Well that video is great! I thought it was crazy to try to learn at age 61. Now I can look forward to at least 12 more years of riding!
First post
Yesterday I… ordered my first unicycle. It’s been on my mind for a while but I’m not sure what finally triggered me to make the leap. I went with a 20" Avenir DLX since it was quite cheap, so not much guilt if this doesn’t work out. But apparently it comes from under the Raleigh corporate umbrella and it doesn’t appear to be total junk. There’s a MIG welder out in the shed and lots of old two-wheeler parts if worse comes to worse.
Today I… got an email saying that my order was ready for UPS pickup, tracking number included.
This evening I… went around town getting new gloves, wrist guards, knee and elbow pads, and soccer shin guards.
A few minutes ago I… checked ups.com yet again and read that it’s in Raleigh, delivery scheduled for by the end of the day tomorrow.
I’m actually surprised at how much I’ve gotten wound up about this. It’s been a while since I’ve anticipated anything this much.
I’ve enjoyed reading through this thread, getting a rough idea of what to try and what to expect along the way, and storing away some of the nuggets of wisdom that have been shared. I’m truly impressed by the camaraderie and mutual support I’ve seen here and inspired by the progress made by everyone–some even older than me!
Briefly, I’ve done lots of cycling in my day including a fair amount of fixed-gear/track-bike riding (with one visit last fall to an actual velodrome, which is awesome and I plan to go back although it’s a bit of a drive) and I’m a regular outdoor inline speedskater. I’ve been a distance runner since my teens, with one official full marathon completed in 2000. So my endurance and balance aren’t too bad, but I get the feeling that this will be something totally new. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
So a question to wrap this up: Has anyone out there ever made a point of practicing falling on purpose? While skating, I’ve actually fallen very rarely, less than 10 times over 15 years or so I sure, but I’ve wondered if I might have learned things more quickly and gotten better at skills like hopping curbs and skating backwards if I’d been more willing to take risks. It occurs to me that perhaps instead of thinking of hitting the ground as failure, I should think of it as an exercise in building confidence in my protection equipment–as a body armor test (BAT!) and basically welcome it. Whaddaya think?
OK, I’m sure this is more than long enough! I’m looking forward to hearing from some of you and sharing this adventure.
Awesome! I remember a few weeks ago when I got mine and was all hyped up. 
In terms of falling off – some say just let the uni fall. Personally, I had no problem starting off by just catching it with my hand on the back of the seat after falling off the front (falling back is another story, but rarer for me). There’s always and art to gracefully UPDing though! I still have to master it…
Thanks for the reply, AEH! I’ll give that a try for sure. But if it hits the ground, it hits the ground. It get the feeling that the seat might the first part to be replaced anyway.
Like Buzz Lightyear: “falling with style.” Though it’s my intention to have no UPDs. I’ll just claim they’re all planned, even if only subconsciously. Or like my cat seems to want to say when he does something awkward: “I meant to do that.”
“but I get the feeling that this will be something totally new.”
Yes it is! Biking, running, gymnastics all irrelevant. (possibly not the last in fact 
Interesting that you have gone into lots of protection… Number one is to find a nice flat area with a fence/rail to hold on to while you do the compulsory 15 hours riding up and down the rail 
a good learning area is the most important thing to success, along with some company. We’ll do if you are short of that
I think you are right about the fear of falling affecting development. I am still not good at riding backwards after three years of riding and intermittent practice. Protection is never a bad thing as it helps with the confidence.
Keep in touch
Hi LargeEddie
Falling is something that you will do lots. But unlike most bikes 99% of the time when you “Fall” you end up stepping off the uni.
So it will happen and dont worry about it. If you grab the uni you grab it if you dont you dont. The biggest thing is dont go out of your way to grab the uni if you are falling strangely and injure yourself. (it can be replace you cant)
As long as your seat has bumpers then dont worry about that. They can take huge amounts of abuse.
My mum has issues when trying to ride about letting the uni hit the ground even after watching me ride the same one and letting it fall down 3 / 4 steps as i bail out.
Good luck and welcome.
Davey
Large Eddie, welcome to the fray!
