I’ve been unicycling for about 7 months and am having trouble learning to
idle.What is the best way to put your feet/weight on the pedals, etc. Any advice
would be great. Thanks. -JohnQ
Re: Idling
John Q wrote:
>I’ve been unicycling for about 7 months and am having trouble learning to
>idle.What is the best way to put your feet/weight on the pedals, etc. Any
> advice would be great. Thanks.
Copied below is a write-up on idling that John Hoy wrote…really good info in
there that should help you.
As far as personal experience; I practiced idling in my basement all thru
January. It took me about two weeks of daily practice to get to the goal of 25
repetitions. At first, I would put a lot of weight on my down leg. After a dozen
rocks though it felt like my foot was going to fall off. After you start to get
good, you will find that you can keep most of your weight on the seat and only
put a minimal amount of weight on the pedal. One other key is to remember to
look ahead, not down at the wheel, when you practice.
-Rick
On 11/9/98, John Hoy wrote:
>On Saturday a couple of people wrote me and asked something like:
>
>> --can you give me some simple directions on how I might learn to idle?? Id
>> sure appreciate it! Thanks!
>>
>
>First of all, idling isn’t as advanced as you may think. You can start
>practicing idling before you can freemount, even before you can ride.
>
>Get on the uni next to a wall or something and put your hand out to the side
>and hold onto the wall. Put one pedal all the way down then start rocking a
>little forward and backward parallel to the wall.
>
>The explanations of idling at unicycling.org (under the ten skill levels)
>mention pedaling 180 degrees. I think they must be using a giraffe or
>something. I usually go a little under 90 degrees. The other variable is speed.
>I think if you just find a comfortable rhythm you’ll be fine.
>
>I suppose that theoretically your center of gravity, or that of you and the
>uni, stays more or less in one place bobbing up and down but it doesn’t really
>matter. You don’t have to think about it. Just get comfortable rocking back and
>forth. Don’t put too much weight on your down foot.
>
>Soon you’ll be able to pull your hand off the wall for a moment or two and go
>back and forth once or twice before putting it back down.
>
>OK. Now you know how it feels to idle. You know how to keep from falling
>forward or backward. You just pedal the uni so that it comes back underneath
>you. The thing that makes idling SEEM hard is that you don’t know how to keep
>from falling over sideways without the wall to hold onto.
>
>WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IS TURN TOWARD THE DIRECTION YOU’RE FALLING
>
>If you wish to practice this try pushing yourself sideways, away from the wall,
>then when you start to fall twist at the hips so that you and the uni are
>facing the direction you are falling and ride off. You can also practice the
>same thing by riding along and stopping for a moment until you start to fall
>sideways and then recovering as described above. These exercises are best done
>with the cranks horizontal in ‘power position’ unlike idling, in which the
>cranks don’t usually get that far from vertical.
>
>Now on to the real thing. First you have to get away from that wall. You need
>to have enough room around you so you can turn whichever direction you happen
>to fall. Let go of the wall and ride a couple of revolutions into the open then
>stop and rock backward and forward just like you did when you were holding onto
>the wall but this time pay very close attention to which way you’re falling and
>try and turn that way.
>
>At first it’s kind of frantic. You twist into the direction you’re falling.
>Don’t worry about what direction you’re facing. Just try and turn toward the
>direction you’re falling so you can pedal the uni back underneath you. Once you
>get it to work a couple of times you’ll see that it can be done then you should
>become obsessed with trying.
>
>I start counting with the word ‘and’ when I stop going forward and ‘1’ etc.
>when I stop going backward.
>
>Smaller wheels are easier. I usually ride a 24" but this last week when I was
>working on idling I was using a 26". I got to the obsessive stage mentioned
>above on the 26" and I’m sure I that I would have been able to get to the goal
>of 25 with it but I actually achieved it first on a 20", then a couple of days
>later on the 24".
>
>Another point is weight distribution. I seem to have a tendency to put too much
>weight on the down pedal. When I ride a bicycle I often shift much of my weight
>to my down pedal when coasting and rest that way a bit. It seems that if I do
>this while idling I tend to fall in that direction.
>
>Idling is fun and well worth the effort. It really opens the door for other
>skills. Free mounting is way, way easier when you can idle. I was also able
>yesterday to ride across the living room, stop and idle a few times and then
>come back backwards.
>
>It was very easy and relaxed, at least until I crashed into the bookshelf and
>lamp, and was a direct result of learning to idle.
>
>Good luck,
>
>John H.
>
RE: Idling
> I’ve been unicycling for about 7 months and am having trouble learning
> to idle.
Idling may take hours of practice, and is based on pedaling one foot thru the
bottom half of the pedal stroke, back and forth.
> What is the best way to put your feet/weight on the pedals, etc. Any advice
> would be great. Thanks.
All of your weight should be on the seat. Only put on the pedals the force you
need to move them. Your pedal position for general riding should be the same as
a bike, with the balls of the feet centered over the pedal axles.
Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone