The Beginners "Today I..." Thread

General Unicycling Discussions
#2030

#1 falls: Bail early. Don’t struggle to ‘save’ a ride that is going wrong. This will prevent most falls to the pavement and will leave you on your feet most of the time. In no case try to ‘save’ the uni. Let it go.

#2 tire pressure. It’s a personal thing. A harder tire is going to roll easier (and roll out from under you easier). A softer tire is going to take a little more effort to get moving but it also provides a bit of stability. If you find you are stalling out (pedals stop moving) then I would try a little higher pressure. If your trouble is the tire shooting out in front or behind you than maybe air down a bit. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what feels best to you.

Even though you didn’t ask the same goes for seat height.

#3. Pavement vs Grass. Hard smooth surfaces are going to get you further much more quickly. But there are people who have learned on grass. You might consider safety gear to feel more relaxed while riding. It’s a good idea anyway.

Couple of other things.
Don’t be afraid to flail your arms around, a lot.

Every few attempts, take a moment and shake your arms around, make sure you are staying relaxed.

Most beginners pedal too slow. Don’t start going ‘balls out’ but work towards getting your pedal speed up as you start riding beyond one or two revs.

Keep your eyes up, or at least say 20’ out in front of you. The ground in front of your tire is not the right place to be looking. This will help with the balance on a uni.

#2031

Begginers Thread!

The dates on beginners input all seem to be in 2009.
Being old makes me think twice but isn’t this 2010?

I’m off to take my two sticks and find something longer than 30 feet: my backyard.
Questions:

  1. How high should the seat be.

  2. Should my knee be bent at all when I sit on the seat.

  3. Should my tire be hard or soft. Seems a bit easier to get aboard when
    the tire is soft but much harder to turn.

  4. My intentions are to go to an empty parking lot and go straight as far as
    I can.(100 feet or so!) I keep thinking I shouldn’t be on cement.

  5. What kind of stick is recommended to keep off dogs and vandals.
    I lived in Oakland, Calif. for a number of years. My reading of the
    posted e-mails makes me think unicycles attract violence more than
    anything I experienced in Oakland…
    And I thought I had fond rememberances of circus clowns riding
    unicycles.

Jeff2

#2032

Beginners Thread?

Thanks so much for the feedback. I couldn’t find the thread and got to a section talking about the horrible experiences the experts were having.
I’m just trying to go further than my son and daughter-in-law on Thanksgiving.

Before I head out the door I’d like someone to tell me how high the seat should be in realtionship to leg length. Should my knee be bent at all?
And, normal bicycles, two wheelers, have migrated to seats with holes in the middle to maintain male masculinity. Is there some secret to getting aboard without extreme discomfort???

Jeff2

#2033

today i landed a 3 foot drop:D but apon landing a heard a horrible crunch and later discovered that i smashed the plastic forming of my seat … now its really floppy D:

#2034

:frowning:

Thankfully I can’t say I have ever done that. Did you put all your weight on the seat handle when you landed or something?

#2035

Here you go Jeff http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86016, come join in. I’m currently out of action due to a small surgery but I hope to be riding again within a week or so. :slight_smile:

#2036

Skybridge ramble

Today I rode up, over and back down a pedestrian “sky bridge” that goes over a busy street, without a fall or without touching the side fences. It has 4 ramps and 3 switchbacks on each side with an arched bridge in the middle. I have made many attempts over the past 2 weeks and finally nailed it this evening! This is great practice for uphill, downhill, and turning.

Yesterday I did my first continuous riding in circles - both to the right and to the left. I also had my first day successfully making two different types of free mounts. I previously had one of them down pretty well, but the second one was new. So two days in a row with some nice firsts for this noob! :smiley:

#2037

NSYO: Awesome! Congrats, I know you’ve been attacking that bridge for a while. I’m not sure I can make those tight turns that consistently yet, I guess this is your challenge to me!

Today I rode about 8 miles on sidewalks and ped paths in parks; I’m getting better at riding off the path into the grass (to give the peds the room they deserve) and back. I also attacked many bumpy areas, such as transitions from street to sidewalk with 1" bumps, with some success. It was a beautiful, sunny, windy day; the wind forces me to sharpen the balancing skills.

