I’ve been out on the new 26″ muni. It’s different enough from the 20″ wheel to make me like a bit of a noob again. I can ride it fine, but everything is a bit sketchier. My success rate for freemounts is way down. I can still ride it, but everything requires much more concentration and active input. I know this will pass – it’s just a phase of getting used to the bigger/heavier cycle, but it’s frustrating nonetheless. There are some upsides though – the bigger wheel means I ride right straight over ~10cm obstacles without hopping.

My first ride out was with super-low tyre pressure and was like riding a pogo stick. I pumped them up to 20psi today and it was a lot better, although still pretty squishy. I think for paths + light offroad, something higher would be better.

I flipped back to the old uni for a bit of tricks practise. Having got pretty comfortable with jump mounts, I managed to do a 90 degree jump mount (spinning unicycle whilst jumping onto it). It’s a baby-step towards a 180 jump mount. I also started trying a crank-roll mount .. man, that’s a whole new level of difficult.

Woo, new unicycle arrived today! I half-cycled and half-pushed it home from work, which gave me a chance to get used to all the differences and experience a few new varieties of UPD.

The tyre is pretty brutal – 3″ wide and deep tread. The larger wheel/tyre combo means the rotational inertia is noticably bigger, although it doesn’t present any difficulties in riding. Getting on requires a bit of adjustment. At first, I’d always tip over to the right (not sure why, maybe longer cranks?) but I’ve now corrected for that.

Once I got home, I dropped the tyre pressure from 30 psi down to “pretty squishy” and tried hopping around. The bigger wheel feels much more stable – less likely to roll out from under you. I can do 180 hop/jumps fine – I think the increased spring of the big tyre more than compensates for the increased mass you’re spinning round.

Almost the full range of my skillz to date – freemount, riding along, turning (both directions!), transitioning to hops, turning whilst hopping, riding off kerbs, hopping up and down kerbs, riding “fast” and a graceful dismount. All in a single take!

I think I’ve settled on a 26″ Nimbus muni as my next unicycle. I enjoy riding on rough ground more than doing tricks, hence a muni. I’m unsure of the 24″ vs 26″ tradeoffs, but a 26″ wheel would mean I can reuse my bike tyres. Smaller wheel would be easier for direction changes, but 26″ would be better in a straight line and would soak up bumps a bit better.

Oops, I broke the unicycle. A bit too much hopping and rough ground for this poor “beginner” unicycle. The pedal axle snapped in half. It left me, as the guy in the Bike Chain pointed out, with a uni-pedal uni-cycle. I’ve repaired it now, but it’s a sign that this is not the unicycle for learning trials-style tricks on.

Today, in addition to my usual circuits, I was practising doing “stops” – riding along, briefly stopping, then riding on. You lean backward slightly whilst riding, then stop the pedals. The wheel stops, but you keep going, resulting in the perfect forward tilt to resume riding. I also practised riding slowly, which is another good way to practise balance.

Update: Managed a few more moves: seat-out jump mount and 180 degree spin/jumps are nailed. I managed a little bit of seat-out riding, and tried (but failed) a 180 jump mount. The jump/spins are very practical – no need to do a tricky balanced turn when you can just hop round in one go. 🙂 I also have clearly forgotten this morning’s lesson on the tensile strength of pedal axles, because I’m still doing hops on this unicycle. Time to go shopping…

Tonight, I ended up riding around Inverleith Park in the evening sun. I rode 1.5x round the rough ‘jogging track’ which goes around the outside of the park. I’m starting to really enjoy unicycling on rough ground. It’s everything I enjoy about mountain biking, but about twice as hard. You are constantly analysing possible paths, looking for bumps and checking out which way the local “downhill” is. Sometimes it’s better to ride over a rough bit of ground to get “up high” and then be able to ride downhill from there, or to weave to the side in order to cross a root at right angles. All these plans are made and executed (or discarded) in the space of a second or two. Often, you run out of time to figure out the best route, and have to live with the consequencies of whichever route you were setting up for (how bayesian). Might as well hope for the best, keep pedalling and see what happens!

