Lurker comes out of hiding!

Thanks for all your replies. I've just ordered a longer seat post, so
I'll let you know how I get on. The saddle can wait I think - I don't
find the standard one uncomfortable and I'll very likely buy a better
unicycle when I get more proficient, so I don't want to throw money at
the learner one if I can help it.

I'm not trying to bypass learning the basic riding skills - I'm riding
off-road simply because of where I am. I've got no access to a nice gym
floor and chickened out of learning on tarmac, so ended up on flat
grass. It's certainly much easier to ride on harder ground, which is
why I'm now riding on the trails. The only other option is to ride on
the road, which I consider far too dangerous with my current level of
control. I do intend to learn to freemount, ride backwards, idle, etc,
etc but for now I'm afraid the novelty of being able to ride forwards
and actually go somewhere on the thing hasn't yet worn off

With riding backwards, is it best to learn to idle first, or should I
try to set off in reverse (which I assume would be extremely
difficult!)?

Sarah - thanks, I'll try to make it to Exeter in October.

Thanks for all your tips, I'll keep at it.

Rob


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"rob.northcott" t.com writes:

With riding backwards, is it best to learn to idle first, or should I
try to set off in reverse

You can learn either way, though the skills you learn idling will
likely make going backwards a little easier. Both skills were hard
for me to learn (I'm still wobbly going backwards). I waited until I
had a somewhat solid idle before learning backwards. That way you can
transition to "super idle" and then increase the backwards distance
gradually without fqalling off the unicycle *every* time. Besides
which, without a good forwards to backwards transition (which pretty
much comes with idling) backwards riding is a very limited trick.

Ken

Another lurker "coming out"
For a newbie this all makes for fascinating reading. I've been teaching
myself since mid July this year and can ride about 30 feet, and free
mount. I'm 44 and see this as a much better mid life crisis than a
stupid MG soft top!
So far (see other thread) I'm learning without armour on fairly flat
grass (too chicken to try tarmac). Judging by the one set of decent
scabs on on shin though, looks like I'll at least need shinpads before I
get much further.
On another matter, how comes I keep getting sent to the German language
site when I log in?


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s7ev0

s7ev0

Where there's a wheel there's a way
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s7ev0 wrote:
*I've been teaching myself since mid July this year and can ride about
30 feet, and free mount. *


Hi Steve,

Sounds like you may have picked things up a bit faster than I did...
unless that was three weeks of intensive practice

My practice was pretty fragmented over the winter (pretty grim weather
up here on the moors ) and I had time taken up by cycling (sorry, too
many wheels) and a twisted back, so I'm not really sure how many hours I
actually put in. I started along a wall , then went out onto flat grass
a few weeks ago and found that I could actually ride forwards quite well
- perhaps I should have moved away from the wall earlier.

*I'm 44 and see this as a much better mid life crisis than a stupid MG
soft top!*


Quite right - Triumphs are far superior Sorry, one of my other
passions, won't waffle on about that here.

*So far (see other thread) I'm learning without armour on fairly flat
grass (too chicken to try tarmac). *


I did the same, but when I had the guts to ride on harder ground it was
amazing how much easier it became.

* Judging by the one set of decent scabs on on shin though, looks like
I'll at least need shinpads before I get much further.*


I bought some wrist/elbow/knee pads when I started venturing onto hard
stuff, and occasionally wear my bike helmet if it's rough. No injuries
yet though, apart from aching legs (uniing seems to use some secret
muscles that cycling doesn't know about ).

Rob


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Yep, pretty intensive practice (school hols are of course the great perk
of teaching! )

No horrible weather but I've sweated like I've never sweated before
after a couple of hours in the sun falling off trying to freemount!

I'm looking forward to having the guts to go out on the tarmac, and just
so the kids at school can't just think "sad old bloke" when I show them
what I can do, I'd like to be able to hop at least.

Finally, as a former owner of several Heralds and member of the TSSC you
can see where my bias lies...


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s7ev0

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s7ev0 wrote:
*as a former owner of several Heralds and member of the TSSC you can
see where my bias lies... *


That's almost spooky - have a look at my website in my member profile


Anyway, enough of that... must get on with some work

Rob


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