Learning Journal

I second NSYO: What a beautiful area in your video, jojoxie! I’d have to work on my flexibility before I can do a tire-grab mount. Nice job.

Went for the mile today, didn’t quite make it. Stopped more than I wanted, took a few seconds rest each time. There’s a small uphill/downhill section, did ok downhill, not so well uphill. Most of it is a long sidewalk, so I had to keep her straight, with a few swerves to avoid broken glass. Had a lot of trouble mounting on the uphill. Thought about practicing turns back at home, but my legs died right before I got there.

Positive Points :slight_smile:

  1. Finally attempted the mile. It’s off my little street, so more public exposure to riding and falling.
  2. Made my first seat adjustment. It was quite minor, but it involved grabbing the handle and a quick swish with the buttocks.
  3. Stayed within the confines of the sidewalk width. I never felt like I was going to lose control and go off on either side.

Points to Work On:

  1. Foot position on the pedal, especially the left. I start with the right stationary, and jump the left.
  2. Sitting down more.

Not quite a victory in distance, but a victory in spirit!

Cramps, Hand Mount, etc

Thanks everyone for the cramp advice. I am trying to put all of your suggestions to work, and I have had fewer cramps this week. THANKS! I especially think the emergen-C has been helpful, and the stretching… and liquids. BTW, jojoxie, I’m practically a 100% teetotaler, so alchohol won’t be a problem.

Jojoxie! Way to go on that wheel mount! I’ve watched your procedure over and over again. It doesn’t look like you are leaning over all that much, but when I try it I feel like I am practically standing on my head, and there’s no way I could get on the wheel from that position. However, my attempts this week have all been on the 20". Maybe it will work better on the 24". Freemounting the 20" is progressing with the rolling mount. I guess it’s a rolling mount even though I am not rolling very far. I’m starting with my left foot on the back wheel at about 5 and rolling forward to put my right foot on the front pedal at about 10 (or maybe 9). I have found that if I start with the left pedal low (around 5) I have more luck than if the left back pedal is at 4 or higher. I’m making progress. Yesterday I didn’t get much practice, but Thursday I did over 20 successful freemounts. :slight_smile: I’m pretty sure I will be free of support SOON! Then I can really get down to conquering that distance challenge.

Happy Saturday! I LOVE Saturdays!!!

Me too:D:D

I do free mount the same as you do, my dominant foot is right foot but I use it to jump during the free mount (contrary to what the tutorial says that the dominant foot should be on the back pedal.) So I make sure that the pedals are horizontal, my left foot on the back pedal and the seat in between my thighs. I always make sure that my right foot is about 1 foot away from the back of the wheel then I would jump up the unicycle just enough that the seat post is vertical (but it is better when you jump up more than less IMO because if you jump up more you will just fall down in front and you have the chance to counter act this when your right foot is already on the front pedal but if you jump less you might fall down backwards and if your not fast enough, you’ll end up with your tail bone. It happened to me once! :astonished: ) It might help also if you hold on the seat handle for better control then once your up, you can remove your hand to help you balance and I like to look at the ground about 5 feet in front of me as I mount as well, helps you keep your balance as you’re starting. courtesy of Dane M :slight_smile: You might want to see this video too. Its a nice tutorial only the foot placement are different on me.
I hope this one helps :slight_smile:

TWO. Count them. TWO tire grab mounts!

Jojoxie!! Did you say you got the tire grab in about half an hour. NOT ME! But I did mange to do a whole TWO on the 24" today. :astonished: I’m not sure how long I practiced, but it seemed like an hour.

Interestingly, I AM getting the free mount (no tire grab) on the 20" at work during the week. I practice the 24" at home mostly on the weekends. I haven’t been able to do a successful (no tire grab) free mount on the 24" even with quite a bit of practice. I can’t seem to get high enough and keep my balance long enough to ride off. Since I actually DID 2 successful tire grabs, maybe that’s the way to go with the 24 inch.

THANKS Jojoxie!!
My next goal is to freemount the 24" and make a video. Yours is wonderful!

After that, inspired by Animal Cage, I plan to start “measuring distance in miles! …even if it is a fraction of a mile!” Go Animal Cage!

Thanks to ALL!
Unicycling is fun, but it’s even MORE fun with this bunch!
Thanks NSYO! :slight_smile:

Thanks Ru60hz! Helpful Video!

AMAZING!!! Trying to get my brother-in-law hooked, letting him idle while holding on to his car. At one point he got about 3 feet! Said he might want one after his Harley is paid off. So I got on and tried to explain other tricks that I can’t do, like hopping, which I’ve never tried. I held on to his car, and said, “Pedals at 3 and 9, grab the handle, and hop like a pogo stick…” I let go of the car, hopped four times, then rode out of it and down the street!!! I was in SHOCK! Felt so good, I turned, rode onto the grass and did a victory faceplant.

Pogo Stick?

Now you have ME wanting to try it. I haven’t read up on hopping, and I hadn’t thought of it as a pogo stick. I was GOOD on a pogo stick when I was a kid. Wore out three of them. I’ll be trying that today! Way to go AnimalCage!

