Rather than posting all over again, look at this thread.
Really? Five years ago I was still young and needed training wheels 
Hello to you all…
I’ve been enjoying the forum for months now, but this is my first post. I learned to ride in 1971 on a thrown away unicycle with a small, hard tricycle wheel. My parents bought me a 24" Wards Riverside for Christmas that year, and I spent a lot of time on it until 1974 when I got my driver’s license.
This year, at 55, I realized that I could get a good cardio and core workout while enjoying this fun, lighthearted, and rather unique flashback to my youth.
I bought a 26" Nimbus II in July, got my meniscus tear fixed in August, and have been working up to 6 to 10 mile rides two or three times a week. Great fun!
I’m impressed at the improvements in the unicycles, and AMAZED at the skills I see some of you exhibit.
Here’s hoping we can all enjoy this for many years to come.
Happy New Year to you all.
Whereabouts metro Detroit are you? I was originally from a town called Berkley. Learned to ride back there in 71 too!
I grew up in East Detroit (now called Eastpointe), lived in St. Clair Shores, then moved to Warren.
I was in charge of the recruiting area there: east detroit, warren, roseville, royal oak… from 92-96. Still have family in ferndale.
You got the best hand weather wise! I’m sure you don’t miss our winters!
Roots
I too grew up in that metro Detroit scene. Called Ferndale home but went to high school in Madison Heights. My brother lives in Royal Oak. Parents, another brother, and sister live near Lansing and Ann Arbor.
I don’t ever wish I lived there still. Oregon is one perfect paradise for muni riding. I did live near Santa Cruz in the 90’s. Some of the most beautiful trails in the country which I do miss.
I do admire the beautiful scenery out west, it must be a treat to ride there. My best rides here are in the Metroparks. We have quite a few converted rail beds here now and I hope to explore some of them.
Just had to share: changed my glasses today and went for a ride on my 36. When I was mounting, my bifocals seemed to have a different focal point and I lost my balance! The next attempt was fine. While I was riding, every time I looked down, I started to lose my balance. Looking straight ahead was fine. Have any of you ever had aging problems like this?? Getting older stinks! Ha!
Yes! I used for a long time my old “unifocal” glasses when riding, because the lower part of the bifocal glasses have the focus in reading distance, and then I could not see the ground clearly. That was really distracting/confusing. But now I just use the bifocals. It’s a question of getting used to them.
Best regards,
Sanne
Sort of. I got new glasses and had to get progressive lenses this time. It takes some getting used to. No issues mostly (once getting past the learning curve) ; not even riding, but when I’m up on the wheel, I feel really tall when I’m wearing them. I don’t mind feeling taller than normal; maybe it is even correct, but I wear my old glasses for riding to avoid messing the new ones up, so when I feel “too tall”, it is my signal to go back inside and change my glasses because I’ve got the wrong ones on.
My new prescription is progressive for the purpose of seeing things up close. That’s not much of an issue for riding, so if your case is like mine, maybe it would help if you get a second pair (cheap or otherwise) with just the distance part of the prescription (not bifocal). Alternately, it may just be a matter of training your brain to cope with the new optical situation. Sanne.Kj’s comment backs that up. I don’t want to train my brain thus because if I do, I’ll lose the aforementioned ability to know I’m wearing the wrong specs for riding.
Oh well, my mistake. My glasses are with progressive lenses too (not bifocal, I’m not so used to the English terms.) So my experiences are with progressive lenses.
Best regards,
Sanne
I too meant progressive. It is not that I can’t ride with these, it is just the glass has the focal area different from the glasses I usually wear. Just thought it was kind of a humorous thing that happens to us “mature” individuals with waning eyesight! Anything thing else “age unique” you have found you have run into??
It takes a LOT longer to build up muscle strength and stamina than a decade or two ago. Also takes a lot longer to learn new skills. Now that I think about it, this could be a pretty long list!
I am only 55 but I am noticeably building strength and stamina every time I ride, especially on the hill climbs. In my teens I did a lot of long distance running and bicycling and I have led a physically active life
I suspect it is easier to rebuild what has been there before especially if it was not too long ago.
Recent scientific research disputes the “old dog new tricks” notion. The conclusion based on observations was that older people simply don’t have as much time as the idle youth to put into practicing new skills.
