one wheel, one foot
d.kathrens@genie.geis.com
Sat, 5 Nov 94 20:26:00 UTC
Sara Langseth <sl@cs.brown.edu> wrote that she learned to ride one
footed by "winding up" and going forward from one footed idling. She said :
"there was no way I would've tried to learn by casually removing a foot from
the pedals while riding (it's scary to think about even now)."
One thing I've gathered from reading this list and talking to other
unicyclists is that everyone doesn't learn things the same way.
I wanted to tell everyone that one night shortly I after I learned to
idle one-footed, I had a dream about riding one footed. It was such fun that
I went out the next day and started learning to do it here in the waking
world. Of course I didn't get it on the first try, or even the first day, but
the dream gave me the confidence to try it.
I learned to ride one footed by rolling along in a straight line at a
medium fast pace and at the top of a stroke, putting one foot on the fork
crown. Having the IUF Skill Levels video to study was a great help. I knew I
would have to lean forward a bit, and pedal fast on the downstroke and slow
of the upstroke. From the first dozen or so attempts I learned that I always
tended to fall over to the side I was pedaling on. I learned to compensate
for this by holding the arm on that side downward at a 45 degree angle while
holding the other arm straight out.
By day three (1 and 1/2 hours of practice) I could go 10 revolutions
pedaling with my left foot and recover to two footed riding. Learning to use
the right foot only took about half that.
BTW, I'm in Cedar Rapids for a few weeks on my way back to Kansas. Any
unicyclists around these parts?
Dennis Kathrens
d.kathrens@genie.geis.com