I’ve started learning to ride a 24" ultimate wheel. I’ve made it around 50 feet quite a few times but with the wheel tilting back and forth and arms swinging wildly, etc. Very little control, but I’m still on the thing moving.
I’m wondering when you would consider someone able to say that they can “ride an ultimate wheel.” Would it be based on distance covered and the ability to consistently repeat it? A certain level of control over the wheel?
I know when I learned the unicycle, for me it was knowing that at least theoretically I could ride forever without ever needing to dismount (on smooth pavement). Not sure that would apply to an ultimate wheel, though.
Really depends on your level of fitness but I’d say if you can ride till your muscles give out without UPDing first, you likely have it mastered. Riding an ultimate wheel takes a lot of strength (all the time) and even when mastered you can not “coast” along like you can on a uni.
Nothing “official” exists, but I’d say 50 feet is pretty good! If you want, use the IUF Skill Levels as a guide, where Level 1, in your case, would probably just be to ride (at least) 50 meters and dismount in control.
Or you could apply my personal metric, which is to reach the finish line in any given UW race. That’s 30 meters, in one try, when somebody else says “Go”. You only get the one try (dismounts are a disqualification in short Track races), so my personal record on that is “sometimes”. I don’t put a lot of time into the UW, and when I did, it still wasn’t that much, and that was not recently at all.
I’d say when you can freemount and ride a figure of 8. That’s all the basic skills: freemount, stay on long enough to achieve a simple objective, and turn right and turn left, then dismount at a time of your choosing.
The fact that you can ride it at all puts you in a tiny minority. Well done.
How long did you practice? I bought a 28" some months ago, but as my family needs a lot of my time, I couldn’t practice every day. When only practising once a week, I can’t make any progress and every session I have to start from scratch again. My longest run on the wheel was 4.5 rotations, but that only happened once. It is quite frustrating ^_^. So well done with your progress.
Yeah, I think the thing I’m looking for the most is control over the wheel as I’m assuming once that improves distance will be easier to achieve. As far as unassisted mounting, I’m not even worried about that right now!
I’ve been out with it for 4 days for about 2 hours each day. Unfortunately, last time on a UPD my foot apparently went into the space between spokes and something bent in a way it’s not supposed to. No major injury but probably a week off to recover. Hopefully my brain hasn’t forgotten everything!
I’ve been “riding” this thing for a few weeks now. Consistency is much better in that I can make it quite a ways every time before dismounting. I can turn as well, though again everything is not exactly controlled. The things holding back more progress are just the tire rubbing away the skin on my legs and the fact that this thing takes massive leg strength that after awhile affects performance.
I went to ride my 29" which I haven’t been on since starting the ultimate wheel, and while I could mount it fine, at first it was almost like my brain had forgotten how to ride it. It took five attempts to get going and then five rotations for everything to click. It was weird.
