At BUC I met a rider who was self-taught, could ride
a bit but not idle. He could free mount, but he used
a “rear jump mount” (don’t know what it’s called but
you put the uni behind you, seat between your legs,
one foot on a pedal, jump up and ride away). I can’t
mount this way.
I thought this was really unusual to see in a self-taught
beginner. Am I wrong?
Arnold the Aardvark
Re: Unusual beginner?
Actually, it makes sense that if you’d see this at all, it would be with a self-taught person. Most experiences riders teaching someone else to ride would teach the standard “uni in front” mount, or working up to the same from the “curb mount”. Since this person didn’t have anyone to show him, he figured out an approach that worked for him, not knowing there are easier ways to mount.
TB
I am totally self taught. All I had to help me in my quest to learn was a single A4 sheet that came with the uni telling me to keep my back straight and look at a far object - thats it.
To mount, I learnt a variation of the static mount - I’d put the pedal so my left foot was at the bottom, towards the front, put my uni between my legs and jump up - the downforce on the left pedal would have the right pedal on a slight downstroke, I’d put my right foot on it and pedal away immeaditaly. I dont know what type of mount this is but it is still my best mount (I can now do a static (90%), rollback(100%), side mount(70%) and reverse side mount(80%)).
When I could ride a fair distance, I taught myself to roll off curbs so I could ride places without getting off. I had no idea about hopping jumping, or anything like that.
Then I did a search on unicycling on google and found unicycling.com, and my eyes were opened! I started trying the skill levels, street trials and eventually muni.
I never thought of myself as an unusual beginner. After I could ride I taught a mate how to ride - it took him little over a week to learn whereas it took me about three-four weeks. I think if I had a teacher I would have learnt much faster.
I was self-taught too. I agree with Samuel there myself but what I didn’t learnt to do was Kerb jumping or some others like the kick-up mount, ww, gliding, ride with seat in front & back of you.
What I can do is Idling, ride forwards and very nearly backwards riding, (Getting there) Hopping, little jumping and of cause Juggling. (also nearly there) I think you have sum it up there for me Samuel. Some of those I’ve mention, I will get around to do it within the next couple of weeks. I hope to go to the Village fair in Toronto (NSW) in November to do some Demostration’s there.
David.
I taught my self. I got my first two unicycles at the same time from a gay thirft store in Los Angeles. A 20 inch Schwinn and a 24 inch Cycle Pro. I never intended to ride them but wound up doing it. I always do a roll back mount because it seemed easy and I don’t really know any others. I hope to ride with some other riders one day.
jeremy
Humm, interesting, you bought TWO uni’s without the intention to actually ride… that begs for more detail…
Erin
Its not too exciting. I was in California for a car show that changes locations every year. I have some friends who go every year (back when I used to) and this one in particular lives in California. Every year we (me, him and my at the time fiancee) go thirft store shoping. Since he lived in CA we took his finest car, his one of two made, eighteen thousand original miles 1962 Flxible Buick limousine. Eventually we got to Out Of The Closet in West Hollywood and there were two old unicycles lying about. I have a habit of buying things that are a bit out of the ordinary. There’s the beauty salon chair in the dining room. The casket in the bedroom. The antique movie theater chairs. So I saw a couple of unicycles. They were twenty dollars each. Which was too much. They have this thing at most US thirft stores where all the items have a coloured price tag. Each day three colours are chosen to indicate the discount on them. Either fifty, twenty five or ten percet off the ticket price. It normally only applies to clothing. I wanted both but didn’t want to pay the price for somthing I’ll never use. So there was this nice young man working the till. I put on my best flirting face and asked him what colour tickets the unicycles were in the hopes of getting a deal. Being the sexy beast that I am I got them both for twenty American dollars. I put some air in the tires on the way back to the hotel and tried in the parking lot. Not knowing anything I tried to learn by starting with a free mount. I gave up. When we got home I stuck them in my safety deposit closet for a couple of years and then decided to learn last October. I started on the deck by mounting in the archway over the gate and riding. When I got to the end of the deck I switched to the sidewalk. I still couldn’t free mount so I drove an old galvanized pipe into my lawn to mount with but soon I started to do a rollback mount and now I can ride. I wish I had learned properly.
jeremy