Learned to 1 foot ride today!

Riding Advice
1

After I learned to 1 foot idle each foot, I gave myself a 2 week window to
get 1 foot pedaling down. It took me 3 weeks, but I only practiced about 5
times in those 3 weeks. Doing it with my left foot is probably going to be
a lot harder. It feels great to find out what you can learn when you just
keep hammering it out. I can’t wait for gliding or wheelwalking, whichever
is easier.

2

I just almost mastered one foot riding todasy as well.

Great feeling

Scott

3

I think the big trick to one foot riding is to lean a bit more forward than normal, and to put almost no preassure on the upstroke of the pedal.

Its funny I still cant 1 footed idle, or even come close to doing so. But I dont find 1 footed riding that bad…

Ive also been working on learning to WW I think its deffenatlly easier that gliding. So I would work on that one first. It deffeatlly is the hardest skill I’ve worked on so far besides learning to ride. My current record is a sketchey 25 feet…

Chex

4

That’s great Karen. There is hope for those of us stuck in bi-ped mode.

I started my one-footed training-in-earnest today after never quite getting it for many moons. With some coaching and much ridicule from Greg and Tom I think I got a record of five or six revolutions! That’s about a 2000% increase over my prior record.

My uni also had some spectacular crashes, it hasn’t slid that far down the road in a long time.

Have to go out and practice more now, I think I just heard someone calling me a “chicken”…

5

One foot idling came so natural for me, and led into one foot riding. I was sitting in a parking lot one day and told beeull that I was going to one foot idle. First attempt I nailed it, for about 8 idles.

6

i’m hot on your heels
i managed to ‘see’ what it feels like to ride one footed on thursday
now it’s just practise, practise, practise

:wink:

7

How’s the one foot riding coming?

At the end of two weeks I can do 20 revolutions most of the time and have a record of 40. I can transition back to regular riding about 1/2 the time (when I 'm not just going for distance).

After the first week I was still lucky to get much past the 10 rev. mark then last Wednesday I switched from the 20 with 125 cranks to the 24 with 140 cranks. Within very little time I was doing 15-20 revolutions. The record ride was back on the 20 with a slight down slope. Each time out the control is improved.

OK, now I can do it but I have not mastered it. So when have you mastered a skill? when you can pass the level test? When you can ride indefinitely? When you can regularly transition between the skill and regular riding?

8

Re: How’s the one foot riding coming?

Wow, congratulations! It looks like everyone was out improving today. But were you doing this in front of your house? Because I doubt there is that much downhill, which means that you did a lot of this going up.

Steve, you can never mastered 1 foot, because 1 foot is always trying to master you. As soon as you start daydreaming about how good it is, bam! But if you think you have mastered it, try circles, then figure 8s, then smaller circles then spins! OTOH, I was definitely surprised and humbled at how fast you learned 1 foot, what was it about 1 hour to get to 6 revs or so. That only took me a few weeks of at least an hour a day practice.
Short answer: you have mastered it when you get back to regular riding when other non-unicyclists are watching.

Also, don’t forget the other foot. Right now the way you learned is fresh. Apply that to the other foot at least a little to get the idea in your head.

9

Re: How’s the one foot riding coming?

You’ve mastered 1 foot riding when you can do it off road. :slight_smile:

Next time we go muni riding we’ll have to see how well you do 1 footing on the trails. :wink:

My riding skills regressed today. I was jumping like an old lady and I could only manage to ww about 15 feet on my trials uni. But that’s OK because there is muni tomorrow.

10

Re: Re: How’s the one foot riding coming?

this is excellent advice.i can go anywhere with my right foot on the crown,now im falling on my butt again because 4 months ago i never thought to practice with both feet.

11

Re: Re: How’s the one foot riding coming?

