I’ve been practicing a lot this last week. I can now ride enough farther than 100 meters that i’m not going to bother measuring until i can ride around my block, a km or mile.
I finally had enough confidence to drop my ski poles on saturday – it turned out to be easier w/o them, which surprised me. I started making very rapid improvements in my distance after that.
I did notice that ski poles helped mediate more controlled dismounts – without them i’m finding i have the occasional exciting dismount, so i bought some knee, elbow and wrist gear. After looking at three big stores, i settled on the Rollerblade Evo line as the best fit/function set. (I wish i’d had the wrist guards on when my bicycle was hit by a car a few years ago!)
I’m finding uphills to be easier than down. I’m getting better at tracking a line, sometimes, and my planned dismounts are not too aweful.
Can’t freemount, yet, but came close on monday (it wasn’t much of a priority). Freemounting will be my push for this week. I’m learning on a 20" Sun.
I struggled with freemounting for ages, then it all suddenly came together. Try it on a downhill slope, or with a curb or brick behind the wheel to stop it rolling backwards - that makes it much easier at first, because you don’t need to worry about the pressure on the pedal so much. When you can do that, try it on the flat - I found you need much less pressure than you think on the pedal, in fact on my 20" I was concentrating on NOT pressing on the pedal (trying to put all my weight on the saddle) and that seemed to work for me. I started by trying to learn the “kickback” (rollback?) mount, but I found the static mount much easier.
I learned the rollback mount first, then learned the side (step over?) mount because it looked cooler (how shallow am I?).
I then raised my seat to make the uni more comfortable to ride, now I can’t do the rollback mount as the uni is tilted to one side!
I learned the rollback mount initially by the “war of attritiion” method: keep trying until the uni gives in and cooperates.
My big push now is to turn right without flailing my left arm and using so much brute force with my right leg. I can turn left really easily! ( I went outside for the first time last night - after dark)
Glad to hear you’re still having fun BraveSirStupid; I’m having a blue whale of a time:D
