One of our new riders has been having a greater than normal amount of
difficulty. He is a bit round, and not particularly well coordinated. As a
result his progress has been limited. He is, however, willing to hang in
there and has some fairly spectacular crashes.
Yesterday I was amazed when he showed me that he could get on the unicycle
by doing a rolling mount. BTW this isn’t the same kid who passed the level
1 test, the one who learned to free-mount first. I’m not sure how he
decided to try this (I’m sure he had seen some of the other riders who
regularly do rolling mounts), but do remember that he had been stepping
heavily on the pedal whenever he tried to get on the unicycle (even when
he was hanging onto a fence) and always wound up in the dead spot.
I had never seen anyone do this before. Of course, when the wheel is
turning there is enough rotational inertia to allow a fair amount of
pressure on the pedal without the wheel rolling back. But, learning to
mount by stepping from a walk onto a moving pedal seems pretty bold.
Of course, the rider hasn’t gotten the hang of the rest of it yet.
Once mounted he can sometimes get 5 or 6 pedals before crashing, but
that’s about it.
Has anyone ever learned to ride by first learning a rolling mount?
I was teaching my neighbor to ride a while ago, and once he could ride
50-100’ he wanted to learn to mount. I gave him the normal explanation and
showed him how, but he didn’t really like it and it seemed hard to him. I
showed him various other mounts and he immediately liked the jump mount.
First try he landed on the pedals but couldn’t ride away. Second or third
try he did. I think he still can’t really do a normal freemount!
—Nathan
“John Hooten” <jhooten@rcsis.com> wrote in message news:3BC5EE33.3C681278@rcsis.com… > Another new rider question/comment. > > One of our new riders has been having a greater than normal amount of > difficulty. He is a bit round, and not particularly well coordinated. As > a result his progress has been limited. He is, however, willing to hang > in there and has some fairly spectacular crashes. > > Yesterday I was amazed when he showed me that he could get on the > unicycle by doing a rolling mount. BTW this isn’t the same kid who > passed the level 1 test, the one who learned to free-mount first. I’m > not sure how he decided to try this (I’m sure he had seen some of the > other riders who regularly do rolling mounts), but do remember that he > had been stepping heavily on the pedal whenever he tried to get on the > unicycle (even when he was hanging onto a fence) and always wound up in > the dead spot. > > I had never seen anyone do this before. Of course, when the wheel is > turning there is enough rotational inertia to allow a fair amount of > pressure on the pedal without the wheel rolling back. But, learning to > mount by stepping from a walk onto a moving pedal seems pretty bold. Of > course, the rider hasn’t gotten the hang of the rest of it yet. Once > mounted he can sometimes get 5 or 6 pedals before crashing, but that’s > about it. > > Has anyone ever learned to ride by first learning a rolling mount? > > John Hooten
> I was teaching my neighbor to ride a while ago, and once he could ride > 50-100’ he wanted to learn to mount. I gave him the normal explanation > and showed him how, but he didn’t really like it and it seemed hard to > him. I showed him various other mounts and he immediately liked the jump > mount. First try he landed on the pedals but couldn’t ride away. Second > or third try he did. I think he still can’t really do a normal > freemount! > > —Nathan
I remember a kid who learned to mount with something half way between
rolling and a jump mount. It looks like a rolling mount with a bit of a
stall. From him, I learned jump type mounts are really not that tough,
(Well, I still have an irrational fear of the “jump mount,” though, I have
no problem doing a jump mount with seat in front, or a suicide mount.) and
I used the jump style of mounting to work my way to the rolling mount.
A few years ago I taught one of my nephews in Ohio to ride. We were
practicing up and down his street when some neighbor kids came up. They
assured us their dad had a unicycle and was the super unicyclist of all
time. We egged them on so that when their dad got home from work he would
have to put on a show for us.
The poor guy came home and brought out a rusty Schwinn he hadn’t ridden in
twenty years. He confided that his kids had probably never seen him ride
the thing. However, he would give it a try.
His riding was very rusty to say the least–lots of falling down.
But—his only mount was a suicide mount–and it was VERY impressive!!
Now, a few years later, I’m happy to say he and his kids all ride.