Ron Wichers Schreur
1995-01-09, 12:31 PM
Hello,
The welcome message for this mailing list contained a call for unicycle stories.
Well, here's mine.
I started juggling three years ago and at a juggling convention I first tried
unicycling without much success, but I liked it anyway.
Santa was kind enough to give me a unicycle last December. Yuri Abrahams (that's
Sem's brother) gave some quick tips when I picked up my 24" SemCycle, I had some
free time around Christmas and New Year so I was ready to learn to ride.
Because there was no one to hold my hand all the time I decided to try the
"just-go-for-it" method. It worked well for me. I started mounting the unicycle
with one hand to a wall for balance. My goal for the first day was to reach a
fence at the other side of the driveway, about 5 meters away. To my surprise I
got to the fence before lunch. In the afternoon I rode from driveway onto the
road. Before I knew what was happening I had cycled 20 meters. Then I started
thinking and of course fell of. But I had felt what it was to cycle and the same
day I brought the record to 150 meters.
The following day it started raining but I did repeat a few more runs of
100+ meters.
The third day the weather was even worse and I had to stay indoors. Mounting
the unicycle without any support from a wall looked like a useful skill, so I
spent the time to try and learn this. After numerous tries I managed to get on
the unicycle most of the time. I don't if my method counts as a "free mount"
because I hold on to the tyre to stabilise the wheel before both my feet are on
the pedals.
The last practise day I concentrated on making curves. I set up a slalom course
with some bricks, moving the bricks closer together every time. I also had some
fun trying to cycle as slow as possible. At the end of the day I could make a
circle of about 2 meters in diameter, but only if I turned left! Making turns to
the right is more difficult for me. Does anybody have any idea why?
The next thing I want to learn is to idle. I understand that you cycle back and
forth a little, but I am not sure about the positions of the pedals. Are they
supposed to be level in the two extreme positions? This would mean that the
wheel makes half a revolution every time, which seems rather a lot to me.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers,
Ronny Wichers Schreur ronny@cs.kun.nl
The welcome message for this mailing list contained a call for unicycle stories.
Well, here's mine.
I started juggling three years ago and at a juggling convention I first tried
unicycling without much success, but I liked it anyway.
Santa was kind enough to give me a unicycle last December. Yuri Abrahams (that's
Sem's brother) gave some quick tips when I picked up my 24" SemCycle, I had some
free time around Christmas and New Year so I was ready to learn to ride.
Because there was no one to hold my hand all the time I decided to try the
"just-go-for-it" method. It worked well for me. I started mounting the unicycle
with one hand to a wall for balance. My goal for the first day was to reach a
fence at the other side of the driveway, about 5 meters away. To my surprise I
got to the fence before lunch. In the afternoon I rode from driveway onto the
road. Before I knew what was happening I had cycled 20 meters. Then I started
thinking and of course fell of. But I had felt what it was to cycle and the same
day I brought the record to 150 meters.
The following day it started raining but I did repeat a few more runs of
100+ meters.
The third day the weather was even worse and I had to stay indoors. Mounting
the unicycle without any support from a wall looked like a useful skill, so I
spent the time to try and learn this. After numerous tries I managed to get on
the unicycle most of the time. I don't if my method counts as a "free mount"
because I hold on to the tyre to stabilise the wheel before both my feet are on
the pedals.
The last practise day I concentrated on making curves. I set up a slalom course
with some bricks, moving the bricks closer together every time. I also had some
fun trying to cycle as slow as possible. At the end of the day I could make a
circle of about 2 meters in diameter, but only if I turned left! Making turns to
the right is more difficult for me. Does anybody have any idea why?
The next thing I want to learn is to idle. I understand that you cycle back and
forth a little, but I am not sure about the positions of the pedals. Are they
supposed to be level in the two extreme positions? This would mean that the
wheel makes half a revolution every time, which seems rather a lot to me.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers,
Ronny Wichers Schreur ronny@cs.kun.nl