Unicycle advice..

[[XAP]Bob]

Just got one for my birthday....

Where to start?

[KMason]

Youtube is good for videos on various mounting techniques. After that just try to ride it. There is http://www.unicyclist.com/ which is a good forum for advice as well.

[[XAP]Bob]

Can't be dealing with yet another forum just yet..

Been trying up and down the hall - seen some significant improvement (not that that is a high bar)

[Geoff.D]

When I started on mine, I first tried it in the hall with a hand on each side wall. But, I decided that was too much of a protected environment. So, I went outside into a nearby drive, which had 2m. fences on each side. I'd mount the cycle with one hand holding onto a fence, and then launch myself away. At first I didn't get more than one pedal rotation before coming off. But, bit by bit, I "got it". 2 rotations, 3, 4 and onwards.

Two keys were -
1. arms flailing about as counterbalances - very useful !!!
2. looking at a relatively distant point, rather than the ground in front of me - not as easy as it seems in the beginning.

Good luck. Success feels good.

[[XAP]Bob]

I've got number 2 sorted - I remembered how important that is...
Less good at the flailing about though

Although maybe the bruise on my hand from thumping the ceiling is evidence otherwise...

I shall be having another go in a bit...

[pjclinch]

As you'll note from my Avatar pic, I can unicycle a bit... but I'm no expert and if you get someone who can really ride one saying contrary to this, take their word for it over mine.

When I got going I started in the hall, which I stuck with for too long. Luckily my dad laid a new floor on a parental visit and I felt it would be Poor Form to keep on using it, so I went outside and while the hall was a good place to start, moving away from being able to put a hand out anywhere proved to be a big help.

Kind of obvious, but a good surface helps, as does flat.

Free-mounts are relatively hard, I'd not worry about those until you can move forwards with some degree of confidence.

Having got reasonably okay at forwards and changing direction I've not ever practised enough to sort out backwards or idling, but forwards and basic steering is enough to have fun. My biggest ride is a couple of km in one roll.

I started off in a helmet, assuming I'd fall off a lot. I did (still do...) fall off a lot, but with no frame to get tangled up in falls are rarely complicated so I soon gave up the lid. I did stick with skater's wrist guards for quite a while once I was out of the hall (and they got used), and still usually go for track mitts. I whacked myself with a free pedal in the shin a few times trying to get free-mounts, but aside from that the pain count has been remarkably low.

Pete.

[[XAP]Bob]

You were one person I was hoping would join in

I might have to find somewhere sensible outdoors to try... it's really hard without the ability to scoot!

[Brucey]

it is a long time ago now, but I both built and learned to ride a unicycle (without the benefit of anyone else's help or advice), decades before the internet...

I was lucky enough to be able to learn to ride indoors, but any flat area that has support available, ( but is large enough to get a few pedal turns in) will do. Because some dismounts involve the machine 'squirting out' from beneath you, most folk won't want to learn indoors; there is usually too much collateral damage.

I later taught others to ride and an outdoor corridor about 5' wide proved very useful. This allows you to get a feel for what is required in terms of not falling forwards or backwards, without having to worry much about whether you are toppling sideways or not. Learning this way better allows you to know when to step off rather than have a potentially heavy fall, too.

As PJC suggests, riding forwards is easiest to learn to start with; you will find that you will be able to make just a few pedal strokes to start with, but with practice you will be able to ride further and further before you topple.

It is as well to have an idea of what it is that you are trying to do; if you look at the tracks of a bicycle, it is clear that the front wheel is weaving slightly from side to side, and that this is an essential part of staying upright. The same thing happens (automatically) as you push on the pedals of a unicycle, thus by varying how you pedal in each pedal stroke, you will weave differently and this way you can stop yourself from falling over sideways, and/or change direction. To start with, there will likely be much arm-flailing, and twisting at the waist, as you attempt to point the wheel in the correct direction. But with practice, this diminishes somewhat, and riding becomes much easier.

Note also that the machine itself alters how easy it is to ride. A less tall machine will topple more quickly than a taller machine, so once you have learned to ride, a taller machine can actually be easier in some respects (although a chain drive with slack in it is another hurdle to overcome). However a shorter machine is obviously less intimidating, because you don't so much fall as just step off it. Likewise the gearing makes a difference too; it is very difficult to learn to ride on a big-wheeled unicycle with short cranks; some folk will keep a 16" wheeled machine for people to learn on, because it is so much easier when you are starting; however if the wheel is too small, and the cranks too long, the pedals can hit the ground too easily. As a compromise, I think that a 20" wheeled machine with cranks around 6" long is a nice machine to learn on. BTW rat trap pedals can gouge you of course, but something with a little grip is essential IMHO.

Once you can ride forwards at all, I strongly suggest learning how to 'hover' next; this is easiest if you keep one pedal low (but not at the exact bottom) and simply rock the machine back and forth with each pedal alternately. After this, riding forwards becomes easier, and riding backwards (which I was never very good at BTW) is only short step away.

BTW the first chap I taught to ride soon became so keen that he began to use a unicycle for local transport ( ) and a year later he rode lejog by unicycle, which pretty much destroyed his knees.

hth

cheers

[[XAP]Bob]

Mine is definitely a learner unicycle - 20" with reasonable cranks.

I shall persevere - I've managed about a revolution between grabbing the walls ...

