Is there an elegant way to recover dropped juggling balls without dismounting? Keep in mind I’m not plastic man. Maybe I need to get one of those “grabbers” that old people use to pick up things off the ground…
You could carry a vaccuum on your back, then reach down with the nozzle and suck them off the ground. 
Ok, not practicle. But that would be cool! 
I look forward to other answers as I’ve wondered the same thing.
I saw in a video one time someone went into one foot riding and kicked the ball up.
I’m able to tuck down with the seat in front and pick the ball up with my hand. This is a very similar position to tucking while hopping up a wall.
That’s practical but not elegant, maybe if you could do it rolling.
Why not use something like a putter suction cup ball retriever sized to match the balls your juggling, or get juggling balls the size of golf balls.
Jim
Unless they are particularly small just learn to reach down and pick them up. On my trials uni I can pick up my wallet from the ground without much difficulty. Bigger wheels and bigger folk have a bit more trouble.
Sam Goodburn is doing that for sure, but I can’t find the video now.
A ball throwing stick, used by dog owners.
Google the ‘Chuckit! Pro Launcher’
Sam Goodburn is not human, I think he’s a robot… The things he does I can only dream of doing.
If I lower my seat quite a bit on my trials I can pick up a ball some times, at least I could a year ago. I guess I need to keep working on that until I can do it with my seat at normal height. Maybe I’ll have my arms stretched a few inches.
If your giraffe is over 5’ you will probably need some sort of tool. Or axle pegs, but that’s a slightly longer story.
In other words, what are you riding? I used to pick them up from my 20" with the seat all the way up (Freestyle height). Some flexibility required. If you do a little 180-degree turn around the ball, it give you a little more angle to help reach down.
If that doesn’t work for you, the seat in front method is maybe easier. You don’t have to actually ride SIF to do it. Come up next to the dropped prop with your pedals level, stop, pull the seat out with one hand, squish down, and pick up your prop with the other hand. Stand right back up, put back the seat and start pedaling. Easier than it sounds.
I’m using my 20". I have my seat fairly high, it just seems impossible to bend over in my mind. I guess in my mind it seemed easiest to try and pick it up from the side but I couldn’t figure out a way to do that. Maybe if I was going really fast I could swoop around it in an arc and lean way inside.
Thanks for giving me two methods to try.
Switch to clubs. Then tap the top of the club on the ground with another club and grab the handle when it swings up. I can do that but have no chance reaching balls smaller than a basketball.
Both methods I described involve picking it up from the side.
I was working on it today for a bit, I could do the seat out thing and touch a ball on the ground. With some more practice I could see being able to pick it up. Making it pretty is going to take awhile though.
A guy about 5’9" tall, with his saddle at freestyle height, showed me that you just have to idle yourself into a position where your lower pedal reaches its lowest point right next to the dropped ball. Then, when that pedal is at its high point, you quickly bend forward and reach for the ball, picking it up just as your pedal reaches its lowest point. Mind you, I haven’t done this trick myself, but it didn’t look that difficult, and I’m sort of surprised that I’m the first to mention it here. Maybe the SIF method is more reliable or something.
I’m 6’1", I can ride up to the ball, bend forward still in the saddle and almost touch a ball or beanbag. If my saddle was set low I could pick up the ball. I need to work on my flexibility a bit, then should be able to get all the way to pick it up with my saddle up high. I will make an attempt to do what @song described tomorrow, that sounds interesting, similar to what I’m already working on, but just add the idling part to it. Maybe having several different ways to pick it up is the way to go.
Didn’t get a chance to try the idling recovery, I think it’s going to be a bit before I get there. In my head it seems difficult.
I started off today lining my bean bags up on a curb next to the road, I could pick them up using both methods (seat in front, and seat in). The curb slopes down level with the road at a crosswalk so I could slowly move them down closer to ground level. I stopped when I got about an inch from road level because I ran out of steam. I have an easier time getting lower using the seat out method, I could probably get down to the ground now, but it’s hard to get back on the saddle with a handful of beanbags and a high saddle.
Juggling is getting a bit easier, I can ride a good ways, but idling is still dang hard. I could ride in a circle while juggling which I couldn’t do before.