I’ve been successfully riding uni for three weeks now and but my main frustration is that I just can’t seem to suss out the freemount with the cranks in horizontal position. Every time I step onto the dominant pedal the cranks swoop vertically immedately, making placing the other foot almost impossible. I’ve watched videos and uni colleagues freemount and their cranks always remain horizontal… how do I achieve this? Surely any pressure on the pedals results in the cranks turning. Should all the weight be on the saddle? I can sometimes achieve a successful freemount with cranks 7 o’clock but the wheel still kicks back and the vertical position makes riding forward tricky. I own a UDC Trainer 20” with 6” cranks.
The best way I can describe it was mentioned not too long ago. If you have ever stepped on a little kid laying on the ground, you don’t put any weight on that kid or else splat. Step on your dominate pedal like that. NO weight. Hop up and when both feet are set, go. My issue is placing my second foot correctly on the pedal. If I am trying to mount uphill I often place my foot too far forward/backward/in/out. I hope that will get better with experience.
Don’t step on that back pedal. Just hold it in place with your foot. Then “hop” up onto the forward pedal.
Roll back mount:
Step on that back pedal and push it enough to roll the wheel back past the vertical pedal position. Then place your other foot on what was the forward pedal and is now the back pedal.
You seem to be doing something that is exactly in between these two successful techniques.
You could try stepping onto the crank and putting your weight near the hub, and then when you put your front foot on and start riding just slide your back foot over to the pedal.
Say you’re a pirate who got his leg shot off with a cannonball above the knee. So now you got’s a peg leg . Your parrot talks you into riding a unicycle, so what do you do ?
Sit on the uni with the left pedal back, unless you had your right leg shot off, whereas you should reverse these instructions.
Put your wooden leg on the left pedal. Jump forward with your right foot onto the right, forward pedal and ride off. One footed I guess, but seriously I have seen pirates do harder tricks than that.
The point here is the pirate just blocks the left pedal with his wooden leg. He can’t step on it. He blocks it so the uni doesn’t roll forward while his right foot makes the jump to the front pedal.
For a static mount I usually put my dominant (right) foot on the pedal, grab the seat bumper with one hand and hold it in place. I then jump UP and forward and put my other (left) foot on the pedal. My momentum should carry me forward. As I start to lean forward I begin to pedal.
Here are a few points:
As everyone else has said, put essentially no weight on the back pedal. Your foot is just positioned over the pedal to keep the unicycle from rolling backwards.
I hop up and forward. The UP part is important because it keeps me from leaning on the back pedal and shooting the unicycle back under me.
It sometimes feels like I pause after the jump to let my weight move forward. Until you are leaning forward you cannot pedal forward, so a very brief pause can help your mount.
Wear shin guards! (I can show you my scars.)
Here is a video I found helpful when I was learning to mount:
That’s not cheating; it is a perfectly good technique.
Seat firmly in place, right hand on handle, left foot on pedal at just below horizontal. Slight push forwards so that the pedal tries to rise against the sole of your left foot, and sort of “pole vault” into the vertical position.
This gets you in the riding position with the cranks more or less horizontal, and the wheel either stationary or travelling slightly forwards.
It took me from 1987 to about 2002 - because no one told me the proper way and I was doing it with the pedals in the 6 o’clock position. I had a success rate of around 25%.
Then I found this forum, and someone showed me a better way. Then it was practise practise practise for a few minutes a night for a month or two, as well as doing it “for real” on rides.
If it makes you feel any better, I can ride indefinately (miles) but I can’t yet reliably freemount. I did improve my success rate by lowering my seat though. If you do that, just remember to put it back to the proper hight for distance riding.
So if I understand you persons correctly that to free mount properly you are “hopping” on the seat rather than applying force with your dominate foot, allowing it to roll back and then bringing up your other foot and going (?)
I know that this might sound strange but I can static mount my 36er easier than the 29er.When mounting the 36er I try to roll up onto the seat. On the 29er I put to much pressure on the rear pedal and wind up doing a roll back mount. Either way I get on.
I was told to practice,practice and it’s paying off.
Good luck.
In order to learn to freemount you should first learn how to “step off” the back of the unicycle. What I mean is when you are don riding put some extra weight on the back pedal as it is comming up and step off the back kind of like backing off of a stool after getting a book of a high shelf. This is exactly the opposite of freemounting.
