Thanks anton! I’ll keep that tip about the course in mind. It seems easier to turn if I have to. Haha. I have a couple cones here at work. I should probably try to ride faster too. The parking lot here at work isn’t flat or level, so I think I’ll have to wait till next week when I have some time at home to practice there!
My dad/boss stopped by so I asked him to take a video!
Hey Galthrojh!
You are doing GREAT!
You are reminding me of DarthElevator.
As far as I could tell, he was the fastest learner on the forum, at least since I have been visiting here.
Check out his thread HERE.
Hey Darth, if you happen by here, let us know you are okay!
Hope you don’t mind my pointing others to your AWESOME thread!
Way to go Galthrojh!
Thanks 57UR! I just saw his video. That’s really really cool after one week, so steady! I’ve been reading a good part of your thread for tips too 57UR! It’s really helpful and motivating. =)
I had a ton of practice today, I wanna get up to speed ASAP, playing catch up with all of you pros! My deadline is 3 weeks and that’s when class starts. I hope to be riding back and forth to classes (about 5 miles a day)!
Just now, I had to close a gate, so I freemounted, rode up to the gate, closed it, freemounted, rode back. Without a hitch! I high-fived myself in my head. =)
Thanks Galthrojh!
No doubt, I will be taking tips from YOU before long!
What sort of musician are you?
I was a piano major and taught piano for years prior to getting into the art teaching field.
Also played several other instruments along the way.
There are quite a few unicyclists here who are also musicians.
Way to go on riding to the gate to lock it… and riding back!
Sounds like you have a new routine.
Pretty NIFTY!
Haha no! I’ll be taking tips for you for a long time to come I’m sure!
I sing and play guitar mostly, hand percussion some, drums a little, and sold my piano because I wasn’t paying enough attention to it. I’m a songwriter and that’s actually my major (I know right?). Over at MTSU’s Recording Industry program. What else do you play 57UR? If I had all the time and money, I’d pick up as many instruments as I could. Right now I’m gonna limit myself to the three or four.
I always make sure to ride some before I leave work, though I messed up a couple times before I was satisfied. Cycling shorts are very much in order. I’ve turned a couple times, but never really consistently and usually fell off after I turned 
Aching more than the previous days now that I can ride. Hopefully it’ll just keep getting easier! Right now I just want to be able to ride smoother and turn.
wom123: I do sometimes when someone’s there (like my dad) I’ve uploaded a couple videos here! I’ll keep doing that though. Oh and I can’t see those pictures you posted.
There’s a guy at my college who wanted to start a unicycle club, I sent him some messages, he gave me great advice on turning!
“Push your hips out in the direction you want to go but keep your center of gravity over the tire. So, hips into the turn, lean away from the turn.”
I can turn, but I think sometimes I turn far too sharply, ending up in a small circle then a UPD. I think I’m gonna stop looking so hard to the left or right and choose something in between the sides and straight. Haha
Day 11
I guess I put in enough practice to call it day 11.
Didn’t wanna ride much at first, after yesterday, my body was sore in a bunch of places. My biggest trouble has been settling in comfortably after freemounting and turning. Along with just plain endurance and riding smoothly.
Went out to the parking lot for one or two rides at a time, freemounting (I don’t think I used my car more than 1x or 2x the whole day) and tried to work on turning. Freemounts worked after about one or two tries at a time usually. Just looking where I wanted to go usually turned me sufficiently. Biggest part was just making gradual turns. If I looked too far to the left or right I would try to turn too sharp and UPD. Didn’t have extremely long rides for the most part. I was really still sore all over. Though one time I did make a big circle around the lot, then another circle, boy that was fun. Longest ride up until that point.
Freemounts! Like I said, biggest trouble has been settling in comfortably after freemounting. Crude language may be used here on. I’ve been setting the seat up to about halfway down the seat on the crotch, and when I freemount, I find that the seat is too far forward and I have to struggle to rearrange it (as well as having to adjust my pedal position! Going to buy flatter shoes soon) within the first few strokes/rotations, forcing me to put all of my weight on my legs until I get comfy. Most of the time I get tired just before I get everything set up or just lose balance and UPD… or continue to ride standing up squeezing the seat between my legs. What I have found that works (for my setup and my height) is to put the tip of the seat/seat bumper up against the crotch, and when I freemount, everything is in place and I just have to adjust the pedals, and not have to worry about sitting on my balls (which I have done at times, albeit lightly, after having given up on adjusting while riding).
