Help, inspiration needed! I’ve been unicycling for a few months now and have been delighted by the constant feeling of making progress, if only very slight progress. Until recently. I feel like progress has stalled and that I may even be getting worse.
To add some detail, at the moment I can ride, rollback freemount, jump mount, idle well with my dominant foot, ride backward in a line and in a circle,* and have made some slight* progress in sif riding / hopping.
I’m attempting to backroll and backroll mount, with almost zero success - I can’t seem to get the wheel to roll. I’m trying to idle one footed, but reckon I learnt the ‘wrong’ way in that the top foot seems to have too much control.
Even idling with my weaker foot is a struggle, the uni seems to have a mind of it’s own. Hopping has reached the crazy heights of… a kerb! Wheel walking just plain hurt when I went flying off the back!
Now I don’t want to come across like I’m moaning here, I’m really not. I’m delighted with my progress and love the fact that I’ve discovered and am loving unicycling at the ripe old age of 41. I just want to reclaim that great feeling of making progress, however small, and figure you guys are my best bet for advice and inspiration.
Am I attempting too much at once, or perhaps attempting things in the wrong order, or maybe moving onto new techniques before I’m truly grasping more fundamental techniques?
Have you thought about change track slightly and doing some MUni?
I am new to riding and love every ride off-road as it is so all encompassing the rough terrain really keeps you sharp and focussed and the joys of being out in the country on a ridiculous mode of transport really tickles me
While I like practicing mounts and jumps I would rather be out riding and enjoying myself on the trails (it almost feels like homework lol)
With your flat land skills you should really excel at MUni and will give you a good change and relight that fire (or maybe re-stoke it) and you can’t have too many Unicycles by all accounts
Thanks Feisty. Yeah I’ve given muni some thought, but it’s dark by the time I get home from work and get the kids fed and off to bed-I think muni in pitch black may be pushing my luck given my limited skills! I’m up for giving it a go at weekends though, I’ll let you know how successful I am on my kh20-I imagine navigating bumps is gonna be fun…!
Are there other riders near you? Basketball can really help hone fundamentals, like increased proficiency w/ mounts, idling (both w/ each foot), and tight circles. Also backwards riding and circles.
Or hockey. An upside down hockey stick makes for a decent movable support for WW.
You should learn and get good at riding one footed w/ each leg. This will help your Muni and honing your uni balance.
+1 on Muni. The randomness of suddenly having to adjust to the unexpected forces you to improve your consistency at skills like pedaling smoothly, hopping over things, reducing # of required hops, and rolling over/around obstacles, and staying centered on the uni for when learning tricks.
When I first started Muni, I was too forcefull w/ my pedal strokes and w/ the slippier surface of packed dirt was causing me to constantly zig zag which wasn’t really noticable on asphalt/concrete. I think because of Muni, I was later able to climb better and pedal faster, and w/ less energy and wobbling.
My uni development has not been a steady linear progression. Yes, frustrating but I’ve now come to the conclusion that (for me) it’s just the nature of the beast. I now just go out there, get in the flow and enjoy what I can do with maybe a bit of boundry pushing every now and then. No matter how much practice I put in I’m a slow learner whereas you have been a pretty speedy learner. Count your blessings and “carry on”
Search for tutorials on YouTube. There are a few for backrolls and other tricks. You should try doing backrolls down a slight slope to make the wheel roll better. As for other tricks, I’d recommend learning SIF (seat in front) riding and hopping, then learning to 180 unispin. 180 unispins are a lot of fun, and it sounds like you’re at the right level to learn them.
Thanks for your help folks. Lots of good advice there. I’m on the lookout for some good beginners trails for muni-will the smaller wheel of my kh20 be an issue? Skilewis74, there are no people nearby who unicycle as far as I know. I’ll look out an old hockey stick to try wheel walking… Think the otg you linked to is still outside of my skill level as yet.
Point taken Jojoxie, I reckon I probably am being too impatient, but that may be due to not having anyone to gauge my progress against. After I created the thread I went out and had a good time unicycling, I didn’t do anything to make progress but had a good time regardless-lesson learned!
Unihopper, I found your backroll tutorial, good work, but you make it look too easy! Haven’t attempted a 180 unispin but will do soon…
The smaller wheel will be harder to roll over bumps. Pedal strikes will be an issue and it’s pretty slow, 125’s will give a bit more speed and pedal clearance.
IMO the best uni for beginners Muni is a 24x2.6" or 2.7 If you start doing drops of a couple of feet, make sure your parts are strong enough and I’d up to a 3" tire. IMO the easiest crank size is 165 (easier climbing and tech bits) but again pedal strikes are an issue. On all the stuff I’ve ridden I’d just have to pick my line a bit more carefully, overall much eaaier for me, it strill is (although most preffer 150 or less, or w/ a bigger wheel).
24 is also good for really technical trails. If you preffer more XC riding, you will prob preffer a 26 or 29". If this is you, I’d stick w/ the trials untill you can ride everything that’s relatively smooth, like in the vid, while saving for the bigger wheel. Get really good at static and rolling hops, I’d do w/ each foot forward and practice w/ each hand on the handle.
For xc, I’d get one of the upcoming Munis that will come disk compatible (which you may never use, but will be prob prefferable to converting a nondisk uni). For tech, I’d be too woried about damaging the disk from UPD’s and you couldn’t pedal grab on that side. Maguras are less suseptable to damage in UPD’s.
Convert some friends w/ your learner
I think there are several games there. They start easy, so try the first few tricks from each game.
Shame you are almost the other end of the country otherwise we could have gone for a ride and fallen off numerous times together
I have two young kids (15 months and one almost 4) so I only get to ride to and from work in the week and go out at sunrise for a quick 5 mile ride Sat and Sunday with the odd longer session now and again so I feel your pain
With the evenings and mornings getting lighter I am scheming that I could get a morning ride in before work (I start at 6 so I would have to be up at the crack of dawn or maybe after they go to bed).
the 20" will be fun but fine for short rides, it will just make you pick your line well I ride a 24x3 and it isn’t far off my 26x2.4 mtb wheel size so rolls well and still climbs easily, the faster you go the more energy you have in the big heavy wheel like an engines flywheel so that helps carry you over stuff.
No. I posted an intro on an old thread that he was the OP of but got no reply-I think the thread was probably dead by the time I posted. I’ll IM him once I’ve got to grips with attempting to muni on my kh20.
Ta for posting that video. It took me yonks to watch because my internet download speed is sssssooooooo ssslllooowwwww. But, it was well worth it:)
A lovely video, ta for sharing.
