re: Introduction and some questions

Bert Neff (bneff@melpar.esys.com)
Mon, 9 Jan 1995 10:33:57 -0500 (EST)

>
>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.

Are you serious or are you just trying to make us green with envy???

I spent several hard-earned weeks, hours a day, over and over, never giving
up, and finally, yes finally, I could make it 15 feet (5 meters). Another
week and I could go 10-15 meters, and another week and I was able to uni
pretty much indefinitely. I worked darnd hard for that, then you waltz in nad
tlell that sotry, glaghasdflasdf(*^#(*&^!!!

Sorry, I'm much better now. The therapy has helped immensely, and I won't
have any more outbreaks...

>
>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.
>
That is a lot. Less is better, but I believe it's still best to keep it
centered around one pedal or the other being in the down position. Then
you can try turning while idling. Then from the idle, I tried backing up
one step, then two, and then I was able to back up pretty easy (that at
least came easy to me).

>Thanks for any help.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Ronny Wichers Schreur
>ronny@cs.kun.nl
>
 /

\ 0 | Bert Neff
--|-- bneff@melpar.esys.com
| Leesburg, Virginia USA
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