Hey, I now can succesfully static mount with my left and right foot, what are some other easy mounts for beginers to learn?
And any more difficult mount that I could try latter. All the information that I get from these forums I have been saving and once I put it all together I will have a wed page solly devoted to teaching Unicyclists how to ride, tricks, different types of uniing and anything else that is relevent, so please help me, so that in the long run you can help other beginers.
For a very long time I could oonly free mount. After a while I tried a rolling mount. Next was the Suicide mount, not that hard but downright scary at first. Now I’m stuck on kickup mounts. I can kickup only on the right side, that is start with my right side on the pedal.
You could try a side mount. You put one foot, say your left one, on the left pedal in the 6 o’clock position while holding the seat out in front of you with your right hand. Then take your right foot off the ground and bring it forward, around the left side of the uni to the right side. When your right leg has cleared the left side, bring the seat under you and connect your right foot with the right pedal.
I just went to unicycling.org and found that it says almost exactly what I just said only better. But there you go.
You could also try the Jump Mount. This is where you hold the seat, not sitting on it, and no feet on the pedal, and jump onto the Uni. Ride Away, and have Fun!!
After geting the normal mount down with both feet, I learned the side mount. It’s still not 100%, mostly because the fun facter wasn’t there for me, and I moved on.
The next one I learned was the jump mount. I use this all the time. I even got a couple accidental suicide mounts in when I let go of the seat before I jumped, getting ahead of myself. Only a couple successful landing out of the dozen or so times I made that mistake and they were anything but graceful, but I digress. I can land the jump mount everytime now, so I say this is a good beginner mount. Getting past that “nut-crunch” fear does take several attempts.
The next one was the rolling jump mount. After I figured this one out, I switched shoes (with an extra inch in the sole) and had to learn it again, along with other stuff. I finally figured out that the wheel turns almost exactly 1/2 rotation while I’m in the air enroute to the uni, while jumping during normal walking speed.
I say these are all good beginner mounts because I’m a beginner and figured each one out in a hour or so, and then daily practice to get closer to that 100% mark. Still not 100% on the side mount ro rolling jump mount, but soon, I hope.
jump side mount is fun too. Hold uni in front by seat, stand to left side and
behind. jump, lift right leg over left side and place both feet on the pedals
at the same time.
Hopefully you are also reading what else is already on the Web, such as the IUF Rulebook: http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/
In the Standard Skill List section are brief descriptions of a bunch of mounts. More detailed descriptions I think can be found at unicycling.org, though you may have to dig around to find them.
Here are some ones I like doing (apart from the ones that have been mentioned):
There’s one that’s like a jump mount but you just land standing on the pedals holding the seat in front. That’s a good one for mounting in tight spots.
Then there’s the reverse suicide mount which I find hard but very fun once you get it.
And finally, the one where you put your left foot on the left pedal in the down position, hold the saddle with your right hand and swing your right leg between the uni and your left leg, around the front of the uni, and onto the right pedal. Try it, it looks good but isn’t too hard.
>And finally, the one where you put your left foot on the left pedal in
>the down position, hold the saddle with your right hand and swing your
>right leg between the uni and your left leg, around the front of the
>uni, and onto the right pedal. Try it, it looks good but isn’t too
>hard.
I think that is called sidemount. In Dutch I’ve heard it being described as “damesopstap” (ladies’ mount) because it mimicks the way women mount a bicycle. The counterpart of that is the “herenopstap” (gent’s mount - you guessed it), where your right leg goes round the /back/ of the seat.
Klaas Bil
[no sig line for forum posts - still hoping that this is temporary]
I first learned the normal freemount (static). This used to be my only mount for several years.
Then I started working simultaneously on the side mount, side mount reverse and jump mount (half-suicide). Of those, I picked up the jump mount most easily. Even my 7 year old boy could do it after about half an hour of practise. The jump mount can be broken down into the following steps for the beginner:
[1] the spottter holds both frame and wheel firmly (knee on the side of the uni), while the beginner jumps onto it. This way the beginner learns that jumping onto it is dead easy and there is nothing to be afraid of.
[2] now the spotter just keeps the wheel in place, while the beginner holds the saddle (and with it the frame, obviously) and jumps onto it.
[3] last but not least go for the real thing
Both the side mount and the reverse side mount took my more time to learn. The side mount looks much more impressive, if you extend the free leg to the front before bringing it down onto the pedal.
After learning to ride backwards and to idle, I noticed that I could also do the roll back freemount, though I hardly ever use it.
Currently, I try now and then the kickup mount, the stepover mount, the backwards mount and the pickup mount. Of these I find the stepover mount the easiest.
Lowering the saddle helps a lot and secondly extend your arms as much as possible (keeping the saddle far away from you) to the front. With that in mind, stepping over the saddle and onto the pedal is most of the time a piece of cake.
With the kickup mount my success rate is still pretty low, i.e. 10%
and the other two hardly ever work for me (I know, practise is the secret key :p)
