HI! I am one day in to a rest of my life thing with unuicycling. I am
struggling, but will keep at it.
My question? Well, I have read on the internet it can take from one hour to
learn on one site, right up to 30 on another site. My definition of ‘riding’
is to be able to pop half mile to the local shops to get a paper without
killing myself.
So how long did it take you to learn enough to be able to do this?
Cheers!
Simon
www.simonpaddon.com
This is the first of many posts, no doubt!
Re: Newbie Question
In message <dho17g$grd$1@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>, Simon PADDON
<simon@paddon.freeserve.co.uk> writes
>HI! I am one day in to a rest of my life thing with unuicycling. I am
>struggling, but will keep at it.
>
>My question? Well, I have read on the internet it can take from one hour to
>learn on one site, right up to 30 on another site. My definition of ‘riding’
>is to be able to pop half mile to the local shops to get a paper without
>killing myself.
>
>So how long did it take you to learn enough to be able to do this?
It depends on you…
It took me a long time to be able to ride a few metres (probably 20 - 30
h of practice over two months). Going from that to a km took a few days.
I don’t have much innate sense of balance and started at 51 yo.
Martin E Phillips nb Boden, Splatt Bridge
http://www.g4cio.demon.co.uk martin/at/g4cio/dot/demon/dot/co/dot/uk
Homebrewing, black pudding, boats, morris dancing, ham radio and more!
The Gloucester-Sharpness canal page http://www.glos-sharpness.org.uk
took me one month to reach level one(freemount, ride 50 meters, dismount) and now i can ride until i just cant ride anymore…which is a long ways
-Phil
took me 30-45 min. a day for 3-4 weeks.
It was a long time ago, but I think it took me about a week or so of half an hour to an hour each evening. Once you can ride a few yards, it’s just practice that you need. I can now ride for an hour at a time without a dismount.
Each part of riding needs you to concentrate on it. I suggest in this order:
Learn to ride from an assisted mount (e.g. leaning on a wall or post).
Learn to stop under control.
Learn to turn each way.
learn to freemount (mounting without the aid of support).
Learn to idle - that’s the rocking backwards and forwards on the spot thing.
Making due allowances for age, fitness, talent, and dedication, each of these will require a few hours of practice. If you are super keen and practise every day, you could be riding to that shop in a month or so.
In another month, you could be riding back. ;0)
Three years.
But don’t worry, you have several advantages over my situation.
I didn’t cross the half-mile milestone until a neighbor bought himself a Schwinn Giraffe and I learned on that.
It took me 3 months, but I am a very slow uni learner.
A 3 mile giraffe? 
Could you freemount it?
Re: Newbie Question
Second day, and I can do one revolution, and idle for about 4 seconds.
I am coming, Mum!
Simon
“johnfoss” <johnfoss@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote in
message
news:891da62e05238b42a87e01fb7593aa7a.1wad24@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com…
>
> Three years.
>
> But don’t worry, you have several advantages over my situation.
>
> 1. I had access to nothing to read to help me learn (though I later
> found out my local library had Jack Wiley’s “The Unicycle Book”).
> 2. My unicycle was a Troxel, total P.O.S. Though I learned to ride it
> in about six weeks, after giving up many times, when I could finally
> start going over several revolutions, the unicycle gave up. Due to its
> inferior design and tricycle technology, it could not cope with
> actually being ridden by someone of my below-average eighth grade
> weight.
>
> I didn’t cross the half-mile milestone until a neighbor bought himself
> a Schwinn Giraffe and I learned on that.
>
>
> –
> johnfoss
>
> John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
> “jfoss” at “unicycling.com” – www.unicycling.com
>
> “Read the rules!” – ‘IUF Rulebook’
> (http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/) – ‘USA Rulebook’
> (http://www.unicycling.org/usa/competition/)
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> johnfoss’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/832
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/43698
>
I just started about a month ago. I can ride about a mile. i can freemount. i can turn pretty good and I can’t Idle at all, but i dont think idleing is important right now. Just stick with it and don’t even think about how far your getting and before you know it you’ll be doing great.
