Jump to content

How to ride an electric unicycle - understanding the dynamics


John Eucist

Recommended Posts

Ok SP, hope to maybe one day experience the time slowing down thing.

Hope it's there and kicks in one day when it's really needed.

Otherwise it'll be like TP says, cat got me, lights out. :(

 

*Wait, hope to never have the need to experience it.

Edited by Paul A
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Paul A said:

Ok SP, hope to maybe one day experience the time slowing down thing.

Hope it's there and kicks in one day when it's really needed.

Otherwise it'll be like TP says, cat got me, lights out. :(

Hmm?… My best slowing of time happened in my younger years. I am getting there by memory now. As stated earlier, not by me, It likely has something to do with adrenaline dumps. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok RT, sounds about right, the fight or flight adrenaline rush to heighten everything for survival.

Maybe reaction times can be trained.

Like sports people in racing, boxing etc.

Motorbike racers in the Isle of Man TT race, street circuit, at 200+mph/300+kph, would think time would have to slow down for them.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said:

If the average reaction time is 1 second, we are already all dead.

This is quite plausible hypothesis. The reaction time of normal healthy adult human varies from about 0.15 s to 1 s. There is a lot of parameters affecting to it. For example:

  • Intrinsic reflexes
  • Learned reflexes
  • Preparedness
  • Previous experiences
  • Mental and physical exhaustion
  • Complexity and type of action needed
  • Use of alcohol, narcotics and drugs
  • The length nerve impulse need to travel
  • The amount of thinking needed to solve the situation
  • Other stimulus's influencing at the same time

Each situation is going to be different. Unfortunately, when falling our time frame to do anything is very limited. In many cases I've seen intrinsic reflexes working against us. Those have been developed in thousands of years of evolution and served us well, but not in the EUC riding. The best way to increase one's odds is to practice falling and develop learned reflexes. I have very good experience of this. Over forty years ago learned falling skills seem to still work incredibly well. Nothing broken, yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Back to the subject of "How To Ride."  I find this home-built railing out of repurposed black pipes is the most helpful device FOR ME, given the harsh weather that prevents me from going to a school yard or a basketball court.  After days of practice, I now can go 20 feet, the entire length of the railing, without any support.  I am now leaning how to free mount.  I can do 4  successful free mounts out of 10 on average.  Physics is against the idea of free mount.  My dominant leg (right) will tilt the wheel to the right as soon as my left leg goes off the ground, so my wheel will immediately veer to the right after the initial push.  If I lock my right leg to the wheel too tight, the wheel will tilt to the left as soon as my left leg is on the pedal.  There is a delicate balance point to mount and go straight.  How do those EUC riders stop and go from the traffic lights with ease?  What is your trick?

Railinng for EUC.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Julian Lo said:

Back to the subject of "How To Ride."  I find this home-built railing out of repurposed black pipes is the most helpful device FOR ME, given the harsh weather that prevents me from going to a school yard or a basketball court.  After days of practice, I now can go 20 feet, the entire length of the railing, without any support.  I am now leaning how to free mount.  I can do 4  successful free mounts out of 10 on average.  Physics is against the idea of free mount.  My dominant leg (right) will tilt the wheel to the right as soon as my left leg goes off the ground, so my wheel will immediately veer to the right after the initial push.  If I lock my right leg to the wheel too tight, the wheel will tilt to the left as soon as my left leg is on the pedal.  There is a delicate balance point to mount and go straight.  How do those EUC riders stop and go from the traffic lights with ease?  What is your trick?

