conecones Posted June 14, 2022 Share Posted June 14, 2022 I actually had multiple stages of "this sucks", basically they were mental/physical roadblocks that took away some of the fun. 1st stage - mounting/dismounting - took about a week of daily practice before I could reliable mount without embarrassing myself in public. Prior to this, I couldn't go near busy sidewalks for fear of hitting people. 2nd stage - wobbles. Could not figure out why I was wobbling at 30km/h. Made it a real struggle to flow with cyclists in bike lanes as many go at or above 30km/h. Constantly having to moving out of their way while dealing with wobbles and random wipeouts was super stressful. 3rd stage - knee pain & back pain. This started when I started doing off-roading and longer rides. Wasn't sure what was causing it - other riders didn't seem to have this issue. Turns out my knee pain was caused by poor technique when carving - I would use my leg to tilt the wheel (contact point just below the knee) instead of using pedal pressure. This put extra strain on the knee. The backpain was caused by fatigue of upper leg muscles which when they start giving out, the shocks from offroad riding would go straight to my spine. This went away after I spent more hours doing nothing by offroading to build and maintain those muscles. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quickbot Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 (edited) Im at stage where 2 out of three times i can accelarate and brake on 4m roll at home without supporting my self with holding to sonething. Done like 1.5km goin in my hallway 😁 pretty much with every new 4m trip i feel better even with npt so good footing, but i have to go out so i dont get used to have walls to help me with all errors. Edited July 20, 2022 by quickbot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_bike_kite Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 1 hour ago, quickbot said: Im at stage where 2 out of three times i can accelarate and brake on 4m roll at home without supporting my self with holding to sonething. Done like 1.5km goin in my hallway 😁 pretty much with every new 4m trip i feel better even with npt so good footing, but i have to go out so i dont get used to have walls to help me with all errors. It's hard to make progress in a hallway yet very easy to damage your home. I'd suggest finding a tennis court, a car park with no cars or a smooth flat grassy area and just try to see how far you can go. I remember it was tough just getting going, then you start aiming for longer rides, breaking that 4m barrier, then finding you can get to the edge of the park but you have little or no idea how to turn, then "mastering" turning so you can go all round the park. Eventually you feel like you're the coolest guy on the planet as you wobble along at 5mph with your arms flailing everywhere. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Freeforester Posted July 20, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 20, 2022 (edited) When you eventually get out onto a larger or longer free riding surface, try imagining you are holding out a tray of celebratory drinks for yourself to enjoy now that you have committed to a longer run; the ‘tray’ held forward by your hands helps to shift forward your centre of gravity, and gives you a bit more speed without going too fast or crazy, and will hopefully help you to learn to commit to the next few km/h speed which makes life so much easier. Don’t forget to look to the horizon, and not to the ground just immediately in front of you. As and when the inevitable first wobble may arrive, don’t panic - simply move one of your legs to partially touch/squeeze the side of your motor panels a little more than hitherto, and this should help stabilise you as you lean back a little, but squeeze first, and lean back to reduce speed only when you have at least a little (and preferably total) control back over the wobble. After a few weeks practice, you’ll probably find that you’ve been ‘forgetting’ to wobble as you did when you first started. Bend your legs at the knee some, so as to help with control, rather than standing stiffly on the pedals, as this helps in several ways, not least control of both speed and wobbles, as well as helping you absorb bumps along the way, plus your general interactions with both wheel and road surface. Before you know it you’ll be inducing a little change in foot pressures in a rhythmic way, and the carving habit will become second nature, which in turn continues to improve balance and control, as well as going very far to reducing any foot or leg pain that can accumulate, primarily owing to not shifting one’s stance even a little. Have fun, and buy a bag of sweets, suck them instead, EUC riding shouldn’t suck! Edited July 20, 2022 by Freeforester 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funky Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 My biggest problem was mounting the darn thing. For the first 4 days i could not even mount it. As soon as i placed my right feet on the pedal i fall over, loose balance. Funny thing was at 4th day something clicked in my brain. I simply hopped on it and leaned really hard forwards. <<< That did the trick, that same day i was going already in circles. Moral of the story - As soon as you place your other feet on the pedal. You need to lean forwards to gain momentum.