Learning Uni, cause and effect

Riding Advice
1

Greetings all:

For two hours a day for 1 week I have been attempting to ride a unicycle. Each
day I progress a little bit. Some days are very rewarding some downright
hilarious. I can still hear the little girl’s voice who had been watching from
afar, ask her mother. “Mommy what is the man doing” Her tone a mixture of wonder
and terror. That particular day I must have resembled a fellow set upon by a
swarm of hornets. My hands flailing about trying to maintain my balance. Ah the
joys of having the ability to fall in all of the known directions of space and
time. So as I sit here, with a slightly damaged knee (old injury) which took the
twist and turns of a beginner unicylcist as an oppurtonity to flair up, I wonder
about cause and effect.

I can ride some 25 to 30 yards. Ride in the since of conveyance from point A to
B. No style involved and the sight would bring tears to the most hardened
unicyclist.

Now how in the blazes do you turn. I have found that if I shift my weight from
the saddle to the pedals and do an Elvis impersonation with my hips I can twist
the tire in the direction I wish to go or the direction I had intended to go.
This Chubby Checker rendition will quickly lead into a back and forth see-saw
motion of the tire. The end result has me tracing out a staircase on the ground
and an offer to do belly dancing for a buck fifty from the frat boys who
happened to be watching at the time. So I figure I best leave my weight on the
seat to prevent this see-saw motion. Fine until I start to turn. Not by choice,
some force has decided to lean me over and to watch what happens from a safe
distance. My mind quickly tells my body to stay in the seat. The unicycle is
leaning, I am pedaling like Ghandi on a bad day. The contraption is still
leaning. Flop I am rolling on the ground. Children start to crying and a
gnashing of teeth is heard from the disgrundled parents who had wished to use me
as an example of perserverence.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Joe West

2

Re: Learning Uni, cause and effect

jwest@pop.service.ohio-state.edu (Joe West) writes:

> Now how in the blazes do you turn.

Turn your head, turn your shoulders, and lean a bit in the direction you want to
turn. The rest of you will need to turn too, but your body tends to follow the
lead of your head and shoulders.

> So I figure I best leave my weight

Yes.

3

Re: Learning Uni, cause and effect

Joe West wrote in message …

>For two hours a day for 1 week I have been attempting to ride a unicycle.

Keep it up, Joe, I’d say you’re doing great for having only ridden a week.
>From your description, it sounds to me like you’re doing better then I was
doing after 2-3 weeks (at least an hour a day) when I was first learning to
ride.

>Each day I progress a little bit. Some days are very rewarding some downright
>hilarious.

For me, learning came in stages. Kind of like plateaus. I’d work and work on
something with seemingly little progress, then suddenly one day I could do it
(and kept doing it).

>So as I sit here, with a slightly damaged knee (old injury) which took the
>twist and turns of a beginner unicylcist as an oppurtonity to flair up, I
>wonder about cause
and
>effect.

Yeah, I sprained my ankle pretty good the first week I was learning (perhaps
that’s why I didn’t make much progress the 2nd week…)

>I can ride some 25 to 30 yards. Ride in the since of conveyance from point A to
>B. No style involved and the sight would bring tears to the most hardened
>unicyclist.

After one week, I say you’re doing well.

>Now how in the blazes do you turn.

Haha! That’s always the first thing after you can manage to stay on a little. I
went to the bike shop where I got mine and asked the guy there (also a
unicyclist) the same question after about 3-4 weeks. I could go straight (well,
something close to it), but every time I tried to turn, I’d lose it.

His response was “don’t worry about it so much, just practice riding and other
things will sort of come naturally after a little while”. He also showed me
about action-reaction type turns (basically what you described as an Elvis
imitation…). That’ll get you around a corner, but it sure won’t look too
pretty. I found later on that once you get the balance for a leaning turn, it’s
much smoother, faster, and just feels a lot better. But his advice was really
very good, as I rode more and became more confident with my balance, turning
started happening, freemounting started happening, etc.

I’ve been riding about 5 months now and I’m still working on tighter turns.
There are always things you can do better!

>I have found that if I shift my weight from the saddle to the pedals and do an
>Elvis impersonation with my hips I can twist the tire in the direction I wish
>to go or the direction I had
intended
>to go.

When you get the leaning turn down, you’ll find you aren’t having to do that
weight shift. Your wait will remain on the saddle and you’ll lean the unicycle.
One of the things that helped me feel that was to get off it and get on a bike
for a few minutes. Think about how you’re making a bike turn. Probably not with
the handlebars, just leaning. It’s the same kind of thing, except you have to
control your front to rear balance at the same time.

On other thing that tripped me up a bit at first was the fact that the street
in front of my house has a large crown. I never really thought about it until
we had a big rain, but suddenly I realized why I could ride a lot better
elsewhere then at home… because I was having to cope not only with the lean
of the turn and the balance of the unicycle, but with the change in slope
mid-turn. Never really noticed it before, but it was enough to make me lose my
balance and dismount.

Hope this helps!

Greg