I finally got the one legged idle down. What a great feeling of accomplishment…
http://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=qEI5hNIAi0s&video_referrer=watch&ns=1
Finally got the one legged idling down, what a great feeling of accomplishment.
I finally got the one legged idle down. What a great feeling of accomplishment…
Can’t seem to get how I got the embedded video in the last time, but I am having some difficulties this time around. Follow the link…
I can one leg idle, but can’t figure out how to embed a video and I work in the IT industry… How ironic is that…
I finally got the one legged idle down. What a great feeling of accomplishment…
Cannot believe I finally got this down, what a great feeling of accomplishment.
Cannot believe I finally got this down, what a great feeling of accomplishment.
NICE! I hate one foot idling…
9 months since last post…
Hard to believe that it was December last year since I visited this awesome community, and particularly the Learning Journal 
Jyngles - I only WISH I could idle that well with both feet! Nice work dude 
I have not spent much time on a unicycle in the past year but the past 2 weeks I have been out for several nice little rides. I took the nobby off my Nimbus 26 Muni and put on the Maxxis Hookworm slick and pumped it up to almost max pressure and am riding mostly on a nice asphalt trail that goes around a subdivision. There are a few hills, and I have worked on them the most. There is one steep spot in particular that I have focused on - one day I rode it both up and down 10 times. It let me know how out of shape I am :o
Key Learnings:
If you don’t ride you get worse!
My left leg is still dominant and I have to work hard to pedal evenly
I still LOVE to ride a Uni
I hope to ride more regularly going forward. I will try to go catch up on a few posts on this great thread since the last time I was here. It is so cool to see all the people who have used this to log their learning. Go Team Learning Journal (TLJ) 
Brian aka NSYO
Sweet video AC
Hi Alucard,
I just watched your 29er video from July. Very nice 
I remember when you first started - so much progress in so little time! Wish I could come over to the UK and ride with you! Great variety of riding on you video.
Brian
Any particular reason you hate it?
Because I haven’t practiced it and I should…
One foot idle…
The first two 1 hour practices I got no where. The third practice session I was actually able to get my foot to the fork. The fourth session is when I got my foot to the fork and did 2 and a 1/2 strokes. The fifth practice session is when I actually did an idle for about 4 or 5 strokes or more. The video is the 6th session and I am able to get in about 20 or so strokes, then continue to ride off.
Keep practicing, it will come…
Update on one foot idling.
I just wanted to post some more progress. I was able to free mount right into a one foot idle. I will try to post another video in the next day or two.
I got a PM from Uni Lateral a little while back asking how my riding progress was coming along. I’ve been posting about tires and building wheels and things but I guess not having much to say about riding. So finally here’s a little update.
The gist is that my riding still gets better more or less every time out, and while I’m still having fun doing it, I haven’t had any real landmark acheivements or anything quantitative to report. It’s mostly been incremental progress. I’ve almost made it non-stop around a hilly loop in my neighborhood a couple of times, but almost isn’t the same as doing it. I can ride backwards three or sometimes four half-cranks, but that’s really been like starting over from scratch.
I just searched back to find my previous post in this topic and it’s been over two months since then, but I was back on the patio on Friday still working on the same things as I was then: riding backward, learning to hop, and trying to hone my feeling for my balance point for static mounts and very slow stuff. I might have been discouraged two months ago if someone had told me that I wouldn’t have any of them down cold by Halloween, but I’ve gotten better for sure and I’m still having fun.
Generally I can tell that I’m a lot more at ease and better at turning smoothly and handling changes of surface when just riding around. I’m not making a big deal about free mounting since I have curbs or trees or street signs just about everywhere. I’ve gotten to be pretty reliable with the sissy six-and-twelve free mount on my 20". Static mounting on bigger wheels seems to be hampered by my lack of jumping ability, what we used to call White Man’s Disease back in the day. No biggie though, no ego at stake there.
One big change is that I’ve built a 700c road wheel with a 37 mm Panaracer Pasela tire and I’ve been riding that for a week now. I like it a lot. I had been using a 26" muni with a Hookworm tire on pavement, but I always felt like I was fighting it. The Hookworm is wide and sticky and tends to go where it wants to on a crowned road, and it takes a lot of energy input every time I turn it back to where I want it to go. The Pasela isn’t quite as stable but it’s not bad either, and corrections can be made on it with much smaller inputs, often just a little hip wiggle or change in pedal pressure. I’ve even ridden it short distances on rough dirt a couple of times to get from one paved path to another. I was a little anxious the first time I tried that but it turned out not to be a problem at all.
There’s a little loop in my neighborhood that I’ve done a few times that’s roughly 3000 ft long (a kilometer, give or take) with something like 80 feet of elevation gain from the start to the highest point. I’m enjoying riding that on the Pasela. The best I’ve done so far on it is just one planned dismount at the top of the big climb to let my legs cool. That’s a good workout for me at this point.
Guess that’s enough for now… We’re into full on autumn here now which is a welcome change from the steamy summer heat. I’ll see if I can check in here for updates a little more frequently. I hope everyone’s doing well and not getting hurt too bad and still having fun.
Tomorrow marks six months since my first day of practicing unicycle riding and I have two landmark achievements to report. This afternoon I rode my 700c around my neighborhood loop without stopping, so my longest continuous ride is now roughly one kilometer. I think that’s a benchmark worth noting. And it didn’t feel quite as hard today as it has during the one-stop and multi-stop attempts over the past couple of weeks.
Also, last night I experienced my first significant component failure. I’ve been trying to learn hopping on my little 20" Avenir, making gradual but slow progress, but surprisingly it didn’t happen on that one. Just for kicks I though I’d see what it felt like to try it on my 26" muni, and on the first attempted hop when I pulled up on the saddle, it came right off in my hand. The seatpost had broken clean through at the neck, just below the weld.
I bought that muni used and I’m sure the post had survived many hard miles and suffered countless crashes against the ground, not all due to me, before finally failing. Still, it feels like a little rite of passage.
Right on!
Sadly I haven’t broken one of those yet…
I haven’t broken anything yet…possibly because I’m still riding like a little girl 
Congratulations on the distance milestone. I may have to try a street circuit to see what I could manage now on the flat. On my nature trail I’m still stopping 3 or 4 times on a 1km stretch although typically due to fatigue rather than UPDing.
UL