Setup is 24" Nimbus II, 125mm cranks, 200mm seatpost (raised up past minimum to where I can see 3/4 of the “MADE IN TAIWAN” thingy) May have to buy a 300 mm seatpost or try the new freemount with it at minimum. Haven’t lowered it again since I figured this out so will have to do that.
Riding! Got home 30 minutes before sundown (… I’ve never said sundown in my life) and proceeded to ride around the neighborhood. Or try to. Holy hell this is tiring! I failed to freemount a couple times, used my car once and a mailbox once to mount and go. It was after this point that I figured out the change of position in the freemount Then things went smoother, but still, tiring as hell. But since this is a generally level and even road, I could concentrate more on smooth pedaling and keeping the momentum going, as opposed to the Stop, Go motions I had been doing. Oh this is fun! Not afraid of falling forward while going too fast as most of the times that I have, I just end up jogging it off. Tomorrow is Christmas, no work, and I will be out on the pavement again. It’s a big neighborhood, but my college is way bigger so it’s time to get to work and start flying around! I think I will become very fit by the end of this semester just out of necessity. Weight on seat has been a lot easier on level ground, and at this point, I just want to make my riding smooth and second nature.
Merry Christmas everyone!
One thing I forgot to add: When free mounting, feel free to look at the pedals until your feet hit them, but right after that look straight forward and pedal away. Has helped me immensely!
When I 1st started I found that I could only turn left 'cause I always rode around the block counterclockwise. So make sure u work on turning both directions or else you’ll end up like me, having to learn to turn all over again. Btw I didn’t learn to free-mount 'till after I’d learned to ride pretty smooth, so you’re a fast learner! Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the tip! I’ll make sure to do that so I don’t pull a Zoolander. Tomorrow I’ll have a lot of time, so I hope to get that down at least a little. I probably should have focused on riding smoother before freemounting, haha. When I first started freemounting I got on and then thought, “Now what?” without really being able to ride. Haha. Thanks again for your encouragement!
Again, Merry Christmas! I hope everyone ate too much!
I remember this moment myself.
My next goal is to idle and hop, right now i have no idea how to do that.
Greetings
Byc
Day 12 and 13
Haha yeah Byc. I’m hopping a little, but not consistently. Usually just a hop right after freemount to center things.
Day 12 was pretty much a little riding around (or trying) the neighborhood and realizing how tiring unicycling is. (Standing up a lot of the time without realizing it and also just being tired in general)
Day 13: Back at work today. Had an hour or so of riding altogether.
New Shoes! Up until now I had been wearing hiking shoes which had solid soles, but kinda too rugged for pedals. (I used them on my bike around college, but biking’s easy) I wanted cheap and bought some Air Speed shoes from Walmart (per Unicaw89’s suggestions on other shoe threads) and really these are decent. Flat shoes that have only one run of rubber on the sole, and hell, I paid 20 bucks. These however made it so much easier to adjust my feet once they hit the pedals or as I pedaled away after freemounts. If you’re learning and your shoes aren’t flat, try em out.
Really really need to buy cycling shorts. Just a bit short on cash atm, so I can’t right now, though I will definitely have some soon. I’ve been pedaling standing up a lot if I can’t get situated, Crude words will be spoken and have gotten pretty decent at adjusting the seat as I ride at a slower pace so that I don’t sit on my balls.
Sit on the seat! It’s what everyone says, but when you’re not adjusted properly, sometimes you just don’t. When you do though, it makes everything easier. You just need to get used to using your hips and the seatpost to control your momentum. Then your really just need to play catch up with the pedals instead of plowing through dead spots.
Turning! You can push down hard on the pedals and twist to do sharp, tire skinning turns, or simply just twist. What’s better though (make sure you’re sitting on the seat) is to use your hips and point them in the direction you want to turn (left/right + forward) of course. And just keep pedaling through. Today was the smoothest turning i’ve done. It’s great! Made sure to do it a good number of times before it turned dark so I remember.