It was a lovely morning, and I ended up riding out to and round Ocean Terminal and the harbours, a ride of 5+ miles. I want to learn how to get up kerbs without dismounting – this involves riding, transitioning into hopping, hopping up the kerb, then back to riding. I can do all these bits individually, but only manage them all together about 20% of the time. It’s a great skill to practise – a combination of several moves, and a highly useful outcome at the end.

Riding rough terain is getting way better. The gravel paths and off-road muddy bits on my route are now all easy. In fact, gravel is almost easier than tarmac because the unicycle turns easily on the gravel.

I did a wee bit of hopping/jumping practise this evening. I’m improving at seat-out hopping, and so tried jumping my trusty 10x10cm lump of wood seat-out. On the first attempt, my foot slipped off before I landed and I was rewarded by a pretty solid pedal/shin contact. The next two attempts were better – I landed fine, but stepped off before I could get another hop in. I tried doing a “high” jump too (the raison d’etre of jumping seat-out) and landed it fine. The other thing I’m practising is hopping with my weaker foot back – I can sort of do it, but I often tip over forward/backwards. It’s weird that it’s so different to hopping on my ‘good’ foot.

I used my unicycle as pure transport for the first time today – a short trip to Tesco to buy some pizzas. I locked up the ‘wheel’ part to the cycle racks and put the seat part into my bag. The effect on my balance of carrying two pizzas and a D-lock was pretty minimal. Going down the steep path felt substantially harder though. Both pizzas survived the journey intact.

Earlier today, I was out under blue skies at Portobello esplanade. I tried three jump mounts, and landed them all. I tried three suicide mounts too, and whilst I landed on the pedals fine, the seat tipped away before I could sit down. I also did about half a mile along the esplanade, with a few cobbles and kerbs thrown in to keep me on my toes. It’s incredible how tiring it is compared to a bicycle. Your legs are spinning much faster, against less resistance, but you’re also constantly adjusting your pedalling rate – pausing a bit, then pedalling like crazy.

My main aim was to practise turns. I got really good at turning left – doing tight turns around some park benches. But I totally suck at turning right .. as in, I can barely do it. I guess I’m not an ambi-turner. Going left, I can pause mid-turn and change direction easily. Turning right, my pedalling speeds up, my positioning feels all wrong, and it feels like my body just doesn’t tilt that way. I need to just stick at it .. stop ‘practising’ the direction I can do and force myself to learn the other direction. Same with freemounts too. I can freemount with either foot, but I waay prefer starting with my right foot. Actually, same with idling too. I spot a pattern here.

Until I master turning right, I’ll just need to do 270° left turns instead …

“Hold the unicycle upright on front of you, pedals level. Let go of the unicycle and, before it falls over, jump up into the air and land evenly on both pedals, then ride away”.

That’s a no-handed jump mount, aka the “suicide mount”. There’s a rather large psychological barrier to get over here. On all my early attempts, I’d manage to bounce slightly on my toes before some deep-seated self-preservation instinct kicked in and I bottled it. It’s a fully committed jump onto, err, a wheel.

Learning to hop, and riding in/out of hops teaches you how to keep even pressure on the pedals, even when slightly off-balance – an important precursor to doing the jump mount. But, after that, you just have to “go for it”. Strangely, I found that I had more time than I expected in mid-air to find the pedals. Landing is a teeny bit more stable than I’d anticipated. Even if you land on one pedal a millisecond before the other one, your weight pushes the other pedal up towards your feet, creating somewhat of a platform to land on.

So, that’s five different ways I can get onto a unicycle: standard (left & right foots), reverse/rollback, side, jump and no-hands jump. I think I could probably manage all the level 2 skills on a good day, plus hopping and a bit of idling, and I can ride for half a mile in one go. Solid progress.