How long is it supposed to take to learn?

[plentora]

42 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

@plentora, pretty good advice across the board! Though there is a downside to holding on to a fence or a rail while trying to ride. I did that, and it was extremely difficult to finally let go and pick up some speed. The speed you can use a wall as a support at is so low that you don’t really learn to steer and balance on the EUC anyway.

Thanks!

I personally used the rail over fence as "walking stick" so what I did I put on some speed and lifted my hand and grabbed whenever I felt like it. In short time I touched the rail less and less and after practice I could go the whole fence-leg without touching in between.

After driving the whole leg I eneded with hand taking support from the rail only when stopping. After that I started I only needed to learn mount & dismount without support. That can be done next to the fence in case of panic. When you don't need the fence anymore, then go exploring the world.

[Funky]

I would argue that using "supports" - fences, sticks, shopping carts. Anything that helps the rider in "learning" just makes the learning prase so much longer..

Yes using the "support" you will get on/off the wheel without any issues. Because you are holding something.. But same time you are not learning anything. Because you are holding something, etc..

 Better would be simply trying to mount the euc without any help. Same way i and my dad learned. Sure first days you will not ride any distance. For me it took 3 days.. That i could not ride any amount. (Wasn't leaning forwards enough, wheel wasn't moving forwards.) < That was my biggest problem when I was learning. 4th day i simply "sended it" Hopped on with both of my feet really fast and did superman lean forwards "trust fall". And it worked!!! I was riding without any issues. Literally 5 minutes later i was going in circles left/right.

Sure if i was using support and such things. I may have been riding already in first day. Because of said support i would have learned that you need to lean forwards much more, than i did at start. But mounting/dismounting the thing still would give me problems - because i used supports to get on/off the euc.

I for one could mount/dismount the euc the same day i learned to ride it. Sure i used hands at beginning to catch/hold the euc when i was stopping. But over time i just started to use leg at stopping, no hands at all.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Funky

[plentora]

22 minutes ago, Funky said:

Yes using the "support" you will get on/off the wheel without any issues. Because you are holding something.. But same time you are not learning anything. Because you are holding something, etc..

Using fence or rail doesn't mean you are constantly holding on it. It works like an assistant that you can use when you need. Eventually one starts "jumping" with hand when starting driving forwards and when hand is free from the rail the learning happens - short free moments without fear of falling and no need to first learn to mount and start without support.

I learned driving without any support in 40 minutes and maybe 30 minutes of it was using rail as an support.

 

[mrelwood]

1 hour ago, Funky said:

I would argue that using "supports" - fences, sticks, shopping carts. Anything that helps the rider in "learning" just makes the learning prase so much longer..

I don’t think this is true. More below.

 

1 hour ago, Funky said:

 Better would be simply trying to mount the euc without any help.

Doing that, you are trying to learn two separate skills at once: mounting, and balancing while riding.

To me it has appeared that it is beneficial to first use supports to mount and only focusing on learning to ride. Once one can ride even for just 10-20 metres, one can start practicing mounting. Without the skills to steer and stay on the wheel, practicing mounting doesn’t give you any guidance or reward whether you’re doing it right or wrong. You’ll fail either way.

 But if you have some idea of the riding process first, you know where to try to put the other feet, how hopping too fast disturbs balance, and so on. To me it has appeared to be a faster process as a whole.

1 hour ago, Funky said:

Sure first days you will not ride any distance.

A local rider has taught a few dozen people to ride during meetups this year. He has a great method. Every single one of them learned to ride in under 15 minutes, and free mount under 20 min total.

[Funky]

35 minutes ago, plentora said:

Using fence or rail doesn't mean you are constantly holding on it. It works like an assistant that you can use when you need. Eventually one starts "jumping" with hand when starting driving forwards and when hand is free from the rail the learning happens - short free moments without fear of falling and no need to first learn to mount and start without support.

I learned driving without any support in 40 minutes and maybe 30 minutes of it was using rail as an support.

 

I know what you mean..

Idk when i started to ride i simply went.. Without any issues. Like i said i had most problems mounting the damn thing.  When wheel started to move forwards - then i didn't have any problems anymore. First 3 days i tried mounting it for 15-20 mins each day without any luck, could not ride 1 feet those days. As soon as i placed my other feet on pedal i/wheel fell over.. (Wasn't leaning forwards enough.) And because i wasn't leaning - the wheel wasn't going anywhere. But soon as i did the "trust fall" very, very hard lean forwards. The wheel started to move, after that it was easy for me. Like i said 5 mins later i was going left/right without much of problems. Sure i still used hands to keep balance so on.. But i didn't fall, loose balance.

Also my weight didn't help 280lbs pressing against one leg. That also may have given me problems at mounting. But soon as i learned to mount it. Riding was easy.

