So, I made the mistake of only learning to ride the unicycle while having a wall on my right side. I’ve been practicing on and off throughout the past year, but recently have been trying to go straight off the wall into open space about 25 minutes every day.
My issue is that I keep veering off to the left. I’m having a really hard time going where I want to go. My question is should I start practicing going the other direction on the wall (while touching it periodically) or should I just keep going in open space and hopefully my problem will fix itself??
Also, most of the time when I try to get started moving on the unicycle I keep falling off right away or lean too much towards the left and fall in that direction. When I’m actually able to get started though, I’m able to go anywhere from half court to the full court in a gym.
I had the exact same problem. I spent months going strait and turning left. One night after more than a few drinks my friends wanted to see me unicycle. Lo and behold, I turned right to avoid something and it felt completely natural.
Go drink enough to impair your judgement, you might just forget that you can’t turn right!
As a beginner, I always turned to the left, too, though the problem was partly my cheap learner uni with its uncomfortable seat that rotated and chewed holes in my legs. As soon as I replaced that seat, I was freemounting within 24 hours and my riding improved.
Stay away from that wall! It will mess up your riding, and it might even hurt you during one of the thousands of falls you’ll be taking- flat pavement normally won’t. With practice, your problem should solve itself in a day or two.
No help to the OP’s problem but do right handed people turn left easier and left handed people turn right easier? I’m right handed and lefts were always easy, the bigger the wheel the harder the right turn is for me. On my 48 I have to think to turn sharp to the right, the 20 is easier by far.
I noticed that I veer to the left on flat even ground, it took me a while to realize that I wasn’t putting enough weight (I mean, all my weight) in the saddle. Months of Muni got me good at riding with weight on the pedals. Which is no good on flat ground.
With regards to direction, don’t forget unis are like motorbikes: they’ll follow your eye direction. If you want to go right, look to the right (overdo it in the beginning), the uni should follow.
Motorcycles, bicycles, skis, snowboards; also careers and personal relationships - we seem to unerringly head directly towards where we are looking, especially when it’s some sort of obstacle.
Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I just need practice and work on looking towards my right. I have a habit of not paying attention to where I’m looking…
Practicing side mount leg arount was also easier after four beers. So I can’t understand why some people believe alcohol has a negative influence on your balance
There’s a [THREAD=107501]poll[/THREAD] on this question. My experience, like most who answered, is yes, though only when first learning. When you start trying to ride backwards, the mirror image of this tendency will suddenly return to haunt you, though.
what i’ve learned and how i teach people now is you steer with your shoulders. if you want to go straight keep your shoulders straight if you want to go left point them left. it will feel weird at first, but it works trust me! keep practicing man!
I would agree with this, shoulders guide where your wheel will go. A trick I use is if you are veering to the left try riding with your left arm by your side and your right arm outstreched to the right (like flying with one arm). This will add more weight to your right side and help pull you that way. Reaching slightly behind you with your outstretched right hand will help turn your shoulders that way as well.
