight on the pedals. The third or so time I tried it with this method I got about 10 or 15 half rotations before falling off. Granted, they were a lot more sporadic than the four or five I was getting with the original method, but still. It felt like, although it was less stable, I had a lot more freedom to make corrections.

So I guess my major question is: is this normal? Should idling be done with your weight on the pedals, or your weight on the seat? Or is it one of those things where the better you get at it the more weight you can put on the seat?

Thanks in advance,
Danny Vegas

2

Always try to keep all of your weight on the seat.

3

Just read the title, but weight is on the seat.

EDIT: You can idle with your weight on the pedal aswell but it will not be as smooth. It will aslo be really hard for your legs.

4

+1.

Weight should be on the seat, always. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS.
Well… not always. But you get the point.

You’ll eventually get more comfortable with idling as you go along, and you’ll be able to put more and more weight on the seat and you will be COMFORTABLE. Odds are, eventually you may be able to idle effortlessly.
But, you need to make sure you put your weight on the seat. It’s important for adjusting your CG (in my experience, anyway) and is generally more comfortable. You’ll find that you actually learn faster this way.
Plus, idling becomes important to learning other tricks, like backwards riding. Since you need to put weight on the seat for that, why not start now, with a similar skill?

5

Also, try to “drive” the idling with the lower foot and keep a very light touch with the upper foot. Eventually you will be able to idle with one foot.

6

…and the movement is kind of like the uni is a pendulum w/ the fulcrum being where your but touches the seat.

7

Never thought of it like that.

I’ve been learning idling too.
I actually got good at it with weight on the pedals and then focused on weight on the seat and got better that way.

But I know thats like learning a bad habit and then breaking it, which is harder than just learning the right way the first time… Owell.

8

I’ve always idled with my weight on the pedals, I find it much easier but it tires me out quicker. It may be a bad habit but I can idle consistently with both legs indefinitely.

Guess it’s a bad habit, but it’s a bad habit that works for me :stuck_out_tongue: