Newb and left turn tendency

[Jim Martin]

Just starting out and have been at it for a few days now.  I'm learning on a solowheel glide 3, and have an 18XL sitting idle until I get past this initial learning phase.  I'm very slowly making progress, but for some reason it's really easy for me to turn left and in fact it's harder for me to go straight.  Falling to the right or even thinking about turning right is very difficult for me, it's like my right/dominate foot is glued to the wheel and if I need to bail it's like I can't take my right foot off the wheel.  Will this change with time?  I wonder if it's because my right foot is the dominate foot I use on the wheel to get going.  Should I try also stopping and stepping off with my left foot planted on the wheel?  This is really hard to explain but it's like my right foot feels locked into the wheel and I'm hesitant to turn right or even over lean to the right because I won't be able to catch myself in a fall.

[LanghamP]

Most of us are better at turning in one direction over another. In right-side driving countries since most roads/streets/paths are cambered that means you're spending most of your time tipping to your left. This is because cycles like to be completely vertical in respect to the road surface, which means cycles end up running downhill (to the right) and therefore are constantly turning right. You then get a lot of practice turning left since you're turning left nearly all the time counteracting the wheel's tendency to turn right.

For New Zealand, Australian, UK, and other countries where people are on the left side, I would assume they are all better at turning right instead of left.

The solution is, of course, simply practicing turning right, and a practical and easy way of doing so is to zig zag over the crown of your local road, being mindful of how the wheel reverses itself quite suddenly and strongly each time you crest the crown.

Unfortunately you will need to learn how to slalom on an EUC because you have no second wheel to provide constant force against. You'll need to constantly zig zag (countersteering inputs) in order to approximate a direction.

[kasenutty]

Only left turns? You must be our Nascar-Member, welcome to the forum Jim  

[Xoltri]

Try and focus on physically leaning the wheel to the right to turn right.  Meaning you have to have less pressure on your left foot and transfer the weight to your right foot, all while leaning to the right to complete the turn.

[Guest PogArt Artur]

3 hours ago, Jim Martin said:

Just starting out and have been at it for a few days now.  I'm learning on a solowheel glide 3, and have an 18XL sitting idle until I get past this initial learning phase.  I'm very slowly making progress, but for some reason it's really easy for me to turn left and in fact it's harder for me to go straight.  Falling to the right or even thinking about turning right is very difficult for me, it's like my right/dominate foot is glued to the wheel and if I need to bail it's like I can't take my right foot off the wheel.  Will this change with time?  I wonder if it's because my right foot is the dominate foot I use on the wheel to get going.  Should I try also stopping and stepping off with my left foot planted on the wheel?  This is really hard to explain but it's like my right foot feels locked into the wheel and I'm hesitant to turn right or even over lean to the right because I won't be able to catch myself in a fall.

Hi there

Everybody has a bit different learning curve I think, but at the end of day we all getting the right path

[Jim Martin]

I actually thought I would pick this up quicker since I'm pretty athletic and have a lot of miles on a onewheele.  This has proven to be much more challenging than I expected.  I just have to keep telling myself that I will get it one of these days.  The feeling of being ok leaning one way (left) vs the other (right) is really strange, I have no idea why I'm fearful of leaning right.  I guess it will come.

[kasenutty]

Some guys lean left and some lean right, Jim, but we try to leave politics at the door around here. 

 

 

Ok... My left right jokes are over. I'll show myself the door 

 

 

[RoadRunner]

43 minutes ago, Jim Martin said:

I guess it will come.

Yes it will come, in a few weeks it will all be good. 

My magic spot was at the 400km mark, after that everything was just natural.

[Jim Martin]

Ok, looks like it's common.  This guy talks about it here 

 

[mrelwood]

I have ridden more than 17000km and there is still a clear difference turning left or right, for a few reasons:

- I think my hip or lower back is not completely straight, so my natural center is slightly corkscrewed.

- Whenever I do a tight 180•, I’m at the right side of the street. No room to turn right, so I always make a 180• to the left.

- I always mount with my right foot.

- @Smoother’s point about streets banking is a good one.

But it will surely get easier with time, especially if you keep practicing turning right. Try twisting your upper body to the right before you turn right. That will make the wheel turn a bit without even leaning.

[Wonderwebb]

I've only been riding a month ! Everything I found hard I made sure I did ! I will always mount with the most uncomfortable leg as I know I the other leg is fine . I also had trouble turning right so all I did was practice in a carpark doing nothing but turning right.  Tight trails which force you to obey them are also great.  I have just today switched from a v5f to an msx and am glad I learnt on a smaller wheel as it made my first ride on bigger wheel no problem  at all. In fact the bigger wheel feels a lot more stable. 

So in short just practice the things that just feel awkward and they will disappear !

[Smoother]

Its natural to favor one direction over the other.  I believe it's linked to which foot is dominant.  My left foot is dominant and my left turns are not as good as my rights (mostly tight turns like doing a 180 on a 3 foot wide path, wide turns there is no appreciable difference)  I rarely ride on the road and when I do I try to keep out of the gutter as much as possible so the crown in the road has no bearing on my turning preferences.  I understand your "foot glued to the pedal" comment.  My left foot has that tendency too; always first on, always last off.  If I step down with one foot it's always the other foot.  It's really ruining the experience.........NOT!  It doesn't matter a bit. Sure, I could make more 180S to the left, but why, when to the right works just fine? I could practice more getting down and up with the weak foot, but I haven't needed it in 2 and a half years, so why start now? (OK, maybe once it could have been handy on a ribbon of a path, when I stepped off into bushes without a bottom on the edge of an invisible cliff..but I digress ).

As has been mentioned above, just keep practicing, and favor you left turn to improve them, by repetition.  Put in the miles and use each mile to practice; weave, zig zag, carve, twist, do figure eights, LOTS of figure eights.  Do 180s and 360s in both directions, do them over and over again.  Experiment with your whole body, see what works, see what goes together, what doesn't.  This stuff can't be taught, one has to experience it through experimentation.  Only repetition will get riding into your muscle memory and out of your head.  My first ride around a lot of people (la Rambla, Barcelona) was nerve wracking.  Now I ride among thick crowds of tourists wandering this way and that, cyclists zooming in all directions, and don't give it a second though, why? Muscle memory and complete comfort with wheel control. Once you can throw your wheel around, to adapt to ever-changing conditions, without thinking about it, you have arrived.  Practice practice practice.

 

@mrelwood   "- @Smoother’s point about streets banking is a good one."  not me bud.. @LanghamP

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by Smoother

[Jim Martin]

Thanks for all the great advice!  Good weather this evening should allow for some more practice.