Learning to Idle on 29" vs 20"

[UekiTylor]

I've had a 29" KH unicycle for under a week, but it already seems more comfortable and easy to ride than the 20" Torker LX I've had for over a year. I've ridden to work a couple times and managed to learn to get on with my weak foot better than I can with my 20" (maybe just because the wheel has more mass so it stays put). I also can ride over curves and do rolling hops better on it already.

Finding myself not tired at the stoplights now that my tire is a reasonable size, I decided I need to learn to idle and go backwards. I've been trying to learn for 6 months off and on on my 20", and every day for the last week, but it feels like I'm not making any progress... I've been practicing on the 29".

Would practicing on the 20" be faster/easier? My current plan is to just learn everything on the 29" and ignore the 20", which now feels like a little toy. But would I learn faster/easier on a 20"? If I learn to idle on the 20" will I magically know how to do it on the 29" like I magically knew how to free-mount, hop and ride forward? What about wheel-walking and 1 foot riding? Does it make sense to learn on my normal unicycle or start on a 20" for every trick?

Fell on my head backwards once today since I'm not used to stepping off the crazy pins on the pedal, I guess the 20" might be less painful...

[From the Woods]

If the 29" is easier to ride for you I would try it on that uni. Idling is one of those things that really depend a lot on wheelsize and crank length and being able to do it with one setup doesn't mean you can do it immediately with another setup too. Usually learning tricks is easier on the 20" but again I don't see why you shouldn't learn them on the bigger wheel (unless you want to do harder flat or street tricks like crankflips or unispins of course ;) ). Riding backwars can be quite scary on bigger wheels because falling can hurt a lot more so that's the only thing I would rather learn on the 20".

[davidp]

In general I've found it I make progress faster learning new skills on a smaller wheel and then transferring them to the bigger ones. I think it's partially because of the extra control and partly psychological.

[ezas]

I recently bought a 20" with the goal of using it to learn tricks before transitioning them to a bigger wheel and for riding in small areas (like my driveway).

I'll simply say don't expect a miracle using a 20" to learn skills. It's different enough that it's almost like learning a new skill. To me a 20" feels small but im 6' tall so that might have something to do with it.

[UekiTylor]

Maybe it is all crank size... but I tried riding the 20" yesterday and I just can't do as well as on the 29". Turns are wider, I can stop and hop and turn, but never managed to idle once or go backwards. Guess I'm just too used to the 29" wheel.

My next-door-neighbor has a 24" inch Sun with road tires. I tried that out for the first time and was able to idle a couple times and turn/stall right away. I did better than on the 29", but I suspect that was the skinny smooth tires making the difference, I idle better on a friends 29" with road tires too.

Maybe the 20" just needs smaller cranks, but I think I'll stick with idling/reverse on the 29" for a month and see if I'm making progress.


Is wheel walking/gliding silly to try to learn on a 29"?

[anton005]

I know when I've been riding my bigger wheels for a while and neglecting my 20 (like i've been doing for a month now) it takes a few days of riding the 20 before my legs adjust to the small wheel. Idling and riding backwards seems much harder until I make the adjustment. Especially the first few hours I can barely ride the thing, my legs are all jerky and I lose my balance a lot.

I did much of my learning on a 24, I finally broke down and picked up a 20 thinking it would make learning tricks easier, for the most part it didn't make much of a difference at all with the exception for tricks where you spin the uni. Right now If I went head to head with idling and riding backwards I would do way better on my 26 muni than my 20 trials.