Speaking as a guy who only started learning to ride a unicycle 6 weeks ago, I also suggest that you hold off learning freemounting until you can ride somewhat. I’m still learning freemounting (but making pretty good progress) and it seems to me that it has several stages -
getting up onto the unicycle with both feet on the pedals, somewhat in balance, slightly rolling
keeping balanced while you transition to moving forward, riding normally
so if you aren’t yet able to ride, you can’t really do the second step, so there’s no point in even trying the freemount at all.
Maybe this will sound impossible, but here’s my suggestion. Keep on with rail practice to build leg strength and to get the feel of riding, but eventually I think you ought to go for the freestanding ride.
Put on a bike helmet and a pair of gloves, go out to the open driveway or walk, set up a couple of lawn chairs back to back a few feet apart so as you sit on the cycle you can hold onto the backs of them, and launch yourself!
The first thing I suggest you work on is to learn how to fall off onto your feet. Fall either in front or off the back, let the unicycle clatter to the ground if you need to, but practice landing on your feet when you fall off. Maybe lower the seat for this; I’m not sure. I learned this way with the seat much too low, because I didn’t know any better, but since this method worked for me, maybe a low seat helped. I’ve never seen this advice in any of the how-to-learn tutorials, but being able to fall off without getting hurt will really help, especially as you’ll be falling off quite a few times at first. And this wasn’t hard, either; it’s just a matter of stepping a foot down as soon as you realize you’ve lost balance.
What I found is that during many, many dozens of really short (5 or 10 minute) sessions, I was able to see progress just about every time; even if it was just being able to stay on another foot before falling. But that tiny bit of visible progress was really helpful in keeping my motivation up.
Thanks all! I’ve been a little busy these past few days and plan on start uni’ing again tomorrow. I might post more videos to show my daily progress if that’s ok with everyone here. Much like the “unicycle journal”, but with video.
Yeah, I though a while about posting the link again. I don’t want to be a pain and post my video link all over the place! I fell like doing it … but I won’t!
I went for a little bit today and my bigest problem is putting my weight on the pedals. Is there any way not to do this or just try to remember? I did 3 rotations unassisted today!!!
I’m not much more advanced than you are. Only been riding a few hours here and there. But i agree with skilewis74 that you should probably raise the seat a little. I found that the difference made by just that extra inch without going too high made a huge difference and allows me to keep my weight on the seat easier without having to think about it.
I use the launch into space system myself (without handrail), this works for me but not for everyone. I haven’t even bothered to try learning freemounting yet. I think its better to learn 1 thing at a time (especially learning to ride unassisted) then think about other things.
It was only a few practice hours ago that i was at the same level you’re at now. So far I can ride the length of a netball court and starting to rapidly increase distance and especially balance. Just keep at it and i reckon you’ll have it in no time.
Also I don’t know what tire pressure you should have but that makes a big difference too i found. Maybe someone else could answer this.?
To start with… a decently high tire pressure is easier IMO. Its easier to turn the wheel and it offers a bit less resistance… its more predictable…
Divebomber… A couple things I did when I was learning…
I’d get on the uni… get situated… and then tell myself… Weight in the seat… look at the horizon… relax… and then do my attempt…
At 3 revolutions, you will start to feel things happen. Think a bit about why you fell off… did you lean to the side? Did you fall forward? Did your pedals seem to just stop? Think about how to correct them.
Riding a uni is not so much a balance thing, but its more about moving the unicycle under you… So… if you are leaning left, turn the uni left and pedal it under you. Try doing it a little… try doing it what seems like way too much… until you find what the right amount is. After a while, that becomes second nature…
From your videos, you seem a bit tentative… don’t be afraid to make huge adjustments at the beginning… I remember turning like 120 degrees in 3 revolutions just trying to stay up…
You’ll get it… the only way to fail now is to quit…
I’ve just come in to this thread. I watched your 5 videos but didn’t read everything. My observations:
Your seat appears to be too low, especially in the two recent clips
Except in your 2nd and 3rd clip, there is almost no riding
No need to learn to freemount yet, first you need to be able to ride away
Clips 2 and 3 were the “good” ones, where you seem to be getting better leg extension (you should still raise it an inch from there) and you’re actually going somewhere. But many people don’t like riding along a support, because they don’t feel like they’re learning. The thing is, you’re making revolutions of the wheel, which is giving your body a chance to know what it feels like. This is far more useful than falling off 100 times with no wall.
Every time you fall off you have to start over. With a wall you save tons of time because you don’t fall as much. Stick with the wall/railing until it gets boring. Only use one hand.
If you want, you can try a technique Bill Jenack (founder of the Unicycling Society of America) used to use. Before riding, stand up on the pedals and straighten both legs. Then sit back down again. This gets your feet more used to the “safety position” (cranks level), and gives you a good base position to start out from. Stop every few turns of the wheel if you want, and repeat. Make sure you don’t always stop with the same foot in front; do it either way. When you sit down, pay attention to taking the weight off your feet. Check yourself on every attempt to make sure you aren’t mashing down. It’s hard to avoid this at first, so don’t worry about it too much. Usually people on make progress with weight on the seat after they start riding.
Is there anything wrong with you, physically or mentally/cognitively? If not, you can ride a unicycle. You’re already closer to doing it than the vast majority of the world’s population. Now you have to believe in yourself.
Once riding along the wall gets too boring to stand, then start riding away. At first you’ll fall a lot, but it’s mostly in your head. You just have to tell yourself you can do it until your body starts believing you.
Once you can ride and start making turns, go back to practicing the mount. You can’t do much with it until then.
3 revs is great. As you repeat this and eventually UPD try to figure out what happened.
Sometimes after I’ve done something intense (for me) or something new that I never realized I could do, the emotion builds up too much and I UPD or I bail because I just can’t believe it.
Keep at it. Soon you’ll be consistantly completing three, four, five and then countless revs. The weather sure has been great for uniing.
Divebomber, Yi-haaaa…Just keep doin’ it! Over and over and over and you WILL reach uni nirvana! Love your videos!
In my early stages, I found out by accident that by letting the tire wiggle back and forth a bit with each peddle, like this:
(
)
(
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( I was able to get quite a bit of distance. That is, I didn’t (still don’t) try to force the uni to go in a straight line, I let it go with the flow.
Yeah, as BurnerDave says, don’t let the wobbles distract you too much. As I am (and you soon will be) getting more revolutions your balance will begin to take over and you will start having less wobbles. Then you just have to remember to keep your knees going straight up and down (not going sideways in and/or out) as you pedal around. You will notice then that you won’t have to flail your arms around so much too and everything seems to get easier in leaps and bounds.
By the way Dave i enjoyed watching your vid. It looked just like me a couple of weeks ago. hahahaha Took me pretty close to the same amount of total practice time to ride about the same distance as you at the end. Nice shed too.