[Geoff.D]

I remember my first ride on a recumbent. It was at DTek in Cambridge. I sat on, got the crank in the right position and then heard Kevin saying "Just push, get the other foot up and go for it. Don't think too much" I did, and hey presto... I was pedalling down the road.

Obviously,I found the unicycle much more difficult and it took much longer. But I think it's possible to overthink it in the first instance. I believe you have to launch oneself, try to get the second foot stroke going...and then, with repeated attempts, onwards in increments. It's a matter of trusting oneself, not worrying about having to step off (I never ended up sprawled on the ground). Just go for it time after time until the "intuitive" actions take over (arm movement, hip movement, eye line, pedal push, etc. I don't know, but I guess this is how children learn to ride. They try and try and try until suddenly the "get" it. The intuition takes over.

Once the confidence of doing the basic forward motion has come to you, then try the additional skills, as you feel you need them - going to an open space and doing a large figure of eight to practice controlled steering; track stands; free mounting; etc.

[661-Pete]

It's over 20 years since I last managed to ride mine: now and again I get out the old uni (rapidly dissolving in rust as it is) from the shed and try, but I've definitely lost the knack, and at my age it won't come back...

A good place to start is a level piece of tarmac outdoors, between two walls or pillars a few feet apart (so that you can comfortably hold on to both with two hands, without stretching). Start by learning to hold the cycle steady, underneath you with the cranks roughly horizontal, while you're supporting yourself with both hands; then again with your 'lead' foot a bit higher than the other. The trick of being able to launch yourself forward, and let go of the walls simultaneously, without the cycle shooting away from you either forwards or backwards: that'll come with time. Aim to get one complete revolution of the cranks, before falling off! Then two revolutions. Then three. And so on.

Incidentally the saddle, which should be a special concave-curved unicycle type, needs to be mounted with the front end considerably higher than the rear. A bit like a horse's saddle.

It may take quite a while to master the 'free-mount' - that is, getting started without any help from walls or a kerb. I never really got to that stage, though I pulled it off once or twice. Nor did I manage the 'idling' bit, nor going backwards. I did reach the stage where I could cycle forwards on a level road for a couple of hundred yards or so....

[Brucey]

.... Obviously,I found the unicycle much more difficult and it took much longer. ..

there is a fundamental difference though; a bicycle is (or ought to be) inherently stable; you can strap a bag of potatoes to a bicycle (with good headset bearings), give it a push, and it will go perfectly happily for many tens of yards before it topples over or hits something. Thus the main thing stopping you from riding a decent bicycle is usually the rider's attempts to overcontrol a system that actually needs very little intervention.

By contrast a unicycle is in no way stable; unlike a bicycle it does need control all the time. Obviously you can learn (eventually) no matter how you go about it, but I think that the best method is unlikely to be the same between two different systems that differ so much in their inherent stability.

cheers

[661-Pete]

...usually the rider's attempts to overcontrol a system that actually needs very little intervention.

I wonder if practising on one of those 'unrideable' bikes (you know, the sort where the handlebars turn the opposite way to the front wheel - often encountered at school fetes) would be beneficial? Never tried one, myself.

[Geoff.D]

.... Obviously,I found the unicycle much more difficult and it took much longer. ..

there is a fundamental difference though; a bicycle is (or ought to be) inherently stable; you can strap a bag of potatoes to a bicycle (with good headset bearings), give it a push, and it will go perfectly happily for many tens of yards before it topples over or hits something. Thus the main thing stopping you from riding a decent bicycle is usually the rider's attempts to overcontrol a system that actually needs very little intervention.

By contrast a unicycle is in no way stable; unlike a bicycle it does need control all the time. Obviously you can learn (eventually) no matter how you go about it, but I think that the best method is unlikely to be the same between two different systems that differ so much in their inherent stability.

cheers

Point certainly taken about the differences between the two machines, Brucey. A bike essentially has only one axis of (unstable) rotation, whereas the unicycle has three ("x" around the wheel spindle and two ("y" and "z") around the tyre contact patch).

I wasn't arguing that the skill set was the same, but that there's a commonality in acquiring the skill set. That commonality, I think, is the process of trying it, trying it and trying it again until skills become "intuitive". There's a special word to describe when a skill becomes second nature and you don't have to think about it (eg using the clutch to change gear in a car). The word escapes me for the moment. Getting to this state is easier on a bike because there are fewer variables.

For example, A skill that is different on a unicycle is the use of the arms to aid balance. That's why I wrote in my first response that "flailing arms" were useful to me at the start. I believe they were helping me balance (probably around the two axes through the tyre contact patch). But, quite honestly, I've really no idea how they were actually helping. They just flailed. As I got more measured in riding, and could accelerate, decelerate, turn corners and come to a controlled stop, my arms no longer "flailed". I still had them out, and they still helped me, (I guess like a tight rope walker) but their action was in control.

The skill of using my arms as an essential aid to balance had become intuitive, or unconscious if you will. The process of achieving this was one of kinesthetic learning (learning by doing) because IMHO this is the most appropriate style of learning for getting started on a bike, recumbent, unicycle, etc. I do enjoy reading the analyses as to how these machines behave, and what the rider input has to be to make them behave. But, essentially, learning to ride is experiential in the first instance.

[OldBloke]

This bloke, Ed Pratt, may give you a bit of inspiration: http://www.worldunicycletour.com/