I learned by pushing all of the furniture aside in my apartment and hurling myself from one wall to the other until I was able to make it across. It took me about a week and a half or two weeks, an hour or two per day, to be able to do this consistently. Then I started going outside behind the building. It was another while before I could ride over some little twig or something on the sidewalk without being thrown off. This was long before I joined or had contact with the Twin Cities Unicycle Club, and before there was any real internet. So I didn’t know what I was doing, and I had my saddle too low, and hunched myself forward too much, and so on. With a bit of help and advice from other riders, I probably would have learned a bit more quickly.
Re: Newbie Question
On Sun, 2 Oct 2005 08:16:50 +0100, “Simon PADDON” wrote:
>So how long did it take you to learn enough to be able to do this?
I can direct you to some research done on this very subject):
The goal was 50 metres, not half a mile, but once you can ride 50
metres, you’re basically there!
“Unicycling is like glue: you have to stick with it, and it’s not to be sniffed at - Mikefule”
It took me 3 hours everynite for a week to be able to ride over a mile and hopping up kerbs.=)
I still stand by the notion that it only takes 5 hours of good practice. But I do mean GOOD practice, not just messing around with the unicycle. It took me about 3 years but in the first two I never really made the effort I needed to. I then spent way too many hours in my basement riding the same 20 feet, when I should have just gone outside where I could ride 50 meters or a half mile.
Once you can ride 50 meters though you can ride a half mile, you may just have a UPD every 50 meters or so, or everytime the sidewalk is a little uneven.
Riding 1/2 mile in one go will take a little more time. Maybe 20 hours or so of good practice. Depending on how much time you can dedicate this could take 3 years or 3 days, that’s up to you.
[QUOTE=Simon PADDON]
HI! I am one day in to a rest of my life thing with unuicycling. I am
struggling, but will keep at it.
My question? Well, I have read on the internet it can take from one hour to
learn on one site, right up to 30 on another site. My definition of ‘riding’
is to be able to pop half mile to the local shops to get a paper without
killing myself.
So how long did it take you to learn enough to be able to do this?
Cheers!
Simon
www.simonpaddon.com
This is the first of many posts, no doubt![/QUOT
After riding for almost 2 years, I still haven’t ridden to the local shop and gotten a paper. That’s what I have a paper boy for.
It took me about 7 -8 hours to pass level 1.
I think it took me about 1 month, practicing about a half hour every day. I really focused on it though. I would get up, go one revolution, then fall off. I would repeat this and I thought I would never get it, then I realized that there is a lot more stuff I can do on my uni than just ride. But I wouldn’t really focus on idling.
I’m a slow learner, so for me the answer was “many weeks” for a half-mile journey (and back). Don’t be surprised about two things…
Once you get good enough to ride the one mile round trip, it still may be an endurance test depending on how efficiently you ride. Your legs will probably get really tired, but this is a standard beginner thing. It will get easier with practice. Also, sidewalks with cracks, pedestrians, onlookers, honking cars, wind, and other forces of nature will conspire to make you wobble, sweat, tense up, and UPD. Seek to overcome and you shall.
The insignificant weight and wind drag of the newspaper may throw off your balance. It will be no less of an accomplishment if you read the paper there, rather than taking it home.
took me 4-5 hours a day for 2 weeks (ride and freemount)
It took me around 2 hours to be able to wobble stupidly around for 30 feet or so, but keep in mind I spent days upon days learning to trackstand a bike, which evidently helped my balance tons. It would have taken me much longer without that bike trials practice.
Re: Newbie Question
Thank you for all your thoughts.
Strength should not be a problem- I am a road cyclist anyhow, and used to 2
hours rides. Never been much good at wheelies though, so the balance thing
is new- though not doing too bad. 3rd day, did about 1 crank turn.
I downloaded that excel program, which reckons I should take about 9 days at
an hour a day. I also study NLP, which kind of ties it in with ‘seeing’
yourself doing it, so you can time line it, and learn from the mistakes you
have yet to make. And that.
Speak to you all in about a month when I can do lots of stuff!
Simon