DaneM has a great hopping video in the tutorial forum. Ironically, he says, “…its not a pogo stick. Don’t hop just to hop, hop to keep your balance.” Well, I will pogo some while I’m learning, just to get a feel for the motion. When I feel confident enough, I will start hopping with purpose. Have fun with it, and let us know how today works out.

Crash!

I took the 36er out on Saturday evening with the intent to go 10 miles. I was riding on the Jordan River Parkway trail, which is a paved trail that runs for many many miles along the river. It is used by pedestrians, bicyclists, roller-bladers, and lots of families, people walking dogs, etc. I have ridden it several times and my snow video in January is on this trail.

At about 7.5 miles into my ride something very strange happened very suddenly. I must have leaned forward quite a bit and tried to pedal to bring the uni back under me. This is quite easy on a small wheel but on the big wheel it can be harder and it produces significant speed. After my second attempt it became clear that I was still forward of the upright position and I did not know how to get out of the predicament. I did not know how to arrest my speed but I did not dare make another attempt at pedaling the uni under me, so I made a split-second decision that I had to jump off. :astonished:

The problem was that I was traveling so fast that there was no way I could run it out, so I was going to hit the ground. All of this flashed through my head as I bailed out, but I could not figure out what else to do. So after two steps down I went, primarily on my left side. I was wearing my wrist guards and helmet but I had chosen not to wear my knee or elbow pads on this ride thinking that I had made enough progress and that the risk of crashing was very low. Wrong!! :frowning:

The wrist guards and helmet have always been mandatory, and I am so glad to have been wearing them. I think my hands hit the ground just before my left knee and they took most of the shock. And the wrist guards did their job! My knee contacted the ground but not with a lot of shock so there is no bone or structural damage. There is a big patch of road rash. My left hip and shoulder also hit the ground though I did not realize it until later. I think I even hit my helmet on the ground slightly but I cannot see any mark on the helmet. So I must have been moving faster than 10 mph. I would guess it was between 12-15 mph.

After walking it off for a couple minutes I picked up the uni and walked back toward my starting point for a while before I felt like I could try to ride again. My second freemount attempt succeeded and I was able to ride the 1.5 miles back to my truck without further incident. So I only completed 9 of my intended 10 miles.

It has been an interesting couple days since then. I am trying to decide whether I am going to continue to try to master the 36er or not. I have had 2 pretty bad crashes so far. Riding the big wheel is very different than the other uni’s I ride. The speed, weight and inertia of the wheel/tire, and the height from the ground are all big factors. I hate letting things beat me, but I have a lot of important responsibilities to consider and getting hurt in crashes is not helping!

For now I am very grateful that I was not injured badly. Both collar bones are tender, as is my whole left shoulder system. But nothing is broken. So I will give it some time before I decide whether or not to continue the 36er. Needless to say it will be a few days before I am back on any unicycle. I am moving around pretty slowly and gingerly to say the least :o Band Aid makes some nice big bandages and with the help of Neosporin I think the knee, hip, and shoulder abrasions will heal pretty quickly. The knee is the worst. I can post a photo that I took just after I got home before cleaning and bandaging if anyone requests it :astonished: :smiley:

Funny anectode: Early in the ride I got my very first “Hey, you’re missing a wheel” from a guy out on the trail. So I can now feel like a real unicyclist :). There were lots of other comments, and several surprised people. Several “hey, look at the guy on the unicycle” being yelled by children or teens. And one guy fishing on the bank;
Guy: “Is that hard to learn?”
Me: “It takes a while”
Guy: “Is it harder to learn on the big wheel or a small one?”
Me: “Definitely harder on the big wheel”
I also got a nice compliment from a road cyclist saying that I “look really good on that thing”.
On my way back to the truck I passed a couple and the lady noticed my knee and was pretty shocked as I passed her–she said “OUCH!”

Sorry for such a long post again. Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did crashing :roll_eyes: .

Key Learnings:

  1. Crazy things happen suddenly on a 36er just like on a smaller wheel, but the effect is greatly magnified
  2. Wrist guards are a must on the 36er or anytime you are pushing yourself hard on any size wheel. In both my bad crashes the wrist guards took most of the impact which reduced the damage elsewhere, and they saved my wrists and hands from severe damage both times.
  3. A Helmet only needs to save your head one time to be worth wearing everytime.
  4. The other safety gear is also important, and I am lucky that my knee did not hit the ground with more impact or it would have been much worse. I will be wearing knee and elbow guards on future 36er rides!

If you want to hop you will want to lower your saddle height a bit. If you want to hop a lot, and especially if you want to hop higher you will need to lower it more. It is really fun, but it is a serious work out. And riding with your seat in the lower position is more work on the legs no matter how hard you force yourself to sit down! But it is really fun, and can greatly enhance the whole unicycling experience.

I did try the hopping yesterday, but not much. I did not have AnimalCage’s awesome discovery that I could do it without even thinking about it… and my prior pogo stick skills did not seem to rise up from 45 years ago in any significant manner.

Oh well. I’m working on the free mount. I thought I just about had it on the 20, but it still doesn’t come consistently, and I haven’t gotten back to the 24" efforts after the measely 2 successful attempts this weekend.

