Can You See the Sunset? » unicycle

Learning to ride a Unicycle: Part 13 (and other stuff)

Eric — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:49:48 +0000

Unicycles. I’m getting pretty decent at freemounting and can ride away from probably 75% of ‘em. You might be excited about that, but I am. Last Friday I rode at least 700 feet before dismounting (on the one that I actually measured) and most likely more than that and even rode (with a few pauses, of course) down the block and back, probably somewhere over a 1/2 mile total. If any of you are thinking about learning to unicycle, here’s a tip:

Keeping your weight on the pedals might seem like it give you more control and, at first, it might, but once you learn to put most of your weight on the seat, your legs will thank you for it. Now to perfect a figure eight in both directions, learn to idle and hop, and ride off-road and then I’ll be making some progress. Really, I’ve only ridden about an hour over the past 4-5 days (if that) so progress comes slowly but I’ve got other things going on as well.

Wifey’s been having mild contractions all day and for parts of the past few days so she’s currently being checked out at the doc’s office. Me, I’m waiting at home, watching the Cubs, and drinking a little bourbon. If by some wacky happening she doesn’t go into labor before next Tuesday, she’ll be induced then. We’ll see. Until then, I’m waiting…

Learning to ride a Unicycle: Part 12

Eric — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:14:02 +0000

It’s just like riding a bicycle… only different. Really, after a full week of not riding at all, I was able to freemount on my second attempt and I was also able to ride 455 feet after freemounting on Sunday. Either way I’ve really only spent about 7 total hours in the saddle practicing and learning so the more I do it, the better I’ll get. However, I can only imagine that with a new baby entering our lives in the next few weeks these updates might get a little more infrequent. I’ll still post some pictures of me on the unicycle as soon as I get someone to take a few.

Learning to ride a Unicycle: Part 11

Eric — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:50:08 +0000

Yeah, even though it’s been about a month since I started trying to ride, I haven’t ridden my unicycle since last Saturday. My hip has been feeling better but I’ve also been stretching a bunch too. I’m not sure if it’s really fucked up or if I’m just getting old and pushing too hard. Either way, I’ll be back trying to ride the beast tomorrow so more updates will certainly be forthcoming. In the meantime:

MP3 | cLOUDDEAD – Physics Of A Unicycle Ten

Learning to ride a Unicycle: Days 18 – 22

Eric — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:14:15 +0000

As of today I’ve been attempting to ride a unicycle for three weeks and aside from the fact that my left hip hurts like hell (and, no, I didn’t fall) I think it’s going pretty well. Monday I tried to pry the stripped out crank arm from the unicycle with no success. Tuesday I got the crank arm off with a crank puller but didn’t have time to get any practice in. Wednesday, Thursday, and today I was working on freemounting the right way with the pedals horizontal. The key is keeping your weight on the seat and not on the pedals. I also managed to add a few feet to my longest ride and I’m up to about 350 feet. Did I mention that it has been raining all damn week? That’s made practicing a bit of pain as well. Still, it’s pretty awesome to be able to freemount and then actually ride away.