Learning to ride from the beginning

Riding Advice
1

G’day

I have done search but not really had much luck.
There must be a sticky or tutorial on how to learn to ride a unicycle from the beginning( here is a unicycle , this is how you sit on it etc).
Can someone point me in the right direction please.

thankyou for your time

harro

2

YouTube is your friend.
This site is nice too. It’s youtube videos organized by category. It has useful links as well.

3

G’day

That’s exactly what I wanted.
Thanks

Thankyou for your time

harro

4

Hello Harro,

I started learning in September last year and kept a comprehensive diary. It is on the “Just Conversation” forum and the thread is called “Learning Journal”. You may find some of the early posts helpful, if not at least entertaining :).

The Klaas Bil learning document has excellent suggestions that worked great for me. http://www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/uni_beginners.htm See the “Learning to Unicycle” link near the bottom of the page to download the PDF.

Best to you on your learning adventure!

NSYO

5

aarons and notsoyoungone … thanks for great websites! I added it in my favorites file!

6

If you believe that you can truly learn how to ride a unicycle, then your battle is half-won. You have to have the proper mental attitude when it comes to learning how to ride a unicycle. Just think positively and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you learn to ride.

8

Starting…

I too started by watching YouTube videos.
Here’s what I did (November 2009):

  • Sit on uni and hold onto a wall; figure out how not to sit on my "meat and 2 veg"
  • For the first 2 weeks, I would rock back and forth 100 times with my left foot down, then 100 times with my right foot down (about 10-20 minutes every day)
  • After I was comfortable with that and it seemed easier, I would pedal forward for 10 revolutions, holding onto a wall (or a tennis court works well); then back 10 revolutions. (about 20 minutes every day)
  • After about 2 weeks of doing this, I went to a tennis court and would rice from one pole in the chain-link fence, to the next and slowly push it until I could ride (unassisted) farther and farther. (20-30 minutes 3-5 days a week)
  • Once I could ride around the tennis court unassisted for 2 revolutions; I started practicing around my block. (as much as possible; for me, this was 20-30 minutes a day)
  • Once I could ride around the block without any big UPD's (end of December 2009), I took it off-road on well-established trails. This is where my learning curve took off; I have access to some really well-maintained trails close to my house, they start off with a gradual but sustained climb about 500 yards; then, a gradual downhill or a really steep and rocky (but well used) trail. I chose the latter as this challenged me the most. It took me another 3 weeks of climbing the hill in bit with rests in between to be able to ride the steep, rocky downhill without falling every few feet. :D
A few things that helped me notice a huge improvement in my learning process:
  • Better pedals
  • A better seat
  • A proper off-road unicycle
  • Brakes when learning downhill techniques
  • Proper crank lengths (I ended-up buying a bunch so I can experiment with this)
After that, I started accumulating a "quiver" of unis to try different sized wheels/styles of riding so I could be fairly well-rounded from the start. I need to practice my trials/street/flat skills more as it will help with my Muni. I have a 36-er but don't ride it too much; I am much more inclined to ride Muni.

Now, I have no problem riding all kind of terrain. I just went for a 4 mile Muni ride yesterday, tons of uphill riding/hiking and about 2 miles of steep downhill with a trials/obstacle course in the middle. I can ride the wider skinny obstacles pretty well and can hop/ride/jump over most anything in the trail. I have no qualms about riding any 4-10 mile trail as long as I have the time to do it; I am no longer worried about my ability, more about how long it will take… if you keep practicing, you’ll get here.

I am not good at idling or riding backwards; I don’t have the endurance that some of my Muni friends have; I still fall when I am pushing my technical limits… but it’s all improving; this community is essential for anyone who wants to get serious about unicycling.

I love Unicycling and, it’s great for core stability in relation to low back pain. One day, I hope to hold unicycling classes for low back pain rehab, I had a history of daily low back pain that virtually ceased to exist after starting to unicycle (this was one of the reasons I started).

9

True dat.

10

Tirving you are fortunate that you are a Unicycling Chiropractor, I could have really used you after practicing tonight and trying to stay on the unicycle!!

11

Unicycle Physics / Dynamics

Hi,

I wrote a blog post recently on Unicycle Physics / Dynamics. It’s not comprehensive but may reduce the ‘mental strain’ for learners. I’ve also got my original post from when I was learning.

I myself am still a rookie and have just purchased my third unicycle on eBay.

Cheers,
Pete