I have been at it for 2 months now. I rode 2 miles tonight in the dark.
I average about 500-1000ft between dismounts. My hope is to buy a coker and go 20, 30, 40 or more miles. I ride a two wheel recumbent and I put in 3000 miles this summer.
After my 2 mile ride my knees and legs were worse off than if I had ridden 50 miles on my recumbent.
It seems that I do a lot of front to back corrections. I average 3, 4 or 5 pedal strokes and then I back stroke slightly to keep from falling and start the cycle again. My speed suffers because of this and it is very rough on the knees. I seem to always have my body leaning to the right.
Will it just take more time to straighten up and smooth out the pedaling, so I don’t have to keep correcting, or am I doing something wrong. I have a 24 torker lx.
I can ride up and down curbs, freemount, ride up a hill of about a 13% grade and down the same hill. I want to get my distance skills quickly, what other suggestions do you have? I try to ride 2 miles a day.
Logging miles on a bicycle or recumbent is totally different than uniing. Check your seat hieght, it’s probably too low. When I first started riding, my legs would be screaming in agony. It will take a while for your muscles to get used to the different way they are used to ride a uni. I also had a bad habit of leaning to the right, which went away as I got more experience. Keep your butt planted firmly on the saddle and it will take some of the stress off your legs and knees. As for the front to back corrections, try to “ride proud”, that is keep your back straight and sit tall in the saddle. Try to spin in circles, same as a bike, instead of mashing on the pedals. Hope this helps and welcome aboard:D
The more you ride, the better you get. This time last year, it was a challenge to stay upright on cracked pavement, now I ride over the cracks with no though, not to mention speed bumps, curbs, rocks, and errant live stock
It’s like when you were a baby, your first steps were very unsteady, now (and I make this assumption on the fact that you uni) I’m sure you can walk a mile or more with nary a stumble
I had the same problem in the beginning. I would be riding along and the next thing I knew, I had lost my balance and had an UPD. At the time I blamed it on losing my concentration on what I was doing. As you ride more, you’ll find that you don’t really have to think about what you’re doing, you just get into that riding zone.
For me, riding muni probably had the biggest effect on my overall riding because of the uneven surfaces encountered.
You can try these suggestions:
Practice mounting using the other foot
Ride over rough surfaces
Work on turns and figure 8’s
Ride different size unicycles
All of these things will help your overall balance.
