Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
  • Unicycling for novices
  • mlke
    Free Member

    Foolishly, after a trip to see Barnum, my wife has said to the family “we’ll all learn a circus skill” I’mnot so sure but I can also can detect a pain free N+1 opportunity.
    Soo question.
    1. Any tips for learning how to ride the thing?
    2. Buying – cheapy ebay unicycles are £35. Is there any point in spending more to learn?

    ampthill
    Full Member

    I learnt leaning against a wall

    No views on hard ware it was a mates

    geoffj
    Full Member

    <hackneyed>
    Just save all the pain and buy a t-shirt which says ‘look at me’
    </hackneyed>

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    user-removed
    Free Member

    I learnt at the side of a theatre wall with a railing, which inspired confidence. It was dark – not many people saw my humiliation. Pashley uni saddles will take a lot more falls than an eBay special.

    Any tips? Honestly, just buy a night in a b&b with your family instead. It’s a pretty pointless skill after you’re 12. Learn to juggle instead – that way, you can show off anywhere, anytime with anything available. And yes, I’m a massive show off.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    The £35 beginners unicycles are fine. Won’t last too long if you ride it lots but enough to learn on. The key is just to go for it. Start at a wall or fence then ride away. You’ll get about 2 feet many times but falling off isn’t bad. You usually land on your feet. Should come pretty quickly if you commit. Once mastered you can enter a world of niche wheel sizes and crank lengths.

    No idea why people see it as showing off. Takes a little more skill that riding a bike but not much. I know lots of riders and all do it for the fun of riding.

    nach
    Free Member

    One: Kitchen worktop, practice just balancing with one hand on it and your feet on the pedals, which is hard enough at first.

    Two: Once you’re comfortable staying still on it, try rolling back and forward half a turn. Do it a hundred times, then swap sides. Keep doing that every day for a quite a few weeks.

    Three: Launch yourself from one worktop to another. Try pedalling it around the house using the walls and floor for support.

    Four: Find something like a pillar or tree somewhere flat and spacious. Try riding away from it in a straight line as far as you can. Rinse and repeat.

    Five: Learn the three methods of cornering and how they all make it behave slightly differently: Swinging your shoulders and arms, pedalling harder on one side, and leaning for fast corners.

    It took me six months on and off, and I still can’t freemount. After that long developing my balance though, I could miraculously track stand when I hadn’t been able to before.

    aracer
    Free Member

    I learned on a £35 Lidl one. It was fine for that. I now own 4, and still wanting more (unis are even worse for that than bikes, as you want different wheel sizes depending on what you’re using it for – though they are at least a lot cheaper and easier to store).

    I learned by just using my car to hold onto whilst I got on and then riding away – though I think I did a bit of practice riding the short distance up and down alongside my car holding on to get used to the pedalling. Took a while to make a single pedal rev, the second was a bit easier, making it to 10 revs was a real achievement. The secret is consistent practice – I’d owned the uni for almost a year, but only tried once or twice a month and got nowhere. Decided I was going to learn and spent 1/2 an hour to an hour every day for a couple of weeks (was kind of riding after a week). It’s usually recommended to learn riding alongside a wall or a fence you can hold onto though – supposedly a bit easier – or better yet with somebody helping you holding your hand – it is your wife’s idea?

    aracer
    Free Member

    Oh and as nick says, I ride because it’s fun and a challenge, not to show off. Just riding one might not be much harder than riding a bike, but riding one off-road is (I’m just about up to riding most blue trails). Which doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the attention – I can also juggle (though not all that well, and not yet well enough to juggle whilst riding), and pretty much never show off by doing that, but ride all the time. I also ride a lot with my kids on bikes as the speed is similar, it’s a lot more fun for me than being on a bike going slow, and they enjoy the extra attention!

