Popular Post Tawpie Posted November 26, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted November 26, 2020 (edited) So I finally figured out that when mounting, what is meant by "lock your knee" is not what I expected. They mean: "don't change the bend in your knee", not "straighten your knee and lock it straight". (in the US I was taught that a 'locked knee' is straight and unable to bend, zombie riding style) Figured this out by chance. The knee of the leg that's on the pedal should stay bent the same and not straighten out as you get on. When you start your mount, slide your weight sideways from the ground leg to the wheel leg without changing the knee bend and everything happens nice and slowly so you can gracefully add your ground leg to its pedal. Don't get on as if you're taking a step up, keep your head at the same level. I was straightening my wheel leg (stepping up onto the wheel), which meant the wheel tipped quickly and required me to stomp on the ground side pedal to keep from tipping too far to the wheel leg side and the result is high instability and more importantly a serious lack of grace/coolness. Plus it's uber scary because I knew I'd have to go side to side in random directions until I got enough speed to balance. Anyway, the result of keeping a bent knee is a vast improvement in the smoothness of my mounts. No more veering off to the side and arm flapping during the correction. Edited November 26, 2020 by Tawpie wordsmith 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planemo Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 Yep, knees bent all the time, from before you even mount. You can play around with 'how bent' they are once rolling, but to get moving yes your non-dominant knee needs to meet the pedal at the same bend as the one on the pedal. That said, I do tend to straighten up my dominant (right) leg just as I am bringing up my left, but this action comes with time. This however all depends on how high your pedals are too - on my MSX they are pretty high compared to other wheels. On my V5 I would step on with the same bend as my dominant foot. FWIW, I never, ever ride with locked knees. I dont know how some people do it. Even on relatively smooth surfaces the loss of absorbtion is phenonemal even compared to a mild 2 degree knee bend. When I am going for it I am probably around 35 deg. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 (edited) Yup, as @Planemo says, always a slight bend or more in the knee. The force generated by you and these wheels and pavement is enough to destroy your joints IF you don't protect them by using muscle. If you tried to mount a smaller wheel like an mten, you would HAVE to bend the mounted leg a TON, as the angle changes your leverage on such a short wheel. Hell, my gym teacher in elementary school taught us to stand with knees NOT locked. This was further taught by random kids, as we all loved kicking the back of a person's knees to make them fall from standing(oddly enough, i was bullied and not a bully. This was typical boy behavior in the good ole days). If you lock your knees when you stand, your muscles are a more relaxed state. If you unhinge them quickly or by accident, you tend to fall as the reaction time to activate the leg muscles is too great. So yeah, wtf happend to the standards of learning how to stand? I know, I'm ranting, but it baffles me out how a person can stand or even ride with knees locked. Do your joints a favor, build the legs and never stand that way, doubly so on a moving object/euc. Bend that knee a LOT when mounting. You lower your center of gravity and it sometimes helps activate the muscles properly. Eventually you will find the sweet spot. Each wheel has a different spot, but i think the muscle groups used are the same. Congrats on the new wheel! If you are having fun NOW, just wait as it gets even better. I enjoyed the bruises and learning and still do. However, once you reach the next plateau of skill, youll quickly begin enjoying the serenity of it all too! Edited November 27, 2020 by ShanesPlanet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rake Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 This is interesting as I am learning to mount / dismount without a wall / helper - will try the bent knee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 On 11/27/2020 at 3:41 AM, ShanesPlanet said: The force generated by you and these wheels and pavement is enough to destroy your joints IF you don't protect them by using muscle. Yes, also risk of being thrown off the EUC in case of a larger bump whose force you didn't absorb by being the suspension. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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