Sudden Onset Unicycle Dyslexia

General
1

I seem to have contracted an acute case - have any of you experienced this?

I began noticing the symptoms on my ride yesterday: extreme wobbliness even on smooth pavement, unusual difficulty mounting (I’m even screwing up assisted mounts, and I’ve been freemounting for quite some time), etc. When I’m riding, my legs feel like they’re going in awkward directions, and I can’t seem to get my feet situated comfortably on the pedals no matter how many times I readjust them.

Yesterday, I just thought I was having a bad day. Today, it was even worse, if possible! It’s extremely frustrating - partway through my ride today, I was on the verge of Pete Townshending my unicycle.

I’ve checked everything I can think of: my tire is inflated to a reasonable pressure, my seat is straight, my pedals and cranks seem to be straight and undamaged, the wheel seems to be as true as ever, and so on.

Any thoughts?

2

you raise or lower your seat by accident?

try and get your form right, and try and be awake and focused. If your tired, your riding will decline, atleast it does for me. Like, i usually hurt myself when i’m burned out from school.

4

have you been riding too much?

sometimes i find if i take a few days out, and start building up my riding again slowly i end up riding pretty well after a little bit of getting reacquainted with my baby.

kinda like absence makes the heart grow fonder?

5

Try reading his entire post.

Has there been any improvement Tak? What have you tried?
Another very slight possibility is that you are unwell, have you been dizzy at all lately?
Other then that I can’t think of anything except that I agree with taking a break from riding for a while, then trying again.

6

I’ve had times now and again when I have had unicycle dyslexia. It goes away. Certainly getting frustrated with yourself and/or your unicyle will make it worse.

Take a break or do something else to make unicycling fun again.

7

Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that. It seems unlikely (I have one of the two-bolt closures with no quick release), but I’ll check it, and maybe experiment with the height a little, this evening.

8

Do you have more than one unicycle? If I have been riding my 36 for awhile and then try switching to my 24, I can barely ride it at all. It always takes awhile to get used to it again.

9

Nope, I just have the one.

10

If your seat got turned around (which sounds unlikely based on your clamp) you would be riding your uni backwards and it might feel somewhat strange and awkward - although probably not awkward enough to create what you are describing. Other than that very improbable idea, I’m stumped.

11

I’ve gotten myself stressed out from work, after a while it was enough to cause difficulty riding.

More likely, I think that as muscles build, new muscle needs time to grow stable, and during that time riding will feel shaky.

13

The pedal(s) or crank(s) could be bent.

If they are decent quality this is unlikely unless you’ve done some largish drops recently.

A friend has a LX w/ beant pedals (stock ones) and it’s hardly bean ridden enough to show any wear on the tire.

14

So, today was a vast improvement. It was like the past three days never happened.
I’m still unsure about the cause; I rechecked everything I mentioned before, plus all the possibilities suggested by helpful persons. I suppose I must have been tired or stressed or getting sick, although I didn’t really notice any symptoms except for my horrific riding.

Thank you for all of your suggestions, and I’m sorry there wasn’t a more conclusive diagnosis. (“Aha! My lower grunklewidget is slightly misaligned with respect to the zurbotron! It’s all so obvious now!”)

An aside: While checking to make sure my seat hadn’t adjusted itself, I played with various heights for the first time since my wobble-a-few-meters-UPD stage. I ended up raising it about an inch - I’m amazed at how much less leg fatigue I’m incurring while riding!