The Beginners "Today I..." Thread

General
1907

Just got a 20" trials unicycle last week (an addition to my collection). Just practiced learning to hop recently and last night I was able to reliably stop, hop and turn, and ride back the way I came.

I was inspired by seeing Roland do this at the Albany unicycle race. However, much to my suprise, my 11yo brother has been practicing in the few weeks I’ve been away from home and can now hop onto obstacles (about 8 inches high) and he’s trying to learn to wheel walk. So I’ve got a long way to go but I thought I’d put in a brag for both me and him here.

1908

If you can ride 40 feet, you can ride 400. Stop counting and set some distance goals. E.g. Around the block, around two blocks, around the pond etc… Counting revs sounds like a giant distraction and you currently need to focus on your riding more than counting revs.

My $0.02

1909

Unireed, i fing it helpful if you lean the entire frame backwards so that more of the wheel is in the front.

you should try that :smiley:

1910

lean back more…got it. or do you mean seat on the saddle differently?

1911

I just figured this one out yesterday and the minute I stopped counting revs I could ride so much further. My next goal is to get all the way to the end of my street. Then we add going round corners to the skill repertoire :smiley:

1912

Today it eventually stopped raining.

Unfortunately the ground was very wet still so I was pretty unsuccessful with more wheel walking - got about 6 ‘steps’ again (about 2m ish) but my feet kept slipping. I still need to put my seat up a bit (a job for tomorrow).

I had a go at one footed riding and it’s nowhere near as hard as I thought it was going to be, with about half an hours practice in, I can do 4-5 revs on my right foot :slight_smile:

I hope it’s dry next weekend to really get out for some practice.

1913

i practice wheelwalking in my garage, if my mom is gone. but thats because when its really hot outside my car is too hot to touch (for balance). i am at the point where i can transition from riding to wheelwalking, but i cannot go back to riding.

1914

After five months I can ride as far as I like over smooth or bumpy surfaces, ride backwards, idle, ride with seat out front, freemount and jump mount.

I are very happy with my progress k thx bai

1915

thanks for the great advice,that makes sense ; it is not $0.02 ,it is “priceless” :slight_smile:

1916

Well with the brilliant change of weather I got out for some more practice today. Put my seat up 1.5cm and got 8 ‘pushes’ wheel walking (downhill!)
I feel like I actually got it then so hopefully it is a sign for great things to come :slight_smile:

I also got 6 revs one footed… one more than last time and that feels like it’s sinking in a bit more now.

I need to get out when it’s a bit lighter though, it got a bit dark practicing tonight. The only problem is that I always stay out til it gets properly dark no matter when I go out :stuck_out_tongue:

1917

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2sMrxt35TY

I made it to another unicycling milestone :smiley: Here’s my table hop. I could have done this about a month ago, but I don’t think I could have gotten it in one shot.

1918

clint i bet you could get up without needing a crankgrab. just prehop should be enough for this height with your uni

1919

yeah I could easily get from the seat to the top without a crankgrab, but it was getting dark and I didn’t want to take too many attempts at it. My jump record is 20 in. and the ground to bench was 15, so I think I could get the first jump also. I’ll try tomorrow :wink:

1920

Wheel to crank ratios - is this stupid??

Hi,
I was thinking about how do you compare different wheel crank combinations and forgot to google to see how it’s done…
I was thinking about the issue of work loads with differing set ups, as I am one day going to ride longer distances and possibly have more than one uni… :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway I sat down and did this, is it a sensible idea?

Cheers
ps; and it was done with a pocket calculator and then I sat down at the computer… I’m not really coping with modern technology at all. :frowning:

Wheel / Crank ratios
24" - 600mm Circumference 1885.7
26" - 650mm Circumference 2042.8
29’ - 725mm Circumference 2278.5

Cranks in mm
114 Circumference 716.5
125 Circumference 785.7
150 Circumference 942.8
175 Circumference 1099.9

Ratios Wheel circumference / Crank Circumference
24" /114 - 2.631
24" /125 - 2.400
24" /150 - 2.000
24" /175 - 1.714

26" /114 - 2.851
26" /125 - 2.599
26" /150 - 2.166
26" /175 - 1.857

29" /114 - 3.180
29" /125 - 2.899
29" /150 - 2.416
29" /175 - 2.071

1921

krjames, you might find this interesting reading if you have not already seen it:

1922

Unicycle Timeline

This is my anniversary for registering on this site so I went through my old posts and orders and compiled a unicycle timeline of the last year in case anyone finds it interesting or informative. Probably the hardest thing I’ve done so far is one footed backwards riding. I’m up to 12 revolutions but I just switched out my 100mm cranks for 75mm so it will probably take some time to get back to that.