Your sports-related experience will help alot in the learning curve. I like to say unicycling is mostly mental: dealing with the frustration of not getting it right away, pushing through the rough spots, analyzing techniques and methods, and the discipline of practice. You’ve got a good start. Its also uniquely physical. You already have the conditioning, now its just learning some new muscle memory, and balancing your butt on the upper end of a moving stick.
I learned two years ago, am a larger guy, have fallen enough to give my protective gear a workout, and my seat bumpers have that vintage worn look. I started with a 24", and just got a 36er and am learning to ride all over again. Unicycling isn’t the biggest or the fastest sport, but for fun and challenge, its right up there with the rest!
No, falling off a unicycle will not get better by practicing falling whiel noty unicycling. You will get better at falling off a unicycle as you learn to ride a unicycle. The better you are at riding a unicycle, then better you are at falling off a unicycle.
You will probably find that all your armor is an overkill, the wrist guards and shin guards will get the most use, but make sure the shin guards cover the back of your legs to protect from pedal bite.
And all those other sports you do/did, they won’t help you in the least 
Learning to uni is hard, likely the hardest thing you’ll ever do.
What Nurse Ben said.
While I don’t think anyone falls on purpose, it is actually one of the things I appreciate about unicycling – everyone does it. It’s a great equalizer. As you get better, they get to be fewer and more “elegant” (like, just stepping off it). But every once in a while I think everyone has a “crash and burn.” (This is where protective gear is a real plus.)
Good luck in your new endeavor, and keep us posted!
Hi LargeEddie
Falling is something that you will do lots. But unlike most bikes 99% of the time when you “Fall” you end up stepping off the uni.
So it will happen and dont worry about it. If you grab the uni you grab it if you dont you dont. The biggest thing is dont go out of your way to grab the uni if you are falling strangely and injure yourself. (it can be replace you cant)
As long as your seat has bumpers then dont worry about that. They can take huge amounts of abuse.
My mum has issues when trying to ride about letting the uni hit the ground even after watching me ride the same one and letting it fall down 3 / 4 steps as i bail out.
Good luck and welcome.
Davey
It’s here!
krjames - Nope, I’m not the gymnast/acrobat type at all! I learned that early enough on in life. I think we must all have a sort of subconscious “rational agent” microeconomic decision mechanism, weighing the probability of pain and injury against the number of tries it will likely take to learn to somersault or do handstands or any of that. Mine was always saying, “It ain’t gonna be worth it.”
Even in music I know I don’t have the magic fingers and fine motor skills of a real prodigy. But when it comes to learning a new instrument or a new technique, I know that if I can be patient enough, I’ll eventually get to reasonable proficiency. So yeah, I might have gone overboard on the protective equipment a little. But I’m hoping that having it might take away some of my anxiety about messing up.
Davey - That sounds like a good recommendation not worrying too much about the uni falling or the seat hitting. I’m usually pretty good about taking care of my gear, but I might need to put some of that aside for now. And that was part of the reasoning behind starting out with a very low-priced wheel. I figure there’s less need to be super cautious if I expect to want to replace it with something more refined in the medium to long term anyway.
And thanks for clarifying falling versus stepping off. Reading through messages on this board, I’d wondered just how much of euphemism the term “unplanned dismount” was–whether people used it to mean what it sounds like it means, or if those “dismounts” more often left them sprawled their backsides. I’m prepared for a few of the latter but would prefer the former.
AnimalCage - Thanks for all the encouragement! I read through this whole thread while waiting for the package to get here and I’ve seen how much progress you’ve made. It’s really impressive and inspiring. What you say about the mental side of it might be where us less-younger folk have an advantage. Even if the skills from other activities don’t transfer directly, the experience of working steadily at something that we weren’t necessarily born with the ideal makeup to do, seeing advances come when they come and not always when we expect them–all that stuff has paid off before, and maybe it’ll help here too.
Nurse Ben - Yeah, as above, probably overboard on the protective gear; trying to get past psychological barriers as much as anything. And I went with soccer shin guards like NSYO used when he started. They were easy to find in a local store on a weekday evening, so no back-of-leg protection there for now. Oops! I’ll keep it in mind as an upgrade for sure.
LanceB - I’ll try to remember that when I’m dusting myself off, that everyone does it! Thanks for the encouragement, and I definitely plan to keep y’all posted as things go along.
