Nice. I’ve wanted to try a freestyle for a while. Do you find it a lot easier to maneuver for basketball?
Today I consistently hopped 9" SI and SIF and could get my tire up on 11.5" but I kept chickening out. i also hopped an almost 2 foot gap to a lower platform.
I am really happy because my first 2 seasons I always ended up having to stop trying to learn trials stuff because I would hurt my ankle but I have found a good way to tape it and it is holding up great!
Today on the way home I finally made it up the steepest hill on my daily commute!! It is only about 20-25 feet, but it is steep and uneven and I’ve never managed to make it up without stopping/falling.
The kids that are always playing at the park by the hill cheered when I made it to the top, (they see me fall there regularly when I ride by and when I practice reverse and idling on the bridge ).
I’ve dedicated whole days of practice to getting up the hill and never succeeded, so I’m happy to have made it after riding 2 miles home from work (uphill, into a fairly strong wind today). I guess the wind probably helped since it was probably slightly from behind… but I’ll take it!
Definitely! I was mostly using my trials for basketball before and it was sluggish. I can zip around on the freestyle much easier.
Waaalrus,
Awesome freestyle uni! I’m jealous. I also have a trials uni but I find myself riding my Torker CX more because it’s lighter and easier to ride. I guess I’m more into idling/backwards type stuff than hopping/trials.
I understand your apprehension about riding a giraffe if you’ve got knee issues. It’s quite fun though. I can dismount my 5 footer with pretty much no knee stress. It’s nutty being up high like that. The visuals alone are interesting.
UekiTylor,
That’s a great story of unicycle perseverence. Congrats!
mbalmer,
You’ve got me beat. I’ve only got 7 after about a year.:(
20" Torker CX
20" Nimbus Trials
20" Antique piece of crap (my first uni)
24" Torker CX
28" Sun
5’ Nimbus Giraffe
6’ Schwinn Giraffe (haven’t got it road worthy yet, needs a wheelset)
So this is ridiculous. It took me weeks to learn to free mount. It took my daughter about 10 minutes.
I like it a lot! I found I wasn’t that interested in high hops and going up and down obstacles to do tricks, especially with a slightly bad left ankle, so I sold my trials unicycle just after ordering the Nimbus X. If I need to get a hopping fix I always have my 26" muni which is like a big brother to a trials unicycle. With a double-walled rim and ISIS cranks the X should be rugged enough for most tricks on flat. I got 100mm cranks which I like a lot, but it’s taking a little time to get adjusted to the smaller size. Especially for one-legged riding! It’s also quite different riding with a higher tire pressure. I considered getting a Torker LX Pro Tall, but have been on a roll with the Nimbus line.
Thanks for the encouragement on the giraffe! I should be able to get some practice in on my friend’s 6-footer if I can find a place to mount it. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Here’s a recent pedal bite:
I didn’t mention my latest attempt at the 5-lb burger. 35 minutes. They’re having a contest and I don’t think I’ll win, but I may be able to get into the final round.
For no particular reason here’s me in the audience of Let’s Make A Deal recently:
My friend made our costumes. We were Russian nesting dolls. I was the biggest one, she was the next size down, and we carried two made of paper-mâché of successively smaller sizes. Here’s a closer look:
Yes, I’m wearing a skirt but luckily from this far away the lipstick isn’t as noticeable.
Nice! I recently saw some kids of a similar age at a uni convention. I love that crazy frantic wobbling riding style they all seem to have - I wonder why it is?
It took me about 2 weeks to master the free mount after I seriously started trying, it’s such a useful skill to have. I think it’s the stage when you stop being a beginner and become a unicyclist!
I wondered that, too.
I was guessing that it might be cause the Q-factor (how far apart the pedals are) is so big for them, even if the seat height and crank length are right. Kind of like trying to ride while doing the splits.
Or maybe it’s just something about kid arms. We always tell people to flail their arms for balance when they’re trying to learn. Maybe all that arm motion isn’t as crazy as it looks and it’s keeping them upright on things that would have made us UPD at the same stage in the learning process.
I’m bummed. You chopped off her celebration. That was the best part of the vid that Tom M. posted of his kid riding.
Maybe kids freemount easier because they don’t have much weight to xfer to the back pedal???
Anyway love the vid’s of the young kids learning to ride.
I haven’t been doing much. Some distance rides and started practicing running the IUF Obstacle course. It’s more challenging than you would think, at least for an old stiff guy. I am also still practicing a little with dribbling a basketball on the 20".
I know. I agree. The celebration is what’s fun to watch. I messed up and stopped filming too soon. 
She could ride it again, but I wouldn’t get the celebration a second time.
today I practiced wheelwalking and one foot riding. I have 1 foot riding down to 15 revs and wheelwalking down to about 2. I only started trying to wheelwalk yesterda, though. Trouble is, I finally got wheelwalking right as it got dark and I couldn’t practice further. Oh well!
Today at the park, middle of my normal 6 mile round trip… Going down the long hill at top speed I notice a tugging at my boot 
Rut roh, Shoe lace wrapping around the pedal… “Death by shoe lace!” 
Love those Kris Holm pulse gloves!!!
Scary! That hasn’t happened to me… yet. i just bought a new pair of shoes and the laces are pretty long and i have been careful about that.
Today I rode with another unicyclist for the first time! I guess he and his little boy had been watching me ride by and it was motivation to take up the uni. He has only been riding for a couple of weeks but he can ride really well. He actually climbed some hills that I couldn’t. He is a pretty serious mountain biker and is much more fit than I am. I am motivated to get more fit because I’m pretty sure he’ll leave me behind :D.
I rode some downhills today without braking that I usually brake pretty hard on. Now that I’m riding 125s on my 36er I don’t feel like I need a brake on my 29er with 165s. I love unicycling.
tucked laces
Since I started unicycling, I’ve kept my laces tied and leave the loops & ends tucked under. Sure it looks goofy when I’m not on my unicycle, but I’m OK with that at least they won’t get tangled in my cranks / pedals.
I know a guy who pretty much destroyed his knees when that happened to him. Took about 6 months for him to recover I think and his knees still aren’t great now.
Makes me always watch my shoelaces.
Mowcius
I always tuck mine in. It may look a bit silly to everyone else but that’s the least of my worries when I’m riding a unicycle!! 
Extra long laces double bow knot. The end up only being about 1.5 inches on each side and right at my ankle not hanging down at all.
So far I’ve avoided the death by laces and I plan to keep it that way.
Today I knocked almost another minute off my coker ride. I had some times when i was really spinning smoothly.
I was also called a rude name by someone going by in a car. That’s the first time it’s happen. Usually people are pretty stoked or at least friendly.
God I cant wait to get a 36!!! The 29 is great for Muni, and around town is fun, but I want to go on RIDES! We have a lake thats 15+ miles from my house and I have the want to ride to it, then go around and stop for a burger and then ride home… Used to do it on my Harley but that was a 30 minute trip…
Anyone wanna trade for a 36"? I have an 11 year old who can ride, he just gets a bit lazy at times… can clean and cook for himself typically, and comes with his own 20 " sun uni… Hoping to get brakes and a touring handle if I toss in my 4 year old and his 16 inch 2 wheeler…
Haha. Kids are OK but don’t trade your 29er though. I still find the 29er the right wheel for so much riding. There has been a long learning curve for the 36er and I keep going back to the 29 in road/paved situations with unknown variables. it has some speed and is a bit more maneuverable (I am still embarrassed by the 3-4 tries it takes me to get started on the 36er sometimes. I also can’t control myself yet nearing intersections. 
:D).