7/6/2009 - Ordered a green 24” Club unicycle.
10/8/2009 - Registered a profile on www.unicyclist.com. About this time I started regular unicycle practice. From July to this time I got occasional practice once every week or two. I was able to free mount at this time.
10/11/2009 - Ordered Kris Holm leg armor.
10/24/2009 - Participating in O-U-T the Game I was unable to do 30 idles. (Special thanks to JuliaB for her encouragement for beginners!)
10/26/2009 - First post in The Beginners “Today I…” thread. Idled 30 times (right), idled 8 times (left), rode backwards 2.5 revolutions, rode SIF 13.5 revolutions, mounted SIF and did a 180 unispin.
10/28/2009 - Ordered a blue 20” Nimbus Trials. Idled 68 times (right), idled 13 times (left), rode backwards 4 revolutions, rode SIF 11 revolutions (after jump mounting).
10/29/2009 - Rode SIF 21 revolutions, landed a 180 jump mount and rode out SIF 5 times.
10/30/2009 - Rode SIF 40 revolutions.
10/31/2009 - Rode backwards 19 revolutions.
11/1/2009 - Idled 27 times (left), rode backwards 40 revolutions, rode SIF in a circle.
11/2/2009 - Rode SIF 27 revolutions, rode backwards in a circle, rode backwards down a small incline and over a tiny curb (3-4cm) many times, learned to mount to ride backwards right away.
11/3/2009 - Learned to roll over a curb backwards, landed a fakie rolling hop off a curb (4 times).
11/6/2009 - Got suicide mounts down, got lady and gentleman mounts down, got 180 jump mounts down, got transitioning from SI to SIF down, idled 20 times (left), landed a rolling hop off a curb, rode about 7 miles round trip into town and back at night.
11/9/2009 - Landed a left and right leg wrap.
11/12/2009 - Rode one footed 3.5 revolutions.
11/15/2009 - Sprained my ankle hopping up a curb.
11/30/2009 - Ordered Kris Holm arm armor and parts including new cranks (to replace ones I messed up), pedals, and a crank puller.
12/1/2009 - Juggled clubs while riding.
12/13/2009 - Turned 180 degrees while juggling.
12/22/2009 - Rode one footed 6.5 revolutions.
1/8/2010 - Rode one footed 50 revolutions (right), rode one footed 1 revolution (left).
1/12/2010 - Rode one footed 4 revolutions (left), idled one footed 16 times (right).
1/15/2010 - Hurt my leg playing regular basketball.
1/27/2010 - Rode one footed 7 revolutions (left), wheel walked 5 revolutions.
1/30/2010 - Rode one footed 20 revolutions (left).
1/31/2010 - Rode one footed 40 revolutions.
2/10/2010 - Executed two 180 unispins in a row, hopped on tire 10 times, wheelwalked 10 revolutions, idled 5 times while juggling (right), idled 7 times while juggling (left), jumped rope 8 times.
2/13/2010 - Rode 10+ revolutions while hula hooping, idled 3 times while hula hooping (right and left), jumped rope 18 times, idled 11 times while juggling (right), transitioned from wheel walking to regular riding.
3/21/2010 - Tried muni for the first time on my 20" Nimbus trials. I also started basketball around this time.
3/24/2010 - Ordered a black Nimbus 26” MUni.
3/31/2010 - Learned one-footed rollback mounts (left and right), idled one-footed 30 times. Rode my 26” muni for the first time.
4/2/2010 - Rode one footed backwards 1 revolution.
4/16/2010 - Sold my Nimbus Trials.
4/23/2010 - Ordered a chrome 20” Nimbus X freestyle, a 24” tire, and a white 20” Primo The Wall tire.
5/19/2010 - Had a bad fall riding over a cattle gate.
6/22/2010 - Bought a 5ft giraffe. I was able to ride it and do 80 idles right away.
6/24/2010 - Static mounted my giraffe.
6/25/2010 - Rolling mounted my giraffe.
7/4/2010 - Rode on giraffe in my first parade.
7/24/2010 - Rode stomach on seat 10 revolutions, rode seat out in back 2.5 revolutions.
7/31/2010 - Idled 53 times on my giraffe while juggling, rode left foot out 15 revolutions, idled left foot out 2 revolutions, rode seat out in back 35 revolutions.
9/9/2010 - Rode one footed backwards 5 revolutions.
9/28/2010 - Ordered a chrome 12” unicycle and parts including 75mm and 100mm cranks, many seat post clamps, a blue Nimbus gel saddle, and pedals.

1923

Riding with handlebars

The last couple of weeks I’ve learned to ride with handlebars. It has really improved my balance. I didn’t know until now how much your feet can help with side to side balance. I used to have real problems with road crown and sloped sidewalks - I’d end up sitting crooked twisted sideways. Those problems have completely vanished. My feet just take care of it, automatically pushing a little bit harder on one side to compensate for the slope.

If there are any other beginners out there having problems with road crown, try learning to ride without waving your arms around. Force yourself to ride with your hands on the front of the seat. It might help…

1924

It’s interesting that you seem to figure out a trick with your right leg first and then catch up with your left later. Is that how most people do it? I tend to practice both and learn left and right at about the same rate. I wonder if it’s faster to learn with one leg at a time since you probably get a feel for the trick sooner when you spend all your time on your dominant leg. Maybe that understanding helps when you start working on it with the other leg.

1925

He needs a tucking technique as he doesn’t have any at all, i bet he could do that seat in just as easily. In my and many other riders opinions, sif hopping is not always nessercary and can lead to bad habits. To prove my point, the britsh trials champion Joe Baxter detests sif hopping :slight_smile:

1926

Good point! I usually find it slightly easier to do things with my right vs. left but I find if I learn right first I’m not not only learning the trick, but how to learn to learn the trick. Then even if it’s physically harder with my left it can be quicker because I streamlined the learning process.