Tips for Improving Your Unicycling Skills

Riding Advice
1

Hi everyone! I’m getting more into unicycling and would love to hear some advice from experienced riders. What exercises or techniques helped you improve the most, especially with balance, mounting, and riding longer distances?

I’d also be interested in hearing about your favorite places to ride and any beginner mistakes that are worth avoiding.

Thanks, and happy riding!

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The biggest trick with unicycling is to just keep practicing. Otherwise here’s a few I’ve learned along the way:

  • Wear protection - If in doubt, pad up. Gloves and pads keep your hands, knees and elbows from becoming bloody messes. Helmets can save your life.

  • Depending on where you are with learning, learn to get off. It sounds silly but if you associate stopping with falling off then you’re going to fall off whenever you have a decision to make. It doesn’t need to be a pretty dismount but get used to the idea of “I’m going to stop here”. Further along, learning to dismount well stops your unicycle from taking all the knocks from being dropped.

  • Don’t get into road or muni riding and neglect time on a small unicycle. It’s very possible to be a muni rider who can’t hop or a road rider that can’t freemount or idle :smile:. While there is a difference in how these feel and how much effort is involved on a bigger wheel, they are critical skills best learned and practiced on something smaller first.

  • Push yourself but not too much. Whatever you’re working towards, identify what you can and can’t do. If you regularly ride a route and have to walk a bit (too rough, too steep), try to push a little bit further along that bit every time. Find things that feel like they’re just out of reach and work at them.

  • When working on distance, it’s all about saddle time. Even a perfect setup will still hurt after 5/10/20/50km unless you’re used to it. Take short breaks when the saddle soreness starts to bother you rather than when it’s screaming at you. Try to ride routes where there are bail-out options if you need to cut it short. Also, hydrate!!!

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That’s probably what was most true for me.
I started on 20" uni and rode in a tennis court. The smoother and flatter the better. I also practiced freemounting on my porch.

Watching videos and talking to people to keep me enthusiastic helps. Sometimes the frustration will get to you. The learning process has been very nonlinear for me: you’ll get nothing for a while and then all of a sudden, you’ll get it.

4

True for me as well :uni: The longer time you spend in the saddle, the more natural it will become in my experience.

  • Balance will come with time in the saddle. Starting out it’ll feel like you’re fighting just to stay upright, whereas eventually it’ll be just like walking :slightly_smiling_face:
  • Mounting you’ll need to deliberately practice at first, but once you get comfortable enough with freemounting then it’ll get smoother and more consistent with time. Most rides (or every ride) will start with a freemount, and if you ride a lot then you’ll get plenty of practice
  • Riding longer distances will become easier with *drumroll* more time in the saddle :cowboy_hat_face: Though the ease of traveling more than a mile or two will also be dependent on what size wheel you’re riding. Doing distance on a tiny wheel is doable but it’ll take a while
5

Find team sport nearby — unicycle basketball, hockey, polo.

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6

Well tell us about what you ride, how long and your current skill level.
…slam

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