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quickbot Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 Sure its prolly harder to learn on heavy wheel...i laughed a bit watching kingsong vide where she explains wheel size and level of rider...im no ultra pro with shmax at 20inch as first ever wheel 😂 but noone talks about shoes. Only shoes i have atm has bumpy soles and it kinda doesnt feel 100% good, even more, sides of that wheel are slippery...as soon as i place one leg, i dont control wheel mucsh as it slips on upper part of the plastic cover and for sure cant do circles. So i prolly should get flat sole shoes and maby install side pads for better control of it? I got basic leayher ones for sherman?! Prolly would add alot more control, precise leg pkacement and if it falls to side, extra protection too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plentora Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 On 7/20/2022 at 12:58 PM, Funky said: I simply hopped on it and leaned really hard forwards. This is one of the essential things I will teach (if I have chance) to next beginner. You speed up with your toes and brake with heels. And that you cannot stay still, so if you want to get on the wheel, you need to speed it up immediately. The other thing is dominant leg position, I'm sure everyone gets it wrong and thinks why does it hurt.. To the original question; I started riding on bumpy grass without support after 50 minutes. So far I have rode maybe 150km? On my part "this sucks" starts to slowly dissolve. I still hate gravel but I can now manage riding in city. Yes I've had "this sucks" /questioning phase but it started only after few hours of driving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funky Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 24 minutes ago, quickbot said: Sure its prolly harder to learn on heavy wheel...i laughed a bit watching kingsong vide where she explains wheel size and level of rider...im no ultra pro with shmax at 20inch as first ever wheel 😂 but noone talks about shoes. Only shoes i have atm has bumpy soles and it kinda doesnt feel 100% good, even more, sides of that wheel are slippery...as soon as i place one leg, i dont control wheel mucsh as it slips on upper part of the plastic cover and for sure cant do circles. So i prolly should get flat sole shoes and maby install side pads for better control of it? I got basic leayher ones for sherman?! Prolly would add alot more control, precise leg pkacement and if it falls to side, extra protection too. Rubber tape on plastic - no more Slip N Slide. As for shoes i use regular sneakers with flat bottom. I never gave tough about shoes. 2 minutes ago, plentora said: This is one of the essential things I will teach (if I have chance) to next beginner. You speed up with your toes and brake with heels. And that you cannot stay still, so if you want to get on the wheel, you need to speed it up immediately. The other thing is dominant leg position, I'm sure everyone gets it wrong and thinks why does it hurt.. To the original question; I started riding on bumpy grass without support after 50 minutes. So far I have rode maybe 150km? On my part "this sucks" starts to slowly dissolve. I still hate gravel but I can now manage riding in city. Yes I've had "this sucks" /questioning phase but it started only after few hours of driving. I only had "this sucks moment" while i could not get on the wheel. After i figured mounting, it was easy to ride. Time to time i still had "speed wobbles" at 30kph. Nowadays i don't get them at all. Have ridden only 450km and already learning backwards riding. Can already stop and start going backwards, but still lose balance, after wheel starts going backwards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quickbot Posted July 26, 2022 Share Posted July 26, 2022 (edited) Ok, now i can share true learning on my sherman max. Went outside, where is grass...pretty bumpy bit still not concrete. It took me maby 10minutes to kickstart but hell yea, was smuling whole 20mins as i was moving forward for like 50m on bumpy grass and small holes in ground like a champ. My mistake was being afraid to get outside and continued to drive on hallway. I didnt use any walls or anything to get on pedals, got a hold of balance pretty fast to move forward just by holding one leg on pedal while trying to get other up. Need to get more pressuri in tire, way too cushiony driving. I cant 180degree turn, but can go straight forward, got to 17kmh already 🥸 Edited July 26, 2022 by quickbot 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert RFI Posted July 26, 2022 Share Posted July 26, 2022 Hello, It only took me about 90 minutes of trying to ride/ riding to get over the initial hump and ride faster than 5 MPH. I discovered early on that it was more beneficially to my training to only work at it for 5 - 10 minutes at a time and not do 30+minutes like I did the first time. The reasoning I have for that is like many people have stated, your body learns the balance without any mental effort from your brain. I found that instead of reaching the point that I was felling "this is to hard, I am never going to get this" I stopped after a little bit of practice with a positive improvement and stopped till the next day. Every day I notice a significant improvement once I started only practicing 5-10 minutes a day. Now I am up to 32MPH, still trying to figure out the wobbles at speed, trying to adjust pads and feet to stop them. I improved from bad wobbles @22 mph to now 32 mph, but wobbles get a little scary at that speed so i think it will take time to get to 39+ mph which is my goal. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrEUCMan Posted September 26, 2022 Share Posted September 26, 2022 A year. I spent about a day on my V10 and gaved up. It sat in my garage for about an year. Then I thought about giving it one last try before selling it. 3 days after, as cliche as it sounds, it really did just "click". Suddenly I was able to ride it and make left turns easily, right turns are still a bit hard. But after a week, I was all good in the hood. Now, I am working on how I can make those 90 degree turns at full speed smoother, and can ride backwards and with 1 leg. Weirdily enough, I still haven't learned to sit yet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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