Learning to ride a unicycle

I fancy learning to ride a unicycle, but haven’t got a clue how to start, anyone got any tips?

What type of unicycle to start with, any good tips for how to go about it?

20 inch wheel one and in a corridor

Corridor didn’t work for me. Need more space to move in the direction you’re falling in, rather than catching yourself with your arms.

fair enough

I learnt in a corridor at university – I’m a bit embarrassed to say the paint took a few knocks…

I’m pretty proficient now, but still can’t idle.

Corridor didn’t work for me either. I rode away from a step. The step stops the unicycle rolling away backwards. Lean slightly forwards, and pedal to keep the wheel under you as you fall. I mostly learned on my patio, and in the car park of the Marriott Garden Court in Ipswich. Also still can’t idle.

I can’t remember if I learned to ride backwards or idle first, but idling is just about keeping rocking about your centre of gravity – I think about it like balancing a garden came.

What type of unicycle to start with

Speak to the people at Unicycle.com, or here’s their learner uni page https://www.unicycle.co.uk/unicycles/learner/adult-unicycles.html

It’s not like riding a bike. It’s not even like riding a bike no handed.

It is a little like learning to ride a bike as you just have to keep trying until you work out where your balance point is. I learned by using a lamppost to get on, then falling off many, many times. Thankfully it’s fairly easy to land on your feet.

I ,kept at it until I could ride around the block, then kind of lost interest. I also looked ridiculous (even by unicycle standards) as my arm made motions as though I was stirring two huge pots of stew as I cycled along.

I did this a while back. A decent smooth bit of empty road with a wall or lamppost to start from, ride one pedal stroke and fall off, repeat until two pedal strokes, then three…

I got as far as able to freemount and ride along, mostly, not very elegantly. There’s lots of advice on the internet but it basically takes a tonne of perseverance for someone like me who doesn’t have a great deal of natural ability.

Got rid of the unicycle last year after I realised I hadn’t ridden in a decade. Not so much flat road round here and the risk/reward gets less attractive with age.

Practise…. you can use a wall etc to try and rock back and forth on the spot. Don’t be tempted to try and learn on grass, it’s much much harder to ride on, use smooth tarmac,  just make sure you can jump off when needed, always lean forward a bit when learning then you will jump off the front instead of going off backwards

Played unicycle hockey for years, messy and painful sometimes (stick in wheel type fowls!) but fun

for me leaning forward was an important part of learning…tempting not to so that any unintentional dismount is backwards onto your feet…for that reason reckon wearing wrist guards is a good move as found that forward falls can be explosive…also not sure what pedals decent unicycles ship with but I found five tens and “proper” flats with pins a real help…also duct tape the edges of the saddle especially the rear they take a lot of battering…personally i found each new skill harder and harder…bit like I can boulder Bn just and learning to ride was Bn+1, free mounting Bn+3

I got to be ok on the flat and smooth with being able to go where I wanted and free mount, but couldn’t idle, also any vaguely  rough uneven ground had me off.

Big tip I got at the club I went to was to make sure you’re weighting/sitting on the seat so that your legs are free to pedal easily rather than half holding yourself off the seat with leg pressure.

I have been told a doorway is a good start for balance, by a guy that toured Nepal on one and regularly rides 16 miles return to his wild swim near me.

Also some guy on YouTube learnt fully in about 2hrs of training time – all on YouTube.

As I wrote this I am looking at my dusty unicycle and have not learnt to ride it.

CynicAl you’ll be riding brilliantly by tea time then 😜

Took me much more than two hours to get to my lowly level of riding, but I only had 1 hour a week at the club.  If you had your own and messed about a few times a day I guess you’d pick it up much quicker like most things.

When I was about 15 a mate got one. He was a pretty decent rider and took it Malvern one year. MBUK (or some other mag) saw him there and did a spread on him in our home town jumping on benches and riding down a steep sketchy slope. I tried it at his house and gave up after about 5 minutes.

I think I got to a dozen or so revolutions in two or three sessions, so probably four or five hours. It did help having an empty car park to play in though, would probably have taken me quite a lot longer otherwise.

A decent smooth bit of empty road with a wall or lamppost to start from, ride one pedal stroke and fall off, repeat until two pedal strokes, then three…

This is the way. Ideally a wide alley, playground, tennis court, etc with a wall/fence but a quiet road is fine. Use the fence to get on (don’t worry about free mounting until you can ride reasonably ok) then pedal away. A bit of commitment and not worrying about falling is key. Lean forward and you should land on your feet and stay upright. You might even be able to catch the saddle.