"Hopping idle" and other milestones

Amazing that this sport, so incredibly fun, keeps getting more so.

I'm a pretty old guy with about 14 months experience. Can't idle more
than 4 or 5 cycles. Since a got my 20", I've begun to really work on
hopping. I'm a slow learner, but I became able to hop curbs -
occaisionally.

Today however, I found I could just freemount to a stillstand with
pedals horizontal, and hop to correct my balance. I never could pogo
stick too well, but I've almost got it on the uni now. I did this and
stayed up fo 20 seconds a couple times. It's feels great to have some
way to idle, at least sort of.

Also, I can hop up and down curbs, and even once got to the top of the
12" high box, but didn't ride out of it.

Fun fun fun.


--
steveyo - Last will be first

steveyo

"I complained I need new shoes, until I met a man with no feet." -
unknown

"Do whatever steps you want if
you have cleared them with the pontiff"- Tom Lehrer


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I learned to pogo stick too, it made hopping become REALLY easy.


--
unick 8133 - tartar sauce

HOLY CRABBY PATTIES!!

I am proud to be a whole 13 years old

My (few) mastered skillz:

1. forward
2. backward
3. idle

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*Are front hops harder than side-hop (which are mostly what I do)?
*


Yes, front hops are harder then side-hops, but doing something called a
rolling hop will make those nasty front hops a lot easier. A rolling hop
is basically what it says it is. A hop, while rolling. This has the
advantage of already having forward momentum, so you only have to hop
up. Anyway, jumping onto large objects is usually done with a side hop,
but really large objects, up to about a meter high, are done with a
rolling hop. (Don't ask me how they do it, I'm still baffled by it).
Also, there are several techniques to get onto even higher stuff with a
sidehop, look on the forum for 'crankgrab' and 'pedalgrab'.


*
Should my uni have a lower seat for trials type stuff?
*


That depends on what kind of trials type you are. There are two ways of
jumping. Seat-in, and seat-out. In seat-out, you jump (logically) with
the seat in front of you. This allows you to tuck the unicycle far
higher under you, and pull the seat up to almost under your chin.
Seat-in is the opposite of seat-out, and you just leave the seat under
you. This has the disadvantage of not being able to pull the seat up so
high, because the crown jewels are blocking the way. Now, for both
methods, you'll be wanting the seat lower, this is due to the fact
you'll always want some travel down there. But if you're mainly a
seat-in jumper, you want the seat even lower, so you can pull the
unicycle up higher. For seat-out, you'll want it so that when you're
hopping, you don't put a lot of strain on your back. Though it usually
comes down to personal preference. My brother is a seat-in jumper, and
he only has his seat about an inch lower then I do, and I'm a seat-out
jumper. We're also about equal height.

Hope this helps.


--
Erant - I know how to change this title!

Live free, prosper, and under my rule.
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Hey Steveyo, that sounds great.

Also, I can hop up and down curbs, and even once got to the top of the
12" high box, but didn't ride out of it.


I'm hoping to conquer this over the winter. At the moment I'm hopping
about on the road but a bit afraid to make the leap up onto the
pavemet.

Any tips? I just have aweful images of the unicycle going flying and me
landing in a heap on top or underneath it.

I think I can probably hop high enough.

Cathy


--
cathwood - Lunicyclist

A thought is just a thought.

http://www.chuckingandtwirling.co.uk
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Thanks, Cath!

I tried to learn to hop with no obstacles, then when I thought I had the
height, I tried it next to a low curb.

My first few times I tried I was wearing shin pads, wrist gaurds, elbow
pads, and h*e*l*m*e*t (the asterisks are to throw off those
anti-mandatory guys).

Lower the seat a bit (note: I'm only hopping seat-in).

Get your pedals level, stand up off the seat and make believe it's a
platform and jump using your legs.


--
steveyo - Last will be first

steveyo

"I complained I need new shoes, until I met a man with no feet." -
unknown

"Do whatever steps you want if
you have cleared them with the pontiff"- Tom Lehrer


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Thanks.
I'm donning my 661s and by the end of the week I will be jumping at
curbs.

Cathy


--
cathwood - Lunicyclist

A thought is just a thought.

http://www.chuckingandtwirling.co.uk
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Ah, the good old days. I remember when I was first hopping about, having
the greatest difficulty with hopping onto the curb. Basically, just do
it. It doesn't hurt when you fall, if you even fall. Because that's the
easy thing with learning to bunny hop on a unicycle, there's lots of
ways to get off before you hit something hard, like pavement.


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Erant - I know how to change this title!

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I could never pogo stick but after uniing it became very easy. I have
one question, if you can only hop up curbs occasionaly, how can you hop
up a 12 inch high box?


--
unign - Level 5
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unign wrote:
I could never pogo stick but after uniing it became very easy.
I'll have to try pogo sticking now.
unign wrote:I have one question, if you can only hop
up curbs occasionaly, how can you hop up a 12 inch high box?
In the original post, I may have been unclear, but in the first
paragraph "...I became able to hop curbs - occaisionally" was in the
history portion of the post. This was meant to be followed by the
recent accomplishment portion "Today however...hopping breathroughs
...I can hop up and down curbs, and even once got to the top of the 12"
high box, but didn't ride out of it. "

So that particular day was when I sort of "got it" and could do curbs,
and tried the higher box.


--
steveyo - Last will be first

steveyo

"I complained I need new shoes, until I met a man with no feet." -
unknown

"Do whatever steps you want if
you have cleared them with the pontiff"- Tom Lehrer


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