Giraffe- only riding at netball courts… last time was December!
And yay!!! Did my first 36er freemount with handlebars attached tonight!!! It was downhill though…
Nice post! And btw, I think being able to still stand for any period of time would be great for everything uni related.
Maybe we should try a bke ride together. You can’t really be serious saying a bke is harder? Maybe it’s the bke… I had a Kmart one and it was crp.
Still standing to some extent came for me in places where I rode slowly, particularly up hills. I would adjust my balance in a series of ever slower near still stands. I’m still not great at actual still stands but I learnt enough for my needs.
The skills we learn as we go often depend on our local terrain and ambition. One could not go far in my suburb with out encountering hills. When learning, I took them on in order of challenge until I could ride them all. Someone with good trails nearby will probably learn to muni.
For me, riding slowly is important for when I get to traffic intersections. I like to not have to dismount 
I’m working on the muni-ing now, cause I just got my first suitable muni a couple of weeks ago, and just near me is National Park fire trail.
I would love to do more 36er riding but there’s too much stop-start needed on anywhere local near me.
Damn Sydney.
I learned to unicycle as a kid have used a unicycle on and off for years but I never really did any proper distance.
When first I started to commute to work (only 5-6km away, but hilly) my legs used to be really sore pretty much every day. I don’t know when that stopped but at some point I stopped thinking about it and I can’t recall the last time it was a problem.
I am aware that I sit more firmly down that I used to but I don’t think that is the only reason as I do stand a little as I go up steep hills. So I presume it is a combination of more muscle strength and better technique (i.e. sitting).
My only advice would be to not worry about it. Do what you do, for as far as it feels fun, and at some point it will stop being so tiring.
You may have missed the point, different activity is different muscles and technique and so we are less efficient, hence the need for time and practice.
Yeah I agree. Two weeks ago they closed off part of the highway, so every day to work and back home has long traffic jams. Taking a bike is faster than taking the car now. I only have 7km. As I don’t bother about lights on the back of my uni and helmet because it is still dark in the morning, I take a bike and my unicycling surely paid off. Now I can ride much faster than I ever could, even with strong wind and some uphills I have along the way.
Sometimes I ride to work by uni, but with 10+ºC I get all sweaty and there is not shower in the office. Beside that there are lots of cyclists here that don’t all take care I only ride one wheel. So it is safer to either ride very early or just take a bike.
When my center of balance is in front of the unicycle (frame tipped forward) each peddle turn pushes the seat forward and toward my body/seat. It feels like being pushed and you’re nearly falling off the front. This does not fatigue my legs.
When my center of balance is behind the unicycle (frame tipped back) each peddle turn had me gripping the seat hard between with my legs because it was travelling away from me. This burns my legs but provides a lot of control.
I learned to “really” ride at 17. On a Schwinn Giraffe. Long story, which can be found here somewhere so I’m not going to repeat that. I made my “breakthrough”, which was riding the giraffe from the hood of the car parked on the street, up the driveway and to the basketball hoop on the backyard garage.
About a week after that, Bradley Bradley and I headed out on a 12+ mile round trip adventure. Which was really stupid. Neither of us could freemount the giraffe, and neither of our crotches were equipped for such a test of endurance. We’re talking 1970s Schwinn seats. But we were teenagers so none of that mattered.
I have no recollection of how long it took to get to our destination, which was about 6 miles away, but our crotches were done. Ever experienced that painful, burning urination thing from unicycling? That. But we spent some time there, and it was dark by the time we were headed home. Our crotches were very not into any more riding.
By a total fluke of coincidence, my brother was driving by, on a road he didn’t usually go on, and picked us up. End of ride.
Was that helpful? Probably not. We were both too teenager-y to pay attention to our legs apparently, and rode until we basically couldn’t anymore. This work differently when you learn pas the age of 30 or so… 
These observations are impressions as a rider rather than an outside observer. The reality is the frame is virtually always leaning back. (It can reach a steady vertical doing freestyle moves.)
Centre of mass being in front is only sustainable during acceleration. In a steady state your centre of mass is directly above the contact point of the tyre on the road.
Otherwise, leaning the frame forwards would require you to be leaning your body backwards and it would be incredibly unstable.
