Learning Journal

Nice pink THP :p. I spy a uni pedal in the foreground of the photo!

Grizoo - Welcome to the Team Learning Journal :slight_smile:

On the mounting LR; in teaching my younger brother and nephew I had to tell them to literally ‘throw’ their weight forward. They were both hesitant so they both kept failing to stick the mount because they would not get up and over the uni. If you get too far forward you will either just ride the uni under you for a successful mount, or you will come off the front. No biggie. Learning uphill mounts on a muni really requires this kind of throwing your weight forward. It is the key thing that helped me get the static mount down.

On foot position; it is just something that comes along. In some of my early posts on this thread it was my biggest complaint. Ultimately you will learn to make adjustments by moving your foot on the upstroke of that pedal since you can actually completely un-weight it as it comes up. But this takes time, and I am just now getting pretty good at it with my non-dominant foot. So now I am trying to make adjustments with the strong foot as well, which is more difficult.

Sounds like lots of great progress going on everywhere. The key is to not make this a competition. Just celebrate each success, and don’t get too frustrated or discouraged at not progressing as fast as you want. It has taken me 10 months to get my attitude to this point, but it is magic! :smiley:

57UR, I think AC is right - you typify someone who doesn’t give up! And AC, I don’t know much about the cage, but you are an Animal :smiley:

Went to practice for about an hour. Now that I can freemount about 20-30% of the time, I road around the neighbourhood without having to use any support to start. It’s awesome :slight_smile: Took everyone’s advice about going more forward when jumping up and it helped. Also, managed to wiggle my foot into the correct position. Sometimes this happens at the bottom of the stroke instead of the top.

Thanks, it has had quite the reaction at the gym =D

I don’t even know what happened tonight… i had a rather amazing day with my girlfriend (its official) and she was upset i haven’t taken her out on the uni in a while but we’ve been “pre occupied”. So she left around 9, i decided to head out to practice at about 11. Walking through an intersection with my uni i had a vehicle that drove away from me make a few drastic u turns and stop beside me and it was a SUV full of young ladies who apparently think my unicycle is sexy =D (may not help i was wearing a pretty revealing shirt). So i got to my practice spot and decided NO FENCES! My head is no longer feeling wonked out so i went for it. I decided that i was going to ride home, and if i UPD then i had to free mount on spot and continue, so i was riding across the parking lot and decided to try riding with a hand on the handle, it was no issue at all on either hand, it was actually really easy. So i ate it riding over a speed bump on a down hill, then i free mounted on this downhill and continued, by the time i got to the bottom of the hill the light at the intersection went green so i just motored on through like it was nothing, and i rode for some time, i think i was on for about 10 minutes straight with no UPD and just cruising. I UPD around a bend so on my first shot i free mounted and rode up a rather long uphill. I would say my free mount was about 50-60% successful, and once up i re positioned my foot almost every time, i even stood up while riding and re positioned my body… It was insane! I felt AMAZING just riding down the street like i was on a bicycle!

That feeling is great indeed! I’m itching to start getting better unicycles… a 20" for fun/practice, 29" for park rides… and a muni after I’ve gathered enough time on the first 2. Oh no D:

HAHA ts a disease… but i LOVE IT! Getting a 2nd 3rd 4th will probably happen… but its ok because my girls friend is 1 inch short then me but has long legs so she fits without adjustment so she will then have one to ride! I am kind of toying between a 24/29 muni, i definitely want to stay in the muni family, and love have the beast mode tire, quite excited for todays practice!

(Mostly reposted from Greylock thread)

I was wavering on whether to attempt Mt Greylock, and was heartily encouraged by Roland and Steve. I went out today with no particular destination or goal in mind. It was a no hills, just relax and go for distance ride. Keep in mind my longest ride just over 1 hour, 5.63 miles.

So 2 hours and 50 minutes later, I ended up at my mother-in-laws. Legs wobbly, muscles shaking. Running on just water from my graciously-donated camelbak, didn’t even have a protein shake before I left. Total ride was 10.63 miles. There was about a half hour worth of breaks, between the dentist and a friend’s house, plus all the little walking breaks when my toes wanted to go numb. One hard fall. Gotta love the sidewalks in Springfield, a never-ending source of pre-muni riding. There was one hill at the 8-mile mark that got me. Its fairly steep.

I now know I can do the distance, I just gotta wonder about the uphill. I’m doing Greylock for sure, we’ll see how well I do when I’m done.

