Fastest EUC learning time?

[Japmerican]

I'm curious as to what the fastest time to learn to ride an EUC is.  Entirely just for curiosity sake.  It took me three days at about 1.5 hours each day.  On day three everything just clicked and suddenly I could ride it.  It was almost like a switch had been turned on in my brain.  My only other PEV experience is riding a hoverboard.

The reason I bring this up is yesterday evening I went out for a little joy ride around some areas of town.  A guy and girl saw me riding by in a parking lot and shouted "Wow!  What's that?  Can I see it better?"  Well long story, longer; I stopped and showed them and told them all about it.  The girl asked if I'd be okay with her trying it out.  She had never ridden anything like this before.  After I showed her the basics and then let her try, she mounted it and with the help of her boyfriend/friend rode while assisted for about 20 minutes and letting go of him every so often.  By 25 minutes into this she was off on her own doing complete turns, stops, self-mounts, etc.

It took me 4.5 hours over three days to get to where she got in 25 minutes.  Very impressive!  And I had thought that I was a pretty quick learner because I had heard of people anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks learning to ride.

So how long did it take you or someone you know to figure out how to ride one?

[kasenutty]

Not to worry, some guy will stop by soon and say he learned in 10 minutes and then we can all feel bad

[esaj]

Some people with "normal" unicycle or skateboarding experience have apparently rode well within 5-15 minutes or so...    I learned basic mounting, riding forwards and stopping on day one, but wasn't really in "control" until about day three or so. And of course after that, I still had to practice my turns, mounting, braking etc. to become good enough to trust myself to ride where there's more people around.

[Kens]

Well my take is everybody different. The same question can be ask with learning how to ride a bike or anything really. We can round it up and take an average on how long most people can get the "click" but we never know what is the fastest. It took me 5 days to just be able to go into straight line and a week to be able to go anywhere. Your story about the girl able to do everything in just 25 min is the fastest as far as I know. But if we want to speculate the fastest time to learn to ride an EUC then the answer is in an instant?

 

And was the girl Asian? 

[esaj]

3 minutes ago, Kens said:

Well my take is everybody different. The same question can be ask with learning how to ride a bike or anything really. We can round it up and take an average on how long most people can get the "click" but we never know what is the fastest. It took me 5 days to just be able to go into straight line and a week to be able to go anywhere. Your story about the girl able to do everything in just 25 min is the fastest as far as I know. But if we want to speculate the fastest time to learn to ride an EUC then the answer is in an instant?

Yeah, definitely nobody should feel bad or inferior if it takes them longer to learn. I'd like to believe anyone can learn it if they don't give up, just the time (and possibly bruises) it takes can vary a lot between persons.

[Tjtripp]

Took me probably about a month of pretty regular practice.  Probably practiced about 25 mins for the first few days then up to maybe an hour by the second or third week. 

Probably took me around 15 hours or so before I would go outside of my warehouse.  On the flip side I have a friend who learned in about 3 hours over half of a day's practice.

[Marco Stahlmann]

I trained with 4 people now and all were able to ride unassisted after about 30 min. Sure it didn't look to good, but they could go straight and do perform larger turns.

My two sons were pretty good on their snowboards and skateboards before and one colleague could ride a unicycle prior. What really made it easier for them was, that I walked alongside them the whole time, with them clinging to me at first and gradually letting go of my arm as they got more comfortable. If you are on your own with only holding onto a wall and constantly stepping of the wheel will definitely lead to longer training.

 

-Marco

[Esper]

For me, having never road a unicycle, I learned in 4 hours ish. 2 hours day one, 2 hours day two before I took it on a ride for 2 miles to my friend's place and back.

For my friend, who owns and rides multiple unicycles, he learned in less than 2 minutes. Got on, road about 10 feet, hopped off, and did it again and had it down.

[Catlord17]

Took me 5 minutes.  Yup.  Maybe 4. 

Hope nobody sees my thread about how long it really took me to learn, lol  Seemed like forever.

[Demargon]

Second or third try in less than 5 minutes. Lot of previous rollerblading and classic unicycle experience. And I want seriously to ride in euc. But I last almost a week to learn get up without a pole, tree or signal

[andress]

Actually one of my friends did not have to learn at all. I showed and explained him how to do it. Then he got on holding on to a post and rode. Just like that. He even managed to turn and come back to us. He has exceptional balance though. He does rope walking - slack line.

I learned in about an hour. After that I was able to ride on a not too busy sidewalk.

[LanghamP]

How long did it take me to ride an UEC? 15 minutes, maybe.

Ask me how long it took to learn to ice skate and rollerblade. Months and months and months.

Ice skating, skateboarding, and of course slacklining are probably highly transferable between each other and EUCs, and so if you ask anyone how long they took to learn to ride an EUC, the answer is always, "many hours" because they put time in something <EUC>-like.

We all took about the same amount of time learning these balance and movement skills.

[Adumb]

I was able to try a friends and ride within minutes, I couldn't turn well but I could get on/off and go straight. Two hours or so later and I was zooming around, making sharp turns, and so on. It helps that it wasn't my wheel and my friend didn't mind if it got banged up.

I'm only now just starting to be able to ride backwards but only at slow speeds and I can only turn comfortably to the left when riding in reverse.

Best way to learn to ride, in my opinion, is just to go out to a parking lot and go for it. 