Then you will most likely ride with a master: I tried to hobble Greg by giving him a slick tyre and loose 125 mm cranks- he just popped off the loose crank and dared us to keep up as he bombed down the trail one footed. Warning: humble pie is habbet forming. :wink:

-Christopher

12

I thought it was: Bumble pie is hobbit-forming. :thinking:

13

Re: Re: How’s the one foot riding coming?

Thanks for starting my day off with a good LOL!

Too much information: ERROR, ERASE MENTAL IMAGE!

14

Well done to everyone who’s succeeding at this and other skills. I’ve been working on 1 foot riding for a long time now, and am consistently riding 50 + revolutions, and often over 100. I did a big figure 8 the other day.

A few things that have helped me:

  1. I don’t do this in any other part of my riding, but I find that sticking my arms out really makes a difference. It raises the centre of mass considerably (arms are heavy) and if you bend your arms slightly, you can use small movements of the forearms to adjust your balance. Looks naff, maybe, but it helps to build distance and therefore confidence.

  2. I start from one foot idling. I haven’t yet worked out how to go from 2 foot riding to 1 foot riding in one smooth movement. The advantage of starting from 1 foot idling is that it improves your 1 foot idling no end. :0)

  3. Normally I ride with the balls of my feet on the pedals. For one footed riding, I find that moving the foot forwards a bit (instep on the pedal) helps. This gives a slightly better grip, and subtly changes the angle at which your leg moves, so it’s easier to push the pedal forwards.

  4. Don’t push the pedal DOWN; push it forwards. You should only be pushing the pedal from about 1 o’clock to about 3 o’clock on the clockface (seen from the, er… right).

  5. Break up your practice by trying other skills for a few minutes.

15

wow. this weekend must be a good week for leaning tricks. today i just pulled off my first 180 hop. It feals so good to pull off a new trick.
When you’re learning to do one footed rideing, try to work on control of the wheel when your pedaling and try not to be “jearky” when you pedal so you have have good smooth rotations. In one footed rideing, control is key.

cornsyrup

16

All right all right – I confess! I did my first non-dominant foot 1-f riding on Friday. I did some more today! Now, lay off, okay?

Sheesh!

:angry:

17

Thanks for the detailed info Mike: if the weather hadn’t been so increadible today (65+ and sunny) I would have tried to put it to use. I’m eager to see if thinking about it this way will help.

Is this one of those vast number of skills that is easyer on the 20 than the 24? How 'bout crank leangth effecting ease of one footing?

-Christopher

18

Re: Learned to 1 foot ride today!

The trails are all crappy from the rains, so I did a little urban MUni
work and got pretty solid at rolling hops, and was even getting some
decent air going up curb cuts and stuff like that. And I can do the
thing Kris Holm does where he hops to make sure his feet are in the
right position before an obstacle! Well, at least I can do the hop;
I’m so fuzzy on what the right pedal position is that it often makes
it worse than it might otherwise be.
-Tom

19

Sticking your arms out definitely helps. Also you might try sticking them a little forward. When you are learning a little more weight forward helps.

I didn’t have the option of starting from one foot idling, but I believe this is one skill best initiated at a little bit of speed, but when I start trying one foot backward, I will probably do it from one foot idle. I’ve gotten over the top a few times, and it is less scary than trying to lift my foot up while riding backwards!

I suspect that having the middle of your foot over the pedal helps you catch a little of the pedal as you push forward, from an angle much farther back in the stroke than if you have to wait to get over the top. For some reason I don’t like the feel, but I do it for better results all the time.

20

One foot ride - 26" muni

I’m trying to learn one foot ride on my 26" Muni. I know how to One foot idle (both sides), so I try to start riding from that position.

Have some questions about it:

  1. Is it harder/possible to do it on 26"?
  2. Is it way easy to start from one foot idling, instead of switching from two foot ride to one?
  3. I found it very hard for me to do the first revolution. I start one foot idling, and gradually increase the wheel movement (forward/backward), but I feel that I can’t complete the first revolution, like there is a barrier the I can’t overcome. Do you apply a lot of force on that first revolution ?

Thanks for any tips