Seat out in front riding

Riding Advice
1

This trick still eludes me… Does any body have any little (HUGE) hints for
helping stay balanced and not fall off at the risk of shin damage when the seat
is out in front? I always rock side to side and never feel stable. I want to
learn this to improve my hopping skills, and have a fun routine made up for
stuff the summer.

thanks, kate

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2

SV: Seat out in front riding

Hi Kate

For me it is a great help to press the saddle against my stomach to stabilize
the saddle… When your are use to that, try to stretch your arm and ride with
the control in your feet to avoid the wobbling…

Good luck…

Lars Lottrup Denmark

-----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: owner-unicycling@winternet.com
[mailto:owner-unicycling@winternet.com]På vegne af kate scallion Sendt: 1. marts
2001 01:49 Til: unicycling@winternet.com Emne: Seat out in front riding

This trick still eludes me… Does any body have any little (HUGE) hints for
helping stay balanced and not fall off at the risk of shin damage when the seat
is out in front? I always rock side to side and never feel stable. I want to
learn this to improve my hopping skills, and have a fun routine made up for
stuff the summer.

thanks, kate

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

3

Re: [Seat out in front riding]

“kate scallion” <strawberry_deity@hotmail.com> wrote:

This trick still eludes me… Does any body have any little (HUGE) hints for
helping stay balanced and not fall off at the risk of shin damage when the seat
is out in front? I always rock side to side and never feel stable.

I’ll try my hand at huge hints. First a couple of exercises which may help,

Try riding with no weight on the seat, all your weight is on the pedals. The
seat is still between your legs but is just there for balance, you are not being
supported by it. If you ride with your seat set reasonably high it may be
beneficial to lower it for this exercise.

One of the things that makes seat in front difficult is that as the wheel
rotates the amount of pressure each foot exerts needs to change to keep your
balance. Riding an ultimate wheel is the same, only more so. You need to become
accustomed to varying the force on each foot as the wheel turns.

Another good exercise is stomach on seat. This gives you a little practice in
the feel of getting out and into seat in front without all the weight being on
your legs.

To get into stomach on seat, reach down and grab the front of the seat with one
of your hands and stand up on the pedals (so no weight is on the seat). Pull the
seat out from under you and lean over. It may help to push the seat from behind
with the other hand the same time you are pulling it forward. Getting out of it
is pretty much the reverse.

Getting into seat in front is very similar, instead of leaning over though you
hold the seat in front.

Now for the important bits.

When learning seat out in front hold the seat AGAINST your body. Also make sure
you are holding the BACK of the seat. Note that when you pull out the seat from
under you you’ll be holding the front. The easiest way to grab the back is to
use the other hand to grab the back of the seat. You can then let go of the
front hand and use it for balance. (some people find it easier to hold onto the
seat with both hands, use whatever works).

Really pull that seat into your body and lock your arm. To begin with try and
make it a part of you. Holding it against your body gives you a lot more
stability and the seat won’t flail around from side to side as much. As you get
used to riding like this your body will figure out for itself how to vary the
pressure from each leg so that you can ride forwards without the wheel madly
wobbling. At this point try moving the seat out from your body a bit. (Just a
little bit). Gradually move it away as you improve. Eventually you should be
able to ride holding the seat with one arm fully extended. You can then work on
holding the seat with one finger and finally drop the seat completely to do a
seat drag.

o o Peter Bier o O o Juggler, unicyclist and mathematician.
o/|\o peter_bier@usa.net

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4

RE: Seat out in front riding

Hi Kate,

I’m just past the learning bit so others may well give better advice… That
said the 2 things that clicked for me were:

To keep the seat held in tight to your nether regions by locking your holding
arm against your body stops the side to side wobbling. Holding the rear side of
the seat seems better than holding the middle as well. Crouching down slightly
with your knees pointing outwards a bit also helped on the stability stakes.

Cheers, Neil

-----Original Message----- From: strawberry_deity@hotmail.com
[mailto:strawberry_deity@hotmail.com] Sent: 01 March 2001 00:49 To:
unicycling@winternet.com Subject: Seat out in front riding Importance: Low

This trick still eludes me… Does any body have any little (HUGE) hints for
helping stay balanced and not fall off at the risk of shin damage when the seat
is out in front? I always rock side to side and never feel stable. I want to
learn this to improve my hopping skills, and have a fun routine made up for
stuff the summer.

thanks, kate

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.