If you doubt what I am saying, get someone to take a photo from the side while you are riding.
Although your centre of mass is not actually behind the contact point you can certainly lean the uni back a long way. You are reaching the limits when you have to hold the seat to stop it dropping out.
As you noted this geometry enhances stability. This is because the window of stability becomes wider. As it does with more rake on the head tube of a bicycle, the stability is traded off against steering responsiveness. You can’t turn as tightly.
Great story!
My recollection is that it took me a few months to get to the “burning quads” stage of learning, and another few weeks to get through it. It was about refining balancing to the point where I could safely unweight the pedals between pushes enough to actually sit down–to make one small correction rather than lots of larger corrections, over-corrections, and corrections for the over-corrections. Another big factor was having the experience to trust that I could get my weight back onto my feet for a quick dismount if I needed to, from having done it many, many times. Basically lots of “keep on riding” IOW.
Riding upward on gentle slopes was where I made the most progress, where I could control front-to-back balance just by putting more or less forward pressure on the pedals. Having to use back pressure to correct for when my weight got behind the wheel was harder to do smoothly and took longer to master. I would even sometimes ride up a hill and then walk back down because I wasn’t comfortable limiting my speed on the descent, which people thought was somewhat strange.
But in reality is not strange at all, especially during the “burning quads” phase. Braking, and even moreso riding downhill, requires you to apply lots of back pressure. That is, pressing on the pedals while they are coming up in the back. This is harder than in the front for three reasons:
[LIST=1]
You’re quite correct. Marathoners and trail ultra-distance runners talk about how downhill running causes more fatigue than going up.
And yes, I’d done some fixed-gear bicycling and could stop without using the brakes so it wasn’t totally unfamiliar, but having to do it and also maintain front-back balance was new, another thing that had to be learned.
During my early riding efforts to set new personal distance achievements I found putting weight on the seat was aided when I became comfortable moving my feet around on the pedals. Then I could start working on pedaling efficiently. At 46 years old and a little over two months since first riding my unicycle out into the wild I could ride 2 miles nonstop.
Odd but now I never move my feet around anymore. “Fixed” to the pedals is even more efficient. Now, occasionally, I’ll ride 50 - 60 miles between dismounts.
In case you are wondering—No, I don’t like the front of the saddle high. No, I don’t use a handle bar. Yes, I’ll stand on the peddles out of the saddle 30 - 45 seconds every 5 minutes to let the blood flow. Then I’ll take all the weight off of the pedals for another 30 - 45 seconds to let the blood flow to the feet. I’ve learned to do these while pedaling at a 90 - 100 cadence.
I did my first unicycle century in my fourth year after learning to unicycle.
Enjoy the adventure,
JM
Well, tremendous progress over the past 2 weeks. Every day my distance increased, and today I made it a full block in my neighborhood which is about 1000’. I can really now feel the difference between weight on the pedals vs weight on the seat. I also am now able to adjust my foot pedal position at the 12:00 top stroke, that sure comes in handy…
Chief
Nice work! GO Chief
Riding Efficiency…get some coffee…this is long.
Okay experts riders(90% of you guys…who learned by sitting straight up), this is where I concede and agree about the following:
1.) Ride fully weighted on your seat.
2.) Back straight.
3.) Raise your seat.
4.) Get shorter cranks.
5.) Look at a distant object in front of you…Nah…bad idea…it ain’t a bicycle and any bump/raised ground = UPD. Keep eyes down.
It’s curious most beginners(me included) at the earliest stage can barely do 50 ft. It feels like we just ran a 400 meters in 45 seconds, or did a hundred squat and our quads are pumped.
Why? This is what we do:
a.) Max weight on our pedals, both front and back(of course). So very little resting our butts on seat.
b.) Hunch forwards and bob our upper body(maybe even swing arms).
Yes, I “hear” everybody saying the total opposite, but guess what we tried that at first. No good. You do that=you fall=you can’t ride.
So a few of us are “stubborn/rebels/frustrated” enough to just do the total opposite. Then bingo. We got it!.
Fact is this is how we “ride” the unicycle when we first “get it”. So, thus the “extreme physical exertion”.
Anyways, so this is where I finally concede. Warning this is only for “intermediate” riders, if you haven’t already figured it out…but this is advice for the “almost” there riders.
