beginner

[kenpen]

I have had my uni for 4 weeks and am not making much progress. can
anyone give me any tips. Im 62 and have done hang glining and wind
surffing
this is the hardest thing ive tried. thanks


--
kenpen
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[Into the blue]

Be patient young grasshopper.


--
Into the blue

"Now listen up, you primitive screwheads...See this?...This is my -BOOM-
stick!"
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[mornish]

start off from a wall or fence, that helped me the most.


--
mornish

><>UNICYCLING FOR MYSLELF TOO<><

"LX seats are as comfortable as bricks." lildude2
"CX seats are bricks."
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[Spudman]

You may want to take some time to read the great 'Unicycling Journal'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44950).


--
Spudman

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[unitoon]

just start up against something and push off, pedaling wildly and
flailing your arms around a lot. people will think you're insane, but
it's the best way to learn.

anyway, people already thought i was insane even before i learned to
unicycle. telling people i was going to learn to unicycle must have
made them ready to cart me off to the happy place with padded walls. ;)


--
unitoon

> Unicycling -- the great gender equalizer. - Bmemike





> I've always wondered what it would be like to beat someone to death with
> a unicycle. Then again, I don't want to damage any of my unicycles. -
> Unisteve
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[martin.phillips]

Stick at it. It took me nearly three months to ride across the school
playground. My breakthrough came when I realised that one needs to lean
forwards more than expected, and to go a bit faster than I'd been
hitherto. Think of it as a process of the wheel catching you up
continuously as you fall off the front. It's much harder to do slowly.
A flat, smooth surface helps. Keep most of your weight on the seat.
Practice daily, even if only for a few minutes.

I eventually leant using crutches left over from the wife's broken leg
some years before. I'm not sure if I learnt quicker with them than if
I'd not used them, but the advantages were that I could actually cycle
around using them very soon, and I didn't have a suitable length of
wall nearby to practice against. As a result, when I eventually threw
them away, my first unaided ride was for about 30 m. A wonderful
feeling! We opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate!

Martin/


--
martin.phillips
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[podzol]

Welcome to the fora!

Keep at it. I recommend staying along a fence or a wall until you are
very comfortable keeping the unicycle beneath you. Put as little
weight on the wall as possible and learn to make your falls controlled.
I told my kid to let the unicycle take the beating and try to land on
his feet.

You will know when you are ready to leave the wall and have controlled
dismounts, planned or otherwise.

A big issue is keeping the wheel rotating. Is there a place that is
slightly inclined where you can practice? Going down hill helps that
issue.

Good luck! Do check out the unicycling journal as suggested above.

Also if there are specific problems you are having , post them. People
here are generous with their advice and encouragement!

Blake


--
podzol

THE MISSING WHEELS TOUR DA YOOP!
Check out the charity ride, planning is under way.
Seeking riders and support.
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[Klaas Bil]

On Sun, 14 May 2006 10:58:12 -0500, kenpen wrote:

>I have had my uni for 4 weeks and am not making much progress. can
>anyone give me any tips.

Welcome to the group!

Tips For Beginners, including a free downloadable booklet "Learning to
Unicycle", are here:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/uni_beginners.htm

I'm 52, I learned 5 years ago.

[Tet]

The best advice I was given was to keep most of my weight on the seat.

I learnt initially by using a narrow strip of path with railings either
side which I held, I then moved to a different area with railings on
just one side of me. I found this really worked for me before
eventually launching my myself in to open space.

Good luck

Tet


--
Tet
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[Trapper]

kenpen wrote:
> I have had my uni for 4 weeks and am not making much progress. can
> anyone give me any tips. Im 62 and have done hang glining and wind
> surffing
> this is the hardest thing ive tried. thanks



I had just about the same experience. It took me a few months to get
to where I could ride down around the block. I have zero natural
ability when it comes to this. You just have to be hard headed about
it and not give up. Eventually your body's self preservation mechanism
gives in to your persistence and suddenly you're unicycling. Bet you
don't have a 14 year old running circles around you while you're trying
to learn. ;) It helps motivate you.


--
Trapper
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[Wheel Rider]

A tennis court is a good place to learn. The court is level, smooth and
flat. You can hold onto the fence.

A key to this process is getting used to turning the wheel smoothly and
with control.

A little speed helps. About the same as a moderate walking speed. As
you become more comfortable, you will lean less on the fence.

In the early days of learning, you will have a tendancy to carry your
weight on your legs. This will cause your legs to get tired in a hurry.
As you get more comfortable with riding, you will settle more onto the
seat, your legs will get stronger and you will be able to ride longer
distances.