I think I would be making more progress, more quickly, if I were working on ONE unicycle, but I’ve gotten myself into doing 2 sizes and will stick with that for awhile.

NSYO, your questions (to yourself) about continuing with the 36 remind me of my own self examination a few weeks ago when I was tired of landing on my tail bone, etc. I never decided to give this thing up, but the voice inside of me was working on me. Even now, I think I would be making more progress if I were more agressive… but I don’t want to get hurt. I know I also need to spend more time on it. NYSO… I’m not trying to say don’t give up the 36. I’m saying I certainly understand your thought process. You are right, it’s not worth getting seriously hurt! It’s a long way up to that seat… or to the ground. I remember you said fifty-something inches! (But that’s coming from somebody who hasn’t really mastered the 20 or 24!.. basically a unicycler wanna be!)

One thing I’ve noticed is that I have to get really “psyched up” to practice sometimes, especially the “long” ride down the street. It’s not like just deciding to go out for a spin on a bicycle. I have to get mentally reved up for it. I have to talk myself into it sometimes.

I think when I can finally just pick the thing up, walk out the door, step on it and roll off (instead of finding something to hold on to!), it will be easier to just go out for a ride. …of course there’s also still this exhaustion thing I’m trying to get over.

Thanks everyone. I’ll be practicing that free mount again today.

Hey NSYO, sorry to hear about your fall. Have you managed to analyse what went wrong? What crank length are you using? I replaced the 125s on my 29er with 137/165s to give more control while getting used to a bigger wheel. I’ve only used the 137 position so far, even that small increment in size helps with control. Big hills and off road beckon … the 165s are ready and waiting.

57UniRider- I too have to get psyched up but with a good dose of excitement at the same time :astonished: :smiley:

Crank Length

I’ve been reading about crank length. Should the length be written on the actual crank somewhere, or do I have to measure it? The cranks on my 20" say TOP 127 J-5. Anyone know exactly what that means? I don’t see 127 on the chart I was just looking at. Thanks!

127 mm, I guess.

Best regards,
Sanne

I have to say, I’m the same about taking the unicycle out of the back yard, mostly because of other people seeing me, my freemount is still not consistant, by no means is it a case of “stepping on and rolling off”, I don’t actually ride the 5min walk to the park cos the footpaths are narrow and I don’t want to accidentally throw the uni into a parked car! The last few evenings it’s been great to get to the park and have some proper space to ride in, but tonight there were loads of people hanging around and I was really nervous, only spent 10mins riding around until I gave up and went home :o no comments were made or anything, and even though no-one seemed to be paying me any attention I was really aware of everyone else.

So yeah, I think having to psych yourself up is just something to deal with, hopefully it’ll get easier with increased practice and growing confidence.

Good luck with those freemounts!

Oh, also, didn’t want to start a whole new thread and figured this might be a good place to throw it, but posture on the unicycle?
I know that good unicyclists sit upright, and I definitely lean forward quite a lot, I’m assuming this is a common thing for beginners, what I’m wondering is whether this is something that naturally adjusts as you become more experienced and comfortable on the uni, or is it something that can become a bad habit if you don’t actively work to fix it?

If you do traditional freestyle performances (i.e. in groups of four or six), you train posture because you loose a lot of points if it’s wrong.

The required posture is your arms fully extended to the sides, straight like a balancing bar, tilted slightly to the front. The hands should never waver below shoulder level or rise above the top of your head level.

You can train this standing, sitting or on a uni. Holding your arms like that becomes painful, I trained it until I could keep my arms in that position for 20 minutes.

The effect on your riding is that your shoulders move back, the chest comes forward and you start to do most of the balancing with your hip.

After some time, once you have build the necessary muscles in your shoulders and back, you will keep that posture even when you drop your arms, because it maintains the blood circulation in your shoulders and you can sit in the saddle (or on a chair) like that without tiring for a long time.

If you work on that every day you only need one or two weeks to grow the necessary muscles. You don’t really need to gain any strength, just some stamina.

Arms out for 20 mintes?

Hello Kamikaze. Are you saying that training to hold your arms out for 20 minutes, and being able to ride that way, will help you ride better (as in more relaxed for a longer period of time)?

Do you know anything about ballet positions? Is the arm position you describe anything like a dancer would hold arms out (second position for anyone who might be familiar with ballet.)

Very interesting!
I haven’t read anything about unicycle arm positions.

Thanks Kamikaze!

Hi PurpleFW. It sounds like quite a few of us newbies are a bit timid about making fools of ourselves in front of other people. I just want to practice without too much attention… until I get fairly confident. Then I think I will enjoy some encounters. I think I’m getting better about it, but I certainly know what you are talking about!

Also, I’m sitting a lot straighter than I was when I first started out. Kamakaze’s information is pretty interesting. I will be thinking about that, maybe doing some arm practicing.

What I’m really looking forward to is the day when riding just feels relaxed… like I’m out for a nice, fairly comfortable ride around the block.
Does it ever get to the point where it feels relaxed? … like you’re not having to concentrate every second about not falling off?