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How to ride on one leg [HELP!!]


patrickrho

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Hey guys,

I just rode about 200km on my ninebot one e+ and i was wondering, can anybody give me some tip on how to ride on on leg? I mean, I have tried to do it and maybe I'm not getting it right but my leg is slanted towards the unit and the foot is about to slide off the pedal.  Do you have to push the weight onto the unit on the leg you're standing on?  I have watched countless videos and i still have no clue

I'm willing to learn this for the sake of cool or easy-looking 'get-ons' or 'start offs' (by going forward on one leg first then hop on the other leg) and to switch feet position as well as for stunts and show offs

Thanks in advance :-)

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I shouldn't respond, I guess, because I can not yet perform this on a Ninebot.  But I did experiment with this some on my AirWheel before I switched brands, and I had some limited success being able to go fairly short distances.

I think it is key that you *must* reduce the enormous pressure that comes from the machine against the leg of the foot that is still on the machine.  The leverage is tremendous and it really hurts. 

The only way I know to do this is to lean in the opposite direction of the foot that is on the machine.  For example, if you keep your right foot on the machine you will need to shift your center of gravity to the left (lean left) in order to keep the tremendous pressure off of your right leg.  While learning, if this means that you turn to the left, well that is ok.  Somehow you must get the pressure off of your right leg, in my example.  It is not a matter of just toughing it out.  

But as I said, I have not achieved this on the Ninebot, so good luck.  I look forward to other answers, that may be better than my slight insight. 

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still editing 5 hrs of footage hahah but I regularly ride on one foot, as previously stated. when I ride on my left foot all is fine. But when I ride on my right foot there is a terrible grinding noise from the wheel like it "flexes" and the hub rubs the inside of the plastic. I'm working on 360's (with whole body)and  starting on ninebot backwards you roll forward  you jump off  and kick the ninebot a 180 and land on it with the power button facing forward..  Also my bot underwent a facelift I hope to get a link to a picture soon, 

On another note if you open up the board side of the bot in the top left corner of the circut board  it says One_V1.3 maybe some others can confirm what they have got ? 

As for advice ... A strong inner calf helps.. and I don't know it feels quite natural although I've fallen a few times when transitioning things while one footed such as inclines/declines/curbs

 

Here is aq picture hope it works had to set up an alternate instagram  https://instagram.com/p/7FQQwYR3Jy/?taken-by=glass_710

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@popcorn : Wow, I was inspired by this thread to go out and try the one-leg on the Ninebot One E+.   Although the form factor is not as easy as on an Airwheel (because of where the support meets the inner leg), I can still just about begin to do it.  [By this, I mean that I can do it for very short distances.]  But alas, the scraping is there just as you described!  Yikes!   Since I am strictly right-legged in doing these things it seems like I may never be able to ride one-legged on the NB1.  

I'm just writing to confirm the scraping sound when riding on right leg only.  

For those that wish to try, and are beginning, I placed my foot closer to the machine than I normally would, to reduce leverage against my leg.  And indeed,  with my right foot on the bot, I leaned a little to the left to further reduce pressure on my right calf.   This seems to me the right way to practice.  But then there was that scraping..  Ugh. 

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When riding one legged these things become class one levers (think of a crowbar).  Your body weight is the load on the pedal acting as one side of the lever, the wheel on the ground is the fulcrum, and EUC's body is the other side of the lever; the higher up the EUC you exert force on, the higher the mechanical advantage.  If you pad the Ninebot so that it contacts you leg closer to your knee, you should have an easier time going about it.  Makes me wonder how easy the King Song 18 incher would be to one-leg since it has such a high body.

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  • 3 months later...

I've been trying to find the balance point by staying stationary against a wall and trying out different locations to place my foot, and different angles for my knees, and pointing my toes at different angles. Everything hurts the shins, but pointing the dominant knee outward while increasing the bend in the knee angles the calf towards EU, which helps a little.

I get mild consistent pain near the outside of my ankles when I put all my weight on one leg, as if I'm slowly twisting my ankles. I can replicate the pain by standing on the ground and rolling my foot outward, placing my weight on the inside of my arches. Arch supporting orthotics helps a little, but I still need to do push on my foot outward to balance the EU on one leg so the pain still comes. (i.e., if my pedals had less friction, my dominant left foot would slide sideways to the left.)

Am I doing it right? Anyone else with ankle pain?


Okay! Here are some vids of skilled people riding on one leg.

 

 

 

 

 

One leg riding starts @ 4:30.

 

 

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try practicing 'stepping ': inside of the lower leg (dominant leg, f.ex. right leg) blocked against the EUC tilting the EUC to the 'stepping ' side, try to take a step with the weak leg (left leg) while keeping a straight line. This way you'll be riding 0.5meter each time on one leg, practice to take longer strides.

Personally I cannot bear my weight for more than about 2m because I'm quite a bit overweight, and I got a bad Quadriceps rupture (with a resulting tendon inflammation) on my dominant leg during our vacation this august.

 

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The most important point about riding on one leg is to ensure that the EUC is firmly pressing against the leg resting on the pedal.  Naturally, the EUC will need to be slightly tilted/slanted away from the leg resting on the pedal. This will ensure that your centre of gravity remains within your body frame in order to maintain balance and control.  The rest will be a matter of practise (as usual).

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On 1/3/2016 at 2:27 PM, Kwing said:

I think this video is perfect... Simons explanation is comprehensive. 

I think if you learn by following Simon's video you are basically teaching yourself  :lol:  There is not a lot of instruction there except "just do it" and practice.  He does hint though that there will be sideways pressure on the pedal against your shoe...