Bumps! Plow through em, just know that the momentum is going to push you forward going over a bump, so let your momentum fall back a tiny bit and adjust once you’re over. I just kept at it a few times until I got it. Yes I fell off and let the unicycle drop a few times… Those times are decreasing though. The next set of bumpers shouldn’t get half as scratched as these (until I try something harder I guess.)
In fact, always end your practice on a positive note. End on a good run of what you wanted to do, or at least better than previous attempts. This is a good rule when practicing anything.
It’s dark, time to leave work, and rest up so I can uni more tomorrow! :3
Hey just wanted to throw out there that this thread has helped me a ton. I’m still not as good as you yet, but I really think it’s helped me progress as nicely as I have the last 3 days.
Thanks for sharing your experiences so all could benefit!
Day 14 ? Rain, then wind and cold.
I’m great it’s helped you a lot Killian! By your progress I think I need to ask you for help starting tomorrow =)
I had a couple layers of clothes under my super thick hoodie and was still cold! Call me a wimp, but I’ve only seen winters this last 4 years, the rest of my life I was living near the equator. =)
Just a few clips from today. Didn’t ride too much but I made sure to get some good ones in. Not the smoothest rides I’d like to show you, but didn’t have a cameraman then.
Hopping! Get the pedals horizontal, and just pull up on the saddle (handle if you have one), and jump a little. Emphasis on pull up. If you’re not used to it, pull up real hard first and you’ll realize later just how much you needa pull up. You can’t really pull it up past your body so just pull up and hop. I had been practicing holding on to something or near something, and today I just decided to freemount and hop, and it worked :3 Could also hop in circles. Gonna try jumping to the side tomorrow to see how curbs will turn out.
Oh oh oh! I got cycling shorts! Gonna try em out tomorrow.
And $300 and $50 gift card. Gonna buy a trials uni soon! =3
Welcome to the forum. Can you already ride or are you learning?
What is this “bicycle” that you speak of?
What trials are you looking at?
Looking good so far. I can tell you are officially hooked now.Well come to the funny farm!
Peace,
DhEXED
Figured I could make you guys laugh
So someone teach me how to jump a bit higher or what I need to watch out for. Seat hit my crotch on that last one a bit and then my right foot didn’t really stick. 
Do I need to lower my seat a bit more? I think I need to at least get up curbs like the one next to me comfortable at the very least.
That’s cool to hear sayi! Welcome!
Killian, thinking of getting a KH trials next week. Just 'cause it’s pretty and I want a smaller wheel to see what it’s like.
Haha yeah DhEXED! This is fun! Gonna rest a bit today, so not too much riding, but it’s gradually getting smoother. The uneven parking lot makes me concentrate of which way my momentum is going more, and I think that’ll help me out in the future.
Edit: Oh yeah. At this point I’m going to stop keeping track of days but update when I learn something new. Hit the 2 week mark and I can ride half decent. Fun stuff! Needa work on getting it smoother, but I’m sure just keeping at it will help that. Hopefully this will help others. Like I said, I’ll still detail when I learn new things in hopes it may help others, and also really just reminders for myself. All of your support was amazing =)
“Figured I could make you guys laugh.”
Yes, Galthrojh, you did! (But not AT you… rather WITH you!)
You are a GOOD sport as well as a FAST learner!!
Keep posting for the fun of it whether you have significant achievements or not.
Thanks for sharing!
Haha, loved the last video 
I feel like that’ll be me once I let go of the chairs I’ve lined up! Also, you are learning mad fast! How much time do you put in a day? I scanned the thread but I may have missed it if you said it.
Wish I had the guts you do! I figure I NEED to learn to ride decently because I absolutely don’t have the guts to wipe out in front of others multiple times! :S
Haha. It’s just that at work I tend to have a lot of freetime (work at a golf driving range) so throughout the day, I go out, ride 5 to 10 mins, go back inside, etc. if you wanna see a fast learner, Killian (over in the Rec.Sport.Unicycling subs) is at 30+ revs in like 4 days. Haha. We all learn at different speeds :3
Also, having practiced mostly at the range, most all of our customers have been watching me wipe out since I started :3 They may laugh at first, but when they see you ride, they’ll probly cheer you on 
Most of the time, unless your laces get stuck in a pedal or something, you’ll land on your feet. No worries