The Beginners "Today I..." Thread

General
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Like the "Today I… (brag thread) but for those of us who are not up to the level of unispins, crankflips, crankrolls, and things of this nature.

Post what you accomplished today, anything at all, no matter how big or small. And maybe we can help each other out some, I realize it’s like having a moron teach another moron, but that happens in the real world too :wink:

I’ll start!!

Today I woke up, and was able to fairly consistently ride my unicycle about 5 or so revolutions backwards, before I’d chicken out (hey the roads are not level around my house, it’s a good excuse) After I realized this, I started doing rolling 180 hops (180 needs a little more work, sometimes 2 hops) and then I’d ride backwards for as long as I could, and then turn out of it and ride forward again (no hop at the end, just swiveling)

After that I had to go to my classes, and as I’ve said in another thread somewhere, there is a very long curb right next to one of my campuses. It’s about 100-150 feet long. I paced it out and it was about 110 feet provided that my pace is 3 feet, but I tend to overstep so who knows. ANYWAYS, I finally managed to hop on the one end, and then ride the full length of the curb!! Of course, my one friend witness had JUST left when I did it, so I’m the only one who knows it happened…

But what a fun day!!

Also my 661 shinguards came, they’re quite comfortable I think, a little hot though, but that’s the price you have to pay. They gave me some confidence as well

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You should all feel welcome to post in the original Today I.

A brag is a brag, big or small. No shame in being a beginner. We promise not to laugh. :slight_smile:

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Last night (I work all day) rode a 1/2 a mile, pairing up the 127mm cranks with the 26" wheel really helped me use less energy and it just felt better pedaling. I am now able to go around obsticles on the trail (people, dogs, ect…) and I am really working on getting my leg muscle built up. Getting my new tire today so we will see how that helps me with the crown on the road.

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Haha, yeah but it feels a bit awkward when I say that I learned how to ride backwards, and the person before me said they crank flipped a nine set or something :stuck_out_tongue:

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But it feels just as awkward to say I rode a half mile last night with 300 unsuccessful free mounts, 12 or so successful free mounts, and 6 or so sign post mounts… right after you are talking about riding backward while doing 180 hops…

I guess someone who just went 5 revolutions feels the same after I say I went a half mile. Which seemed very far a week ago, now not so much.

Oh, I did a 1" 0 degree hop too.

Big snow storm coming in, probably won’t get to ride this weekend unless I do it while my son plays at the park early this evening… I hate to do that though since I can’t really pay attention to him while I’m failing to free mount.

Still, good to know I might be able to ride backwards and do 180 hops sometime this year if you have only been riding several weeks.

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I try to practice whenever I can, like if I’m about to go for a decently long drive, I try to tire myself out completely before I get in my car and go, then I can rest in the car, get where I’m goin, get out the uni and ride to whatever I have to do haha. I try to fit it in wherever I can, for as long as possible.

I was riding in the parking lot of one of my campuses before class too, but they told me I can’t do it anymore… for insurance reasons, maybe if I signed a paper or something, forfeiting my rights to sue my school for unicycle related injuries on campus? lol

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I’m just learning to mount! So no worries on writing about unsuccessful mounting. This weekend its supposed to not rain so I should get in some practice and hopefully write I mounted on my own!

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Are you trying the way that I do it? Or the way terry has demonstrated in the past?

I’m getting more comfortable riding backwards, so I don’t hop off as much as I used to. Still not going very far though, idling is getting much easier though.

I finally had the nerve to try kick up mounts, I’d always stopped myself before I’d actually kicked the seat, I was afraid of hitting me junk, but I wore my bike shorts and just gave it a go, and I didn’t injure my junk once! not even close! so that was good, I can kick the seat up in the right position, and my right foot is on the pedal just fine, but I can’t get my left foot onto the other pedal yet. If I could get my other foot on the pedal I think I could ride away just fine, because that’s the position that I’m in when I mount.

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I’m doing it Terrys way cause I have to back pedal a bit to get up. And his way I can start with rear pedal at 10 o clock and keep the front from going vertical. Thats dead for me. So so far just 2 revs. I didnt get to practice for 2 days. I will tomorrow, somehow lol.

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+1

We are all unicyclists and are all equals ^.^
I like seeing peoples progress and I don’t wanna have to check two threads to do so.

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haha well I don’t think many of these people were posting in the other thread :stuck_out_tongue:

Any tips on the kick up mount? I see people grab the seat on the way up, I wasn’t doing that, so maybe that was a problem.

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Today I seriously hurt myself… sad but true. I just got my twisted pedals in the mail, put them on and about 40 minutes later i was laying on my deck writhing in pain. I wasn’t totally used to extra grip and I was used to being able to slide my feet off if things got shakey. I simply just fell backwards, 185 lbs landing on my wood deck right on my tailbone area… it was bad. I seriously thought I broke it, or cracked a vertabre. I then headed off the ER and spent about four hours there. For whatever reason my blood pressure was super low and so I almost passed out. They slapped an IV in me and put me in a bed. The doctor said I just strained ligaments and possibly bruised something, but I didn’t get x-rays. Any ways here I am, dosed up on motron and vikadin.

