The story so far: I have had my (cheap Taiwanese) unicycle for five days now,
and a group of us have been trying to master the skill with varying degrees of
success. My personal best is 7 revolutions, just 15 minutes ago.
I have read the FAQ, and the various conflicting views about learning in the
archives, but I still have a few queries. Perhaps, if the answers are
interesting, they could be added to the FAQ.
- Which part of the foot should be on the pedal?
I assume it is the balls of your feet. Is this correct?
- Is zig-zagging bad?
At one stage I found I was continually accelerating until I fell off. I
attempted to straighten up to slow down without luck. Soon I started to zig-zag
fairly violently (around about 30 degrees from the direction I was heading); I
find this checks my speed.
Another learner here tends to keep the wheel fairly straight. Another is
somewhere in between.
Does anyone have any comments about the zig-zagging? Is it a bad thing that I
should actively try to overcome? Is it something which will naturally wear off?
Perhaps it is a positive thing, as I imagine someone zig-zagging would find it
far easier to turn around? Do experienced unicyclists zig-zag?
- How long is it all going to take?
I think I have had an advantage over most learners; having read much of the
archives, I have had a fair idea that unicycling was not going to be an easy
task. Unlike juggling, which is often a lot easier than it looks (few people
believe they themselves could be juggling 3 balls in well under an hour,)
unicycling is much harder than it looks - several comments from first-timers
have convinced me of that.
Nevertheless, there were some disappointing periods where I (and others) seemed
to make little progress. I think the FAQ should do its best to warn people
“Unicycling is tricky. Learning to unicycle takes roughly <x> hours to learn to
do the basic manouevres. Don’t give up!”
- How inflated should the tires be?
I have over-inflated my tires (from memory, they should be 32psi, and I have
them around 45 psi) until they seem to adequate support my weight without
virtually twisting off the rim when the unicycle is turned on the spot. Is
this wrong?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Regards,
Julian
– Julian Orbach (julian@cs.uq.oz.au) – University of Queensland –
Brisbane, Australia