For some reason I made a strict rule for myself a year and a half ago that I would ONLY freemount to get on, if I couldn’t freemount, I didn’t ride…endleeeeesssssss hours of trying…forced me to practice much more than I would have otherwise….now I can freemount most of the time on first try. But it took me a year to get to this point of freemounting confidence.
For me the actual process of learning and struggling is what it’s about, and among other things growing new neuropathways and rewiring my 50 year old brain.
Yet, I know I’m just an obsessive nut and should just hang onto a tree once in a while!
Yeah, when I was learning to ride I basically tried as many different ways as possible - e.g. riding along a fence, riding between bollards, curb mounting. The curb mount was handy as it made me launch without holding onto anything but I tended to put all my weight onto the back pedal, which is the thing I am now trying to wean myself off for the freemount.
I’m trying as many mounting tricks that I’ve seen and read up on. Hopefully I’ll acquire the one that is most natural for me.
I’m happy to report that this thread helped me freemount. That’s huge! I used Matt V’s tip to put the first foot on the hub and crank to avoid rollback. I was able to do it reasonably well on my 20" and 24" both. It’s not perfect but it’s over 50 percent success rate for me. I’m very excited about that!
I also must say that Terry Peterson (Unigeezer’s) video’s are the best I’ve seen for explaining about not putting weight on the closest pedal. The examples explained on this thread (stepping on a child, stepping on a road construction cone) also helped me understand the concept for the static mount.
Even though I’m not doing the textbook prefered static mount, I’m mounting unassisted. Thanks everyone!
Thanks for replies, tar Super!
I’ve made some improvements since I posted, using the bum-on-seat rear pedal-5-o’clock left-foot-idle technique. Strangely I’m at about 40% at home and about 10% away from home. Must be unipsychological. When I’m away from home (a tennis court), I’m staying there til I do 1 more than the day before; up to 4 freemounts today (10% success rate) then let myself have fun riding round ther park. Really want to get the freemount sorted to give me some freedoms on where I can go. Any uk midlanders gimme a shout!:o
This is the first time I have heard of this technique. It seems interesting and tends to make sense. However it seems that someone who is not an expert at freemounting would then have trouble moving his foot off the hub crank and onto the pedal. In order to make such a transition a rider would have to be quite proficient at either one footed pedaling or still stands. Both of these skills are much more advanced than freemounting.
It would be interesting to hear from people who have tried this technique.
I once again stress learning how to dismount of the back in a controlled manner is the best way to lead up to freemounting.
Now that’s hilarious! I can follow up your story. I was so psyched that I could freemount that I finally rode to a buddy’s house down the street. His kids wanted to see me so of course I needed to freemount to ride for them. I experienced unipsychological retardation and biffed into the ground on one of my 6 attempts to freemount. Number 7 finally worked and I rode for their amusement. When I got home, I was once again reasonably good at freemounting. Chalk that up as another unicycle lesson learned.
Unicorn - I consciously decided to avoid freemounting at one point until I could ride indefinately. In fact, I racked up around 6+ miles of riding total before I revisited the freemount. The standard static mount just seemed so hard I felt I needed to master basic riding first. My logic was, and is, that balance improves a lot by racking up some cumulative distance. I’ve also practiced “stop and go’s” which have helped my balance too. That in particular has helped me “recover” or save a marginal freemount attempt.
Back to your comment about sliding the first foot into proper position. By having the experience I accumulated with basic riding, I think it helped me be able to slide the first foot into place after the freemount. Sometimes I slide it into place immediately. Sometimes I have to ride quite a ways and slowly wiggle the foot into place. Either way, I might not have been able to do this freemount technique without the skill level I’ve aquired from riding long distances and practicing “stop and go’s.” Of course, the grippyness of the pedals will affect how you move the foot etc…
Well, tonight in the park I managed to freemount on almost all of my attempts! I still have trouble with the weight on the back pedal and as a result the cranks are more or less vertical but this does not seem to hinder my pedalling forwards at all.
Strangely enough a passer by said that he could ride uni and showed me his freemount. His cranks were vertical too.
I found that learning to freemount was made easier by practising on downwards slopes and then I moved to level surfaces. (This helped me to learn to ride in the first place.)
Terry Unigeezer 's vid was the most helpful.
He has a vid explaining on how not to put your weight on the right foot on the first step, and only actually start peddling on the next.
Once again, it is practice x 3.
So many times have I came to this forum to post questions, only to get the praticex3 response, and it actually works.
Just survive the frustration.
