This is how this thread started. It has deteriorated into something else. Moogs asked how to idle and ride backwards. He said he’s practicing stopping with the pedals parallel so he can learn to hop. That’s all. It wasn’t complicated. He should have gotten answers about how to ride backwards and how to idle. Instead he got three pages of something that might as well have been telling him what he REALLY needs is to learn to bake chocolate cakes. He didn’t ask how to bake chocolate cakes, though.
The very first photo in that thread shows me on top of an FN van de Graaff accelerator on Christmas Eve, 2002. It may interest you to know that I am idling in that photograph.
Oh. I thought he said My question is this: where do I go from here?
Guess that wasn’t clear enough.
Perhaps he should have added: I can ride forward as far as I want to, what’s the next step?
Moogs asked how to idle and ride backwards.
Could you point out the sentence where??? Please?
I accidently overlooked the part where he wrote:
How do I learn to ride backwards (sans the “If” with a capital “I”)
I see that “we” see what “we” want to see and can’t see what we don’t want to see.
Let’s toss the logic of learning more basic skills.
Toss the immediate needs of the original poster.
While we’re at it let’s toss his questions also.
Et tu Harper?
Then die Drew!
/said my 2 cents already.
By now he knows there are various things he should work on.
There is nothing wrong with a “level 1” rider learning to ride backwards. Riding backwards is much like learning to ride forwards and can be learned at any time in one’s skill development.
I learned to ride in 1976. By 1982 I could ride forwards, ride diagonally down steps, idle, and ride backwards. If I was lucky I could roll the occasional curb. I was perfectly happy with this skill set for another 20 years. It was not until 2002 I discovered the other skills and started learning them. (I had heard stories of people hopping up steps and that just seemed inconceivable. Ignorance is bliss)
So, I was a level 1-2 rider for 26 years. I’ve been level four for a couple year now.
As for riding backwards in Muni and Trials. I don’t think it is uncommmon to set up at an obstacle then go backwards a couple revolutions to prepare for a rolling hop. In fact, it is a very common set up for a human jump over in performances.
> We’ll have to start a club of climbers/unicyclists. The ranks seem to be
> growing daily, especially with Muni.
Count me in. I’ll be in So Cal April 9-13, and might be able to sneak
away for a beer or two. You can email me at cline@frii.com.
To ChangingLinks:
It is no surprise that the experts gave you the advice you’ve been
relaying. It is no surprise at all, because you didn’t ask how to
progress as a unicyclist, but rather as an off-road unicyclist. You
wanted to know how to get from beginner to advanced trail rider as
quickly as possible, adn you got your answer. I know this because I
overheard you asking an expert last year in Moab.
But I do wonder about your goal of being able to get from point A to
point B most expeditiously. If that was really your goal, wouldn’t
you choose a bicycle instead? For me, unicycling is about the
process, not the endpoints.
He asked "My question is this: where do I go from here? "
He asked “I can ride forward as far as I want to, what’s the next step?”
This was NOT (yet another) a “how do I learn to idle and ride backwards” thread
Your sarcasm doesn’t change the original post. Ask Gilby for that. /done.
Ken Cline:
You wanted to know how to get from beginner to advanced trail rider as quickly as possible
Perhaps you misunderstood my question. My question was very similar to the one that started this thread. The question that I asked the experts was: If you had to start over from scratch and you had 2 months to get to the level you are now, what would you work on?
I knew that the question posed an “impossible” senerio, however, it drew out what skills were MOST important.
Over the last year, their advice has echoed in my head (even though I don’t feel like I followed it closely enough). Still, I’m a combo rider like most here: a bit of freestyle, distance, trials, and off-road (I’m about equal in all catagories).
Clarification: I didn’t want to learn how to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. I have my own answer for that (develop spin, rolling hops, etc). So you don’t have to be confused about my purpose as a unicyclist. Trying to position my opinion as “not relevant” (and in this case “not even a true unicyclist”) is plain wrong and immoral.
I feel like I should jump ship from answering the original question and tell Moogs to “start working on wheel-walking” it trumps idling and backwards as a skill and opens up the rider to gliding and coasting, and the upper freestyle skills.
Moogs.
Clearly you can see that some people strongly want you to learn to ride backwards and idle.
That aside, my suggestion is that if you want “a path,” let that path lead to greatness.
Find a great rider and work on the skills that you see them using (commonly). Watch the videos, watch them in person, isolate the skills that they use to do great things and work on those skills.
. . . Chances are, as others are standing around watching you some day - they’ll be standing (rather than idling or riding backwards).