Physical skills are inhibited a bit because our bodies are not in their prime. Aches and pains are a considerable inhibitor. Moreover we have matured enough to lose the sense of indestructibility found in the young.
Well, it’s perhaps not TOO long ago, but from your teens up to “only” 55 is still an appreciable period of time, isn’t it.
My research (not recent, done in 2003) showed that older people (especially > 40 y.o.) take longer to learn riding a unicycle. Not expressed in calendar days (which would support your statement), but in solid practice time. Note that this is from self-reporting so there might be an age-related bias but the effect is pretty robust.
Progressive is just the new bifocal; no abrupt transition between prescriptions. I was rolling with it.
It does seem to take longer to recover from injuries. I can expect it to take weeks or months to recover from a skinned knee. I don’t recall it taking that long as a child.
There is still much to be learned about physiology. The effect of the environmental stress have been shown to cause epigenetic changes to the expression of genes in subsequent children and grandchildren.
Since it can have effects over generations it seems likely that one’s experiences in youth could have have a lifelong effect in the way the body responds to physical challenges.
Exposure to physical stress in youth could well predispose a person to rapid regeneration of muscle throughout their life when expose again.
Moreover I remained physically active until knee problems made me back off in my early forties. I recovered from them after about a decade so the break is not really so long.
The effect is far from robust. There is a lot more to statistics than having the computer draw a curve on some data.
Your strong upswing above age forty is based on a handful of respondents. It is not statistically significant. Correlation is very low in this part of the curve.
Your pilot study results do suggest that other factors are far more important than age. Normally in statistics another survey would be designed to elucidate those other factors.
Moreover correlation (even it it was there) does not prove causation. Consider the backgrounds of those who were over forty before 2003.
Like me, they were born before 1960. When I grew up, small bicycles were rare. Kids did not have early exposure to cycling and struggled to ride a 28 inch bike when they could reach the pedals at about age ten. There were no skateboards.
We simply didn’t build balance skills at the ages modern children are exposed to them. Such skills are more deeply embedded in the brains of younger generations. It does not mean that older people are slower learners.
In my own case I spent about 15 hours to reach the designated competence at age 54. However I learnt on a unicycle that was far too small with a seat that was far to low, on narrow tyre while riding across the grass from a kerb start in my front yard. There were several obscured holes that would throw me off every time for quite a while.
My instruction was from reading online. Some of the suggestions were just plain wrong and I had to work that out for myself. With better conditions I think I would have learnt in a few hours.
My 33 year old son reached the survey level in about twenty minutes under my instruction with no previous unicycle experience. He was on my KH trials with the seat at an appropriate height, on an underinflated Maxxis Creepy Crawly. This was also across my front yard but I had filled in the worst holes by then.
However he had been riding bicycles since he was less than three years old and had learnt to do still stands and wheel walks on his bike. These factors were obviously far more significant than his age.
This discussion on whether it takes longer to learn when you’re older is interesting.
My older brother (by two years) learned to ride a unicycle as a teen. My folks swear he just jumped on it and started riding. Never had to practice. He always did well with sports where balance was key. I certainly never remember him having to learn how to ride.
When I was in my twenties I found his unicycle in the garage and tried to ride it. He wasn’t around to give me any tips … I was totally on my own. I gave up after an hour. Since then I thought it was probably too difficult for me to learn.
Last May I saw some kids (mostly girls) riding unicycles around the neighborhood. Of course it reminded me of my brother and my one attempt to learn. Within a week I bought a learner unicycle and combed through the web for info on how to learn. I practiced daily for about a half hour each day. It took about 5 hours total to be able to ride 100 feet. I’m in the over 40 y.o. group … in fact I’m almost in the geezer group.
I’m not really that athletic. I’ve done some sports over the years but have no natural talent at it. My only other athletic accomplishment was learning how to snowboard in my early thirties. Oh and I rode my bicycle from Astoria Oregon to San Francisco with a friend when I was in my early twenties.
I think I was able to learn to unicycle relatively quickly through what I found on the web and determination to stick with it.
Unfortunately my brother is no longer around to see my accomplishment. Not sure what he’d think of it. I suppose he would have ridden circles around me … doing jumps and tricks to show how much better he was. That’s kind of how our relationship was. Even so, I wish he was here to do that. RIP Mike.