Railinng for EUC.png

Wedge the mounted leg and start trying to ride with one leg. Instead of stepping up onto the euc, pick the foot off the ground and try to NOT place it on the wheel, as you ride away. You will find that you lock in and lean the wheel towards the foot on the ground. Overdo the angle just a hair, but the rest of your body should be centered over the wheel. Example...  left foot is on the wheel, right foot on the floor. Bend that left knee to wedge your leg into the wheel and tilt it to the right. Your left knee wil likely be aligned with your right hip and the rest of your body will be over the wheel. Think of how a little boy looks when he has to pee REAL badly and locks those knees and curls over a bit. Keep your balance centered while the leg is locked and pick up your right foot. The pressure on your knee will seem a tad excessive at first. RIde that bar of yours one legged a few hundered times. Youll notice you can easily roll start and take all the time in the world, to place the second foot. If its confusing still, ride that bar and lift a foot up. Youl will notice the pressure on the mounted leg, and the forces at play to keep it upright.

Or... buy an mten. That tiny thing REALLY makes you work for it, if you want to mount easily instead of the newbie hop-up method. I find larger wheels are actually easier when it comes to keeping balanced while a foot is off. One foot riding IS how you see these guys stop and go. Its the fact that they arent relying on the 'off foot' very much, that they can stop and go. If you are MOSTLY on the one foot as you near a stop, its much easier to never transfer much weight and keep going, should the stop not end up being needed.

Edited by ShanesPlanet
  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

On 2/5/2022 at 9:11 PM, Julian Lo said:

Physics is against the idea of free mount.  My dominant leg (right) will tilt the wheel to the right as soon as my left leg goes off the ground, so my wheel will immediately veer to the right after the initial push.  If I lock my right leg to the wheel too tight, the wheel will tilt to the left as soon as my left leg is on the pedal.

Indeed it sounds like you might be hopping on the wheel a bit violently. The point of the @ShanesPlanet’s method is to learn more one legged control so you don’t have to hop, instead you can gently step on like you see in all of the experienced rider videos.

 When you practice, focus on putting pressure on the foot that’s already on the wheel. Eventually you’ll want the pressure balance to be reminiscent of a kick scooter, you’ll just be kicking speed from the ground as you coast along standing on the wheel on one leg. Hopping along with just a dead weight on one foot wouldn’t expect much in terms of progress.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/5/2022 at 11:11 AM, Julian Lo said:

How do those EUC riders stop and go from the traffic lights with ease?

Thousands upon thousands of mounts. You'll get it, it just takes a lot of practice.

On 2/5/2022 at 11:11 AM, Julian Lo said:

What is your trick?

I have a 'warm up' routine I go through before starting each ride, mostly because I'm not disciplined to have regular practice sessions. It involves a few tight turns, some hard acceleration and emergency braking, and some free mounts from both sides where the objective is to bring my second foot to the pedal as slowly as I can AND maintain a straight line.

What is problematic for me is the force with which the wheel wants to push on my mounted leg—it really pushes hard and feels like it's going to slide my foot sideways off the pedal. Spiked pedals really helped with that, but the force is still something I have to contend with. There is a magic combination of the angle of the wheel and my body position that I just have to get to be automatic.

Also, the fore-aft position of my mount foot needs to be 'right', my tendency is to mount with my foot too far back and that then requires more knee bend to engage acceleration when I start putting weight on the mount foot. Starting like you would on a skateboard is helpful, but not so much when you're starting uphill—for that you need your body in an acceleration posture from the get go. During my practice, I start every mount from two feet on the ground to try to practice getting my mount foot in the correct place.

I have about 4k km in my riding logbook now and can youtube mount with my dominant foot about 90% of the time... on flat ground. Non-dominant foot is maybe 20%? Uphill, downhill, on snow... mounting is a complete crapshoot. I obviously don't practice enough!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Following Kuji Roll and Wrong Way's how to ride videos, I learned to ride (yaw steering and tilt steering, and also how to stop) using support to mount and launch before I tried to free mount. I mount similar to riding a skateboard, just get the EUC moving forwards and hop on. I first tried free mount on grass, and on the first two tries, I didn't lean enough to compensate for the grass, but got it on the third try. My leg had a bit of bruising from just learning to ride, so I didn't want to make it worse by one foot gliding for more than a second or so, so I used just enough pressure on the upper pad to keep my V8F from tilting when stepping, then just stepped and hopped on quickly but not with a lot of force so it wouldn't tilt my V8F either.  This is a video from day 10, but it wasn't much different than my first free mounts, so an example from a non-expert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keDvRMScO1g

