Learning turning

Static, I believe.

I put seat in crotch, left foot on pedal, right hand on wheel and try to raise right foot onto pedal and start moving while staying balanced. Usually fails because I’m not balanced. Also, just need to do it more so muscles know what is going on.

Does anyone know what I mean by jerky pedaling rhythm? It’s not a consistent rhythm but there’s a fast part and a slow part. So I don’t feel in control/balanced permanently but rather I’m losing and finding my balance over and over while riding. Not sure if this is understandable but my theory is that it’s just being bad at unicycling. I’ll practice more and see what happens.

Regarding the jerky pedaling rhythm… I had the same problem and its gotten better over time, but if I ride a small wheel with longer cranks (20", 150mm), I do notice it more. To me it feels like I’m trying to pedal a tiny gear down hill on a bike. Going up hill or over a surface with higher rolling resistance seems to smooth out the pedaling.

Shorter cranks will help, but if you can ride at the moment you may as well get used to what you have until you decide you want new hardware.

Wanderling,

If you are using your legs to stay upright on the uni, you may be getting the jerky motion due to the constant shift in body weight from left to right as you ride.

As the left pedal goes to the bottom of the arch, the right leg puts pressure on the opposite side of the uni to drive the right pedal down. This in turn makes it difficult to make consistent smooth pedal motions.

This sometimes happens to me when I am riding up a steep incline as I use more force on the pedals to get up the hill. I am no longer sitting on the seat as much as I am standing on the pedals and holding onto the front handle to keep the uni underneath me. I notice the smoothness of the pedal action lessens due to the force exerted on opposing pedals.

If you are not placing your body weight on the seat, it is difficult to relax your legs and just turn the crank in a smooth motion. Placing your weight on the seat may help you smooth out your pedaling action and reduce the jerky motion you are experiencing.

Hope that helps.

RE: jerky pedal rhythm.

Stand in the corner of your driveway.
Put the back end of a broom on your outstretched palm.
Balance the broom.
It’s pretty easy cause the broom is fairly long.
Now walk down the length of your driveway with the broom balancing on your palm.

There are two ways of doing this.
You can take a step.
And then rebalance the broom.
Or.
You can lean the broom ever so slightly “out-of-balance” forward.
And then keep walking your hand in underneath that balance point.

On the unicycle, you’re riding according to option one at the moment.
You keep riding the unicycle in underneath your center of gravity (balance point) and then have to wait till you over-balance forward before you can ride off again.

You want to ride according to option two.

Solution?
Lean forward.
Just a teeny weeny bit.

Let us know how it goes, yeah?

EDIT: The other way to know that you’re sitting too upright is when your wheel moves from side to side every time you pedal.
In an ideal world, your smooth riding will see the wheel move only a couple of centimetres to either side (if that).
When you’re too upright, it’s as if you’re trying to ride slalom. Ride thru a puddle sometime and check the trail you leave. If it appears snake-like, lean forward a bit more.

I have this exact problem. I have seen youtube videos and everyone seems to be always so smooth. I am able to go for kilometers now, with the occasional dismount, but my speed is rarely constant. I know how to smoothly pedal (from lots of bicycling), but it’s hard on the unicycle because I’m also using pedalling as a crutch to not falling off.

How does it feel like to be at that sweet spot? Will this problem go away from just putting more miles on the uni?

Also, on topic about turning, I can turn or go anywhere I want by leaning to where I want to go, but sharp turns just make me fall off the unicycle. :o

Three word LoneReaction:

practise, practise, practise.

It truly does cure everything.
When turning sharply, avoid looking at the ground, quite often that will cause a UPD.
(UnPlannedDismount, we are unicyclists, we don’t “fall off the unicycle”(sic), we simply have a UPD)

As for the sweet-spot, it feels exactly like that, sweet.
Riding does not feel like any effort whatsoever, you are light as a feather on the pedals and it truly feels a bit like I imagine flying to feel like.
Don’t push the speed to high, cause leaning too far forward will then result in a forward UPD and then you’d better be able to still run out of it or, in the event of higher speed, be able to tuck 'n roll.

Hehe. I will practice! Your analogy helped to answer a question I had in my mind for the last 2 weeks. :smiley:

Which was?

Why do unicyclists ride with their arms outstretched?

My gratitude goes to Tincher Teach and GILD for their lessons. They are all that needs to be said on the topic, as far as I’m concerned.

When in the sweet-spot (weight on seat, momentum) riding is fairly effortless. However, my legs still have to get used to going 'round and 'round.