Wheel-Walking a Bicycle?

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Here’s a thought…

For those of you who can wheel walk a unicycle, have you ever tried sitting on
the handlebars of your bicycle and wheel walking the front tire?

Is it easier or harder?

I can’t do either, but I imagine that the bike would be less scary simply
because you wouldn’t fall foward/backward. However, it is possible that the
left/right turning would be more difficult, to the point where perhaps a
unicycle would be easier. Any thoughts or experiences with this?

Would a bike perhaps be a good stepping stone to learning on a uni?

…JAG J Jugglers Against Gravity A http://users.deltanet.com/~juggler/ G
juggler(at)deltanet(dot)com

2

Re: Wheel-Walking a Bicycle?

Text item:

>For those of you who can wheel walk a unicycle, have you ever tried sitting
>on the handlebars of your bicycle and wheel walking the front tire? Is it
>easier or harder?

Easier but different.

>I can’t do either, but I imagine that the bike would be less scary simply
>because you wouldn’t fall foward/backward. However, it is possible that the
>left/right turning would be more difficult, to the point where perhaps a
>unicycle would be easier. Any thoughts or experiences with this?

All you have to do is lean back slightly to keep some weight on the rear
wheel. You still need to be very aware of your balance because you’re going
real slow, and you still have to steer to stay balanced. If you turn the
wheel too much, the bike will fold over. Steering would not be difficult, but
the whole process is inherently awkward.

>Would a bike perhaps be a good stepping stone to learning on a uni?

It might be a good way to learn the foot action, but will not help you with
the balance. I would recommend getting comfortable rolling your feet down the
front of the tire one by one, smoothly and swiftly but without letting the
bike coast (that would only come much later on the unicycle).

When your feet are used to pushing the tire without knocking each other off,
it’s time to go back to the unicycle hold onto a wall (fence, or someone
else’s car).

John Foss unifoss@calweb.com

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3

Re: Wheel-Walking a Bicycle?

JAG wrote:
>
> Here’s a thought…
>
> For those of you who can wheel walk a unicycle, have you ever tried sitting on
> the handlebars of your bicycle and wheel walking the front tire?
Yes.

> Is it easier or harder?
I couldn’t do it.

> I can’t do either, but I imagine that the bike would be less scary simply
> because you wouldn’t fall foward/backward. However, it is possible that the
> left/right turning would be more difficult, to the point where perhaps a
> unicycle would be easier. Any thoughts or experiences with this?
The control is totally bizarre. I don’t think they’re particularly related. The
only way I can see which is similar to wwing a uni is if you turn the handlbars
90 degrees, and walk the bike in a circle. Then you get 2 directions of freedom.

> Would a bike perhaps be a good stepping stone to learning on a uni?
I don’t think so. It’s too different.

Stu

4

Re: Wheel-Walking a Bicycle?

> >Would a bike perhaps be a good stepping stone to learning on a uni?
>
> It might be a good way to learn the foot action, but will not help you with
> the balance. I would recommend getting comfortable rolling

I’ll second John here. I don’t think a bike would much good at all for uni wheel
walking. The hard part of uni wheel walking is forward- backwards balance which
is not a problem on a bike. Side-Side balance is a bit of a problem when wheel
walking because you don’t have a very solid stance and you’re going slow, but
its not the hard part.

An important part of wheel walking, like John said is foot position. It is
sufficient to practice this while holding onto a wall or fence. You need to get
used to sitting with your feet off the pedals, and then figure out how to keep
your feet from running into each other (which is a big problem when you have big
feet like me). But the most important part is the foot stroke. The most powerful
part of the stroke is at the very end. You should extend your leg and push off
the wheel with your heel. Try to get long smooth strokes rather than short
choppy ones. Past that, you have to learn balance, which isn’t easy.

Brett bymaster@purdue.edu http://shay.ecn.purdue.edu/~bymaster/