 

[kasenutty]

LanghamP!

[mrelwood]

 

10 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

they put time in something <EUC>-like.

Exactly. My brother had done various physical and balancing activities, and he was mounting and riding pretty much where he wanted in 15 mins.

I taught a friend of mine to ride last week. He was riding wobbly and turning where he wanted in about 10 mins. He said it was because he had the best teacher! ?

I learned on my own watching Youtube videos in early 2017. It took me 3 days I think, since I couldn’t practice for more than perhaps 20 mins at a time. Adding up to several hours anyway. Mounting came even later.

Seems common though that the incredibly fast learners are our ”friends”, and we at the forum are mostly a lot slower learners! ?

[The Fat Unicyclist]

53 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

Exactly. My brother had done various physical and balancing activities, and he was mounting and riding pretty much where he wanted in 15 mins.

I taught a friend of mine to ride last week. He was riding wobbly and turning where he wanted in about 10 mins. He said it was because he had the best teacher! ?

I learned on my own watching Youtube videos in early 2017. It took me 3 days I think, since I couldn’t practice for more than perhaps 20 mins at a time. Adding up to several hours anyway. Mounting came even later.

Seems common though that the incredibly fast learners are our ”friends”, and we at the forum are mostly a lot slower learners! ?

The benefit of having a "live" teacher cannot be underestimated... I think it is exponentially easier than having to flounder alone (even with YouTube).

[Antshark]

I ran into some kid who was curious about what I was riding (low pressure V5F) and wanted to try it out.

I figured he'd give up and leave me alone after a few minutes of failing, but he managed to mount and go straight on his first try, and was turning around on his second try.

 

Most people I lend my EUC to take 90-120 minutes to learn (taking note of survivor's bias - those who haven't learnt by the 2nd hour tend to give up). A colleague who knows how to ride the unicycle learnt in 15 minutes.

[Esash]

It took me 3 minutes. Would have been shorter but I was writing my doctoral thesis at the same time, and I didn't want to look up from my iPad.

 

 

[Holt]

I’m still learning ...  and love every minute of it!

 

 

[ir_fuel]

I have years of skateboarding experience. It didn't really help me imo. Had to learn it by myself (nobody to hold me) and it took me several days (not 8h/day  ).

Then again what is "being able to ride"? Start - ride - stop? Doing small circles? Riding half a mile backwards without falling off?

[mrelwood]

2 hours ago, ir_fuel said:

Then again what is "being able to ride"?

That is left a bit to the storytellers themselves... I think in this thread it is when one starts to be able to self-mount succesfully most times, ride relatively straight where one wants to, and turn and stop without an unintended ground contact.

[The Fat Unicyclist]

1 hour ago, mrelwood said:

I think in this thread it is when one starts to be able to self-mount succesfully most times, ride relatively straight where one wants to, and turn and stop without an unintended ground contact.

I would agree with that statement. But I also really like @Holt's comment...

3 hours ago, Holt said:

I’m still learning ...  and love every minute of it!

My total mileage is in the thousands... But I am still learning!

Maybe not daily, but every "once in a while" I still have moments of realisation - which makes everything more fun again!

[mrelwood]

2 hours ago, The Fat Unicyclist said:

But I am still learning!

'Till the day we die, for sure! Perhaps even longer.

I have only recently started practicing 10' pendulums and riding backwards. Had to go forwards for 12000 kms first!

[Lamin]

On 6/30/2018 at 12:59 AM, The Fat Unicyclist said:

The benefit of having a "live" teacher cannot be underestimated... I think it is exponentially easier than having to flounder alone (even with YouTube).

I agree. I did not have a live teacher, but a supportive person observing and commenting also goes a long way. Even if that person does not ride! And being able to hold hands or have someone to lean on is a good way of learning too. At least for me.

[Japmerican]

On 6/29/2018 at 12:06 PM, Marco Stahlmann said:

What really made it easier for them was, that I walked alongside them the whole time, with them clinging to me at first and gradually letting go of my arm as they got more comfortable.

 

On 6/29/2018 at 4:59 PM, The Fat Unicyclist said:

The benefit of having a "live" teacher cannot be underestimated... I think it is exponentially easier than having to flounder alone (even with YouTube).

 

On 6/30/2018 at 5:13 PM, Holt said:

I’m still learning ...  and love every minute of it!

 

On 6/30/2018 at 5:23 PM, ir_fuel said:

Then again what is "being able to ride"? Start - ride - stop? Doing small circles? Riding half a mile backwards without falling off?

Okay, Thanks Guy!  This is great input.  Clearly we have some themes here.  It's somewhere in between instant and still learning.  And what is the definition of that person saying that they can ride it.  I think I originally wrote this question because I was just so amazed at how quickly she picked it up.  The part I think that really plays a big role from all the input that seems pretty obvious to me now is that it depends on how much that person up to that point in there life learned to do various skills that require extremely accurate balance and dexterity and whether or not they are regularly using that skill.  If our brain has that much already figure out, then learning an EUC should simply be a new application of those skills with almost instant success.  Pretty cool.

I really agree too about still learning.  I've just in the last couple days have finally gotten comfortable sitting down on my KS18S to ride it.  I really nice to have that extra skillset since I do use this as a commuter and toward the end of my commute at the end of the day my legs are tired.

You guys are amazing!  Thanks for all the input.  I love the help and participation we get from this forum.