Another question, I’m on day 15 now and I can ride quite a good distance, but what is the best way to turn a unicycle?? Do I put more pressure on the pedal in the direction that I want to go, or just lean it like a bicycle?
Re: Turning?
Lean your upper body/torso in the direction you want to go. Push your hips slightly in the other direction.
I’m sure there’s an addition to the sound track to the Rocky Horror Picture Show in there somewhere, but that aside, this is what works for me.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
After learning to perform a planned dismount today, as recommended in another thread, I shall be trying the whole turning thing tomorrow.
BTW, my thighs are burning whilst I’m riding. I didn’t think I was that unfit, I’m guessing it can be put down to the extra tension of staying on the damn thing.
Anyway, it’s all good for getting fit, and I’m still riding round giggling when I crack the next stage of learning to ride.
Don’t be intimidated by turning. It comes quickly.
My legs still ache after doing anything that I’ve not mastered. I’m not in great shape so that shouldn’t be a surprise.
I giggle quite a bit when I ride. Mostly when I ride at night alone in the train station parking lot, I enjoy composing obscene lyrics to my kids’ favorite music. With Barney, etc it was fun. Now that she’s into singers like Avril Lavigne, et al, it’s a tremendous blast. After the ten millionth listen to “Complicated” it’s hard not to want to demolish it.
Sorry, that was OT.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
Kenny,
I agree with Raphael. It takes a bit more to turn sharp corners but generally if you want to turn left, put your left arm back and the right arm forward and the rest of the body should follow.
Gumbo,
Perfectly normal about the thighs.
Andrew
I never learnt how to turn with outside help, it just came to me naturally after a couple of days riding. But, just a while ago I checked out Jack Wiley’s Unicycle Book. It had a section on how to turn, I believe it had two styles. One was just leaning like JJugle mentioned, and the other was called an “Action Reaction” turn. This is accomplished by turning your upper body in the opposite direction than that you wish to go in. It’s sorta confusing. Basically, if you want to turn right, you really quickly spin your UPPER body to the left. Since your upper body is heavier than your lower body, your upper body stays right where it is, and your lower body turns. If you can immagine: you’re standing on top of a disc which is on the ground with bearrings or marbles under it. If you turn your torso to the right, it will actually stay in one place for the most part; however, the rest of that energy will be transferred to turning your lower body in the left direction (the opposite of your upper body). I didn’t realize that there were different turns. I did them all, but never realized they were separate, until I read that they were. Haha.
A third way of turning which I invented when I was starting to ride about 4 or 5 years ago, was to dismount, physically turn around by walking, and then mount, facing the direction you want. Hahahaha. Just kidding.
Good luck.
Re: Turning?
Krashin’Kenny wrote:
> Another question, I’m on day 15 now and I can ride quite a good
> distance, but what is the best way to turn a unicycle?? Do I put more
> pressure on the pedal in the direction that I want to go, or just lean
> it like a bicycle?
Greetings,
It’s been quite some time since I’ve thought about turning, and it
becomes natural quite quickly. I think it’s a combination of slightly
leaning and shifting your hips in the desired direction. It may also
help to slightly extend one arm out and pull the other arm in.
Good luck,
Jason
Re: Turning?
andrew_carter wrote:
>
> generally if you want to turn left, put your left arm back and the
> right arm forward and the rest of the body should follow.
Doh! You guys are correct. I had all of my directions <backwards> in my
post. Sorry about that Krashin Kenney! Do the opposite of what I say
and you won’t be Krashin’ so often.
Cheers,
Jason
I found the easiest (but not the “best”) way to turn is to twist my upper body sharply in the direction I wanted to go. It took longer for me to learn how to turn by leaning. Now mostly I turn by leaning, except when I need to turn sharply.
I was told that if you look where you want to go then you usually end up going there.
Just try riding along, then look to the side you want to turn.
If that helps you do leaning turns, the next thing to learn is to turn without looking, that’s just a matter of thinking about what your body is doing when you’re looking to the side and just do that without actually looking sideways.
Joe
If your legs are burning whilst simply riding, is it possible that you’re not sitting heavily enough in the seat?
Try more weight in seat (which should result also in smoother pedal revolutions).
And relax. Grandmaster 2T says “loosen your waist”.
I think my thighs are burning due to newbieness which may include not enough weight on the seat.
I rode for a good couple of hundred metres today, relaxed and easy, and didn’t feel it too bad in my thighs like I would have done a couple of days ago.
As for turning, I’m getting there with a combination of the techniques posted here, this is a great resource, keep it up