So yes, follow those steps 1-4 above. So let’s just do it you say?
But…here’s the kicker. It ain’t easy.
Do you remember high school physics? Action = reaction?
To ride fully weighted: You must do a few new things:
6.) Lean your upper body/shoulder back: Until you start feeling your whole body CG directly over the seat and the tire. Now, you feel like your on the middle of a teeter-totter. Ooops. Leaned back too far. Get back over. So, at this point because you have been leaning forwards(as you should during learning) it now feels like you are leaning/falling backwards. In actuality, you are straight up with slight forward angle, but it “don’t feel that way”, right? Anyways, now you must maintain this, but what happens if you need a quick forwards tilt? It’s your hips. Buck em up. Yup, just like riding a mechanical bull. You’ve got to learn to use them with lightning quick timing and exact forward force plus retract back. A good way to know how this feels is to try to do some one foot or even no foot idling. Also, I’m sure you beginners have periodically inadvertantly “leaned back” or “bend your hips forwards”, and what did you feel? It felt weightless, right? Then your pedals sped up…then =crash. Well that’s what “fully weighted/seat” feels like.
7.) Now, change your pedaling action: What!!! You finally learned to ride a unicycle, and a big key was fully weighting the pedals and now you tell me not to do this!!! Yup, here’s why. Now, that you are sitting on a “pin point fulcrum” the slightest down force on each pedal = lateral rotation or wobbling. Just try it you’ll see. What the heck? So what do I do. If you haven’t figured it out, here it is:
a.) You must first learn to “lighten” the pedaling force.
b.) You must learn to “raise your knees” don’t just let it come up to follow your pedal rotation. The knee adds weight to the pedals. You must activate your ab/core muscles to lift your whole leg during the highest point(apogee) of the pedal rotation.
c.) You must learn to “push” the pedals “gently” forwards in a straight line. Easier said than done right? As your pedals are rotating, you must accurately delivery forward force at around 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock. If you do it too early or “dwell” too late, it translates to rotation or wobbling. Imagine yourself sitting on a pier at a lake, and there is a log under your feet. If you want to “make it roll” you don’t stomp down on it, but rather lightly kick it forwards. That’s exactly what it feels like, when you do it right.
Bungeejoe, wow, wow and wow. Gems of inforfmation!
Wow #1. Though oddly, I am a little different on the foot movement. I always move my feet around a bit, but just as I’m getting going. Get the feet into the right positions, and they mostly stay there. Except if I need to shift (Schlumpf), or maybe reposition to go up something steep, for example. Otherwise, the feet stay put, and the 5.10s help them do that.
Wow # 2 and 3. That’s gold. I have tried both of those circulation-enhancing things, but not really worked at it. This is a reminder to work on those techniques, because I do get the foot numbness (depends on the shoes), and of course the crotch needs help after a bunch of miles.
Wow #4. I actually had a plan to try a century about 2.5 years after I learned to ride, but then I had to wait a year for Tom Miller to build my Big Wheel. By then, the century speed record had dropped from 10.5 hours down to 9:20, and I was intimidated. I set my attention on the short races, and didn’t do a century until more than 31 years after I learned to ride, and had a 2-speed Road uni with a nice, cushy tire.
Joe, please keep being an inspiration to us all!
Do you really stand on the pedals 30-45 seconds or do you push yourself off the seat with your hands? Your legs must be made of iron by now.
I don’t stand up to let the blood flow after 5+ km or well when my crutch starts to feel numb, which can also be after 10km, but then it is always too late, because I don’t manage to ride upright that long. That is also why I hang on the seat with my hands. Occasionally I make a jerky move and tumble off.
This is the phase I just entered. I am starting to get enough balance control where I can deal with the higher COG, and my hips are doing more of the corrections. When I get too far out of control, then bang! The weight goes back on the pedals until I can settle myself down…
Somebody else mentioned that to get the weight on the saddle they focus less on actually trying to sit “more” on the saddle and instead they focus on less pressure on the pedals. That concept really helped me.
Oh, also you mentioned where you look-- I was initially trying to look way out towards the horizon to avoid “looking down”, but now I find the natural looking point for me is around 10’ in front of the uni.
Chief