Mounting on hills and other questions

Riding Advice
1

Hi,

As I am working up on basic skills, I have hit a few snags that might
require advice to overcome…

1-Going up and down hills is a fun challenge, but usually results in joyful
UPDs. How do you mount in the middle of a hill (up and down)?

2-Idling: I find, very frustratingly, that using both methods I read about
(ride, slow down, ride backward, resume forward riding and hold on to
something and idle on) I am making absolutely no progress whatsoever and
this skill seems absolutely impossible to learn. Any encouragement?

3-Saddle soreness. I rode for about 1h30 at once last weekend and my butt
is sore in a way that I wouldn’t dare describe (at least publicly…). How
can you ride longer without permanent disability?

4-Mounts usually result in a 90 to 180 degree turn, which is quite annoying
in a narrow trail. How do you avoid this pivoting while mounting?

Otherwise, I am happy to report that I can go down curbs, magically managed
the side mount foot in front a few times (scarier then other 2 mounts…)
and can imagine some day being able to mount from the other foot (would you
recommend practising this early on?). Hopping and going up curb is on the
practise list, but sofar no other progress then a few embarrasing injuries.

Thanks,

Jocelyn

2

I’ll be brief cos I’m sure you’ll get lots of replies om this.

1-Going up and down hills is a fun challenge, but usually results in joyful
UPDs. How do you mount in the middle of a hill (up and down)?

If you’re not doing so already use a ‘jump’ mount rather than a ‘roll back’ mount. roll back is the standard hop on do 1/2 pedal back and then ride.
jump mount is to put first foot on pedal than jump onto second pedal whilst putting no weight on the first one (so the cranks don’t move from their initial horizontal position). Much better for mounting uphill.
Another option is to mount facing at an angle to the slope.

2-Idling: I find, very frustratingly, that using both methods I read about
(ride, slow down, ride backward, resume forward riding and hold on to
something and idle on) I am making absolutely no progress whatsoever and
this skill seems absolutely impossible to learn. Any encouragement?

I spent ages holding onto a wall with little progress. Then forced myself into the open and started to get better.
Try mounting in the open with a roll back mount then roll forward 1/2 rev, back 1/2 rev etc. etc.
Try it in a field so it’s better to fall in.

3-Saddle soreness. I rode for about 1h30 at once last weekend and my butt
is sore in a way that I wouldn’t dare describe (at least publicly…). How
can you ride longer without permanent disability?

there’s definitely no shortage of posts on this subject! Luckily there are things you can do.
Airseat conversion (replacing the foam in your seat with a lightly inflated inner tube), cycle shorts, talcum powder are the main solutions.

4-Mounts usually result in a 90 to 180 degree turn, which is quite annoying
in a narrow trail. How do you avoid this pivoting while mounting?

Practice will eliminate this over the next few weeks

Otherwise, I am happy to report that I can go down curbs, magically managed
the side mount foot in front a few times (scarier then other 2 mounts…)
and can imagine some day being able to mount from the other foot (would you
recommend practising this early on?). Hopping and going up curb is on the
practise list, but sofar no other progress then a few embarrasing injuries.

Sounds like you’re doing really well. Practicing mounting with the other foot is a good idea, though I still haven’t learnt it. You should practice what you feel like practicing.

It’d be useful if you gave more info such as which type of mount you’re using, what kind of unicycle i.e. 20"-er, Muni with big tyre etc, as this will enable people to give you more relevant advice.

3

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think what you called a ‘jump mount’ is officially a ‘static mount’. I learnt to roll-back mount first, but now that I think of it, I’m surprised that the static wasn’t my first mount.

Andrew

4

Re: Mounting on hills and other questions

onewheeldave <onewheeldave.qc1mz@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

> If you’re not doing so already use a ‘jump’ mount rather than a ‘roll
> back’ mount. roll back is the standard hop on do 1/2 pedal back and then
> ride.
> jump mount is to put first foot on pedal than jump onto second pedal
> whilst putting no weight on the first one (so the cranks don’t move from
> their initial horizontal position). Much better for mounting uphill.

What you describe is a static mount, not a jump mount. I find it also
helps to lean forwards into the uni so that the back pedal is pushing up
onto your foot. When I first learnt to do this mount I started with a
block behind the wheel so I could work out the mount without the wheel
ever moving backwards.

Jump mount is where you stand behind the uni, hold the seat, and then
leap onto both pedals simultaneously. It’s fairly easy if you can
convince yourself that you’re not going to do yourself serious injury.
:wink:

Nick Grey

5

Sorry about that, I’m not really up on the official terminology, cheers for the correction.

While I’m here a good tip for this mount that someone posted a while ago was to imagine that thing where someone lays on the ground and you pretend to step on their chest as you walk over them. you do it by not putting any of your weight on that foot and it’s the same thing when you do the uni mount.

Nick Greys advice about leaning forwards is good, I’ve found that a lot of people who’re used to roll back have problems with staic mount cos they keep their weight back.

