My brother bought a unicycle off a friend for $20 and he stripped the threads out of the cranks for the pedals >_< i don’t know what cranks he uses.
His unicycle has a sticker that says “unistar” which i think is a torker? its a 20" flatland uni, probably 1o ish years old, would these cotter less cranks work for his uni?
Would they work on my Norco Muni?
Hehe, I can hop just after I mount, I still didn’t figured it out how to do it after slowing down 
Hey I’m envious of you guys hopping. I could do a few a while ago but now I’ve lost the knack.
Quick question for jojoxie. I’ve been watching your vids, you do a rolling mount, rollback mount, hand held mount etc. Which is your dominant foot. I’m having hassle trying to do a rolling mount on my 29". I see you step onto the right pedal first on your 29"". If you were to static mount your uni, which foot would be already placed on which side pedal. HTMS 
Alucard
Hi Alucard, My right foot is dominant, and is always my rear foot whatever mount I’m doing…so static mount right foot first. Hope this helps/answers your question?
Strangely and perhaps wrongly I hop best with my right (dominant) foot forward. So a static mount into a hop is difficult for me 
Good luck and have more fun,
Joseph.
Cheers jojoxie
Freemounting is harder with handlebars
Today I finally got the 36er setup with brakes, cycle computer and handlebars. Had to shorten the brake hose by myself, and thankful magura has a youtube video on how to do it. It got really oily and slippery. 
Went for a test ride around the neighborhood, for about 9km. On the previous ride I was freemounting quite well (1/3 success rate). However, with handlebars, my freemounting dropped to 1/8.
Because I’m short, it feels like the handlebar is coming up to greet my face! And that makes me commit less when doing the rolling jump mount.
Got to try out the brakes, and it wasn’t easy either. Somehow it just feel strange to not have to put back pressure on the pedals. Instead, you put back pressure on your seat. It really does help with speed control on descents though.
Looks like there will be lots more to learn!
Posted some photos on the 36er thread.
Yeah, up an att em LoneReaction
Be carefull out there!
Hi gyus,
I have u question about idling. How much weight do you put on your lower leg whilst idling? I found out that when I have almost all my weight on the lower leg, it’s easier to idle.
Even though I didn’t enjoy idling at the beginning at all, I quite like it now. My maximum was a bit more than 50 reps, my average score is about 10 - 15, but I made a big progress last few days. I still have the moments when I have to stop and chatch my balance, but it’s disappearing as well.
Thank you for your answers, I’m going to ride now
It’s been a long time…
Hi everyone,
It has been a long time since I checked in. Life is kind of in control of me the past 6 months! But life is good so no complaints
Alucard, I watched the videos you posted earlier this month. Isn’t it fun riding on a dirt road? When I ride my upper torso often twists to the right so that my right arm swings out to the right and behind me a lot. As you rode down the dirt road it looked like you do too. If so, I think I know what causes this.
I mount the same as you, with my left foot first. I have found that, though I am right-handed, my left leg is quite dominant. When I am riding I am naturally pushing stronger with the left leg than the right which causes the upper torso to twist the opposite way to compensate. When I focus on applying equal pressure with my right leg everything straightens out and I ride much more comfortably. The problem is that it requires quite a bit of focus, and I quickly revert to my left-foot-dominance whenever I get focused on something else (which happens a lot!)
On the rolling mount… I like to put my left foot on the pedal as it is coming up rather than waiting for it to get horizontal. Then I really throw my upper body over the front and mash down the right pedal. In clock numbers I guess my foot hits the left pedal at about 7:00-7:30 and my right foot lands on the pedal at about 3:30-4:00 so there is quite a bit of motion. I ride both 24" and 26" (with the big fat tire it is effectively 27") and find that on the bigger wheel I can step down pretty hard on the back pedal and use the momentum to pull me up and over. Your video looks good, and you will no doubt get it down soon. I think the 29" at your height is quite a bit more challenging to mount than the 26" is for me (I am 6’3"). When I was mounting the 36" everything was different, and it took some courage to just try to get on the beast! But there is so much inertia in the wheel that it lets you step on the back pedal much harder than on a smaller wheel. I assume the 29" is somewhere in the middle.
Back to everyone else…
I read through several of the posts from the past couple weeks. It is great to see the progress and effort. 
I have not ridden much at all the past 6 months. Work and life are kinda in control right now . I went out last evening just to ride in front of the house and found that my basic riding ability has slipped backward. I need to find a way to get on the uni more often, even if for short rides.
But I still love to ride, and I will get back to more frequent rides again. Meanwhile, I will check in when I can. It is great to see the Learning Journal be such a fun place to collaborate. Thanks everyone. Keep up the great work, and the awesome posts! It is motivating!!
same from my side! Month ago I rode the last time… so I have to practice again.
But with this “Lerning Journal” I feel a great motivation to start again!
thx to all who are posting here!
This message board is quite helpful to see my own progress, I can not imagine a 22 mile ride. I rode 3 miles with one UPD half way through and I was exhausted. At this point, 55 hours into it, I can ride about a mile and a half straight, free mount, idle for about a minute straight, but not consistently, hop a couple of times but still having difficulty recovery and riding on. The problems that I am still experiencing is control and consistent smooth movement. It help to read smooth ride, proper weight on the seat, not so smooth ride not enough weight on the seat.
The question I have is when you start to learn new things at what point do you move on to something else. And how often should you focus on just practicing that particular trick.
For example: idling, I can idle for about a minute, but not all the time, should I still be focusing on practicing idling or should I begin to learn something else while practicing idling?
57UniRider, you are being a bit hard on yourself
I was thinking something more like “Southern Belle” or “Stylin’ Uni-girl”
As for safety gear, we all seem to need to learn the hard way! The wrist guards are my ‘mandatory’ gear now. Without 'em I would have had a few trips to the emergency room (‘hospital’ for those not familiar with this term).
