Hypothetically, you have to start all over in unicycling. It’s day one, ground zero, and you just picked up a uni for the first time. From now on, what would you do different? (assuming you still knew about everything, you just lost all of your skill)
Me, I would sell whatever I was holding and buy a Muni, never to have to worry about breaking anything ever again and be in bliss…
Internet
Well, hypotheticly, if I had to start over again, i would use the internet to help. When I first started I didn’t realize the world of unicycling world on the interenet.
I would have asked more questions on the forum before purchasing the unicycle that i think is best for me.
Scott
I’d buy a new 20" instead of a used 16"
When I first started it was with a cheapest of the cheap 20" uni from a local juggling shop. Actually it wasn’t, it was an expensive beast… so I’d have looked into it a bit more and got it much cheaper.
I also started off just planning to learn to ride, and maybe juggle on it… I never once thought you could go up mountains with it. I mean, it’s only got one wheel! What kind of silly idea is that?!
More research, as ever, would not have gone amiss.
Phil, just me
Shin protection: I consistantly wacked my shins on pedal when learning the wheel… never occured to me to buy armour. My progress would have been a bit faster…
-C
Nothing. I just about started here and you’ve nurtured me. heh You guys have been a big help! Thank You
I would have started unicycling when I was 9.
I would have purchased the Power Pashley MUni instead of the base version.
I would have started advancing in skills when I was 11 instead of 50. I think it would have been faster and easier.
Re: Internet
When I first started there was no internet.
My only connection to other unicycling was Jack Wiley’s book “The Unicycle Book” that I checked out from the library.
kewl question!
not much really, i’d have hoped that my parent’s would’ve bought me a uni for my 12th/8th/5th b’day
apart from that, i’ve enjoyed the journey
If I could roll the clock back to 1976 I would have:
Known it’s almost impossible to learn on a 16" hard tire “Troxel” with tricycle cranks! Thank God my parents gave me the 24" Schwinn for my 16th BD.
Learned more skills when I was young(er), I am so envious of my girls, they learn things so fast.
Not let my membership to the USA lapse for almost 20 years.
Made a better effort to stay connected with other unicyclists after college.
Not have waited to join a club until after my girls started riding.
Other than that, no regrets.
I would probably have bought a 20" United Maincap instead of a torker 24" and i would have learnt to freemount sooner. because it took me a little over 2 weeks before i could actually move more than a meter but it took me a month and a half to get to fremounting. I also would have probably bought differen pedals and tire much sooner. I also would have learned without a helmet so now i wouldnt be such a puss on doing new drops and stuff.
-Eric
No insult intended, but that has got to be the worst excuse for not wearing a helmet I have ever heard.
I would have found a group of mates to start with, then i would have had some encouragment and a bit of competition. I would also have started on 20" not a 24", i would also just go straight into trials, forget all the little freestyle moves.
I wear a helmet now. I just wished I had learnt withut a helmet so now, that I wear one, I wont be so afraid of doing new stuff, leaving me limited to only things I can do easily, and causing me to thusly have to take 15 mins of just saying “Im gonna do it!” or so before i try adding 5-6 inches to a drop. i am proud to wear a helmet, leg armor and occasonally wrist guards. I just felt it would have been better (emotionally speaking) to not wear a helmet the first two weeks of learning, so my courage would be alot greater.
I know what you mean about overcoming the fear. I’m not sure armor really has that much to do with it, except in one sense: I know that my chances of a concussion is remote. Whether you wear armor or not you have to overcome fear to unicycle. The armor, like prudent selection of challenges, allows you to unicycle more often and longer. If you let fear take over, you’ll end up not unicycling - whether the fear is of a little scrape on your shin or being embarassed in front of someone or of a broken leg.
I personally think that unicycling on the edge of a 3-story building or a 50-foot dam is stupid. But it may be beneficial in the fear aspect in helping set thresholds. No matter what you do in unicycling, nothing will be more dangerous than that! But I think there are better ways to fight one’s fear than those activities.
I’ve seen some skateboarders at the skate park with no armor falling again and again into extreme pain and lie there screaming or yelling. The conclusion I came to was not that they were brave, rugged, or exceptionally skilled so that it was worth it. I finally decided that they were masochistically beating on themselves, and skateboarding was their way to do it. There were far better riders there, some with armor and some not, that were not beating on themselves. They had crashes, to be sure, but their approach was different.
I’m not an extreme rider. Will I ever be? Who knows. But I do know that managing my pain and risk of injury is one of the intellectual skills that are part of unicycling. The better I do that, the more time I have riding and the faster my skills will develop. When I’m home nursing an injury, my skills are atrophying - getting worse.
By starting out with a helmet, you showed that some of those essential skills are already well advanced. I doubt that not starting with a helmet would make you braver now. What it might have done is lull you into a false sense of security until you tried that BIG stunt and incurred real dehabilitating brain injury. And your 15 minutes of psych-up? I think it would still be there helmet or no.
Why was Dale Earnhardt killed? Perhaps no one knows for sure, but I can tell you he wore his seatbelt despite his proven skill in driving. And I’m sure that dealing with fear is a big factor in automobile racing!
Now that I think about it, the original question was simply one that picqued (sp?) my curiosity, but now I can use this list to help my friends who are just starting to unicycle. Cool!
I’m a big armour advocate. Helmets I think, give newcomers to the sport a little more security and one less thing to think about. I don’t think a helmet gives enough of a sense of security to make that 6’ drop or gap or whatever.
If I had to start over I probably would have read less about how to freemount, ride, etc. and just tried to do it myself.
I would not have taken a 30 yr break. If we’d had this internet and this forum back then, I’d have stayed into it.
MUni didnt exist either. That’ll keep you interested.