With time and repeated attempts you will get further and further up that slope without UPD.
Now that I’m unicycling much more often I just cruise up some slopes that previously I had to dismount on several times.
Technique, strength and stamina are quickly improving when riding uphill (or trying to)
I mostly ride 24" Muni with 145 mm cranks.
Got a 27.5" with 145 too but I use it less often since my main focus is currently rides including stretches with serious uphill
Edit: I do not know the exact nature of your gravel road but recently I came across a few hundred yards of “deep” gravel and it was a terrible experience.
Deep being up to 2" gravel before reaching solid ground.
I hope your gravel is just a thin layer!
Otherwise: mad props to you!
Here’s my take on symmetry.
Simply alternating sides didn’t work well. So I used the notion of a ‘valid’ attempt (whether successful or not). The idea is to keep practicing on the same side until some requirement is met, then switch. That way, the weak side gets automatically worked more. What ‘valid’ means evolves over time, until eventually it’s the same as successful.
For free-mounting, it meant first being able to step over the uni, then put the second foot on the pedal and step over, then do one pedal stroke, then two, etc. While I remember that it was easier on one side, I can’t recall which one. Today it feels exactly the same with either foot. No dominant side
Btw Mac, I’m very impressed by your progress on the kind of surfaces you describe. Anything bigger than a pebble crosses my way and I’m down.
The dominate leg is kind of a wishy-washy thing. I see this, “It was concluded that: 1) the dominant leg in right or left leg dominant subjects as determined by a series of manipulative and weight-bearing performance items is not the stronger of the two legs; and 2) the preference of leg by either right or left leg dominant subjects is dependent on the type of activity, manipulative or weight-bearing.” Here.
For unicycle training it likely just depends on what leg you spend the most time working on.
Thanks for clarifying this, Garp. I think you are right. I am having trouble remembering if I used this method while fist learning to mount. Memory serving, it seems I had to have some modicum of success before switching sides. Otherwise, it was unlikely any learning took place.
I have been recently taking rides on my Guni. I mount in low gear. My method is to place the foot next to the protruding shift button first, then continue mounting onto the other foot. This eliminates the possibility of shifting with my second foot during the mount. It also makes all my Guni mounts happen on my non-dominant side. Which is good practice. But, when I get tired, mounting (especially on the non-dominant side) gets harder.
Practicing mounting on both sides has been a very important part of my learning. I have to think harder while mounting on the non-dominant side, and this sometimes results in better technique on the non-dominant side (whereas I’m relying more on better inherent balance/srength/coordination on the dominant side).
The side you learned first will likely always be your stronger side. There is no natural “dominant” or “non dominant” side like there is with hands.
My take on symmetry is: it’s generally better to learn one side properly first, rather than try to learn both at once. The things you learned on one side can be applied to the other side. For example, when freemounting, the motion of your upper body stays the same on either side. When you then try your worse foot, you can already apply what you learned about that.
There are things I learned as a kid or a teenager first fully on one side, like cartwheels, judo rolls, etc. After that, no amount of practice on the other side could catch up with the first. As you said in your first sentence, The side you learned first will likely always be your stronger side.
Conversely, I don’t think there’s any requirement with unicycling to be able to do things equally well on both sides, other than some intellectual satisfaction (and competitive freestyle, maybe?)
Most trials riders can do little hops with their wrong foot forward, but line up the hops to have their better one forward for big hops. It’s generally pretty easy to do, just do a half rev, or hop forward on a rail instead of riding when you see it won’t line up.
For Muni, it’s nice. But no one is perfectly symmetrical. For example, I can hop over trees fallen over the trail that are up to ~30cm high with either foot. With my better foot forward, I can probably get up to 60cm. I much prefer that over being “perfectly symmetrical”. Adding curves/hops to get your cranks to line up is very doable with some practice.
Being perfectly symmetrical is just a “spiritual” thing, that some believe to be very healthy if you do it with everything in life. It’s definetely not required to be a good unicyclist.
