I’ve been working on skills/tricks on my Nimbus 24” cruiser. I recently learned wheel walking and have gotten pretty good at that, but haven’t worked much on transitions. I’m trying to work on leg wrap mount as I hear it’s a pretty easy trick to learn and I’m sure I could get it pretty fast, but my seat seems too high to be able to do it. I have the seat raised so that my legs almost fully extend. I’m wondering if I should lower it just a little bit? I have a 32” I use for just getting around, so my 24” I mostly just use for tricks.
Also do people do freestyle/flatland type stuff on a 24”? All the YouTube videos I can find people seem to be using a 20”. Some stuff like one-foot riding definitely seems like it would harder on a 24” due to the larger wheel and having to get enough power to pedal past the dead zone, but I’m sure it’s still possible. I can one-foot idle very easily. I haven’t practiced riding a whole lot but when I have tried it I have trouble getting over the hump.
For Flatland, most people ride a slightly lower seat, for freestyle it’s usually pretty close to having the legs fully extended at the bottom.
I’d say lower it a bit, see how you get on with it. Leg wrap mounts should still be possible with pretty high seat, but it’s probably slightly harder.
20"/19" unicycles are pretty much the standard for freestyle/flat, and some tricks are definetely easier on them. That being said, for the basics, a 24" will still work reasonably well. Standup wheelwalk, hop on wheel, unispins, those are some tricks that are noticably easier on the smaller wheel, so I think when you get to those I’d very much consider getting one.
Since two years back i am doing almost all my freestyling on a fairly low seated 24" , and loving it! The 24 is as you said a cruiser, imo the 20" does quite a bad job in this basic function of the unicycle. There’s of course a whole lot of potential pros and cons for either size or height, they might not be exactly what you expect, best is to try them out if you have an oportunity
I learned leg wrap mount on a beat to crap Schwinn 20” with wobbly cranks so my experience was that it was easier once I got a nice 24”. Also works fine on 29 and 36 once you get a feel for it. I learned one footed riding on a 24” for the most part, then tried it on a decent 20” and that’s when it really clicked and I can now one footed ride a 29” too. I guess what I’m getting at is that it’s easier to learn most things on a 20” and then you can do it on most other sizes without much of a learning curve.
This is interesting, cause I was wondering if a lot of these tricks are possible on my 32”. It seems they are. Did you have to lower your seat on your 24” to do leg wrap mount? I have a hard time getting my butt on top of the seat with the current height. That is legs are almost fully extended. I kinda like having it nice and tall but if it’s better to lower the seat I may have to do that.
Anybody doing tricks on a 24" is awesome…which is a “rarity”. I’m always jealous watching freestylers on their fat tire 19/20" $500 unicycles. I’d like to do that, but I feel like I’m cheating. I own only a 24" fat tire nimbus, but I’ve learned these on it:
a.) idling
b.) backwards riding
c.) SIF riding, idling and transitions.
So anytime, I see somebody showing off tricks on youtube with a 24" or bigger…I am really really super-impressed.
The bigger 24" is heavier and less responsive than a quick 20, so you really have to “throw your body” into it and power those pedals much more. However, I think there is an advantage in that you can have more of a “delayed effect” especially if you keep the tires at low pressure.
Also, you can just comfortably/efficiently ride to where you want to go everywhere at a decent cruise speed of 5-6 mph. Try that on a 19".
Step on crank (baxk crank) you can do it on the pedal too, but crank is real comfy as it allows to keep the wheel still and steady and still have pedals in level position for quick takeoff when you hop out to the pedal to ride out of it
Lift up the leg that you are wrapping, and pass that seat to your other hand under your thigh. If you go straight to seat in, grabbing the handle under your thigh with the free hand will still help ContRoL
Another huge thing I’ve realized for doing leg wrap mount is you have to actually lift up the leg that’s doing the wrapping. For the first time last night I practiced leg wrap mount for a straight 15 minutes or so. I realized if you raise your leg up you can do it even with a tall seat height.