When I see a thread start wandering around off topic I do some research and try understand what’s going on and to get it back on track. A visit to your website told me everything I needed to know. I like the reference to the Ides of March thread recently started and the clever variation on the reference to the quote from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” I clearly saw the Caesar complex developing in the thread but failed to locate the betrayal theme.
True; we see only what we want to see. Sometimes perhaps we see only what we are able to see or see only through whatever portal we peer, regardless of its size. What I see, or choose to see, here is my last post to this drifting thread. /Q.E.D.
Hopefully Moogs has learned that there is a wealth of information available for learning riders on these fora. Hopefully he has looked at a few other threads and found that some of them address problems and questions in a straightforward manner and then just go away.
> KEN CLINE:
> YOU WANTED TO KNOW HOW TO GET FROM BEGINNER TO ADVANCED TRAIL RIDER AS
> QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE
Uh… try again. You are the one focused on trails. My perspective
is open to all styles of riding including, but not limited to, trails.
> Trying to position my opinion as “not relevant” (and in
> this case “not even a true unicyclist”) is plain wrong and immoral.
Your opinion is certainly relevant, but your personal bias shows
through very clearly. The facts are this: Moogs never said he wanted
to get into off road riding, yet your reply was not only heavily
weighted towards off-road oriented skills, but went further to deny
that backwards and idling are valuable. That’s a strong bias. I
though maybe you would actually like to see the bias you present, but
it’s no skin off my nose if you choose not to.
> Moogs.
> Clearly you can see that some people strongly want you to learn to ride
> backwards and idle.
The funny thing is I haven’t pushed idling and backwards over the
skills you recommend! I suggests both sets are valuable, and went on
to list the skills I have found most valuable (esp. various mounts,
and turning).
Remember, you are the one who wrote: “Riding backwards and idling
aren’t necessary. Most of us can go weeks without using either
skill.”
A freestyle-focused rider could just as easily have written: “Hopping,
gapping, climbing and spinning aren’t necessary. Most of us can go
weeks without using either skill.”
My opinion is this: Neither of these attitudes is the quick path to
excellence.
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 20:34:45 -0600, “Moogs” wrote:
>Well, unfortunately, I don’t think the issue is muscles, I think the
>seat is chafing against my thighs… it doesn’t feel like muscle hurt, I
>only feel it on the cycle, and it only hurts when it rubs on the seat
>Is that usual?
I figured that it was chafing in my reply two days ago, and offered
several ways of dealing with it. Did you read that?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
people who unicycle are shyly exhibitionistic - GILD
The saddle you link to is a United and says it is an upgrade from a Savage saddle. Better is the VISCOUNT which will fit your standard 22.2mm seatpost tube and better yet is a KRIS HOLM SADDLE which has a handle and will still fit the bolt patterns of the other saddles and a 22.2mm seatpost.
The VISCIOUS, EVIL SAVAGE SADDLE normally has a steel bumper on the front and back. The one pictured in the link doesn’t seem to.
I can pay that much, and I certainly would like to invest in a better seat. However, what are the differences in the options (air saddle/fusion), and it would work on my Sun 20", right, standard bolts and whatnot?
I have a couple of the KH saddles which I find comfortable. I do not have any experience with the fusion saddle but you might be able to use the search function and find out something about them.
As for compatability, Miyata saddles are the oddballs. The standard four bolt pattern should be the same for the Fusion and KH saddles as the one on the Sun that you now own. The Sun looks like it has a United style saddle which also has the standard pattern.
Thanks for the response on saddles, I think I’m going to get a Fusion saddle because they are apparently a lot more comfortable. A new question, though: what’s the deal with gloves. I know I need some, I have some old old wristguard type things from when I was into roller blading, but I need to get some that fit me now. Which of these would be better:
Also, how are they sized? I think I have about average size hands and fingers, which size would be best? I don’t see a plastic strip on the KH gloves, which is very important, I think, but it may be there. Thanks guys!
Actually, if you look at your 2004 score sheet, you’ll find “idling in a circle” was challenge #1 (with three different levels). I suspect you forgot about that because you were unable to compete?
1st place - Kris Holm
2nd place - Teressa Abraham
3rd place - Beau Hoover
The “ride the rail” challenge required either idle, backwards or stillstand to be competitive.
I also saw one rider attempt one of the slickrock sections this year (2005) riding backwards (it earned him a prize at the Saturday dinner).
Overall, the skills one chooses to learn are a very personal thing. I choose to attempt to learn gliding well before some of the skills that are in the “skill levels” because it looked really cool to me. Without having seen most of the skill demonstrated I don’t think I would have even bothered trying though.
For me, the best way to learn it to watch others and try to emulate.
For others I think it’s “watch others and innovate”.
Regardless of which category you fall into make sure and have fun.