Also on most videos riding single foot there is no audio and so you don't know if the EU is creaking and you do not know whether or not any kind of noise is normal.  The same thing when doing curb drops or the higher drops - there is no audio of that impact.

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Don't forget the importance of pedal grip!  I just added grip tape on mine. Purchased it from the hardware store. Without it riding on one leg was scary, now it's only incredibly painful. :P

 

 

 

Make sure to 'spread' out your body weight in the direction of the leg off the eu. Easiest while mounting the eu

 

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As for the Ninebot One: If you want to get rid of the grinding noise you need to open the chassis, add a washer so the pedal won't touch the motor lid any longer. Since I've done so my Ninebot One is only humming with its sweet electronic Motor - no grinding noises any longer :-)

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Something clicked today and I figured out how to consistently ride 4 meters on my right leg! :) 

This is what worked for me. If you're more comfortable controlling with your left leg, just reverse the instructions.

- Tie your shoes tightly, make sure your pedals have grip and your feet feet don't slide inside your shoes.
- Place your right foot as close to the wheel as possible and bend your right knee, placing your right knee on top or slightly ahead of your right toes.
- Tilt the wheel slightly to the left
- Bend your body at the hips, and lean your upper body forward and to the right. Point both arms to the right. Turn your shoulders towards the right as well (not shown the picture). 

This pose might feel exaggerated but it will help to lower your centre of gravity. You'll be able to stand up straight once you're good at it. It's like when people ice skate for the first time, they'll all instinctively bend at their knees and stick their butt out to balance. It looks weird but it works!

- Skate on your right leg, but use only the tip of your left toes so that whether your left toes are on the ground or off, your body and wheel stay in the same pose.
- Skate in a straight line as quickly as you can while maintaining control because speed helps with balance. You'll find that you need to use your left leg less and less. Rotate your right leg to balance.
 

569020b414c4f_ScreenShot2016-01-08at3.48 

The pose looks like this but with more of your upper body centred to the right. (The woman here is turning).

Warning to newbies -- as with any sport, you'll want to practice in increasingly longer sessions to build up the muscles to avoid injuries. Going one legged puts a lot of rotational strain on my ankles and knees so I might have mildly damaged a ligament in my left knee first time I went straight from 15 minutes sessions to a 2 hour session. It doesn't hurt anymore but that knee still feels weak. I'll have to stay off it for a while. Lesson learned! Practice safely! :)
 

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Okay I will give my tip - it goes something like this:  First I suggest leveling up your footwork.  This is good to do anyway in all regards.

How to level up footwork, feet placement, ride feel and balance, a gateway to trick riding.  Ride around in an open space and ride doing figure eights over and over - slow speed and fast, tight turns and wide.  A figure eight is just riding in a circle left looping around then transition to the other side riding a circle the other way to the right.  Left right left right left right.  

Do it slowly and tightly.  You can use markers on the ground to help you.  At first you will ride at moderate speed simply because you can't ride slowly to do your figure eights consistently but the more you do it the more slowly you can ride and the more accurate you will be.  As you transition from left to right and right to left you will find that your feet placement have to move.  You will have to shuffle your feet as you transition.  You might stick your inside foot outward while your outside foot remains parallel - as you transition the other way your feet will be in reverse situation.  You don't have to worry about what to do with each foot and where to place your weight - to the outside foot, inside foot, even on both feet, on your heel or your toes - you don't have to worry about this because your brain will naturally figure it out after a while riding figure eights in this manner.  You will level up before long.  I don't know how many hundreds of times it takes but you will know when you've leveled up - your feet placement will have improved and you will even be able to ride straight much better.

Do it faster and wider.  To vary the practice you can ride faster which will increase centrifugal force and you will learn to lean more into the turn.  As you get tired your body will learn to conserve energy by finding the natural ways to place your weight so that your muscles can rest and not work as hard.  Your upper body will start to twist naturally - try to trail your inside arm out behind you and twist your outside shoulder so that your body is sideways into the turn (the "outside" is your right leg or arm when turning left and the "inside" is your left foot or anything on the left side when turning left - when turning right it is the opposite, your right is the inside when turning right).  You will start to look like an ice skater, hockey skater when turning your upper body to face toward the center of the turn.  You will level up again and your feet placement will become natural and you will shuffle them whenever wherever you want, inefficiently or efficiently it doesn't matter anymore.  You might feel like you're climbing the wheel, you might feel you're standing on the balls of your feet (standing on your toes), and sometimes you might feel like riding with straight legs and even one knee locked, on your heel, on the flat of your feet.  You are spinning and spinning and transitioning your weight left then right and accelerating your learning years ahead in the shortest amount of time possible.  This is how to make riding second nature.

As you've leveled up two times, soon you will have an irresistible urge to take one foot off the pedals to ride one footed.  This you will do naturally.  You might wedge your foot on the inside of the pedal so that it's partially climbing the side.  You might bend at the knee forming a "Z" shape from your ankle to your knee - and you will know where to place your hips and how to turn your body to stay in balance because you have leveled up your riding ability twice over and you naturally understand balance and your body mechanics.  Perhaps you might focus your strength on the ball of your big toe, perhaps you can place more of your calf against the side pads.  You are now able to conserve strength and not waste it unnecessarily and yes perhaps feel no pain at all, just pressure.  On the other hand if you are pinching nerves and parts of your legs go numb, you will know where to add padding.  Yes, you are now "riding" you are no longer just on top hoping for the best.  It's as if you met a killer tiger face to face and instead of being mauled you've climbed on its back and made it do your bidding.

Hmm - what do you think of my tip?

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