Hi everyone!
You may have seen my recent series of Mountain Unicycling tutorials. As my pre-planned videos come to an end, I thought I might ask which questions people would like to see me try and answer. There will be one on equipment, one on braking and one on setup that are already preproduced coming up.
It’s been a while since I was a beginner at Muni, so I’m especially curious for questions those have (I tried my best to put myself in the position of being one and to collect common questions I’d see here), but I will probably also expand this to a few more advanced techniques, so I’d like to hear your questions there too.
I do have a few pieces of advice that I still want to put into videos, but it hasn’t really come together as whole video ideas yet, but I’m sure there is plenty of topics that I didn’t think about yet to round those out into more complete packages.
I love the tutorial videos. Here are some ideas. They aren’t refined, but perhaps they trigger a better idea from you:
How to find good/new MUni trails, and how to interpret the quality of a trail from a map or the internet.
How to build lines in your mind when cruising a trail for the first time. Walking through different ways to think about lines.
How to session spots to get better. And how much to add that in to regular riding. And maybe thats more self-explanatory.
Skills that aren’t directly useful most of the time, but help build general riding ability. Strategies to still stand longer, alt mounting options, riding in reverse, etc.
Disclaimer: I need to start watching the videos but if its not specifically covered yet, techniques for going uphill off road and I suppose, also going down something steep.
Biggest issue for me when learning was mental, getting over that bridge that I wasn’t clearing things because I wasn’t doing a “full send” and committing to the control and speed needed to successfully navigate terrain and clear sections.
What I would like to learn is balancing on the spot.
So, a little bit like Zoé does in minute 4:50:
The idea is, when I go offroad and the terrain is challenging for me, to have better control when driving real slow. So i thought, this skill or training towards it might be helpful.
I can jump on the spot for that, but this could be a handy alternative.
Probably it’s just learning by doing, but I’d be happy for helpful ideas, thanks!
And Finn, thank you so much for your tutorials!
I’d also like a stand still tutorial. There are several videos of those performing a stand still. I’ve not found any that offer advice on how to do it or approach the skill if you can’t do so yet.
Try riding slow (while holding your saddle or handlebars) into level pedals and turn on the still stand.
When you start to lose your balance, jump once to regain your balance and start the next stillstand and again try to hold it as long as you can.
Instead of hopping like a pogo stick (which does work to balance but it just seems out of place to me) try hopping with purposeful intent to regain your balance with just one hop.
Be ambidextrous.
After a bit of practice, everything starts to slow down and the hops become less and less.
Soon you will be able to ride to a stop, put your arms out (or not) and balance for quite a while.
I practice stillstands at stop signs.
Then you learn to put different arms out (for signalling left or right), or keep both hands on the bars for going straight.
A one or two second stop usually seems about right to feel law abiding.
I’d done some small inadvertent hops previously. Tried again and failed quickly. My absolute lack of controlled hopping ability left me feeling like I needed to pogo stick to keep balance. It likely wouldn’t do any harm or break it, but I’m not comfortable doing that as my Torker wasn’t designed for that kind of use. I’d rather have it long term instead of unintentionally breaking the axle.
Right now I need to complete more quests to earn some gold pieces to afford better gear. Then I can focus on unlocking the Hopping skill before I can start dumping some saved skill points into Stand Still.
I should have clarified that pogo stick jumping is OK too. It is what most riders do.
It’s how you get comfortable with the motion.
Once you can though, that’s when you should start hopping with intent instead of riding up to an obstacle, hopping 3-10 times, and then finally hopping over whatever.
This is just what I do.
To kinda steal a quote from the Mandalorians… “This is my way”
Keep it up.
How about learning stillstands before hopping? (no stress on the uni)