    Still can’t track stand either (or manual or wheelie very well), despite being able to freemount a uni about 5 different ways, idle (like trackstanding on a uni), hop and kind of ride backwards on a good day.

    antigee
    Full Member

    lidl one here as well – also got an ebay cheapie as wanted a bigger wheel one to ride to gym on and same as lidl had to replace seatpost collar – also swopped out pedals for some V12 look a likes – easier to grip but downside if get hit in back of leg

    youtube is your friend – need to weed out the yoof’s just showing off (and they can big time – b@st@rds)

    i especially like this one from “coach bob”

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igzng0zqVIo[/video]

    but if you get stuck on something then a quick look thru the youtube vid’s may give a training tip

    back and forward beside railings worked for me – still struggling to idle though

    i wear skaters wrist guards as had a couple of (unexplained) full on forward dismounts – lots of internet stuff suggests ankle protection to avoid bruising by pedal strikes but despite going to pinned pedals not a problem for me – i also swopped from running trainers to skate shoes – found when mounting that sometimes the enlarged heel on runners would catch on the crank
    gaffer tape on the front and back of the saddle will stop too much early days damage

    got given one as a present and enjoyed learning and that’s what counts for me

    aracer
    Free Member

    Definitely skate shoes – bought my first ever pair to ride unis – and upgrade the pedals on a cheapie, I got Twisted PCs, which have plastic pins, so make a bit less of a mess of your legs, and still use those on my high-end 19″ trials uni (though I have metal pinned Electrons on my off-road uni). I wore bike gloves to learn and now have KH uni gloves with built in wrist protection. Shin protectors are a good idea – wish I’d bought some earlier, but actually now use them rarely as I don’t seem to pedal strike any more.

    Also meant to mention before, lots of useful stuff for learning at http://www.unicyclist.com

    mlke
    Free Member

    Thanks some good tips; progressive stages with walls etc/U tube/ and nice to hear that a cheapie will do for learning but by the sound of it I’ll probably need to invest some more cash before I accept any offers to be a paid show off in a circus

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    can also can detect a pain free N+1 opportunity

    Well hello, strokes chin. Never crossed my mind until now, hmmmm.

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    “Pain free” is optimistic 🙂

    Wife and I learnt a few years ago (my mid-life crisis), haven’t ridden recently. Took a bit of effort to get the hang of it, still find it hard work to ride any distance.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Practice (and a bigger wheel, if like most you started on a 20″) – there’s a big difference between just being able to ride where you still use a lot of energy waving arms around etc. and being able to ride well where you only use small corrections and use a lot less energy. Even when you get past the arm waving stage then you still use a lot of effort steering the wheel to correct until you’ve done a lot more practice. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, but have got to the stage where I can do miles without much trouble and bottom comfort tends to be the limit – but then I’ve ridden a lot since I learned 3.5 years ago.

    I suppose it depends whether you’re happy just to be able to ride, or want to progress it further, and that probably depends on whether you continue to enjoy riding one around (I got into riding off road within a month of learning, I expect most people on here can appreciate that it’s fun just doing that, but also a challenge). If you’re into learning to do things, then the great thing is that the frustrating not being able to do anything stage only lasts a relatively short time and you then still have a lot to learn.

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Stabilisers.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Yeah, that’s what we call the extra wheels you lot need 😈

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    No no no NO!

    My sister (who lives in Brighton with all the other proper showoffs), informed me the other day that she is learning “Circus skills” apparently there’s a course…

    I bit my tongue because you should always encourage and support your loved ones. But I don’t know you OP, so seriously don’t bother, everyone else will just think you’re a massive ****.

    There’s only one time in your life you should even consider becoming a circus need, that’s when you’re a fifteen year old misfit, typically it’s going to be either hanging about in Games Workshop in standard trenchcoat mafia attire or colourful wastecoat and Unicycling circus twattery. If you are Sixteen or older, just tell your missus you are too old for this sort of bollocks and go to the pub…

    nach
    Free Member

    Yeah. Don’t learn to unicycle, just pinch off negative pissy posts like the one above. Definitely don’t do anything to please yourself ever, just do things because other people do them. Make sure to write off whole swathes of people and their interests with stereotypes too, especially if they seem a bit different. There’s no need to look for the value in anything, you can just make a snap judgement, write it off, then go to the pub to do it socially.

