New fella saying hi.

Learning to dismount and placement on your pedals will just come with practice.

You can dismount by let the unicycle come out from behind you and you can grab the seat to make sure it doesn’t fall to the ground, or what i like to do is let it come out in front, theres fancier ways to get off, but they arnt really necessary really.

The cranks on some unicycles are bent out a little, some are just straight, but you get used to them after a while, on my first uni i had the cranks were bent a little and once i got my Torker DX with straight cranks and it took me about 5mins to get used to the feel and placement of it.

Just keep practicing like you are and the things your having troubles with right now, will seem like there should of been no reason to have troubles with them at all in a few more days or weeks =p

Main thing to remember with dismounting is to transfer your weight to the pedal at the bottom, then (the timing is mildly crucial if you wish you avoid falling flat on your arse and having your uni shoot out from under you) remove the ‘top’ foot. While the weight on the bottom-foot holds the uni in place, you can then gently dismount to the rear of the unicycle by simply stepping off.
It feels a bit scary the first couple of times but as soon as you cotton onto what’s happening there, it’s a doddle.

Took my first bad fall today.
Some jobsworth at the park thought it a bright idea to lock up the tennis courts to keep the riff raff out (that’ll be me) so the only place to practice was the uneven path around the corner.
Now I’ve done this path before, and I didn’t think it too difficult.
Some of the paving slabs have been knocked askew my tree roots underneath, and it’s on an ever so slight camber.
I guess I just wasn’t concentrating hard enough.
The wheel hits a stone, and before I have time to get my feet off the pedals, I faceplant onto the floor.
Not even enough time to throw my hands out to stop myself.
Right now, I figure I’ve bruised a rib, hopefully not cracked it.
It hurts when I breathe, laugh, bend over and stretch.
God knows how it’s going to feel when I need to take a dump.
I’ll cross that (painful) bridge later.
It even hurts when I type.

I think I’ll take it easy for a few days and rest up.
Feel free to send condolances or take the p*ss.

I still blame the park keeper for locking the tennis courts!
Git.

Hahaha! I feel for you mate. Take a good book with you and take it easy.

Right.

Time to ‘liquid-up’ the diet and hopefull develop a well-timed bout of gastro.
At least you still have your strong hand for wiping-duties.
That’s one area where my budding ambidextrosity fails rather miserably.

Haha!
Thanks Gild.
When I laughed at your reply it sent a spasm of pain shooting across my chest like a mini heart attack.
Earlier today I sneezed and I thought I was going to die!
I’ve learned how to turn the computer off with my foot. It’s easier than bending down.

Where can I pick up a cheap pair of bolt-cutters to get back in to the tennis courts?

Photographic proof that I AM getting there slowly…




LOOK MUM! I’M DOING IT! I’M DOING IT!

And the photographic proof…?

Hey congratulations on getting there, from your post dates it looks like you’ve got there quickly too, well done, it took me more than two weeks of sold shin hitting and coxis crippling hell for me to get it!

I’ve been trying to help some people down here in plymouth uni with some tips and as far as dismounting goes, i tell them the way i learnt, all opinion as there are no hard and fasts in this game. This is to forget about the uni and literally worry about staying upright yourself, if you try to step off the uni backwards as if stepping of the bottom of a ladder, but as GILD says try to step off when prominate foot is at the bottom of its rotation. I tell people to let the uni go and don’t try to catch it (as its mine and i’m not that worried) you can master catching it when you’re more confident at staying upright. I find it easier to look a little more graceful.

My description is a bit garbled but i hope you can make out the idea and i also hope it’s of some use to you.

That is a brilliant analogy. I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to start using that straight away.

Another milestone today.
Firstly, I replaced my small plastic pedals with a pair of Wellgo DMR knock-offs. At first I was a bit nervous of the pins, but these pedals are much wider than the old plastic ones, and now my feet don’t feel as if they are about to fall off the pedals, as they did before. Much more comfortable.
Once I start learning how to freemount though, I may take a few of the pins out, as they will make a mess of my shins if things go wrong.

Before, when practicing, I’ve been riding up and down in front of the local museum, concentrating on staying on the uni and turning the occasional corner.

Today I decided I would go somewhere.

Down to the local supermarket car park, alongside the local leisure centre, round the corner along the bike path and back to the car park. A loop of about 2 miles.
The first third of a mile goes well - one lean on the wall, and I’m away. (Breathe, sit up straight, breathe, sit up straight - that’s my mantra).
My first UPD is where the pavement slopes down to the road. The camber takes me off. It takes about ten frustrating attempts to get going again - the post I lean on is quite far from the pavement and balance is awkward.
I UPD again almost at the halfway mark, and this time there are no handy posts to lean on, so I walk the fifty yards to the halfway turn. (A man passes with a dog and says I have lost half my bike - “Ahahah”, I say out loud,as inwardly I shoot invisible laser death beams at him with my eyes).
The second half was much better. A slow gradual slope downwards (I’m getting the knack of gradual slopes now) and I pass a father and son who smile at me. I’ve no sooner gone by them when I UPD again.
I take the time to get my breathe back, wipe the sweat from my brow and clean the mist from my glasses.
The father and son catch me up while I take a breather and we have a small chat. They say goodbye and stroll off.
I remount on the third attempt and go by them again and keep going, slightly uphill now, the path goes alongside the rear of a new supermarket, and where the checkouts are is a huge glass window looking out onto the bike path.
Every time I’m in the supermarket, I think to myself “I’m going to uni that one day. I AM going to uni that one day.”
Today was that day.
Cycling along the path, I knew that people and kids at the checkout would be going “Hey, look at that guy!”
So I gave it my all, and prayed I wouldn’t UPD.
Sweat was dripping off my nose.
I make it passed the giant window and UPD behnd a convenient tree.
Phew.

