Hello Everyone, I have been unicycling for over a year now and have always been trying to learn new tricks. I am having some trouble learning how to pirouette and walk the wheel. So far I have accomplished riding backward, riding with one foot, idling with one foot, 180 turns, jumping and hopping, riding on my stomach along with basic riding skills. I am guessing I am a skill 2 or 3 rider. I have never been tested, it seems unicycling is mostly non-existent in Salt Lake City, so that is about my level. If I am not at the level of being able to learn these tricks please let me know. If any of You have any tips, they would be highly appreciated.
Flemming Christensen wrote:
>
> Hello Everyone, I have been unicycling for over a year now and have
> always been trying to learn new tricks. I am having some trouble
> learning how to pirouette and walk the wheel.
Wow! It sounds like you have achieved quite a lot of skills for one year
of riding. I am just learning to ride, and as such I purchased the
video, Intro. to Unicycling from unicycle.com. The video has a few
minutes of Roger Davies from unicycle.uk.com teaching John Drummond (I
believe) to wheel walk.
In the video, Roger says the number one trick tip is to, "lean back’.
Because you have your feet in front, your balance point is shifted
forward and needs to be countered. He also points out that a) leaning
back in incredibly scary, and b) it took him nine months to learn the
trick. Also, he suggests starting off on wall or railing just like you
did when you learned basic riding skills.
Actually, there are some unicyclists in SLC. There is a club. Can’t remember their webpage, but somebody representing them will post soon. Michael Grant probably knows of them. I got to BYU in Provo in the fall, so we could meet up then. I technically have the skills of a level 6 unicyclist (and some beyond), though I don’t know if I could pass off in front of a judge. A unicyclist friend of mine is at about the same level, and he can occasionally pull off a pirouette (something I haven’t figured out either).
Did I really say all that! wow It must be good advice…
The UK’s Unicycle Source
----- Original Message -----
From: “Jason Neumann” <nospam@nospam.no.no.no>
Newsgroups: rec.sport.unicycling
To: <rsu@unicycling.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 8:15 PM
Subject: Re: Requesting help for tricks
> Flemming Christensen wrote:
> >
> > Hello Everyone, I have been unicycling for over a year now and have
> > always been trying to learn new tricks. I am having some trouble
> > learning how to pirouette and walk the wheel.
>
> Wow! It sounds like you have achieved quite a lot of skills for one year
> of riding. I am just learning to ride, and as such I purchased the
> video, Intro. to Unicycling from unicycle.com. The video has a few
> minutes of Roger Davies from unicycle.uk.com teaching John Drummond (I
> believe) to wheel walk.
>
> In the video, Roger says the number one trick tip is to, "lean back’.
> Because you have your feet in front, your balance point is shifted
> forward and needs to be countered. He also points out that a) leaning
> back in incredibly scary, and b) it took him nine months to learn the
> trick. Also, he suggests starting off on wall or railing just like you
> did when you learned basic riding skills.
>
> Good luck and keep the wheel rolling!
>
> Jason
>
Roger Davies wrote:
>
> Did I really say all that! wow It must be good advice…
>
Roger,
I hope I didn’t mis-quote you, and will assume you would have corrected
me otherwise? By the way, thank you for teaching me how to freemount! I
was able achieve it right after I learned to ride, which took about 10
hours. I’m one of the, ‘wheel doesn’t move and I step up to it’ guys.
Learning to freemount so quickly, gave me the freedom to go just about
anywhere and it has been very gratifying.
There’s really nothing quite like this newsgroup. Everyone has the
opportunity to correspond with some of the best unicyclists in the
world. It’s really quite fantastic and I am glad to be part of it.
–
Jason
Keep your chin up and you’ll be happier.
Keep your seat up and you’ll get better!
the number one requirement for learning new tricks is a remarkeably low fear of failure
a majority of unicyclists seem to have this in underbundance
‘if u can think it u can do it’
is a fair atitude to go in with
go thru the video’s in the gallery section
u can pic up valuable ideas of what u can try
and some hints on how to do it
for any specific advice, post the question here and u’ll be guaranteed some advice, a couple of witty comments and then a complete departure from the original topic
this is the unicyclist’s way and leads to a whole host of new ideas suddenly popping up and we all learn
if u r not averse to re-entering a learning curve at least as steep as the one u entered when u set out learning to ride a unicycle, u’ll find no trick to be completely out of your reach
I watched Roger’s Coker dismounts many times trying to learn how to dismount “gracefully off the back”. Finally I got it. One thing to add to Gild’s excellent words: I bought several videos and have watched them many, many times. For tricks, especially One Wheel No Limit.