Meaning if i used "supports" i could have been riding right from the start..  But if i used those supports, i still would have had problems at stopping. Or at mounting.

At the end i think getting on/off the wheel is first thing you should learn.. Because if you don't have supports around, you should be available to stop any moment.

[Funky]

8 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

Doing that, you are trying to learn two separate skills at once: mounting, and balancing while riding.

To me it has appeared that it is beneficial to first use supports to mount and only focusing on learning to ride. Once one can ride even for just 10-20 metres, one can start practicing mounting. Without the skills to steer and stay on the wheel, practicing mounting doesn’t give you any guidance or reward whether you’re doing it right or wrong. You’ll fail either way.

 But if you have some idea of the riding process first, you know where to try to put the other feet, how hopping too fast disturbs balance, and so on. To me it has appeared to be a faster process as a whole.

A local rider has taught a few dozen people to ride during meetups this year. He has a great method. Every single one of them learned to ride in under 15 minutes, and free mount under 20 min total.

Maybe that's why i didn't have problems riding when i "learned" to mount the wheel.  Like i said as soon as i learned to mount it - i had zero problems riding.. Was turning left/right. The second time i mounted the wheel.

Isn't mounting and balancing the same??? You are mounting it the same time balancing? -The moment your feet leaves ground and goes on pedal.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Funky

[mrelwood]

 

3 minutes ago, Funky said:

First 3 days i tried mounting it for 15-20 mins each day without any luck

To me this sounds exactly like the issue I explained above. If you had first got on the wheel with a fence it a pole, and focused on making the trust lean that took you 5 minutes to learn, your mounting practice would’ve had a goal, a purpose, something to aim for. I believe it would’ve been much faster.

[Funky]

17 minutes ago, mrelwood said:

 

To me this sounds exactly like the issue I explained above. If you had first got on the wheel with a fence it a pole, and focused on making the trust lean that took you 5 minutes to learn, your mounting practice would’ve had a goal, a purpose, something to aim for. I believe it would’ve been much faster.

Yeah as soon as i learned that you need to lean "trust fall" i was riding without any problems. But same time i could stop/start without any supports. So over all it may have taken me more time to "start" moving forwards. But i also learned to mount the same time.  So...

It simply felt natural that one should learn how to mount it first, before riding.. Because you are getting on the device somehow.   Same time one should also be available to dismount it, before riding.

At the end it all worked out. I could ride from the very beginning - as soon as i learned to mount. (Right from first minute the wheel started to move forwards - i had zero problems.)

So yeah.. If i had used something to get on/off the wheel i may have been riding right from the start 0 minutes "leaning".  I still would have had to learn to get on/off..

Edited November 1, 2022 by Funky

[homero]

My question is, I use a V8F to ride, I am new at this and going better but at the moment that I am riding how do I know 

how fast I am going?

[chanman]

9 minutes ago, homero said:

how do I know how fast I am going

It's somewhat tricky on a device with no speed display. I have pulled my phone out and seen what my speed is on my app while riding occasionally to get a feel for different speeds. If you're not comfortable with that you can set a speed alarm in EUC world app so you get vibrations or phone beeping at certain speeds. Eventually you can get a good feel for how fast you're going without the need for these measures.

[Paul A]

19 minutes ago, homero said:

how fast I am going?

 

EUC WORLD APP GUIDE - The BEST App for Electric Unicycles !!! (makes your wheel sound like a Harley)

Wrong Way!

58.2K subscribers

Jun 25, 2020

 

 

 

[superox]

On 11/1/2022 at 1:44 PM, Funky said:

I would argue that using "supports" - fences, sticks, shopping carts. Anything that helps the rider in "learning" just makes the learning prase so much longer.

 

I disagree. Granted it took me a while later to learn to freemount, but I was able to ride, gain experience and have fun in the meantime. Plus I never dropped the wheel in the entire learning process.

[Funky]

34 minutes ago, superox said:

I disagree. Granted it took me a while later to learn to freemount, but I was able to ride, gain experience and have fun in the meantime. Plus I never dropped the wheel in the entire learning process.

That's the fun part - everyone learns their way. I learned on grass/dirt - extra hard mode activated.   (In case if i'm falling - it's "soft" ground..)

I for one learned to mount first and didn't have any problems riding. Like i said - i was going left/right after 5 mins. When wheel started to move forwards.

If i had done the "trust fall" faster and didn't stall in place, which resulted me "falling" over (More like stepping off.) I would have been riding much sooner.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Funky

[rcgldr]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:44 AM, Funky said:

I would argue that using "supports" - fences, sticks, shopping carts. Anything that helps the rider in "learning" just makes the learning prase so much longer..

