I’m trying to learn how to ride backwards, and its kinda starting to piss me off. So does anyone have any tips on riding backward?
you must peddal backwards
I heard not falling is also helpful
ohhhhhh ok I thought i was supposed to fall down while pedaling forward, thanks!
Riding backward is hard. Keep trying.
You should slowly get further and further. you will have to wobble around in order to keep ouself ballanced (well i did at least) just keep at it.
when riding bacwards is it easer to practise holding on to something e.g a wall
or is it easer to practise holding on to nothing
Riding Backwards
I just went for it time after time again. It took me about two months to become decent at riding backwards. The big issue is learning how to rotate your legs in reverse. I would always get the foot stuck at the botom after one revolution. However I have since tought some others to ride and I find that by SLOWLY practicing half and then full backward revolutions by a wall the body learns backward pedaling much quicker.
You are correct though. Learning to ride backward is much harder than learning to ride.
Unicorn
This was posted by: Jack Halpern
Greetings
In message “How do you go Backwards?”, stickinsect9 wrote…
>Need help understanding how to go backwards… I tried running backwards
>a couple of times, then trying it on the unicycle, but I just can’t get
>the feel of it. HELP!! Thanks.
>
Here is a quote form my booklet ANYONE CAN RIDE A UNICYCLE, followed by
information on how to obtain it.
4 - 3 RIDING BACKWARDS
To become an outstanding unicyclist you must master riding backwards.
Riding only forward all the time may result in your picking up bad
balancing habits that may be hard to correct.
There are several ways of learning how to ride backwards, three of which
are introduced here. If you have mastered the main skills up to now,
particularly double idling, riding backwards will not present any
special problems.
To ensure safety, you should change to forward riding before dismounting.
To prevent falls, always strive to maintain complete control. A common
mistake is to ride too fast.
Posture is extremely important. The upper body should be kept more or less
straight, but bending slightly forward at the waist increases stability,
especially at faster speeds. Try to pedal smoothly and maintain control at
all times. Considerable practice may be required before pedalling
backwards feels natural, but if you follow the methods introduced here you
will find it is not as nearly as difficult as you anticipated.
Method 1
One way of learning to ride backwards is to ride side by side holding
hands with another unicyclist. Both riders stop and without dismounting
pedal half a revolution backward then resume riding forward. After several
times, try a full revolution backward before resuming forward riding. You
will soon find that you can both pedal backwards for considerable
distances. Try to let go of each other’s hands briefly for longer and
longer periods until you are confident you can ride by yourself. The side
by side support given each other in this method enables both riders to
concentrate on the forward-back balance and hastens learning by
eliminating a lot of unnecessary falls. Both riders should remind each
other to maintain proper posture.
RedUnicycleRider: I tried it in method one it worked for me.
I just did the same thing I did to learn how to ride forwards. Man, that was a long wile ago 
Pigs
Can you idle? If not, learn that first. If you can idle really well, do progressively longer backwards sections before resuming forward sections. Next thing you know, you will be riding backwards.
I can idle back and forth about 3 or 4 times and i can ride backwards about an average of 10-15 feet. Should I learn to idle first?
I don’t think it really matters. It might help.
I learned to ride backwards before I learned to idle…
when i was learning to ride backwards i rode slowly into a wall and pushed off gentaly then just rode backwards. it took me about an hour until i could go 20 feet then i was able to start from anyware and it just progresses mre and more until you can ride as far as you want hope that helps:)
I have been learning to ride backwards for a few months now
I would learn idling and riding backwards at the same time, because the skills are very closely related.
My favorite place to practice is along this paved path that runs next to some football fields, with a 4’ high fence along side. The fence saves time and energy remounting, by serving as a rest at times.
I’m still not good enough to look where I’m going while in reverse, I just sort of steal quick glances. Balancing while looking at the receding ground is easy enough, but I get nervous after a while that I might run into something .
The cool thing about the long field path is I can see for a long way if anyone’s coming, and there are little landmarks to make me more and more tense as I approach the next record. Currently, my best is about 125 yards, which is a soccer field in metric I think.
Using a small wheel with a low seat can help to keep you off your ass, but I don’t find the 29 much harder at all, just a bit unnerving because of the increased chance of falling. I bet I could do it on the 36, but I am to chicken to try.
As far as technique, it seems to be a matter of repetition. Idle, do a full loop back, and after that you are riding backwards.
I sort of learnt how to unicycle backwards while playing uni-hockey. It’s a very usefull skill to have when playing.
Anyway, what I did was hold a hockey stick and lean against it and try to ride backwards. If I felt I was falling, I would lift the stick and rebalance. Taking it slowly, I would try to use less and less of the stick. You could probably substitute a hockey stick with any stick or even a wall.
Riding Backwards
I am with Forrest. I learned how to ride backwards before Idling. Idling followed my learning how to change directions fro foward to backwards riding.
One thing I can’t state enough is that once you can ride backward reasonably well your MUni riding improves BIG TIME!
Unicorn