Same boat, but I’m looking at a 36 for my next one. A good strong one for muni and long road rides. When I can get to a more technical muni level, I may look at a 29 or 26 for a third uni, but that’s gonna take a while, given the prices of 36ers.

Hmm. I’m only 5’3" with 29.9" (76cm) inseam, but maybe I should go for the 36" too. Would really want to go headfirst into muni, but reality set in when I almost faceplanted from trying to go up a 1" curb. :o
And it seems that a 20" trials would be great to learn skills like hopping on, and would help for muni.

Saw that Kris Holm has hubs that can change gears, and thought a 26" with the gear hub would be great. Until I found out the hub alone costs $1500. :angry:

My brain tells me “look at yourself, just barely freemounting and trying to bite more than you can chew!”. But my heart says “buy them and ride more!”. :astonished:

I run into those issues as well, ooo look a nice curb, wow failed to drop off that one… haha but it means we will learn faster! I was un aware of how much the schlumph hub was worth…!!! its $1750 canadian… hmmm my birthday is coming up??? haha… i think at that price i would only put it on a 36er… but i would own a 26 or 29 MUni, 36, and a beautiful KH 20 first >_< haha

Went round on paved bike paths/pavements today, and did 7.6km. A month ago I would have never dreamed of going this far! I stopped 5-10 times. Longest stretch I did was over 1km. Went over some sloped areas to practise going up/downhill. Found out that leaning back helped on downhills. At the end I was having trouble freemounting, and my concentration was suffering.

My crouch is starting to hurt from staying on the uni for so long, and I’m thinking of replacing the seat.

Risk: U+103

After a week of house preparation in Texas, and a week of house chores here in Ohio, I finally got back to my uni practice. I chose the 24 in to continue my development. I quickly got my balance back and was able to reach a new record on the larger unicycle - 65 feet :D. I’m practicing up and down slight hills. All runs today were with a wheel assisted freemount.

You are doing great AC. Thanks for the update!

It is looking mighty fine to me LR. Great work!

Good to see you back Risk.

Sounds like that 24" is the right way to go. You will be on that 29" before long. Then I will be envious and will have to get a new uni myself, but not before I can ride 2 miles without a dismount!

I will be posting progress again shortly.

I can’t believe how HOT it is here, and no rain. The trees and grass are drying up and turning brown.

How’s that cooler weather up in Ohio?
Sounds marvelous!

Don’t worry about dismounts they just happen.

You can balance on curbs, squeezing past a signpost with your hip to the side so the pedals don’t catch. Ride over the weirdest curb obstacle courses (those poor people depending on wheelchairs, how do they manage in this world?).
And on the smoothest piece of road, the one you’ve ridden without incident for a hundred times, something will just rip away your uni. You’ll walk back and never find the bump that must have caused it.

Short version. UPDs happen. Don’t count them, don’t be disappointed about them. They don’t mean you haven’t mastered your uni. They’re just statistical noise.

I’m getting a new uni! I had a big dilemma on which to get first, a 20" trials or a big wheel (29" at least). Decided on getting the smaller wheel first to practice stuff on, and continue using the 24" to “pootle”(saw this word being used here and I kind of like it) around. Will also replace the nasty seat I have on the 24".

Looking forward to your progress!

Having a great time practicing! I measured out the block around my house and it’s 1/2 km so had the time and went for it 46 complete circuits with two 5 min breaks for water as it’s 34° here. 23 km’s in 3 hrs, turns seem to be comming along not to tight and a bit twitchy but turns. I wonder if anybody else felt this way at this stage, it’s such a great feeling spending more time ridding than trying to ride! This has given me a great boost and I now want to learn how to start mounting kerbs and small steps ???

Good to see everyone is working hard! I just picked up the hardware to fix my seat post clamp =D I am also contemplating buying a HOT PINK Coker =D i just think a 36er is the way to go =D haha and a big step up from a 20" which means once i get it down i will be destroying my 20"!!!

I am thinking about selling mine. It is not hot pink, but it would be a great starter 36er if you are interested. See posts #378 & #384 in this thread;

Hey, it looks pretty awesome, but you are A LOT taller then me, so it would require some retro fitting for my super short legs, haha… I will keep it in mind though, i have to get some repairs done on my car so depending on how much those run up to will depend on weather or not i will be buying a second uni right now. But i do want one and i don’t see the issue with yet another challenging uni =D haha