First of all I want to thank everyone for all the helpful advice they have given me so far… Even if you didn’t directly respond to my questions, I lurked around and found some every helpful tips.
It’s been 3 weeks since I acquired the unicycle… I haven’t been on it as much as I want to be… but I still love it each time. It’s amazing to be able to see real improvement and progression every time you get on one of these things. By far the best purchase I’ve made in a while!
My progress so far:
I can ride 50’ on level ground and also on slight inclines and declines.
I just learned to freemount last night (Actually I’m only successful 30% of the time but I was ecstatic none-the-less!)
I can go in the general direction that I aim for… lol
I’m struggling with:
Turning left or right (still really jerky and awkward)
Idling… haven’t really attempted it too much yet.
Freemounting with my right foot
Hopping
My questions:
Any tips for turning and idling? I have lurked, so I have a few ideas. I am more curious if people have a turning preference and/or which way did they learn first, and how long until turning the other way became more natural?
Should I start to learn to freemount with my other foot now at the beginning? Or should I wait until I have my Left foot freemount up to a success rate of 80-90%?
When you freemount with your left foot, do you (or are you) supposed to grab the handle of your seat with your left hand? And vice versa for freemounting with your right foot?
Should hopping be included in this beginner skill set? Which foot do people prefer back… generally the same one that you freemount with?
I still regard myself as somewhat of a newbie, so here are my thoughts on your questions.
Any tips for turning and idling? I have lurked, so I have a few ideas. I am more curious if people have a turning preference and/or which way did they learn first, and how long until turning the other way became more natural?
First, look where you want to go. Then turn your shoulders to match where you’re looking. Then swing your hips and legs (and uni) to match your shoulders. After a while it will be one continuous motion.
Should I start to learn to freemount with my other foot now at the beginning? Or should I wait until I have my Left foot freemount up to a success rate of 80-90%?
Learning to mount with both feet equally is a good skill to know, and learning it at the beginning is easier than later.
When you freemount with your left foot, do you (or are you) supposed to grab the handle of your seat with your left hand? And vice versa for freemounting with your right foot?
I think everyone is different on this. There is no standard. Just do what feels most comfortable for you.
Should hopping be included in this beginner skill set? Which foot do people prefer back… generally the same one that you freemount with?
Hopping is a useful skill, and learning it at the beginning is good. It’s good to be able to hop with either foot position. My most common position is with my mounting foot back. But I try to practice both ways.
These are just my opinions, and unicycling is very subjective. Your experience may very well be different from mine.
Sounds like you’re making great progress! Keep at it! Find a place to ride off-road pretty soon, you will find it’s a fun and rewarding experience.
Cheers!
I am still a beginner as well. I can only mount with one foot (left foot goes on first) and I wish I had practiced the other foot early on. But it doesn’t keep me from riding every day. I also cannot idle yet. I have to dedicate some practice time for that.
As far as turning goes, it’s like everything else: practice, practice and more practice! I have some really tight turns on my commute that were a 100% UPD in the beginning. Now I’m mastering them 99.9%. What helped me get into it is practicing swerving: When riding in a straight line try to imagine going around obstacles and potholes. At first do really slight waves and as you get better, tighten them up and make nice big waves around your “obstacles”. You can also set up real obstacles in form of cones, rocks or whatever else you find in your training area. If you practice that, eventually turning will come naturally. Then you can start riding circles and figure eights and tighten them as you get better.
As others have already said, the key points to turning are: Don’t look at the ground! Look where you want to go and turn your shoulders in the direction you want to go. Your lower body and the unicycle will follow automatically!
It will be for a while. Just keep at it. I endorse Markus’s suggestion of swerving around imaginary obstacles. Make big wide loops back and forth when you can instead of riding a straight line, space and traffic permitting. That’s actually better than real obstacles in my experience, where you’d be encouraged to steer as tight as you can and barely make it around them. Go big instead. And riding around in circles and figure-eights is fun and good practice too.
It’s never too soon to start but idling is harder than it looks! It’s not really a beginner’s skill.
I’m betting that most will recommend practicing both ways, and yet most of us are far better with one foot than the other and use it nearly all the time. The other point of view: Being really good with one foot is a whole lot more useful than being kinda sucky with both of them. And if you learn mounting–or any skill really–very well with one foot, then you can study how you do it and use it as a guide to learn it quicker the other way.
Whatever works for you, I’d say. You might always be more comfortable using your dominant hand there.