I know, but I’m saying that’s not good terminology. Dominant suggests a similarity to left/right-handedness, which it’s not. Someone who learned to write with their non dominant hand will be inherently less comfortable doing so then if they were using their dominant side. With mounting/hopping, it just that the side you started practicing on becomes better, at least in my experience.
I didn’t say there is no reason to practice both sides. I won’t stop anyone from doing what they want. But for what most people’s goals are, “perfect” symmetry is not required. That’s all I said, and I gave some examples on why I think that’s the case.
Unicyclists tend to be a little “special”, but in the end, most of us aren’t that different from people in other sports. With Golf for example, 99,9% of people try and do the same course with as few shots as possible, and do not care if they are able to do it with either side. Similar with unicycling. If you learn how to do a glide, that’s a pretty cool feeling. After that, most people would set their sights on a new challenge, maybe coasting, and not try with the other foot. To get my point complete: there are occasions, where some symmetry is necessary. For example, when coasting, I have my right foot on the frame, left foot extended as balance. That makes it hard to turn right, so I’m practicing having my right foot extended and left foot on the frame, so I can turn either way. Rolling hop in Muni is another example where symmetry is good for most peoples goal of hopping over stuff on the trail.
Probably for the same reason we climb mountains: it’s idiotic, useless and potentially dangerous. So of course some of us have to do it.
Mankind, the smart species
Thanks, Pierrox, elpuebloUNIdo and everyone else for your responses. Lots to digest and so much to learn about unis in general. Mostly lots of practice coming up. I’ll let you know how it goes. Cheers all
I’m still at it. I did buy an Impact Athmos 19” a few weeks ago. I’m glad I did, I wish I had started on a small one. It certainly is easier to ride than the 26” Nimbus. It felt weird riding it and took a bit to get used to it though. My free mounts on it are up to about 80% I’d guess. Riding it on my gravel driveway and road still sucks of course. I go back and forth practicing on the two unis and I find that my free mounting success on the 26” has also gone way up. I think my riding has also benefited.
Unfortunately I think I might have broken a bone on the top of my right foot a few days ago. I didn’t notice when it happened, it just got progressively more swollen and hurt more over a few days. I think once it gets better l’ll start practicing in town in a parking lot or somewhere flat for a while. These small injuries are certainly frustrating, as I’m sure most of you know. Anyhow, I’m still keen to get good at this before I run out of birthdays. Cheers all.
Focus on getting one hand pulling on the seat handle while riding your 19" on gravel. With some practice, you’ll compensate, using “plough-through” technique for what you are missing in “roll over” ability.
Sorry about your foot. My worst unicycle injury was a broken big toe.
elpuebloUNIdo, yes I have been riding with one hand on my seat for quite a while now. I have not been using a ‘pulling up’ technique though, just holding on. Do you pull up continuously, or only as you come to ruts, irregularities, stones etc.? I’ll focus on that once I’m back in the saddle.
The injury seems to involve my big toe as well. Hopefully l’m like you, in that that’s the worst I encounter in my uni career.
Thanks for the update, and sorry about the accident! Certainly frustrating to have to stop because of an injury!
Glad the 19" was a good solution in the end!
I can one up that. 2 big broken toes, one on each foot, but not at the same time. I’ve found that except in the first week, If you shift your foot forward a bit, you can still do just about everything you can do without a broken toe.
I sit on the raised back portion of the saddle and place both hands on the bar ends or grab handle. I can push or pull, but mostly, I’m putting weight down on the bar ends.
It took me a while to develop into this technique. At first, I stood on the pedals, took my weight off the seat and pulled up hard to run over obstacles. But that technique wasn’t effective at keeping the unicycle from being kicked out from under me.
For discrete obstacles, an unweighting technique can be used. But, if you’re riding on a continuous resistant or bumpy surface, you cannot continuously unweight.
The secret for me is stability. My technique relies on “four points” of contact (2 sit bones, 2 hands) almost 100% of the time.
