I’ve got my son a 16" Uni for his birthday. He’s only had about 2 hrs practice and has gotten as many as 5 revolutions before falling. The problem seems to be that as he gets going,the motion gets real jerky,like he’s stopping at the bottom of the stroke and can’t get it back up. I put the seat from mine on it so I could try it and it feels kinda the same way,but I can still ride. For me it feels like the cranks are too short,of course my legs are longer than his. I taught myself to ride a long long time ago,and have never taught anyone else,so I’m kinda at a loss. He is 10,but has short legs. I had to cut almost 3 inches off of the seat post to fit his inseam. Here is a pic of him on it with his leg fully extended if anyone wants a look and give me some advice. Thanks for any help,
Mike
Does it fell like somthings loose,or mabye theres somthing caught in it,i dunno.its hard to tell by the picture.make sure the crank arm is on tight.
and the pedals.
That was how I learned. I kept getting stuck at the bottom and then getting pissed because it would be so simple if I could get past that position. Turns out I just had to practice more. Maybe it’s the same with your kid. Get the whip and make 'em practice! He’ll love you for it once he can ride.
That’s what I was thinking. Practice is not a problem so far. Lets see,he it got at 4:00pm,practiced till about 4:30,went to football practice,did homework,back outside at 9:15pm,practiced till 10:00pm,got up early this morning,got ready for school,took it to the bus stop,and practiced till the bus showed up. Pretty much the same secnario today. He’s just about past the newness excitement stage and slowly working towards frustration,but no sign of giving up,which is something he almost never does anyway.But he still gets ear to ear when he gets a little further than the time before.
Mike
first things first
make sure u get the seatheight right
to do that get him to put his HEEL on the pedal and help him sit in the seat
when seated, his leg should be straight but not locked
moving on
from your description it sounds like a fairly traditional ‘put your weight on the seat’ issue and is quite natural in the uni-learning curve
we’re bi-pedal animals and when we feel unstable, we quite naturally transfer our weight to our feet in order to find stability
on a unicycle (as on a horse) u need to learn to counter this instinctive reaction
the leg muscles have to make minute adjustments to keep u in the balance envelope and they, quite simply, can’t do that when they have to carry your body-weight (not while u’re learning at least - in muni a lot of time is spent riding out the saddle)
with too much weight on the pedal, that pedal will stop in the BDC (bottom dead-center) position and there is preciously little u can do from there
except UPD
u have to suggest to him that he focusses on keeping 70% of his weight on the seat and 15% on either foot
suggest to him that he looks up and across the backyard instead of down on the ground in front of the wheel
this will help with a more upright posture
also suggest to him to focus on sitting as upright as possible
even slightly exageratedly so
from shoulders thru hips to axle should be a straight line, leaning slightly forward
also suggest to him that he focusses on turning over the pedals in as smooth a circle as possible
help him ride along a support for a couple of revolutions so he can get the feel for the smooth rotation of the pedals
now, once he starts riding a lil’ way futher and u notice that the uni is twisting from side to side with every pedal-stroke, he’s simply sitting a lil’ too upright and needs to lean forward perhaps a eight of an inch
the way i started off learning since i got one for christmas was in my house going through hall ways with my hands on the walls and i did for a couple of days then when i got outside i used cutches for about fifteen minutes then threw those to the nside and just practived and that worked perfect for me so if u could find some place like a haallway outside ur house then that would be great otherwise u have to be alright with ur kid riding around ur house hey i didnt break anything
If the seat hieght is correct, then try letting him ride on a slight downhill slope. The slope helped me keep momentum on the dead cycle while I was learning.
He’ll love you for it once he can ride.