Going to switch back to my old pedals for a while I guess. Any ways sorry to put a bad mojo on the thread, just thought I’d share.

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Not today but…

Yesterday I bought my first unicycle! :astonished: :stuck_out_tongue:

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But this thread is great as I am not landing anything yet lol. I’m just on my way to mounting and hopping. I would be a joke! I really dont think anyone thats been on a uni a few years cares if I can turn, mount or hop. Or really remembers how to do it since its so natural now to them.

Sorry about the injury! I love the twisted PCs. I hated when my feet slipped off all the time. I have no issues with jumping off them. Today I am going to see a unicyclist muni while I MTB and practice mounting first. Its windy today so I might fly to Kansas on my uni lol.

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I bought my first one too…i can’t wait for it to arrive on Monday. eek! :astonished:

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Hahaha, WOOT! I’m stoked!! I just mounted today on my own. :stuck_out_tongue:

OK, nothing really to brag about. I didnt ride much since its like 40+mph winds. What I did was start next to my car with the hand on my uni by the car so I could push an elbow if I needed or just mentally feel safer. I made it twice with a 1 sec elbow by car, then I free mounted on my own! What I started doing is having the left back pedal closer position at 11 o clock and with my right leg make a little push off with it/hop as I push down with my left foot. That helps me to get up and transfer my weight to the front foot to go. What I’m messing up on now is the sideways starting out. I seem to lean to one side or the other and 95% of the time I dont start out right twisting. But still I free mounted on my own 3 times in the half hour I practiced it! :smiley: So I’ll have it down soon I’m sure.

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Nice job cbs! I know youd been wanting to do that for a while, it just gets easier and easier to mount. I found myself mounting in really weird ways today, just because it felt natural.

OH, and I got the kick up mount!! It’s not very consistent, 1/5, sometimes 1/10 if I start off real bad. But even when I get em sometimes they’re really sketchy.

I did about 22 total today, only about 5 were perfect, another 10 were sitting awkward on the seat, 3 or so were seat in front lol, 2 were with a handle up my ass, and 2 were seat drags, one with seat drag forward, the other with seat dragging behind, lets just say I didn’t make it very far on those last 2…

my rolling 180’s are getting smoother, and backwards is getting much more fluid, I still do a weird windmill thing with my arms though when I go backwards, and can’t go very far yet.

And I want to try 180 unispins, they’re not all that compicated, but I was too scared to try it, everytime I got in position, I would just spin it in front of me and land my feet on the ground cuz I’d chicken out, really pathetic. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh, and the one time I forget my gloves, is when I’m at a place with a little bumpy rocky trail that I could ride on, but I slid out in a bunch of the gravel and landed on my hands a few times, ouch!

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Woo-hoo cbs. Now it starts. You’ll get it better and better free mounting everyday. I feel good about my free mounts now. I have been making myself practice mounting with the opposite foot first. It’s awkward and I don’t know if there is a purpose for it, but it’s another challenge. I mostly succeed with either foot.

The thing I’m proud of today is my success at using restraint to NOT ride my unicycle for 3 straight days. My sore knee and tenderish crotch area feel much better. The only lingering issue is my ribs. That will probably stay for several weeks. Tomorrow I will go over my usual bike route on the unicycle (just one of the steep parts). It’s about 1.5 miles of climbing, 1/2 mile of it is quite steep. I can’t wait. After I finish I will try part of a dirt trail that is at the parking lot. Steep dirt is tough so I’ll see how that goes.

Jaxon, sorry to hear about your injury. I’ve slammed my tailbone twice. Rollerblading and snowblading. Not fun. It took me about 3 weeks to get over it. I love/hate my pedals with pins or spikes or whatever they’re called. I like being planted to the pedal, but I have a tough time shifting my foot if I get on with my foot off one way or the other. I’ve fallen a couple of times not getting a foot off the pedal quick enough. I started using my old hiking boots. They don’t have great tread and allow me to move my foot if I need to. They also offer support.

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Nice work CBS!

I was able to ride a 1/4 of a mile 4 times in a row on my 26" Sun, there was a slight hill to go up and down and I owe it all to changing my tire and tube out to a really light low resistance tire. My distances doubled after losing 16oz off my tire and tube!!

I am practicing my freemount and can sit up with nothing to hold on to after freemounting for a full second before stepping down…I will keep practicing!

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I am increasing leg streanth and my riding is getting much smoother. I am practicing my freemount and 4 out of 10 times I can start to pedal before UPD.

I have taken off an inch off my waist since I started in Feburary!