Hopping with no hands?
Yes, I’ve seen some people do that. Notably in circus acts. It looks amazing.
So, how is that done? Let’s try to articulate this, so others can try to learn?
Here are my guess:
1.) You pinch your knees to “pull up” the unicycle? Trying this would seem pretty straight forward, but when I watch circus performers do this I cannot see their knee’s doing this action? However, it can be subtle?
2.) You bounce but in a “slightly” unsynchronized motion with the unicycle?
a.) Either, you are slightly “advanced” the full “impact/bottoming out of your weight” on the pedal? When you apply your calf muscle to bounce up?
b.) Or, you are slightly “retard” the the full “impact/bottoming out of your weight” on the pedal? When you apply your calf muscle to bounce up? This is done by “holding a flexed” position and never fully extending for the “up jump motion”.
3.) You just “relax” and surrender yourself to gravity and fall with the object(unicycle) and become a single mass that bounces as one?
What say you? And anyone else who can do this?
Do not force me to read your minds…slam!
That’s what I do. I think the more you have the proper “feel” for the tricks, the less you will need to do this, so it becomes less and less obvious. (I used to do this trick occasionally for jumping rope on a unicycle in shows, but never really put in time to get better at it.)
When hopping with their hands on the seat, a lot of trials “beginners” will put two hands on the seat because they think they need to pull harder, while in reality they are mostly pulling against the force of their own legs. Probably the same here, if you have “learned” the right timing, you only need a bit of clamping to control the unicycle, while in the beginning you need more to make sure it stays with you (or you with it).
I actually use the timing of my downward push to generate the bounce and clamp the seat with my legs. I don’t actually pull the uni up as much as bounce up with it, I guess maybe I clamp my knees but it feels more like I’m clamping with my thighs, seems when I first started learning I was making myself clamp my knees but it was just so hard to keep my balance but then it just evolved into whatever I’m dong now
I’m not sure what made me start doing it and trying to do more with it other than I saw someone jump rope on a uni once a thought hmm, I wonder
Yesterday, Rideone put on a urban group ride in Leipzig, which gave me a good reason to ride the 19" again. I’m pretty glad I was still able to grind rails, scary but rewarding.
As of today, I’ve ridden 100 km on my freewheel. I’ve been enjoying it a lot so far and I’ve been starting to get into some jumps and technical terrain with it now.
Wow very impressive, especially considering you’re new to freewheeling (although obviously very experienced fixed!). Not that I’m in a position to try yet as my freewheeling is pretty sketchy still, but how do you hop like that? Presumably all of your weight is on the front pedal with the brake locked?
Yes, in the beginning it’s pretty much that when hopping in place, weight only on the front foot against the brake. Feels akward, but it’s really not too different from hopping on a fixed wheel, all things considered.
I’ve gotten to a point now where I can distribute the pressure more evently now and don’t need to fully lock the brake a lot of times. Which I think mostly comes down to body position, which I find to be very important on the freewheel anyway. On the fixed uni I ride “behind the unicycle” a lot, the freewheel forces me to be much more centered.
I can’t hop super high (double curb height maybe), but for small obstacles it’s actually kinda nice to just brakecoast the last bit, so I always have the cranks horizontal in the right moment. I’ll see what techniques I can find, I think what I do currently might be a bit limiting. (Probably good for 30-40 cm, but not 75cm+ like a proper rolling hop on fixed).
I’ve not spotted a ‘The shame of it! thread’, so I’m mis-using the brag thread - hopefully some of you will relate…
Today I put shorter cranks on my daily runabout 24", and completely lost my freemount ability! It’s amazing what a difference 10mm of crank length can make. The dog got very bored each time we stopped, but fortunately I was improving by the end of the ride.
More a progress report than a brag, but I feel it is a real achievement for me.
Commuted to work today for the first time on the KH29 127mm cranks.
15km 160m elev. gain - 1 hr 9min To work
16.6km 213m elev. gain 1 hr 22min To home
Never though I could maintain the high cadence to keep up the speed.
Definitely more of cardio work out than the KH36.
Had to use aero bars to feel comfortable at speed… I have both hands at the end of aero bars pushing down so I feel the seat pushing up as I am sitting as far back on seat as possible… almost off the back.
Previously, I’ve only used the KH29 to get to/from Train Station… without handle.
I’ve been commuting to/from work with the KH36 since April 2022… 3 days a week, recently.
Bearings need replacing on the KH36. Got some from unicycle.com (Aust)…along with bearing puller and 36” wheel parts - awaiting my 125mm Schlumpf hub… cross fingers…soon.
Also got KH Spirit cranks 127/110 for the KH36…or KH29.
Looking forward to be back on the KH36 next week, to/from work.
How good is Unicycle.com (Aust) !!!
I place order and pay with direct transfer on Thursday (yesterday) and it is delivered (from Melbourne to Sydney) Today!!… the next day. They threw in a rim strip for free, as I forgot to order.
Thanks
Nice one, I’ve been running 100s on my 29" and 90s on my 24" for a couple of years now and can confirm they work great with alot of practice and can get your speed up quite a bit.
Glad the 110s are working out, I’m adventuring into 90s and 75s for fun this upcoming summer. Though it may seem counterintuitive too a big tire will be more stable when learning with short cranks but a lighter wheel is more responsive and will make the cranks have a bit more control. The responsive wheel can be twitchy without practice though.
