Sounds like you had a really good session there. Well done! Keep at it, focus on process and not results as they say. It takes a while for everyone but one ride at a time and you’ll get it.
Be careful about sawing off the seat post. You can always cut more off, but you can’t put any back on!
What I always tell people to do when first starting is:
- Grab a pole or other support in the middle of some flat pavement and get on your uni
- Get your cranks horizontal
- Let go of the pole and fall forward as if you’re going to do a faceplant, but then start pedaling. You will fall eventually, hopefully forward rather than back, but you almost always land on your feet. You have to physically commit to that forward fall, though- it’s the first step, and for my first few days of riding, it was what I had to re-learn each time I arrived at my little practicing area.
Once you rely on your pedaling to keep you upright, you will be surprised how quickly it does just that. All you need is a bit of patience for trial and error. It’s definitely better if you have daylight, though!
Yes, at worst it is a $28 mistake. 
I figure that there are going to be times that I might want it lower than currently possible once I’m ridding. As long as I can get it high enough that I’ll be rocking back and forth to reach the pedals (i.e. too high) with a sufficient length in the frame for strength, I’m good.
I mentally know about the lean forward and go for it. That is what I’ve been doing along the fence, but not fully committed. Daylight would definitely help with that. Kind of a bummer coming to work in the dark and leaving after dark. I’ll have daylight on Friday.
Keep enough seat post so that you can safely raise your seat to the highest point you would ever raise it on a bicycle. The insanely long cranks you have right now are good for learning, but if you ever want to put on shorter ones, you’ll need to allow another two or three inches of seat post for that as well.
Ideal seat height on a unicycle depends a lot on what sort of riding you plan to do. When I first learned, I wanted my seat low because I was scared. Once I got good enough to travel around my neighborhood, I started putting the seat much higher so my legs wouldn’t get tired. Later I got interested in hopping and lowered it again, etc.
Once you learn to ride smoothly, darkness isn’t too much of a problem, especially on a large wheel.
Hadn’t thought of the shorter cranks. 125s are probably the minimum, so 40 mm difference. So I need an extra 1.5" there. Good to keep in mind.
Wow. OK Good to know. Thanks for the education song.
Replaced the stock tire with a Hookworm. This gave me about 1" less effective diameter. It also allowed me to lower the seat post by another 1/2" without cutting.
I tried the “just ride” method. I kept locking at the bottom of the first stroke. It was a mental lock of knowing I could hold the foot down and bail forward. I finally talked myself into a full revolution. I was mostly stable, but was bailing after a full revolution. I finally got two revolutions. Ended one on my butt pretty hard. Anyhow, I’m pleased with the balance progress today.
Second real practice time with the 26". I’m about 2 hours total uni practice so far. I think I’ll keep this as a training journal. Little more accountability for me. I’m trying to keep me learning this mostly a secret to many people, because I think it will be more fun to be half way decent before they find out. 
Too bad more people don’t do that!
Knobby tires aren’t necessary when you’re first learning, though eventually any fat tire, knobby or not, can be a lot of fun. Once you start to go for longer rides on cambered streets, you may find the Hookworm makes you dance the Twist a bit, but it’s not a big problem. The Hookworm has a nice range of tire pressure you can experiment with, too. The qualities and behaviors of different tires is something unicyclists talk about a lot.
When I was first learning to ride, I used to take my uni apart and carry it to my practice area in a trash bag so nobody would see it, but soon the fascination of possibly getting there on one wheel grew to outweigh my fear of becoming the neighborhood clown.
I decided to revive this old thread. I stopped posting progress, as I came off the back of my Nimbus and hyperextended my knee pretty bad. This took a month or so before it didn’t hurt and over a month more until it felt back to normal.
My Nimbus has sat unused, as just after I went to China and work started piling up. I decided that I wanted to pick up a 20" to start again, just to make the drop a little less when I UPD. I think part of it is a confidence thing about getting injured again.
I found a good condition 20" Sun Flat Top for $35 on Craigslist that I picked up. I may need to add a 400mm post on it, but I’ll see after a little time. It was strange to have such a small movement when I tried to back pedal it under me. I’ve definitely lost something in the balance department in 2+ years off.
I’ve been also doing very well with watching my nutrition and dropping weight. I will probably wind up ragging out this wheel, but hopefully it will take a while. We have a 1.1 mile trail through the woods and many acres of space off trail that would be a blast to Muni at lunch, once I get to the point. But, I’m not planning on letting anyone know that I’m working on this, until I can jump on the uni and bust around the parking lot and roads a bit. 
I’ve forgotten how much energy it is to suck at unicycling. Starting to get it back. Only have a few feet of flat around, so doing the garage door walk. Next week I’m back to where I have access to a tennis court.
This is about an inch too short at full extension, but ridable. The 20" wheel is much less intimidating.
Put in about an hour of good practice. I started in a hall with walls on both sides. This felt good to get back a feeling for the balance. I wish it was longer than 10 feet.
I moved to the tennis court and was using the net wire to work along for a few cranks. A few times I could feel my mind telling my muscles to make the correct inputs and did a under control 2 revolutions. Other times, I felt out of control after half a crank.