So anyway, it’s here! I met up with my skating buddy this evening for our usual Tuesday night park skate and Mellow Mushroom post-skate repast, and when I got home there was a big Amazon box waiting for me.
The verdict on the Avenir: It don’t look half bad. In fact, except for a couple of small details it looks identical to the Cycle Design Unicycle recommended here:
(The link I found to the unicycling.org website was dead but fortunately the page was archived. And the same uni appears under the caption, “The Standard Unicycle,” in Andrew Carter and Klaas Bill’s “Learning to Unicycle” e-text.)
The only differences I spotted are that mine has an aluminum seatpost clamp rather than steel, and the saddle has now sprouted plastic bumpers front and rear where it used to be rubber all the way around.
Other than the clamp and typical black resin pedals, it’s steel everywhere–frame, seat post, seat frame, rim, hub, crank arms, bearing caps, the works. But the welds look good and everything screwed in freely. The cranks were already mounted on the axle but I got the torque wrench, popped the dust caps, and pulled a few extra ft-lbs. (One side was basically OK, one was marginal. Having a crank fall off seemed to be a regular user-feedback complaint for inexpensive mass-market unis.)
Spokes seem to be evenly and adequately tensioned, and 36 of them on a steel 406’er rim oughta hold up pretty well with what I’m likely to be doing any time soon. Tire seems serviceable enough. I’ve got the seat post at the max extension line and it feels about right for me there. I’m a shade over 6 feet with long-ish legs and I was wondering how that would go, particularly since NYSO said the post on his 24" Avenir was too short for him. He’s 6’3" and maybe the difference between us is all in the legs, or maybe Avenir made an change since then, or something. My knee’s just slightly bent at the bottom of the stroke, which seems to be standard recommendation.
So it’s pumped up and torqued down and ready to go tomorrow. I’m still weighing my options for where to practice, keeping my expectations low, but definitely eager to get going.
LargeEddie,
I’m with you on the body protection
I’m just starting out and, as a 46 year old, find a bit of comfort in offsetting potential pain. I’m hoping this will encourage me to be more bold.
The day my protective kit arrived I went and sat on the Unicycle just to do some rocking exercises (building up the leg muscles) and fell backwards on my arse…obviously I hadn’t bothered putting on my protection and cut up my palms and wrists! You’re never to old to do dumb stuff.
Ironically my unicycle learning has been put on hold as I’ve torn a muscle in my calf…bloody painful and a week on I’ve just about regained the ability to walk. Unicycling injury? Nah, I did it dancing…again, you’re never to old to do dumb stuff.
UL
I can certainly agree with that. I learned at 50. My wife bought me a uni for my birthday. I had already chosen which one to get, though, so it wasn’t a surprise.
It took me a lot longer to learn than most people - about twice as long - but it has been well worth it. I do miss my uni-hockey sessions when I can’t go, and, with the weather finally improving, I might be able to get outside to Muni.
I had a full medical recently, and the doc said I had the lungs of someone 20 years younger than me - (I just hope he doesn’t want them back!). He measured 110%-115% greater efficiency than was “normal” for my age.
So…
Jerry
I will be increasing my protective gear next paycheck. I never needed elbow pads on my 24, but with 2 UPDs on my 36er, both times I’ve scraped my right elbow. Learn as I go.
Since picking up a 36’r last week, I’ve updated my protective gear to include elbow pads and a helmet. (To go along with the knee pads and wrist guards I’ve been using.) I never used a helmet before because I never rode in traffic, and with the 3 or 4 mph cruising speed I never fell hard enough to hit my head. Now it’s a bit different. I’m pretty far off the ground, 10mph is pretty common, and I plan to go pretty long distances on regular roads, in traffic. I’m a little nervous about the increase in potential injury. So we adapt as needed. I still don’t have shin guards, that’s one spot I haven’t banged up so far.
Lance,
A helmet gives you a nice place to park a mirror like this one.
I have this one and it works great to see cars coming from behind. It takes a few rides to get used to. I never ride without it. Even if I am not on a road it gives me a chance to see bikers or my kids trying to catch up.
