I’m not sure where this originated but I heard that it takes an average of 15-20 hours to learn to unicycle. I really don’t think this stat’s right… out of all the people i’ve taught, none have taken anywhere near 15 hours to get the hang of it. I reckon maybe an old fulla, 40+ could take a while for fear of falling but not the younger people…
When they say “learn to ride a unicycle” do they mean to get to Level1?
cheers
Pete
I think ten to twenty hours learning time is a fairly accurate average time. Klaas Bil would know best since he has done a study on it and made some statistics (reliant on people’s honesty about how long it took them). I think it took me around ten hours to learn in 1996, spread over two weeks. After that I started going places. I never had anyone show me how to ride, or give me any tips. I didn’t have the internet, and I didn’t know any other unicyclists at the time. My unicycle had a very hard, uncomfortable seat, and the seatpost was too short. The uncomfortable factor was discouraging for learning, and it kept my practise times relatively short. I loaned my old crappy unicycle to Jackie and Kristen for three or four months. Jackie tried and tried and she still can’t ride. She can sit on it OK, but she has given up because she landed on her head and her back and her elbow on the concrete floor. Kristen can ride a bit (Jackie’s daughter) but she still needs to put more practise in to be able to ride. I think a 20" unicycle with straight cranks and a straight spindle would suit them better for learning since they are short. My 24" crapcycle has short bent/loose cranks and a knobbly tire, which doesn’t make it ideal for learners. There are many factors which could influence the length of time it takes someone to learn, so I think 15-20 hours is fairly accurate. The more hours you spend, the better you get, to a certain extent.
I think learn to ride basicly means level one, because to be able to ride 50 metres unassisted requires learning to ride. Once you can ride 50 metres you can ride, then fall off, get back on, ride, fall off etc, and you can go travelling about the place at a rate similar to walking or jogging.
unicycle bungy
Do you reckon hooking someone up to a bungy that can go along a wire would help them learn… I was just thinkin it would be like trainer wheels coz they wouldn’t have to fall off every time they lost their balance. Has anyone tried this or is it stupid coz it’s a bit too “circus”?
Re: unicycle bungy
I think the best way to learn is to just go all out. I don’t believe in using a wall, person, or bungee to support your weight (or even for support other then getting on) is a good way to learn. Others will disagree with me. But all the people I helped learn to ride just went for it and they took less then the normal 10 hours to ride. I also took less then ten hours to learn.
Daniel
Re: Time to ride a unicycle
On Sat, 14 Feb 2004 23:20:16 -0600, pete66 wrote:
>I’m not sure where this originated but I heard that it takes an average
>of 15-20 hours to learn to unicycle. I really don’t think this stat’s
>right… out of all the people i’ve taught, none have taken anywhere
>near 15 hours to get the hang of it. I reckon maybe an old fulla, 40+
>could take a while for fear of falling but not the younger people…
Learning time depends on many factors. See
<www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/agelearn_short.htm> for my stats study. The
study excluded the effect of some more elusive factors such as talent
or determination.
>When they say “learn to ride a unicycle” do they mean to get to
>Level1?
I don’t know what ‘they’ mean. In my study the criterium was to be
able to ride 50 m unsupported. That is Level 1 minus freemounting and
gracefully dismounting.
I have a feeling you might need two points of contact with the ground for such a thing to work? Or at least training wheels on the front and rear. - John Foss commenting on a picture of a one-wheeled vehicle he saw on RSU.
we discovered a neat way that someone might learn (although we never tested it)
we had to get a bike and 2 uni’s across the field.
The guy was riding his uni, holding on to one end of the bike handlebars, ‘dragging’ the (rolling)bike along side him.
He commented that if it were a learner on the uni, pulling the ‘leaning wall’ along side him as he rode, might be handy.
It (may) teach you not to support alll your weight on it because you’ll fall over (the wall has no give so a learner can lean into it all he wants, and therefore takes longer to appreciate his own sense of balance)
Re: Time to ride a unicycle
On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 10:11:21 -0600, Sofa
<Sofa@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote:
>The guy was riding his uni, holding on to one end of the bike
>handlebars, ‘dragging’ the (rolling)bike along side him.
At the circus club that my daughter attends, they have a ‘wheeled
walking rack’ (like the elderly use but maybe wider and higher) as a
learner device. I haven’t talked to them about it. Also I’ve heard or
read the advice to use a supermarket trolley as moving support.
I have a feeling you might need two points of contact with the ground for such a thing to work? Or at least training wheels on the front and rear. - John Foss commenting on a picture of a one-wheeled vehicle he saw on RSU.
When I looked at that last it seemed to have one idiot who thought he did it in 0 hours. Maybe that one got filtered out. But then again some guys seem to of taken 150 hours, but at least that’s possible, just a long time, 0 hours is impossible.
But less than 1hr is very possible.
Less than one hour isn’t very possible. It’s dam hard, but still possible. If something takes you say 10 minutes you should just clasify it as an hour instead of 0 hours. Just common sense.
A recent post by showard mentioned that a young guy that works with him picked up his Summit and learnesd to ride in a very short amount of time. i just looked it up 45 Minutes! He even freemounted a few times.
Re: Time to ride a unicycle
On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 02:16:29 -0600, Robbie wrote:
>When I looked at that last it seemed to have one idiot who thought he
>did it in 0 hours. Maybe that one got filtered out. But then again some
>guys seem to of taken 150 hours, but at least that’s possible, just a
>long time, 0 hours is impossible.
There was never a 0 hours in the dataset. The shortest time is for djm
who claimed to have learned in 10 minutes (which displays as 0.17
hours).
I do agree that learning in 0 hours (i.e. no time at all) is
impossible. It would theoretically be possible for someone to pick up
a unicycle and ride away the first time. But then that person hasn’t
learned to ride, he just could do it without learning.
I have a feeling you might need two points of contact with the ground for such a thing to work? Or at least training wheels on the front and rear. - John Foss commenting on a picture of a one-wheeled vehicle he saw on RSU.
it took me however many hours there are i 4 weeks!
I reckon under 1 hr for a good bike rider and generally well coordinated person is about right… with the right tuition, right unicycle and a good place to learn.
… took me about 15+ hrs and a lot of patience from my big brother 
More importantly though, how long does it take to learn to stillstand for over a minute? I think it’d be longer than the time spent learning to ride a uni. In fact, most good tricks seem to take at least as long as it takes to learn to uni… to learn. That’s the way I like it 
if u can still-stand for over a minute, u need to get your pogo-stick fixed
Well, How long do you need to be able to stillstand for before you can say “I can stillstand”? I can do about 10 seconds but usually under 5.
i was being facetious 'cause i cant even comprehend a still-stand that long
i dont know if there’s a limit u have to reach before u can say ‘u can still-stand’
does anyone know if there’s a recognised record?
Re: Time to ride a unicycle
On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 03:39:24 -0600, GILD wrote:
>if u can still-stand for over a minute, u need to get your pogo-stick
>fixed
Well, to me it sounds as if the pogo-stick IS fixed! 
I have a feeling you might need two points of contact with the ground for such a thing to work? Or at least training wheels on the front and rear. - John Foss commenting on a picture of a one-wheeled vehicle he saw on RSU.
Took me less than a week to learn to one-foot ride. Practiced a few times. Not every day. Learning with the other foot looks to be much quicker.