Hopping is a very reasonable thing to start working on. Hopping in place or around a small area is pretty easy. Hopping onto or over things is harder, and something to work towards. And I definitely work on hopping with either foot back, on the theory that when I do it on a trail I might not be able to control which foot is back when I get to an obstacle. I’m more comfortable with my left foot back, which is the one one the ground when I free mount, for whatever reason. That foot supports the most weight either way, maybe.
It sounds like you’re on your way. A lot of it comes with time and experience at least as much as from how hard you practice on a given day, so keep at it and enjoy. “Practice for its own sake, without regard to success or failure,” as elpuebloUNIdo posted in another thread.
I’m not sure I see a practical advantage of being able to free mount with either foot, other than aesthetic completeness. By definition a free mount is free of support, so which side you do it on should be fairly independent of external considerations.
Personally, I use my dominant foot for the critical leap to that second pedal. And as a result, I’ve developed a preference for having that arm free for a sympathetic swing - which for me means that it is my non-dominant hand holding the handle.
If you are doing an assisted mount, then it’s another story, and the geometry of the assist may make one foot (and arm) or the other preferable.
Idling: Idling is a mystery to me. I’ve watched several tutorials without getting it. I made some small progress this summer but I don’t know why. The only thing I know is that it is easier on a small wheel (20"). Most unicyclists agree that learning to idle is much harder than learning to ride.
Free mount: I don’t see any practical reason for being able to free mount with both feet, but it is required if you want to be a level 2 rider (http://www.unicyclist.org/cont/levels.cfm)
Hopping: Hopping is a basic unicycling skill that you will need in a lot of situations, and you need to be able to do it with either foot first. In my opinion hopping can also become a bad habit. You should for instance be able to free mount and ride off without having to hop. Then you will learn to free mount properly.
I learned idling on an outdoor volleybal field. The not-too-thick pole for the net was ideal for some support, especially when learning 1ft’ed idle. But the risk is you’re going to use the pole while you already good enough to go by yourself
(when you only need more self-confidence in stead of support).
Interresting question. The answer “rule of thumb” questions is pretty much always “No”, as each person is unique. Your question made me realize the wait for a higher success rate with one foot may make the learning curve for the other longer as it just feels much different.
Yesterday I had pair practice where I had to switch my leg in favor for my partner, but I was unable to adapt. It felt so different, while in reality it’s simply the same but mirrored.
No, you could even mount freehanded.
That’s a question that returns every once in a while. It really differs per person. So everybody goes what they feel comfortable with. Same for whether they prefer hopping to the left or to the right. I think the majority in deed has they feet as with mount with their dominant leg.
Use your hips. Keep your body upright and lean the uni. When you want to come out of the turn, use your hips to pull the uni upright again.
Putting your body into the lean comes later when you are turning at speed so that the centrifugal force will get you up again. Avoid slowing in the turn because this reduces the centrifugal force. Later you will learn the controlled “high side” where you momentarily turn harder to recover from a slowing turn.
However, try to not over-analyse. Eventually it all just happens naturally without thinking about it.
Trying to remember what I do and this might be wrong because I don’t actually think consciously about it. I suspect where possible I initiate the turn so that my outside foot is at the bottom of the cycle in the turn. Anyone else aware of their preference on this?
A lot of variation, I see. In my case, my right foot/leg is the dominant one, but I don’t use my dominant foot to swing - but to rest on the back-pedal instead. My non dominant foot swings in place and I use my dominant right arm to hold the saddle. For me it is impossible to free-mount with the other foot. That just feels so wrong. When I tried, I even couldn’t remember if I was supposed to keep the saddle between the legs My free-mounts work 95% of the time and personally I don’t see the point of learning that with my non-dominant foot.
The only reason I can think of that it is easier to learn at the beginning is because later you will already have learnt
I’ve been riding a little over 2 months now and free-mounting with my dominant foot works 99% of the time, so I’ve decided to give the other foot a go. It is amazing how difficult that is. I keep trying to look at my normal free-mount so I can copy it to my non-dominant mount, but it just feels so wrong… and scary to take the leap with my right foot.
Yes, it feels completely wrong at first, but give it a while, and it gets better.
The reason I said it’s easier at the beginning than later on is that in the beginning everything feels new and wrong, so it’s not that different. After a year or more, the “normal” mount is so ingrained, it’s really hard to overcome.
Is it worth the effort? That’s a topic of debate, but I find every new unicycle skill you learn makes you generally a better rider in other areas. So in my opinion, yes, there is no “wasted” effort.
Nice to see your progress! Carry on!
My free-mounts work 95% of the time and personally I don’t see the point of learning that with my non-dominant foot.