i started learning wheelwalking a couple of days ago and i believe i’ve now sufficiently passed what i always thought of as the ultimate rite of passage into serious unicycling. i can do an average of about 6 metres and a maximum of 10. it’s such a great feeling, and very good exercise.
my problem now is the transition back to pedalling. i think i’ve worked out that it works best with horizontal cranks, but i’m having trouble keeping track of the position. what’s the best way to learn? should i just look down, or practise the distance for the cranks to revolve enough? are certain multiples of crank-revolutions easier than others?
Thats great youve progressed as much as you have with WWing, for the transition back to the pedals, i find it quite easy. I just glance down slightly and right as one of the pedals are coming back down, so it is right above bring horizontal, i put my foot on it, from there i can either bring my other foot down too, or just ride one-footed
Wow, a couple days? It took me weeks to WW that far. I started with glancing down and then quickly putting my feet on the pedals. Now that I have better control, I can dangle my right foot until I feel the pedal in the right place and then put my left foot down. I suppose you could figure out how to count wheel revolutions, but that just seems more complicated than it’s worth.
i did find it unexpectedly easy… maybe it’s just about how much experience you have with unicycling before you try it. the better you are at regular riding, the finer your adjustments can be for both dimensions of balance.
ok, i suppose i have to settle for the easy answer and the hard way - practise. just now i’m still a bit wobbly and looking down sometimes causes me to lean forwards, so my feet are walking too frantically to start bothering about a descent back to pedals. i shall practise.
jerrick - yeah, that’s about the position i imagined. it seems contrary to one of the first rules you learn about unicycling: mounting by stepping on the far away pedal leaves you on your arse. i’ll stick to my horizontal cranks, thank you very much.
i’ve been working on my ww cause carson can do it and i’m jealous. i can only get about 3 kicks in. i don’t think it has anything to do with how long you’ve been riding, cause i’ve been riding for almost 3 years now and it’s taken me a month to get those 3 kicks in.
Stop kicking and start walking, that should help. Gently! Remember, the speed is very slow and you don’t want to accelerate as you do it.
For getting back to the pedals, I prefer catching my dominant pedal when it’s on it’s way up. But you can also catch a front pedal on its way down, you just have to lean into it. Back when I did Freestyle all the time, I didn’t even need to look down as I could feel where my pedals were (easier with 125s than with my current 102s). Otherwise, a little glance down shows me enough to know, with practice, when to put my foot down. What you want to avoid is walking along with your head pointed straight down. This may be necessary at first, but having your head like that screws up your balance, plus it doesn’t look good.
Or you can WW faster, then go into a glide. But you still have to find a pedal to get back to them…
ah, now that’s interesting. you could just feel from the balance of the unicycle? well, that’ll take a while to learn, but meanwhile what you’re saying is get to know how long to wheelwalk from whichever position the cranks are in when you glance down? i’ll try that out, thanks.
as for wheelwalking tips, i find that keeping your back straight is most important in ww out of all the tricks i’ve done. if you don’t, you’ll need to accelerate more than is possible. it means worse falls when you fail, but longer distances when you succeed.
I wasn’t measuring distance, I think I was feeling the “wag” of the pedals as they went around. Now I’m not sure. I’ll have to try it some and see if I can still do it.
Yes, keeping the back straight, and upright, is a good idea. Get used to the upper body position, and learn how to move the wheel under you to stay controlled.
i think just now i’ll work on getting good enough to be in enough balance whenever the pedals are in the right position. usually i wait till they’re correctly orientated, then find i have to do a bout of frantic wheelwalking because i’ve lost balance in one way or another.
omg, i went like 20 feet just now, and i could kindof feel myself balancing over the wheel. i went foot to foot instead of kick and catch and i can ww so much better. i see why it’s hard to get back to pedals. i can’t do that yet, but i did try looking down while walking it. btw, if you fall off a uni and scream “YES!!!”, everyone who wasn’t staring already starts to. thank you john.