The one drawback is the mirror falls off with the slightest bang. I had to buy a replacement mirror, but now I have a safety line of dental floss attached to it.
Good idea, Jigy. I’ve thought about that, since I’m not very good at looking behind me while I’m riding. I think I’ll take that recommendation.
thx, LanceB
Uni Lateral - Dancing injury? Yikes! I was involved in ballet for a while and even though we performed on stage in theaters, we were forbidden from ever using the old theater saying, “Break a leg.” For dancers, the mention of any sort of orthopedic injury was tempting fate. Get well and back on your uni soon!
JerryAttrick - It’s great that you learned at 50! Maybe I’ve got a chance. I’ve never acquired physical skills like this as easily as many people either, but persistence makes up for a lot of that.
Btw, today I happened to find joggerdude’s topic for the first time. A lot of what I’ve been thinking and asking about here w/regard to protective gear was discussed just a few days before in that thread. There are some good comments here and some good ones over there too.
So I got out this evening for a couple of short sessions of rocking in place and creeping along a wall. It was spitting rain and a little bit chilly so I gave myself leave to do as much or as little as I felt like. I might have worked at it for 20 minutes each time with about 30 minutes of rest between. After trying a few different places, I settled on the brick patio behind the house. There’s a wall alongside that has a row of high windows, and the ledge underneath them (covered in pollen–ick!) is just the right height for my forearm to rest on when I’m saddled up. I did a lot of good practicing there.
No great successes or failures to report, just trying to feel my balance and learn when it’s time to dismount quickly, and which way to go when it’s that time. I left off the knee and elbow pads this time out but went with the rest of the gear. I only had one body armor check (BAC), when I stepped off out of balance and found myself headed for a patio table, and decided in mid-stumble that dropping on the spot was the better option.
So all in all it wasn’t bad. I’m a long way from riding for sure, but it went at least as well as I was expecting. I’m looking forward to trying it again tomorrow.
Just checking in, no great breakthroughs to report but some progress was made.
I wasn’t able to practice on Thursday, but I got out for about two hours yesterday evening and for another hour or so today. I went back to creeping along the window ledge on the patio on Thursday, and after maybe an hour of that I started being able to imagine myself letting go and just riding it around. So I had to find some ways to demonstrate to myself how far away from that I actually was.
The best of them was to set up two heavy plastic trash cans about six feet apart from each other in the driveway, then to mount up with a hand on one of them and just try to ride far enough to catch myself on (or crash into) the other one. Never made it! But I did get a lot of practicing done, and kept reminding myself to relax, to really sit on the seat, to look up, to keep my arms out, and all that.
It seemed like I was running into the most trouble at the six-and-twelve pedal position, maybe not having enough momentum to get past that dead spot, and also not having enough feel for my balance yet to push the pedal through it.
So I was back on the patio today working on that part of the pedal cycle, and making some progress in that area I think. I just stuck to wall creeping today, but also worked a little bit on creeping backwards. Two thoughts were at work here, the first being that in skating I never find much time to work on going backwards since I’m terrible at it and pretty good going forward, so skating forward is a lot more fun to do. But when I’m just creeping along the wall on the patio, there’s not a lot of difference either way and working on one was about as good as the other.
The other thought was that when I first tried creeping backwards, I noticed that I was just as panicky and helpless and out of control as I had been on Wednesday when I first climbed on it and tried going forwards. I could see that I must have learned something because I’m much closer now to riding in the forward direction. It was a good reminder of that.
Anyway, I’m definitely feeling the effects of the effort and all the tension and flailing and the awkward dismounts in all my muscles. In reality, in four days all I’ve really done is to go from not being able to ride a unicycle to not being able to ride a unicycle, so I can’t claim too much and I’m trying just to take it for what it is.
But I know I’ve improved a little bit at least, and I’m not in a race or trying to beat any deadline. I need to keep putting in a few hours here and there and continuing to be positive about it. And also to hang tough through all the rain that’s in the forecast for the next three days…
When you’re just learning to pedal forwards using a support, always try to go a half-revolution at a time and only let your ‘rest spot’ be when your feet are at 3 and 9, never at 6 and 12 which is a ‘dead spot’ for unicyclists.
It’s a skill you’ll use later on steep hills on a MUni