    Much easier than challenging yourself to lean something new and it’ll definitely make you really, really happy on your deathbed.

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    Oh no! I’ve angered a circus type, I fully accept you’re right to lead alternative lifestyles, you crazy maverick you, so long as you understand half the world Will continue to snigger and take the piss. If circus learning skills is compulsory I would say juggling is the best option, but don’t buy a diablo whatever you do, diabloists are the lowest of all the circus nerds, less respected than clowns even…

    StirlingCrispin
    Full Member

    LBS had a uncycle in to rebuild – the guy had tried jumping off a garage roof on it!

    Just saying 🙂

    nach
    Free Member

    circus type, I fully accept you’re right to lead alternative lifestyles, you crazy maverick you

    I’m not a circus type, and I don’t wear bright clothes or lead an “alternative lifestyle”. You just stopped by to piss on other people’s interests and voice strong opinions on inconsequential things, and I think that’s contemptible.

    user-removed
    Free Member

    As a kid, I helped my dad run a circus workshop called the Suitcase Circus which is how I came to be in a theatre on a uni ^^^.

    When I moved to Aberdeen, within a few months all the spoilt rich kids in my area also had unis, mostly Pashley. My uni had been bought from an alcoholic clown rejoicing in the name of Haggis. I had to make the saddle myself out of an old leather jacket and some soggy foam.

    Didn’t have a bike so did my paper rounds on it – so perhaps eight miles a day. I now have an Aldi special which someone threw in to sweeten the deal when I bought his old Canondale.

    Would still recommend a night in a b&b or learning to juggle as better alternatives.

    EDIT: point being, as a kid, it’s the best thing in the world. Just plain old good fun. As an adult, unless you’re busking at the Edinburgh Festival dressed as Darth Vader and playing the bagpipes, it’s almost literally pointless. Save up for another wheel.

    user-removed
    Free Member

    [video]http://youtu.be/m8rzkCkFIus[/video]

    nickjb
    Free Member

    it’s almost literally pointless

    Yes it is. I’ll go ride my bike up a hill in the middle of nowhere instead.

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    One of the more positive aspects of growing up is that one generally stops caring what some random stranger thinks – on the internet or in real life.

    user-removed
    Free Member

    Can’t in all conscience argue with either of those comments but at least with two wheels you’ll be in the middle of nowhere faster than with one or three wheels, thus increasing the remoteness factor.

    mlke
    Free Member

    Risking the approbium of the STW horde, I must confess that my other new interest is fellrunning which also involves unsteadily travelling slowly in public places but I’m ashamed to say without the assistance of even one wheel.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Well that’s where you’re wrong. Because not every bloke sneers at unicyclists – there’s a significant proportion who also think it’s cool (I’d actually suggest the majority of those I meet). Not all of them are so bitter and cynical.
    .
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    In case you need any help with working that out, I’ve never had a negative reaction from anybody female.

    aracer
    Free Member

    nickjb kind of already covered this one – maybe get back to us when you’ve worked out the point of any of the other things we do for fun. The thing that’s confusing me is why it is you’re no longer supposed to have fun when you’re grown up (you make this comment on a forum full of middle aged little boys aiming to have as much fun as possible). I never tried when I was a kid, so no idea how much fun it would have been then – given how much fun it is in my mid 40s, I’ll bet it would have been a massive hoot.

    I suspect you’re also thinking about just riding around on a little wheel, which is presumably all you’ve ridden (a Pashley and a Lidl special are both 20″ I think – maybe 24 on a Pashley?) Yes it does feel silly riding around on a little wheel with your feet whizzing around, but I spend most of my time on a 29er, and do lots of riding off-road, which still feels like something which shouldn’t be possible even after a few years of it. Unis and what you can do with them have also moved on a bit since the days of Pashleys – even with my lack of skills I’ve done 2-3ft drops on mine.

    user-removed
    Free Member

    aracer – I fell off the stage on mine. Must have been a four foot drop I think. Felt like four feet of pain. One of the very few bits of the Bible which makes sense is the bit where it tells you to leave childish things behind when you grow up to be an adult. I ignore that as a rule and continue to behave like a child, and I’m terribly sorry your childhood was so deprived that unis weren’t on the menu but some things are best left to children and circus artists. Unicycling is one of those things in my humble opinion.

    griffiths1000
    Free Member

    My 14 yr old learned a few years back on a cheap Lidl one. Jumps up & down steps and off picnic tables now still using the same one.

