I got my United 20" uni in yesterday, and as soon as I opened the box and immediately after putting it together I began to ride it. It started off bad, but through the day I got much better. When I start, If I hold on to something I can get going fairly well, but can only travel from 3 to 9 revolutions before letting it go. I need some pointers.
Right now the seat post is set to a hair under the 10 mark. I am 6 feet tall, is the seat to high/low?
What about the whole balance thing, what can I do to work on balance?
Should the air pressure in the tire be low/medium/high?
Should the tire kinda be soft, or blown up so its hard as a rock?
And for all you male uni riders out there… what do you do about sitting on your stuff? My (pardon the french) balls have kinda taken a beating from the seat. I just usually lift them up when I get on, but is there a way around this?
Should I practice more with holding onto a railing/wall and pedaling then letting go once I get going, or should I practice mounting on the uni without holding onto anything? I was under the assumption that I should get riding down first, then try mounting without hold onto anything. What do you guys think?
Foot positioning… balls of your feet/arcs/heels? Right now I am using the balls of my feet.
Body posture? Should you sit straight up, or kinda lean into the riding, like if I start leaning right and if I am about to lose it, should I counter with leaning left, or just let the uni go?
If you all could help me with this it would be greatly appreciated… thanks allot!
Set the seat height so that with your heel on the down pedal your leg is fully extended. When the ball of your foot is on the pedal your leg will be slightly bent. If that feels too high, lower the seat an inch until you learn to ride better.
Back straight, keep your weight on the seat. Repeat it to yourself just before you take off each time. Listen to yourself say it.
Use the recommended tire pressure at least. Over pressurize the tire if you feel like it but not by more than 20 psig.
Rock hard briefly precedes extremely soft. There is a loud bang in between.
Get used to singing an octave higher in the Marine chorus. Wear tight bicycling shorts with no underwear. Reach in and grab your genitals and move them around to where they are comfortable. Don’t be miserable because you don’t want people to see you playing with yourself.
Try to learn to ride proficiently before you freemount.
You are positioning your feet correctly.
Learning is all about correcting. Try to ride until you totally lose it and fall off, don’t get off. This gives you more time to see what it feels like to correct errors.
Good luck and have lots of fun. Lose yourself in it.
Stay on the unicycle until you fall off. Sometimes when you’re leaning towards one direction and begin to fall, your body will move itself into that direction, and by going with the fall you can usually pull yourself out of it.
This will change with time; as you advance in skill you will eventualy be able to skip one of these steps. In fact, Greg transforms into Leprechaun Mode and enters the box through a small hole. He claims to be wheel walking in there, but I can’t really say.
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I can’t begin to image what motivates Greg to omit the hole ‘cattle prod’ methode. It seemed to work when he taught me. He must not like you.
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I used to use tape. However, after several months, I’v come to the following conclusion: double stick tape. As to the second question: I have it on good authority that 4 of the last 5 National Chapions have had THE operation. This is a personal choice that you will have to come to grips with later.
The ‘keep riding’ advice is very solid. To this end, I’d wear both wrist and shin protection; if you feel (and are) safe, you will have less cause to bail for fear of injury or pain. I personaly feal uncomfortable riding with a rail or wall- if I have to pitch off, I’d rather not have any obsticles to contend with.
I started with my back to a wall and road directly away from it. Do what you feel most comfortable with- but try methods that chalange you too.
It seems not long ago that Greg went crazy and ordered half of the Unicycle.com stock (none of us could get anything from them for weeks, as a result) and posted progress updates here; as I recall, he made swift progress with one foot iddling using a support, and many others have advocated intemitent use of supports for certain skills.
On the ‘keep riding’ theme, I’d minimize the use of a crutch if it habitualy trudicates what would otherwise have been a longer run.
You’er lucky- there are alot of new riders here who can relate to what your going through and share their experiences.