I use the same tyre as Saskatchewanian. I have both the 26 and the 29 version of the Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro. It is the best winter tyre on snow and ice, but it’s no good on bare (icy) asphalt. For that I use the Schwalbe Marathon Winter, which is also a studded tyre, but narrower with less grip. I’ve made a couple of videos years ago with the Ice Spiker Pro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ22ncDRUE0&index=16&list=PLvqXqWkBQYQkEkYm7KcXbVo069_BamuLD and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOOO5U0o_8&index=16&list=PLvqXqWkBQYQkEkYm7KcXbVo069_BamuLD&t=0s
UniMyra your video of you riding down and up the snow covered trail is something I can only dream about at this point. That looks like a lot of fun, and hard work. A lot more saddle time is still required by me to be able to do that.
johnfoss, thanks for the riding on ice tips. You’re right, falling on ice could be disastrous, I don’t bounce very well, I never did. I will definitely add some padded shorts and elbow pads to my armour before I try ice. I also have some ice gripper soles that I put on my boots for ice fishing that might work as a mounting/dismounting grip aid. They are also available for shoes as well which might be a better choice. ‘Things not to do’ is pretty amazing to say the least.
My right calf says I’m not riding today, or walking without my foot being turned out sideways. I think a couple more days and I’ll be good to go again.
Learning to ride on gravel
Hello everyone. It’s been almost five and a half months since I’ve ridden my uni. My last ride I damaged my hamstring with a bad free mount attempt, it took a couple of months for me to get back to 100%. That took me well into Dec and a lot of snow. My yard still has some snow, but my driveway is finally snowfree, though a bit muddy.
Today was my first try at riding after being off for so long. I did use a wheel back stop to get going, seeing I only had 55 days of learning practice under my belt I was a bit nervous restarting. I think it went pretty well. I had about 25 short rides of about 50 yards. My tracks in the mud look like they were made by a snake. Is that because I don’t have enough of my weight on the saddle? I tried to hold onto the saddle with one hand to pull myself into the seat but it is a difficult skill to do. Is this something I should be trying to get good at? My arms are flapping a lot more than in October but I expect better control is going to come back to me soon. I’m excited to get on with it again. My goal for this year would hopefully be able to go for a dirt road ride for maybe a kilometre. Also maybe ride up some low incline hills of a hundred yards or so. Too ambitious? Anyhow, it’s great to be back.
The unicycle is prone to a weaving track due to unbalanced forces on the pedals. Generally the wider Q on the cranks the greater the weave.
It can be reduced by compensating for these imbalances by cyclically varying other factors such as the lean, movement of the body and various other sideways factors. However like most aspects of unicycling it is hard to nail down exactly what that compensation involves.
I practice reducing weave using the beam coming from a light mounted on the seat post and pointing onto the road a couple of metres in front of me. I have another light on my helmet and compare the two.
If you are just starting again, I would not worry about optimizing anything in your riding. It’s going to feel like a struggle, and you’ll be using instinct and reflexes to stay on. Whatever it takes.
I would not characterize my own experience with one-hand-on-the seat as “pulling myself into the seat.” If anything, one-hand-on-the-seat allowed me to stand on the pedals while stabilizing the unicycle with the hand holding on. This put the swervy feedback into my hand, where my brain could process it better compared to my butt.
Everyone talks about putting weight in the seat, but I don’t think it should be done prematurely. We attribute so much of “legs burning out” to lack of weight in the seat. I think this is only partially true. It is the loss of stability resulting from removing the butt from the seat…causing the legs muscles to work so hard…that is more significant.
So, the stability of one hand, if you can manage it, is going to help you ride longer, whether or not you have more weight in the seat. That’s my half-baked theory, and I’m sticking with it for the time being…
That is a good description.
Ultimately the brain manages some kind of synchronicity between the body and uni movements that make efforts so much more effective.
I’m often surprised how steep I can climb now even when I have not been riding much and my strength is way down. Last ride I climbed a grade that used to struggle up when I was at maximum strength a couple of years ago because my movements work so much more effectively. I don’t have the stamina but the gradient itself isn’t a problem.
Also surprising is how I can take my hand off while climbing hills that I used to ride hauling as hard as I could on the grab handle.
Less thinking, more riding. Lot’s of reasons why beginners ride wobbly. All of them usually disappear with practice. I wouldn’t even think about it for now, just focus on riding as far as possible, and once you feel confident staying on the unicycle, riding in the direction you choose.
I’ve never focussed on reducing wobble. But at some point, when you try to go faster and faster, you will learn how to reduce it automatically. Or when you try to ride on a smaller beam (like in slow race).
I always wonder what people will be thinking when they see my zigzag trail, as if I was very drunk. In the forest it helps recognising where I’ve already been, as I am the only unicyclist around here.
Riding with a T-bar reduces the zigzag, but I don’t worry about it. I feel comfy on the uni and I have no intentions to learn how to ride on a beam or on train tracks.
Thanks guys, lots of interesting things to digest. My riding around in my yard is at a very slow speed. I believe it is the mud, potholes, stones etc that contribute to keeping me from going faster. I wouldn’t doubt there is also a bit of, ”if I go slow, I’ll not wipe out as hard” going on too. Today’s practice was another round of about 25 rides of 50 yards or so. On almost all of the rides I was able to hold the seat for at least half of the distance. Yes, less thinking and more riding. I am very aware that at this early stage, it requires more saddle time to get the feel of riding, so that is the goal for the immediate future. I believe I am now back to about the same skill level, or lack of it, as I was at last fall when I stopped for the winter. It’s just like riding a ’one of those things’ apparently. Last fall doing this same practice would have burned my legs. I have not experienced it yet during the couple of sessions I‘ve had. Maybe I’m learning to sit down somewhat. I’ll be going down to ride on that piece of seldom used roadway soon to try for some longer rides on a smooth surface. I’ll keep you posted on my results. Once again, thank you for your great feed back.