U-Turn wrote:
>
> > Intro. to Unicycling from unicycle.com. I watched Roger’s Coker dismounts many times trying to learn how to
> dismount “gracefully off the back”. Finally I got it. One thing to
> add to Gild’s excellent words: I bought several videos and have watched
> them many, many times. For tricks, especially One Wheel No Limit.
>
Along with my new air saddle I ordered a Uni for my five year son and
the vid. One Wheel No Limit. I can’t wait to check it out!
Thanks for Your help! This is good advice, it seems that I should get a hold of some of these videos to learn from.
I love this forum and this site, I don’t know any other people that really unicycle other than my friends that I have taught it to.
Thanks again.
If you can handle a 14meg 3 minute video, I have one where a couple of 180s are done. The good ones are hop 180s, though. The rest are not performance quality, but they’ll get you started.
>could we see the unedited part where you glide off that ramp?
Ummm… I’ll have to get back to you on that one…
<packs up bags quickly and flies to mexico>
I did actually land it, for about 1/10 of a second. I might be taking the uni to my brother’s house for a shoot pretty soon, so you might get to see a full landing.
I have another question, please pardon my small knowledge of unicycles,
but what is an air saddle and how can I get one?
I am asking because I have found that whenever I ride around for a half an hour or so my bottom becomes very sore. And I was thinking because I heard of these mysterious air saddles, I was thinking that hey, air is pretty soft, so using extensive deduction I decided that an air saddle must feel nicer on my sore bottom. So I would like to know how to get a hold of an air saddle if at all possible, thanks again.
Basically it is a seat which uses an innertube folded in one of a couple of different configurations as the cushion. There are a variety of peripheral items that may or may not be used to contain the innertube and/or act as a seat cover.
Check the past forum threads using a search string like “airseat conversion”, “airseat”, “air seat” or the like. There are several homemade jobs and different techniques discussed for using the kits available from unicycle.com. You may also buy a complete, converted saddle and seatpost from unicycle.com
I believe that the standard SemCycle seat is a rubber covered airseat. Although the Sem saddle is more comfortable than standard foam filled saddles, I find the fabric covered conversions to be even more so.
>I believe that the standard SemCycle seat is a rubber covered airseat.
>Although the Sem saddle is more comfortable than standard foam filled
>saddles, I find the fabric covered conversions to be even more so.
>
>
>–
>harper - Gearhead
I haven’t actually seen the standard Sem XL saddle, but according to the
helpful person I talked to recently at 1-800-UNICYCLE when I was ordering my
new 20", it is similar to a Viscount saddle but with differently-colored
bumpers (green). That’s more or less what it looks like in unicycle.com’s
catalog. The Sem Deluxe saddle on the other hand has a massive solid steel base
plate, with a foam pad, and a thick rubbery cover stretched on over everything.
One of these came with my 28" Sem Deluxe from unicycle.com, already converted
to an airseat. The foam pad has been replaced by a 12.5" innertube. Personally
I’m not sure it works entirely well this way. The cover is not actually
attached to the baseplate and doesn’t control the tube’s shape very well; the
tube has a tendency to moosh and expand sideways and widen the seat more than
I’d like, especially in the narrow center area. Also it is difficult to keep
the valve stem from retracting back inside the saddle. I have to take the cover
off, inflate the tube inside the cover, and then work the baseplate back into
the cover beneath the tube, which is not terribly convenient. Customer reviews
posted in unicycle.com’s catalog indicate that a 16" tube might work better. I
think that if the tube were contained in one of those dogbone-shaped bags like
the ones made specifically for the Miyata saddle conversions (would one of
these fit the Sem seat?), it would probably be one of the most comfortable
saddles around. I plan to sew up a tube-case out of old bluejean denim or
something and try it. Some day. The new 20" will also come with the Sem Deluxe
saddle; I’ve ordered the foam left in, so I can try it that way.
>Ohh how I despise the sem deluxe saddle I mean it’s counfy but what do
>you grab when your trying to hop arround??
That’s the problem I’m having when (trying to) MUni with my Semcycle
Deluxe 24". I don’t grab anything, I just push my flat hand against
the underside of the seat, which is rubber for a large part. If my
hand is dry (if I sweat I wipe it on my T-shirt first), the friction
between hand and rubber takes care of some “grip”.
I ordered a Uni for my five year son and