I'm working on one foot glide to mount and dismount more smoothly. In this next video, the two guys are learning to free mount before learning to ride. One guy in this video already knew how to ride a pedaled unicycle, so after doing some drills and taking a few steps while close to doing a one foot glide, he gets it on his first try. The other guy was having issues until they switched to a more stable EUC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-dDOxvmzvQ&t=143s

In this next video, Kuji Rolls teaches a girl to ride for the first time, using support to mount and launch. She never learns to free mount in the video. Kuji does teach the one foot drills, but that is to be able to step off and keep control of the V8 she's riding so it doesn't roll off into a car in the parking lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6o8ZMlo5ko

Wrong Way (Adam)'s girlfriend Monokat (Kate), had ridden using Adam (a Pole, they're from Poland) for support and rode about 60 to 80 km before attempting to free mount for the first time as seen in this next video. Despite her being leery about it, and not leaning forward enough on the first try, she gets it on her second try. I don't know if doing this on a 77 lb Veteran Sherman was helpful, but it was the main EUC she had been riding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW-y5RiecMc&t=634s

The point of this is that it is easier (or at least less tiring) to learn to free mount if you've already learned how to ride (including slow speeds similar to mount speed), since similar to me and Monokat, you can just step and hop on with a minimal amount of one foot glide. 

 

Edited by rcgldr
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Julian Lo said:

It is about how to control the center of gravity, said Hsiang in one of his videos.

Question:  To push or not to push (to start the free mount)?

WrongWay did a push.  

 

Random question - anyone know what MC jacket Adam has in this picture? I really like it but can't make out any logos or anything..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Planemo said:

Cheers, but I'm fairly sure thats not the same jacket. Lots of areas are different and it doesn't have the external 'pads' on the shoulders either.

I believe it is Shima Motor Cycle Jacket.  It would be every difficult to get the exactly same jacket as he's got. 

Watch his YouTube at time stamp 4:05.  

 

This "armored" jacket is rated highly by Jimmy Chang.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QHJHZVZ/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_4?smid=A3HLY9IU286Z5X&psc=1

Edited by Julian Lo
more info
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Julian Lo said:

Question:  To push or not to push (to start the free mount)?

In the beginning its easier to push but after awhile you will naturally step on the wheel and go. You probably won't even notice straightaway when this changes.   Its just about giving yourself time to learn the muscle memory and build on the muscle strength too. After a few months (or maybe shorter-I'm a slow learner) you will be able to hold the wheel on the spot for a second or two without it moving too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, Julian Lo said:

I believe it is Shima Motor Cycle Jacket.  It would be every difficult to get the exactly same jacket as he's got. 

Yep, you nailed it with the manufacturer which got me in the right direction. A quick google images search and it's a Shima 'Rush'. Cheers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, Julian Lo said:

Question:  To push or not to push (to start the free mount)? Wrong Way pushed ... JCF did not push

Wrong Way is on a MTEN, which is light and will quickly tilt with just a slight bit of imbalance, while a heavier wheel would not tilt as quickly. In his video where his girlfriend Monokat (Kate) had ridden about 60 to 80 km before attempting to free mount for the first time, she's on a 77 lb Veteran Sherman, and Wrong Way (Adam) advises her to move the Sherman back and forth and step on when its in front of her, so essentially push and step on. She gets it on her second try (the first try she didn't get going fast enough). The Sherman's weight is probably helping keeping it stable when launching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW-y5RiecMc&t=730s

Although JCF didn't push, he leans forwards just before he lifts his foot off the ground, so he has some forwards momentum going when he steps on.

 

Edited by rcgldr
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...