I could feel my coordination start to fade as some leg muscles started to fatigue. Coming back to the hall helped a little, but finally called it a night.
When I mentally go back through my practice along the net, I am replaying images of my wheel and the bottom of the net a bunch. This means I was looking down, instead of forward. I’m also not sure if I was really keeping my posture well, or just flopping. I wanted to capture both of those points in here, so I can remember as I review this before going out for my second practice.
I wish I had gotten a 20" to start. For me, it seems like the 26" was just too big of a jump and to intimidating. I’m really happy with this $35 uni, even if I trash it just after learning. It is much less intimidating and I’m feeling more comfortable with UPDs without injury.
I remember when I was learning, that I wouldn’t make much progress while riding, but I would come out the next day, hop on, and I would be a little bit better.
Persistence, time, and practice is what it takes.
Keep up the good work.
Agree with Uni Klein. Even if you can’t say what you took away from a practice session, it adds up. Maybe you’re just a little more comfortable being on the uni, or a little bit quicker to make a correction when your balance gets off to one side. You’ll be riding as far as you want before too long.
And sacherjj, I agree about the 20", even with it being just a couple of inches closer to the ground and moving a little less distance with each turn of the pedals. For those of us with more mass to move around, it makes a difference. At six feet tall I got by with the stock seat post on mine for a couple of weeks before putting on a longer one. It wasn’t a night and day difference but it helped as I got better and thought more about keeping weight on the seat.
I’ve read that many times. When I was learning to fly, even time away would allow you to replay scenarios and how it felt and what you would change. I think this helps to visualize and get your mind working on the problem.
I broke down and ordered a 400mm seat post and a set of KH Percussion Leg Armor. Because the front of my shin and back of my calf don’t HAVE to be the colors they currently are.
Adding a United Black Pedal to get to $100 to take the $20 off. So it wasn’t too bad. The pedals on this 20" are pretty ragged and bearings are shot, so these are useful.
I won’t be back to the tennis court. I’m too tall to use the net wire. This was screwing me up yesterday (I now realize), and what was keeping my head down. So I started to walk my hand along the fence. The fence was so wiggly that I didn’t have support.
I could get what felt like a smooth one and a quarter revolutions, but got a hitch there at the bottom. It really felt like when you were trying to spin on a bike and are not smooth. I could not get past this. The fence was so loose that it didn’t really help.
This is located right next to a pond. I have to take my helmet off every once in a while, because I can’t get my finger into the little slots to kill the mosquitoes that won’t stop crawling into my hair sucking blood out of my head.
But at least it was hot and sweaty, so while making absolutely no progress, I was getting soaked. And turning my hands black from the hillbilly gloves.
I could not get past that hitch. It got to where I was assured that I would fall after 1.25 turns. I packed it up for the night.
Even though this is 4 blocks, I’ve been driving there so I can take water and such. Instead of going back to the house, I decide to drive around an see if there is a better place to learn. I search for 10 minutes over a couple of places. I get to my old high school and see nothing. But around back I find learning gold.
This beautiful piece of shoulder high handrail that is perfectly level with the pavement.
Totally solid. Confidence inspiring. I was able to just let my hand slide and grab immediately if there was trouble. This let me get past the stupid mental block that kept thinking about how I got hurt before. Whatever was screwing my mind up.
20 more minutes of work and I ended the session really happy, instead of really annoyed. I was able to get a couple 3+ crank runs with my hand hovering, but not touching the railing. It was good progress. I had to stop, because my legs were burning.
And nothing was biting my head.
The pavement continues after the railing ends, so I should be able to shoot off, when I build up confidence. I’ll be back tomorrow after work.
Maybe I can find something like this up where I am during the weekend. I shouldn’t need it for long. Much better post than I thought I would be writing tonight.
Congratulations!
A bit more on this fence and you won’t need it at all soon!
That change of scenery might be all you need. I’d hit a block with the fear of the transition from the bridge I use to just the path as there’s a bit of uneven flooring that has caught me a few times and now I just stop before I get there, almost magically!
Went up and down the bridge last night (it’s only like 10 revolutions long) 10 times consecutively with no holding and feeling really comfortable. Now if I could just have the fear levels of my 13 year old I’d be sorted!
Can’t use my favourite place as the fair is in town and using the car park!
I first learned riding in the living room. I was living alone and put all furniture to the side. When I managed to do 3-4 rotations and away from the wall, I took it outside and pushed off from the car.
I kind of wonder since you say you are big. I have gained some wait (I’m 1.86m and about 85kg - working on losing weight again), but anyways my thighs are the first to get fat and after riding my 6-8km the jogging pants I wear rub too much on my thighs so it becomes quite sensitive. Do yous wear proper stretchy biking pants or don’t you have that problem?
I have a fairly low padding bicycle short that I used when I rode recumbents.
I’ve been wearing these as underwear under jeans, mainly for the fabric shin protection (which sucks.) At least after the nice hit last night, both my shins match in color.
I could use a much better pad than I needed on the recumbents, but it definitely keeps things in place better. At my very start, in normal underwear, I managed to sit hard on one of balls. That was unpleasant. I haven’t been without the support since that time.
I will probably switch to a lightweight nylon hiker pants over them, once I get my Leg Armor.