I was wondering how long it would take you to get back to where you were when you stopped. You just answered that 
Good thread. Please keep reporting.
I think that is an illusion. This weekend I practised mounting my 36" and one of the mounts was a bit too slow, so I got to the balance point, but my left foot was not on the pedal. I fell sideways right on my hip and hand, which hurt like hell. All from standing still basically. Most of the time if you stay within running speed, you will land on your feet and can run out the fall.
Im not sure I can ride on the terrain ur riding. It sounds like really bumpy. I can take a few bumps, but eventually the uni starts bouncing and then I fly off.
Yep. I’ve slid down the road without being hurt after coming of at over 20 kph but some of my most painful injuries were failed takeoffs on small unis.
It isn’t the speed that does the damage but the abrupt stop. Vertical falls invariably end suddenly.
I wear 25 mm thick high density foam hip pads. They have saved me from serious injury more than once.
where do you get those hip pads? A search on google shows a long list of drag queen websites. 
I agree Setonix, it’s just in my head, but it’s there. Maybe not a bad thing either, not that i’ll stop because of it. I’m sure you could easily ride your uni in my drive way. I am only having difficulties because I have no riding skills developed yet, it‘s just slower going without the smooth surfaces to practice on. Just time in required for me.
OTM, the second day of my learning to ride I fell off while launching and landed my ribs onto my wrist guard. The raised hard plastic palm protector cracked a rib. I felt that for the next couple of months. I also blew a free mount attempt, as I stepped down to recover there was a loud click and a very sharp pain in my calf. That also took a couple of months to get back to 100%. No speed at all involved with either injury. The calf injury was definitely the sudden stop/impact. Upds I have been able to roll out of, so far.
I should also look into getting hip protection. I can just imagine the Missus walking in on me while looking at a dq site and trying to explain I was looking for hip pads. Any suggestions for good quality padded shorts?
[QUOTE=lowerstackmac;1703813]
I agree Setonix, it’s just in my head, but it’s there. Maybe not a bad thing either, not that i’ll stop because of it. I’m sure you could easily ride your uni in my drive way. I am only having difficulties because I have no riding skills developed yet, it‘s just slower going without the smooth surfaces to practice on. Just time in required for me.
OTM, the second day of my learning to ride I fell off while launching and landed my ribs onto my wrist guard. The raised hard plastic palm protector cracked a rib. I felt that for the next couple of months. I also blew a free mount attempt, as I stepped down to recover there was a loud click and a very sharp pain in my calf. That also took a couple of months to get back to 100%. No speed at all involved with either injury. The calf injury was definitely the sudden stop/impact. Upds I have been able to roll out of, so far.
I should also look into getting hip protection. I can just imagine the Missus walking in on me while looking at a dq site and trying to explain I was looking for hip pads. Any suggestions for good quality padded shorts. Sorry,
disregard, I’ll do a search for the padded shorts.
Oops. I’ll just do a search for the padded shorts as there must be a lot of posts on them.
I bought what has been suggested is a sleeping mat from our local recycling centre for $5. It appears to be composed of two 12 mm layers bonded together.
I cut two 20 cm squares that fit inside calico coin bags. They go between my padded shorts and the cotton shorts I wear over them and fold the top of bags over the waistband of the shorts. A cotton sweater covers it all.
The mat has set in a curve so that it rolls up making the pads fit to my shape quite nicely.
Being closed cell foam it doesn’t take on water or sweat. I can just put them through the wash and they dry very quickly.
I’ve been riding a dirt road by my house lately. The rides are three to five hundred yards and have a down hill slope of a couple of hundred yards, then another similar hill to go back up. I get about a hundred yards up the hill before I upd. The upd is because I lose the little speed I have, I hit a bump or my legs burn out. All good practice.
I have a piece of paved road that isn’t used much that I can practice on also. I successfully tried twice yesterday to ride it’s length, which is about .6 of a km. It is mostly a long slow down grade. I was able to ride down and back up it twice. I had a upd each time going up before I got there. Free mounting took a lot of tries to finally get going though.
Today was the dirt road again, pretty much the same as previous sessions. I then practiced free mounts with short sixty yard rides in my driveway. I also tried mounting with my off side foot. I used a block behind the wheel to do this, it went pretty well and I was able to ride away with no problems. I’ll try this for a couple more sessions before I attempt free mounting. Who knows, maybe I’ll discover I am actually right foot dominant.
If your success climbing the hill is contingent on maintaining speed, perhaps you might try running longer cranks.
Riding uphill with loose sand or pits and bumps is quite difficult I think. I have a few of those in the forest I ride. Often I can tackle them, but they take a lot of concentration.
Yesterday I UPDed on just asphalt. There was a small hill up onto a dike. It is steep and has a bend in it. This time the strong wind blew me off. It was a very inconsistent wind with strong gusts, which threw me off a few time. It is a very small track of 3km, but nice to do after work and before having to make dinner. Because it brings me back to the car, I get to feel the wind from all sides. With a strong side wind it is also hard to keep both hands on the T-Bar (I rode the 32" with 140mm cranks) As ElpuebloUnido says, with 150mm cranks it is easier to climb the small hill I have at the start. Even though it is only a small difference in crank size I have, I do feel it at the uphills.