A walk of about thirty yards to a lampost, back on again, and around a tricky corner which I surprise myself by not falling off, and I’m back at my starting point.
Hey.
I’ve actually been somewhere on my unicycle.
Not just farting around.
I went from A to B.

This is a big thing for me.
If I can do two miles, I can do three.
If I can do three miles, I can do five.
If I can do five…
Well, you get the picture.
Go me! :slight_smile:

By the way, not once did I manage to dismount gracefully!
But I’m trying! :smiley:

Congratulations. You are a rider. That was quite an accomplishment. Welcome to the determined few. Others don’t have to realize that balance is not required.

Congratulations.
I trust you had a suitable celebration.
One that includes lots of beer.

Well, a few comments from another old newby. I am 57 and recently bitten by the unibug. No frame of reference but I certainly have taken longer to make progress than is typical of reports here.
I started with the hands on walls in hallway method, went to the two pushbroom handles method. This makes you free of geography to mount.
About 2 week ago I graduated to the one handle method. Mounting with one stick is a little freaky but hopefully is in the line of transition to freemount.
About 4 days ago advaced to riding with no stick,hold at midshaft in rt. hand after take-off. Still using stick to mount, riding on track at local school. longest ride about 50 yards—many shorts. IT’S HAPPENING!!!

It’s also very handy practise for UniHoki.

That’s one more of us and one less of them.

Well done Tumblebug!
Also, you can use the stick to fend off small children that wander into your path.

I did the same loop yesterday. I thought if I can do it once, I can do it again, maybe this time with less UPD’s. If I keep going with this way of thinking then eventually I will be able to do it with no UPD’s.

In theory.

Well I set off from the car-park as I did yesterday, and within the first few hundred yards I couldn’t help noticing that there were a lot more people about.
A lot more.
Like, hundreds and hundreds of people, and cars parked everywhere.
Cars!
Parked on my practice path!

Turns out there was a football tournament being held at the leisure centre, and there must have been around a thousand people there.
Once I’d gotten past the parked cars and realised what was going on, I was faced with a dilemma.
Stop and go back, or go on and face ridicule by falling off?


.

Ah, scr*w it.
Fortune favours the brave!

On it was.
Having done this route before, I knew the posts to lean on were few and far between, so UPD’s were not an option.
Imagine about 8 football fields surrounded by cheering parents and bystanders all slowly stopping to watch the weirdo on the one-wheeled-bicycle (their words) go past.
They actually stopped playing on a couple of fields to watch me go by.
The only time I stopped was when a couple had set up their deck chairs on the pavement I was riding (the inconsiderate b*stards) and I politely stopped with a graceful ‘stepping-off-a-ladder’ dismount and walked around them.
Forunately they were right next to a post too, so I could mount up immediately.
After the surreal nature of the football (that’s soccer to my American friends) scenario, the rest of the ride was quite calm.
I did it again today, with a lot less UPD’s and past about two people walking dogs.
I’m not really sure if I enjoyed the big crowd or not.
It certainly gave me a thrill at the time, but also made me nervous as hell.
I stopped at the supermarket for a sanwhich and got a ‘respect’ thumbs-up from two twenty-ish blokes and a conversation with an old chap who hadn’t seen a uni for about thirty years.
Practice, practice, practice.
Blue.

Ahh, the joys of being the oddest person on the block!

Well done though.

When I was at the beginning of my learning I did a loop that was nearly 2 miles and I recorded how long it took and how many UPDs. It’s a good way of measuring progress.

As for the rest of the inconsiderate world. Well … I found there’s little I can do about them. I don’t enjoy the attention but I’m learning to live with it.

Cathy

Great job! You made a parade out of your ride today! It sounds like you found a good training route.

My son and I were on my Muni training trail this afternoon. My UPD count is still high but its’ coming down. In the woods, we ran accross some mounds and pits left over from BMX bikers. CLeaned them out and tried to skirt the edges to see how far down we could go while still riding out. The holes are about 2 feet deep. We tried the mounds also. I have a long way to go before riding over humps of dirt but it was fun.

IN TO THE BLUE QUOTE: (A man passes with a dog and says I have lost half my bike - “Ahahah”, I say out loud,as inwardly I shoot invisible laser death beams at him with my eyes).
HA HA HA . I met a policeman patroling the park who said “Where’s you other wheel?” Thats kind of how I felt.

Keep up the good work.

these 2 friend of mine just left, and i was showing them a unicycle video and they said it was gay, so they showed me a RC video and told them it was so gay they had to leave:D so there goe, BTW they both are skater fags

That’s good advice about the lap time/UPD count Cathwood.
I’ll have to start taking that into consideration on my loop.
I’m not too fussed about time at the moment, more about not UPD’ing.
My girlfriend, Pinwheel, is always telling me to try and gain control rather than go whizzing off uncontrollably.
So I’m trying to mantain balance, even if it is going slower than a walking pace.
Control is good.
Even if the things she says sometimes sound like something Yoda would say.
“Hmm, balance you must.”
“Do or do not, there is no try.”
“The force will prevent pedal bites.”
Yeah. Right.

Um, thanks for the kind words JJ.
You tell those skater fags! :slight_smile:
Blue