I got pretty saddle-sore today, at one of those tendons along the inner thigh; time to buy some padded shorts and a tire that doesn’t pull right. I’ve decided on the WTB nano-raptor.

I guess I should learn to idle one of these days… but I’m having too much fun cruising around!

#2039

Beginners Thread?

For two days I have been going to a local parking lot and, with my sticks,
gone more than a hundred yards and back.
I have not gone stickless and I really have trouble pedaling smoothly.
I go two or three turns and then stop and balance a bit and then go on.
I started worrying my sticks were making me stick dependent.
I went over to a fence and went along the fence for a a bit touching with one hand.
I tend to wobble a lot and not be able to pedal smoothly.
I keep feeling I want to put the seat up even higher.
I also keep thinking a bigger tire would be easier. I have a twenty inch tire.

I sort of figure persistance will pay off but it is taking longer than I had planned. Tomorrow I have to demonstrate my prowess to the folk I bought unicyles for last xmas.
Any secrets to making me stick free or accomplishing this faster.
I can run with my dogs for an hour but thirty minutes struggling on a unicycle is really exhausting.

Jeff2

#2040

Starting from something and just seeing how far you can go from that is probably the best thing to do now. You will slowly get further and further although it can take a few days. Perhaps you will just get it very quickly.

Not surprising for 2 days!

Perhaps. Put it up until your outstretched leg is just slightly bent. That’s kind optimum for riding on the flat.

Nope. 20s are easier to learn on.

Sounds like you should have started a little earlier!

Like I said above, I’d start from a fence or wall and see how far you can go. Try not to stare at the ground, you know it’s flat. Try to ride and concentrate on the feel of the unicycle rather than how you think you are doing it.

Yeah, having the seat at the right height will help a bit but it is exhausting when learning. I can remember that it seems to take so much effort to do anything.

I hope you magically pick it up but if you want to be able to demonstrate your progess, might I suggest you take a break from riding forward every so often and try to learn to hop on the spot.

  • Get on, get both pedals level, hold onto the seat and then hop like you would on a pogo stick. You should pick that up pretty quickly and with a bit of luck, they won’t have tried/practiced that. :smiley:

Rob

#2041

I’ll say that’s not bad! :slight_smile:

Patience, patience … just continue.

I was in a unicycle club when I learned. It took me about 4 months (training once a week) to be able to ride from one end of the sports hall to the other. While the kids learned it in a couple of hours, I think - - - :o

Best regards,
Sanne

#2042

As I remember, it took me about a week to be able to ride continuously. Then progress slowed a bit…

#2043

Nice …
I’m a obviously a slow learner.

Best regards,
Sanne

#2044

Well I suppose I’d probably still come under the ‘kid’ category even if only just :stuck_out_tongue:

#2045

Maybe - I can’t tell as I don’t know your age -

Best regards,
Sanne

#2046

Heh, 18 in Feb

#2047

15 hours I think was the average from Klass Bil’s survey a while back. But seriously, once a week is not a good way to learn anything so Sanne’s 4 months, which works out to 16 days sounds pretty good.

And as to the comment on endurance, I am still realistically limited to an hour and a half on my uni, can run for a lot longer… :frowning:

Cheers

Oh BTW managed 4 revs backwards this morning! But only once… :roll_eyes:

#2048

endurance is hard to measure. can i practice unispins for 2 hours? hell no. my back gets really mad at me. and i have a good back. but i practiced wheelwalking and riding backwards for hours at a time. and i am a runner so its not about cardio or leg strength.

#2049

From my point of view: Yes, kid-ish :stuck_out_tongue: - my youngest son got 18 in august :slight_smile:

Best regards,
Sanne

#2050

Today I received and assembled my KH 24! :smiley:

Now I gotta wait till christmas before I can ride it :frowning:
No sneaky rides either as the seatpost’s designed for someone 8ft tall so I gotta cut it down a bit :stuck_out_tongue:

Also got my purple plastic pedals for my Koxx 20". Not odyssey twisted PCs but nowhere seemed to have the transparent purple ones in stock so I got some others. Well have to see how they go. They were cheap… It’ll be better than metal ones while I try to bring myself to trying unispins - less painful too.

Rob