With a roll back mount your body maintains its position whilst the wheel rolls back under your center of gravity.

With the static mount you have to project your body forward over the wheelcos the wheel remains static.

6

Dave,

Mind if I qutoe you on those last to sentences for my little instruction thingy on how to unicycle? Don’t worry, I’m not planning on selling it. :slight_smile:

Andrew

7

Re: Mounting on hills and other questions

Thanks all for the advice. I will add the static mount to the top of my list of mounts
to practice. I have seen other people do it, but always found it looked awkward,
compared to the graceful swan-like movement of the rollback mount.

I guess there is more subtlety to this. Going downhill, you would have to start with the
weak foot on the back pedal, the opposite for uphill. Yet, in a steep uphill, you couldn`t possibly
jump over the uni, so maybe a backward rollfront mount would be more appropriate… Anyway,
I will try variations of this this coming weekend. Thanks for the lead.

As for the jump mount (suicide mount?), this looks like something I should not be interested in
until I invested in a full body armor, yet, in a masochistic way, I can`t stop thinking about it!

Just FYI, I use a 24" Torker unistar.

Thanks,

Jocelyn

“onewheeldave” <onewheeldave.qc1mz@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:onewheeldave.qc1mz@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> I’ll be brief cos I’m sure you’ll get lots of replies om this.
>
> 1-Going up and down hills is a fun challenge, but usually results in
> joyful
> UPDs. How do you mount in the middle of a hill (up and down)?
> --------------------
> If you’re not doing so already use a ‘jump’ mount rather than a ‘roll
> back’ mount. roll back is the standard hop on do 1/2 pedal back and then
> ride.
> jump mount is to put first foot on pedal than jump onto second pedal
> whilst putting no weight on the first one (so the cranks don’t move from
> their initial horizontal position). Much better for mounting uphill.
> Another option is to mount facing at an angle to the slope.
> ---------------------------------
>
> 2-Idling: I find, very frustratingly, that using both methods I read
> about
> (ride, slow down, ride backward, resume forward riding and hold on to
> something and idle on) I am making absolutely no progress whatsoever
> and
> this skill seems absolutely impossible to learn. Any encouragement?
> -------------------------------
> I spent ages holding onto a wall with little progress. Then forced
> myself into the open and started to get better.
> Try mounting in the open with a roll back mount then roll forward 1/2
> rev, back 1/2 rev etc. etc.
> Try it in a field so it’s better to fall in.
> --------------------------------
> 3-Saddle soreness. I rode for about 1h30 at once last weekend and my
> butt
> is sore in a way that I wouldn’t dare describe (at least publicly…).
> How
> can you ride longer without permanent disability?
> -------------------------------
> there’s been loads of posts on this subject!
> Airseat, cycle shorts, talcum powder are the main solutions.
> ----------------------------------
>
> 4-Mounts usually result in a 90 to 180 degree turn, which is quite
> annoying
> in a narrow trail. How do you avoid this pivoting while mounting?
> -------------------------
> Practice will eliminate this over the next few weeks
> --------------------------------
>
> Otherwise, I am happy to report that I can go down curbs, magically
> managed
> the side mount foot in front a few times (scarier then other 2
> mounts…)
> and can imagine some day being able to mount from the other foot (would
> you
> recommend practising this early on?). Hopping and going up curb is on
> the
> practise list, but sofar no other progress then a few embarrasing
> injuries.
> -----------------------------
>
> Sounds like you’re doing really well. Practicing mounting with the other
> foot is a good idea, though I still haven’t learnt it. You should
> practice what you feel like practicing.
>
> It’d be useful if you gave more info such as which type of mount you’re
> using, what kind of unicycle i.e. 20"-er, Muni with big tyre etc, as
> this will enable people to give you more relevant advice.
>
>
> –
> onewheeldave - Semi Skilled Unicyclist
>
> “He’s also been known to indulge in a spot of flame juggling - but it’s
> the Muni that really fires him up.”
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> onewheeldave’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/874
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/26622
>

8

Jump mounts aren’t as dangerous as you’d think. After years of being afraid to try, I landed one on my first try and have never had any “incidents” with this mount.
A suicide mount is slightly different. For a suicide mount, you don’t use your hands to hold the unicycle. I’m not brave enough to try that one. Yet.

9

andrew_carter

Mind if I qutoe you on those last to sentences for my little instruction thingy on how to unicycle? Don’t worry, I’m not planning on selling it.

Feel free to use them.

Jocelyn Charbonneau

I guess there is more subtlety to this. Going downhill, you would have to start with the
weak foot on the back pedal, the opposite for uphill. Yet, in a steep uphill, you couldn`t possibly
jump over the uni, so maybe a backward rollfront mount would be more appropriate… Anyway,

I always use the same foot whether facing up or downhill.

The static mount becomes more difficult as the hill gets steeper, but is still more effective than the rollback (for me anyway).

Another thing to try with a static mount is to push the wheel forward slightly immediately before the jump. I don’t fully understand why this helps, it feels as though it gives you a little more time to get on the uni.