Progression

This thread is not to say how good/bad I think I am I’m just looking for personal opinions on how you think you progressed and are still progressing in the great sport/art of Unicycling.

For the newer unicyclers out there (bit like me) how are you finding it, do you feel like you’re picking up tricks and skills quickly, are there certain things you just can’t get your head round.

For the more experienced Uni’ers out there at what points did you hit walls, did you get to a certain point before it felt like you just couldn’t quite take that step further in learning or progressing more.

I’d like to know all your stories so please reply and share them for all to see.

i got my unicycle about 2 and a half weeks ago

first two days the furtherest (doesnt sound right?) i got was about 3m (10 feet).

next day the furtherest i got was about 14m.
for the next 2 or so days i managed to ride on flat for as far as i want, but couldnt turn.
next day i could go up and down some small hills.
next day i could make some dodgey turns.
next 3 days improve slightly
next 2 days i could go up and down any hill pretty much
next 2 days learn how to turn (whilst flapping arms from left to right to turn)
next day learn to turn not arms so much but leaning into turn
next 2 days i could do some drops - biggest about 8 inches
next 2 days learn to ride, stop, do 2 little hops then keep going

The uni i’ve got is just a nimbus 24" muni with a 24x2.7 knobby tyre and 125mm cranks.
about 5 days ago i got the cranks on and put on two left hand bicycle cranks that were 170mm. riding was soooo soo much easier with the longer cranks. i pretty much learnt how to turn and go up hills on the longer cranks. although the right pedal came loose a few times. Then yesterday i put the 125’s back on cause dad wanted the crank back on his bike. The first few rides felt like i had no control over the uni at allc ause of the shorter cranks. But i could go much faster and has much ebtter turning after using the 170’s. I feel i’m progressing along a nice and steady pace now. Although i still dont gather much how to stop, start hopping, hop over something then keep riding, i can hop about one inch high for a few times but thats it. first few times trying to land the 8 inch drop i got a decent whack in the gonads.

well thats pretty much my life story

Well, in the first week of learning, it wen smoothly for me, even though i had about 5 feet of concrete to ride on, then would go into a gravel parking lot. Learning to ride on gravel made it somewhat harder to ride on Pavement, but i managed to learn in about a week.

After being able to ride for good long distances, that’s all i did, never knew about jumping or any of the other stuff you could do on a uni.

Within the 2-3ish years of just commuting every once in a while, i couldn’t ride much cause my uni was broke, i learned to ride one footed, and pogo around.

So technically the progress from back then was very small, but all i did was just ride, so it was good to me.

Just for the past 4 months, i think, is when i finally got seriously into unicycling, seeing what you could do on them reignited the flame. The main thing is was trials.

Starting with trials was fun =p at first i learned to hop up and down curbs, after that i tried going up stairs, I actually had a hard time to be able to get up one stair at a time, but after about 3 days of practicing i was able to jump up 10 of them one by one like nothing. Then i learned how to ride one footed with my other foot in a few hours, idling took me at least 1 day to get, i learned one-footed idling about 5mins, i didn’t think it would be so easy. All that happened in about a week.

Once i got my Torker Dx, everything just flew, instead of hopping up 1 stair, i hop up 2 or 3, i can now jump about 2 feet with a static or rolling hop, my SIF hops are about 2.5feet. Learning that took about a day, but to progress it to where i am now, maybe a month or two.

I can do a lot more but i just don’t remember the timeline it took to learn them, so i guess i progress rather well, except on unispins, i have a hard time landing them, but i practice them like crazy until i get them =p

I haven’t really hit a wall yet, well, technically i have hit a wall, but that was from wrecking or landing wrong, but nothing that stopped me form learning, I just stay confident i can get something, and set reachable goals, i make them, and it makes me feel better, so i go and set higher goals. As long as i am in a good mood while riding, then things are great, even the wrecking parts are fun =p

I’ve been riding for about four years now, the first two years I didn’t know there were any other riders out there. I just rode around on my uni for transportation. Then one day I was surfing around on the internet and typed in “unicycle” just to see what came up. Lo and behold, there were whole communities of us! I started trying the skill levels in my spare time (I’m level 4-5), took up Muni, and I’m now starting trials. The only thing I’ve had any trouble with so far is learning wheel walking, and I’m pretty sure my only trouble with it is that I don’t try often enough to learn it.

I think that’s my longest post yet on this forum.

wellll my sisters and older brother had unicycles and i wanted to learn so i got on it and taught myself, but i let my sister have credit for it cuz its her uni and all, but anyways i learned over a few days and could turn after i went about 50 yds … lean and correct turns… but I rode in a parade after that and it made me a lot better but anyways i knew nothing about unicycle tricks so i just rode until i got bored of it a few months later. then i rode it to school when my bike broke … got called a fag… all that stuff then i started to hop… then i learned to spin off of stuff and eventually hop-180
then i did that for 6 months or so until i learned to ride backwards about a year ago… started to riding it to school again… this time got positive feedback… so i just did that for a few months, until my friend learned to ride w/ his seat in front so i got a little jealous and learned it too … then i would learn tricks after him
then we decided to do a talent show… so i started hopping higher and higher and eventually could hop 20" … ride one-footed and the day of the talent show i learned to crankstall and jump on stuff so it was all good … and we won so i was all happy, but my unicycle had broken 2 hours before the show and i had to ride someone else’s unicycle (which had to be returned afterwards) so i quit riding for 2 weeks until i got my new unicycle (a 2005 torker DX) and since then (2 weeks) I have learned to unispin(i am still having trouble riding off)ride w/ seat on side, ride one footed long distances and do 360’s (which i can’t do anymore for some reason)

Everyone progresses at a different rate. Two brothers I know started unicycling at almost the same time, but the one who started a bit later was able to hop higher and sooner. It varies depending on fitness, age, balance, time, and motivation.

The only person you need to worry about being better than is yourself. As long as you are enjoying the sport, and progressing, I would say you are a good rider.

I have found I have come up against a wall for some tricks, but usally all I need to do is wait for complimentary skill to catch up.

I could pedal grab a long time before I could crank climb. I needed to develop my seat in front hopping, and in particular landing sif hops that put me low to the wheel.

Keep riding.