One thing is pretty common among all of us - we like to push ourselves. Otherwise there would be no way to learn this crazy one-wheeled machine 
. But that makes many of us a little hard on ourselves too. I have had to back off and give myself a break, otherwise this little toy would surely break me!! 
It has certainly tried.
Happy riding 57! You are doing great young lady!! 
Good question Jyngles. I have the same one. At this point I have decided to work on a skill when I want to but not to force myself to work on it if I am not enjoying the journey. This probably means slower progress toward proficiency but I just want to enjoy the unicycle so while the hard work is still fun I keep at it otherwise I switch to something else. I’m sure there are contrary opinions, but I am sticking to this one!
Hey all, thought I would resurrect myself, seems to be a trend lately 
I didn’t ride much over the winter. Daylight doesn’t present itself much, and I’m not home often during the day, so riding was limited. To top it off, my spring dreams of uni-heaven were dashed with a broken collarbone while snowboarding in mid-march. My third in seven years. Can’t say I don’t love life!! I was doing pullups after six weeks, but waited until the eighth week to try riding again, just afraid of a upd on the left side.
Only had three rides since then. My garden has taken all of my free time. First two rides were short, about 2 miles. Last Monday I tried a 9.2 mile ride. I know, I just ain’t right in the head. It was tough, but I did it. Had to walk a few times due to circulation and a few tough hills. Right about the 8.5 mile mark, I got a huge cramp in my right thigh. Walked it out, and rode the rest.
Haven’t learned any tricks yet. I love seeing the videos, and reading about all of the progress being made here. I’ve yet to do the “20 minutes a day” thing, and that’s what is holding me back. Y’all are just waaaay ahead of me now, but that’s ok, 'cause I’m here to learn, right??
Riding backwards
Does anyone have a single piece of advice for riding backwards? I have watched several videos on you tube and they are very helpful, but they are all brief and short. Could use some additional direction on things I can focus on.
You just ride and ride, the more you do it the better you get. I’m not one for tricks, i don’t ride backwards and I don’t idle. Can I do either trick when pressed? Sure, but not well and not far or for very long.
I focus on riding, I ride three to four times a week, all on trails. I have a fairly predictable learning curve now, so after four years I sorta know where I’m going, but there are plenty of times when I disappoint myself and plenty of times when I suprise myself.
I have learned tricks by happenstance, sorta like idling, I never practiced it, but there are plenty of times when I stall on the trail and do a “track stand” for a long moment. It’s the same with hopping, I really never did a lot of hopping, but when I’m out riding there are times when I’ll go into a hop instead of a UPD, sorta like a quick save.
When I rode with a dozen good muni riders last weekend, there were a few who could do some neat tricks, made me think that maybe I should practice, but then I’ve never been the sort to practice, I just go riding and do whatever there is to do.
The best thing you can do for your riding is to ride distance (time in the saddle) and to ride varied terrain including hills, trails, obstacles, etc…it’s all about time in the saddle. Think of unicycling lke learning to walk, it takes years to go from crawling to running, so don’t rush it, just be consistent and put in the time.
I know some guys who have been riding for decades, so my short four years is nothing, but in time I’ll catch them 
It helps to have a couple riding buddies to keep you working.
Lean backwards? Learn to jump off when going backwards so you are not afraid of the feeling?
I learned a roll-back mount at some point. This involves only a half rotation backwards, followed by a stall and riding forwards. Still, it is enough to get a feeling of backward movement.
When I started riding backwards, I held onto an object to mount and then tried to lean backwards and ride. I had about 20 feet clear behind me and this practice did eventually work. I found it helpful to look forwards at the ground about 20 feet in front to help keep a good body position. Riding backwards while looking backwards is much more difficult.
Scott
Another excited noob
Hi all,
I managed to get through the first 19 pages of this massive thread, and then just like any good book, had to jump to the end
Background: I picked up two Torker 24" LXes four years ago for me and a cycling friend. Mine was used for a few hours in the fall of 2008 (over the span of a couple of weeks) and then the winter rolled in. The poor beast sat neglected in my shed until this spring. (My friend’s is sadly suffering the same fate in his garage.)
So, now being 40 and finally accepting that I ain’t no spring chicken (several bouts of various physical therapies for non-life-threatening but quite annoying injuries later), I’m up on it. Been practicing for about two months and I can freemount (about 50% of the time) and ride about 600 feet (about 1% of the time), at best. Inner geek says: 24" tire, my record’s 198 half-revolutions; 622 feet. Ish.
Just yesterday I felt my balance on the seat for the first time. I’m a stubborn oaf, and came in to this not only with a 24" as my starting point instead of the “clearly easier 20” but also determined to freemount (there being no obvious good railings, poles, what have you near my house). Turns out my first month-and-a-half of practice have subsequently been with my weight firmly on my feet - which I finally figured out when I first passed 200’ while going down a slight incline (everything here is a hill), at which point my thighs completely gave out from fatigue!
It’s been inspiring reading this thread, seeing how people have progressed, and to realize that this is actually possible. I’ve set a goal of at least 2 miles by August 1st, and daggum it, it’s gonna happen.
– UT
Hi UniTographer! Interesting username, what does it mean?
I’m a shorty (162cm/5’4") and learned on a 24" as well. It’s not as big a handicap that you would think. It is much better for distance compared to the 20", once you get going. And you have! Now all you have to do is to try your best to be light on the pedals, and control speed/balance using your body instead of your feet. You should be riding miles in no time!
I just smashed together unicycling and photography. Photography’s my passion; unicycling could very well become one, too. Perhaps some day I’ll do both at the same time!
Here’s hoping! Not today, though; I see torrential downpours outside.