Be patient, and hang in there.


--
Wheel Rider

A man can fail many times but he isn't a failure until he begins to
blame someone else. - Waite Phillips
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[One on one]

kenpen wrote:
> I have had my uni for 4 weeks and am not making much progress. can
> anyone give me any tips. Im 62 and have done hang glining and wind
> surffing
> this is the hardest thing ive tried. thanks



A few of the differences compared to hang gliding are...
1. Other unicyclist will not yell "Whack" when you crash
2. A parachute is not required for the mountains "Muni"
3. You can ride in the rain
4. The cost is much cheaper
5. Storing your equipment is much easier
6. Equipment failure during use isn't a big deal
7. Your Life insurance premiums won't go up

Good luck from one former HG pilot to another.


--
One on one

Amazing. YOU'RE a waffler too!! And we BOTH unicycle! We're just the
same! That's why I like you, Greg!
-BillyTheMountain

You ARE me, you silly goose.
-Greg Harper
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[underdog]

Persevere!! It took me *8 Months*. I've traditionally never been very
athletic. And I still believe that I'm a bit "balance challenged,"
but I'm *very,very stubborn.* I was not going to let the uni beat me.
Once I got it the reward was sooooo sweet. I now ride every day and
confidently enough to brave city sidewalks replete with pedestrians. I
learned at a tennis court, hanging onto the fence. A friend of my just
learned using ski poles for balance. Took him 2 months. Another
friend just used the pedal and flail method. He got it in about a
month. The moral of the story; there are as many ways to learn to ride
as there are unicyclists. Practice every day, even if it's just for 10
minutes.

Best advice for beginners given on this forum: Keep your weight on the
seat.

Thing that helped me a lot: Practice stopping with feet horizontal.
Took me a while to realize that if I stopped with one foot weighted to
the bottom, I had no control and nowhere to go.


--
underdog

'I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody
tell you different' - Kurt Vonnegut
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[weeble]

Also be sure that your saddle height is properly adjusted for you. With
the pedal in its lowest position, if your heel can rest on the pedal
with your leg straight, it's about right (of course when you are riding
you should have the ball of your foot, not the heel or arch, on the
pedal). Having the saddle too low is a common mistake among beginners,
and makes riding a great deal more difficult (and tiring). When I was
teaching myself to ride, I had my saddle set much too low, and I'm sure
that that was one of the things that made learning take longer than it
otherwise would have for me. I didn't know what the @#$% I was doing
either; I'd had no contact with the TCUC or any other unicyclists then,
and my first look at the internet was years away.


--
weeble

All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much MUCH
thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the
far end. That is the theory that I have and which
is mine, and what it is too. - Ms. Anne Elk
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[cathwood]

underdog wrote:
> Persevere!! It took me *8 Months*. I've traditionally never been very
> athletic. And I still believe that I'm a bit "balance challenged,"
> but I'm *very,very stubborn.* I was not going to let the uni beat me.
> Once I got it the reward was sooooo sweet. I now ride every day and
> confidently enough to brave city sidewalks replete with pedestrians.
>
> Best advice for beginners given on this forum: Keep your weight on the
> seat.
>
> .



What underdog said. Me too.

Cathy


--
cathwood

Say no to unicycle genre discrimination! - MrBoogiejuice

http://www.chuckingandtwirling.co.uk
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[rabbithunter018]

It helped me a lot when I tried using two chairs instead of a wall.
after I could go about 15 or 20 feet from the chairs I started off a
wall, and it seemed a lot easier.
Just take two chairs with the backs facing eachother and sit on your
uni ion between the two. hang on to the backs and push off when you are
ready. this keeps you even and you are not leaning to one side.
good luck!


--
rabbithunter018

Never underestimate stupid people in large groups

It is always better to keep your mouth shut and have people question
your intelligence, than to say something stupid and leave them in no
doubt.
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[uni57]

Like others have said, use a railing, fence, or wall.

I learned using a railing and I -highly- recommend it (which I've said
before 'here' (http://tinyurl.com/mf8be), 'here'
(http://tinyurl.com/kmtjc), 'here' (http://tinyurl.com/rpakk), and
especially 'here' (http://tinyurl.com/ev7sm)) . It gives you more "in
the saddle" time. If you just go for it, you fall right off. And you
spend most of your practice session climbing back on over and over.
Check out those links. And good luck.


--
uni57

-\"what's a troll?\"- - billythemountain

'8th Annual LBI Unithon' (http://jjuggle.unicyclist.com/lbiunithon) -
Be there! - Saturday, June 3, 2006
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