    I tried but never really mastered it, managed 11 or 12 pedals but never got the control. Started on the grass that way if you fall off not such a hard landing.

    aracer
    Free Member

    We’ll have to agree to differ on that one – I’m still surprised as you seem to acknowledge that it’s OK to have fun when you’re an adult (and blow what anybody else thinks) – is it that you no longer think riding a uni is fun? You’re more than welcome to have a go on one of mine if you’re ever down this way and want to see what you’re missing – as well as the off-road one I also have a geared 29er which can cruise at 15mph.

    yunki
    Free Member

    just lean forward a bit and start pedalling..
    repeat

    Once you can get a bit of distance going (shouldn’t take more than a couple of morning/afternoon’s solid and determined practise) you will find that stuff like turning, stopping etc gets incorporated..

    It’s not really that hard if you put the time in.. just remember to lean forward a few degrees before you push off..

    user-removed
    Free Member

    I also have a geared 29ee which can cruise at 15mph.

    I must admit that’s an impressive claim and my interest is being tickled. I do still struggle to see the point though, other than the mastery of a pointless skill (unless, like me, you are a massive show-off, which you claim not to be). Part of growing up is the understanding of what works well and what does not. Two wheels work better than either one or three.

    I eventually grew up, saved my paper round money up and bought something with two wheels. It allowed me to do my job better, I had more fun at greater speeds and no-one pointed and laughed, unless I was falling off, which I frequently did.

    Sorry if I’ve been harsh (especially thinking of the OP here) but I suppose I’m still a bit crap at juggling so I may be a bit biased.

    phiiiiil
    Full Member

    The main disadvantage with the really cheap ebay ones are the seats, which can sometimes be really rather uncomfortable. That said, you can always just buy a new seat if it does bother you.

    I started out on a whim, on a cheap uni from a juggling shop (I meant to learn to juggle on it, but never got round to it…), but ended up doing mostly off-road and trials competitions. Occasionally I’ve pointed out the enormous irony that the only times I’ve ever been accused of “showing off” it’s been by someone loudly shouting it out in front of a group… who’s the one showing off, again?

    I ride mostly two wheels now but spent a lot of time unicycling over the Malverns before I biked there as much. You don’t go as fast or as far, but it’s an awful lot more engaging than any rigid, singlespeed, fixie or the like could ever be. It also evens out the climbing time : descending time ratio a bit, which is always really crappy on a bike when it takes you half an hour to get up the hill and five minutes to get back down it again!

    yunki
    Free Member

    Part of growing up is the understanding of what works well and what does not. Two wheels work better than either one or three.

    you shouldn’t bother riding a child’s toy bicycle around then really… get a car, or better still a personal assistant..

    grow up ffs 😉

    aracer
    Free Member

    I’m not sure there is a point, other than it’s fun and a challenge. I never said I wasn’t a show off, and that’s certainly not the main point, but the attention is kind of fun. The question is what exactly is it that 2 wheels works better at – for getting around sure (though I’d make another argument for a uni there – you can use one to go shopping without needing to carry a lock, just pick it up and walk into the shop, or you can leave one unlocked a lot of places you wouldn’t leave a bike – I use mine a lot for local transport where the absolute speed is little different and the hassle factor a lot less). But the main aim for most of us riding our bikes is having fun, and I mostly have more on the uni at the moment.

    user-removed
    Free Member

    Lol @ yunki. It’s a time and place thing I think. As we get older, there’s just not so much of the time aspect, and the places I’d like to be are far away. If I can have fun on two wheels within an hour, I’ll do that rather than spend an hour getting to the place I want to be.

    All that said, I do agree that fun is good for the soul, so do whatever makes you happy. Just don’t be surprised if I’m standing there laughing.

    😉

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