Even if you think you are not getting anyware, you are.
if you tell me someone is a unicyclist, I can tell you a lot about that person without knowing anything else about him: It is a guy that is persistent. He can fall down a thousand times, yet get up and try it again without giving up.
Just keep trying.
It is more rewarding than you can imagine.
Getting there with the freemount now. About 80% when near a fence and 20% when in the open (unipsychological). Using the right pedal at just about 9o’clock, stepping up and catching the left pedal coming backwards from 12 o’clock towards 3o’clock, a little idle or 2 then away. Someone mentioned that getting off the back cleanly (reverse of the freemount) is important for freemounting and I agree after trying it (thanks - sorry I can’ remember who said it). It’s helped me with control rather slackly jumping off the front which really didn’t teach me anything.
I’ve been riding about two weeks, and I “committed” to freemounting about a week ago, refusing to use anything to help me mount, except of course in the rare occasion I fell off and someone was staring at me and I wanted to spare myself the humiliation of numerous failed freemounts.
The thing is everyone here is saying to use a horizontal position for the pedals, and I’ve been using vertical position, if not with the bottom pedal slightly forward. I have around a 30-40% success rate, and whenever I have the pedal slightly back from vertical, I fly forwards off of the uni.
Actually, to amend my previous post, I was just outside practicing idling for the first time (god damn it’s hard), and I realized I had a free-mount success rate of about 90% with the pedals starting in vertical position. I put the left pedal at the bottom, get the seat in position, step on my left foot and use the little time I have balanced on the unicycle stationary to get my right foot into place, then lean forward and push with my right foot to get moving. I don’t know what kind of mount that is called, but it seems to work for me remarkably well.
Perhaps when I learn to idle, other methods, like horizontal position, will become easier?
It does not work because the frame will not move up as you mount if you keep the brake engaged. You would have to engage the brake and let go once you started your jump which I think is a lot more difficult to master than the static or rolling mount techniques.
Hello buddies
I read a quote on one of the threads about the type of person who can unicycle (something about being able to take a knock and get back up, and having determination). If anyone’s seen it could you repost it on here for me tata
Last week I brought my uni to a summer camp where I help out at each year. I showed one of the other helpers how to ride the uni. He did not use a wall or a person to hold on to… and he was riding within less than 90 MINUTES!
Not only that he learned to static freemount PERFECTLY!
In fact his freemounting was better than his riding. I never taught him how to do that because I’m still struggling with my own freemount (hence this post).
He just seemed to have a natural sense for the uni. (He said that he learned how to ski within a day.)
I felt humbled by him, especially when he told me that my freemount was wrong!
He basically re-derived all the techniques on freemounting… no weight on back pedal, hop up, hips push forwards etc.
Not only that he later showed me a new side mount that I’ve never seen before.
As for my own mounting technique I think that I need to go back to basics. The problem lies in a ‘bad habit’ that I acquired from my first attempts at learning riding the uni where I put all the weight and emphasis on the back pedal.
…Put them away fellas.
Some people have such natural coordination i can’t imagine.
Just became a local celeb uniing in the park on a barmy summer sunday evening. Even showed some kids how to freemount! My noodle legs will rest well tonight! How are the other freemount learners getting on?
PS unicorn it was you I was thanking a few posts ago
I believe I have a good tip for those (like myself) who have struggled with the freemount - and by that I mean the standard static mount. A while back I took Matt V’s suggestion to try freemounting by first stepping on the crank and hub of the closest pedal. This prevents rollback and avoids the problem of having to hop and not put weight on the close pedal. I had been endlessly failing to learn the static mount and then found the crank/hub technique to be quite easy compared to the standard static mount. After that I enjoyed my newfound freedom to ride wherever I desired and didn’t even try the standard static mount for a while. Tonight, for kicks, I decided to give the ole static mount another try. Like magic, I picked up on it fairly well. Why? After all, it was like mission impossible not too long ago. I can only guess that I accumulated 200 or so crank/hub freemounts before I revisited the static mount. I believe that this made for a great progression for myself. After all, part of the freemount skill is to (1) balance for a split second and (2) begin cycling. The crank/hub technique allowed me to polish up on those aspects until they were second nature. Then, when I revisited the static mount, my main point of focus was not putting weight on the first pedal.
I’m not trying to take credit for anything new here. I’m just suggesting that anyone who finds the static mount ridiculously hard consider learning the crank/hub freemount first. Master that, then revisit the standard static mount.
- sorry I can’ remember who said it). It’s helped me with control rather slackly jumping off the front which really didn’t teach me anything.