 

6 hours ago, superox said:

I disagree. Granted it took me a while later to learn to freemount

I also followed Kuji Roll's and Wrong Ways advice to use support to mount and launch to learn to ride before attempting free mount, since as mrelwood pointed out, the rider is only learning one skill at a time. If using support to mount, the rider can look down and get their feet centered on the pedals, then look straight ahead, rock back, lean forwards and release from support to launch. From Kuji's video of a girl learning to ride a V8:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6o8ZMlo5ko&t=413s

I waited till day 5 to attempt free mount, which I got on my third try after compensating for my only time on a grassy field. Since I could already ride, no need to do the one foot hop drills, I just pushed the EUC forward with one foot on and stepped on with the other. In Wrong Way's video, Kate (Monokat) had ridden 60 to 80 km before attempting free mount on a 77 lb Sherman as seen in his video, and she got it on her second try (using the same push and step on method):

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

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by rcgldr

[rcgldr]

6 hours ago, homero said:

V8F - How do I know how fast I am going?

I have EUC World set to call out speed, charge, distance, time, every 15 seconds, to use as an audio speedometer. However, wind noise makes it difficult to hear my phone at at 15 mph or so if in a headwind, and the speakers on the V8F can't be used as blue tooth speakers. The wind noise is probably aggravated by my Bell 3R helmet, which has a lot of vent holes. I thought about wired ear buds, but don't want to block out environmental noises. A smart watch could be used, but I don't know which ones work with EUC apps, and I don't know how much they cost. There are some locations where I ride where it's difficult to get a sense of speed (lack of nearby objects and smooth pavement), where I tend to slowly creep up to 18 mph before slowing back to down to 15 mph.

[Cerbera]

7 minutes ago, rcgldr said:

have EUC World set to call out speed, charge, distance, time, every 15 seconds

That's SUCH a cool feature hey, though it can drive you mad after a while if you set the interval too short, and include too much info in the readout.

I recently found life was better if I turn off the auto-reading, and just set it so I hit the dial, single tap, to summon the message, and double tap to shut it up, which I have found very useful, as that woman was always reading out my stats in the supermarket while I'm trying to weigh potatoes or talk to people 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Cerbera

[rcgldr]

14 minutes ago, rcgldr said:

I have EUC World set to call out speed, charge, distance, time, every 15 seconds

 

6 minutes ago, Cerbera said:

That's SUCH a cool feature hey, though it can drive you mad after a while if you set the interval too short, and include too much info in the readout.

I recently found life was better if I turn off the auto-reading, and just set it so I hit the dial, single tap

I don't have a smart watch (yet), and my phone is either in a jacket pocket or case clipped to my belt.

[Cerbera]

Just now, rcgldr said:

I don't have a smart watch (yet), and my phone is either in a jacket pocket or case clipped to my belt.

Me neither, but I have my phone on a jogging armband, which works totally fine. You just tap the main dial.

[rcgldr]

Just now, Cerbera said:

Me neither, but I have my phone on a jogging armband, which works totally fine. You just tap the main dial.

I have a note 8 - probably bigger than I want on my arm. It goes into screen saver mode, and requires pushing an awkward button on the side to get the display back.

[Cerbera]

Just now, rcgldr said:

I have a note 8 - probably bigger than I want on my arm. It goes into screen saver mode, and requires pushing an awkward button on the side to get the display back.

You can get EUC World to disable the screen saver while it is active in the prefs if that helps ?

[rcgldr]

1 minute ago, Cerbera said:

You can get EUC World to disable the screen saver while it is active in the prefs if that helps ?

I'll consider that.  One other advantage of near continuous chat from the phone is it warns others that I'm approaching without being annoying. 

[Cerbera]

..also it makes you further look like some sort of Tron-style super-cop from the future

[Funky]

53 minutes ago, rcgldr said:

 

I don't have a smart watch (yet), and my phone is either in a jacket pocket or case clipped to my belt.

You will learn simply by wind noise. Or how fast object are passing bay..

When i'm only using wrist guards, no other gear i'm riding at 20km/h speed. But my speed alarms are at 40km/h. After ride i even check euc world and my riding speeds. It never passed ~24km/h and mostly was right around 20km/h. Which is my personal speed limit when i'm not wearing much of gear.

Same thing when i'm geared and ride 35-40km/h, i know if i try to speed up little more i automatically get speed alarm. But after ride if i check my speeds i'm right at 35km/h.

Idk if others can tell their speed simply by riding. But i can.  

[Funky]

2 hours ago, rcgldr said:

 

I also followed Kuji Roll's and Wrong Ways advice to use support to mount and launch to learn to ride before attempting free mount, since as mrelwood pointed out, the rider is only learning one skill at a time. If using support to mount, the rider can look down and get their feet centered on the pedals, then look straight ahead, rock back, lean forwards and release from support to launch. From Kuji's video of a girl learning to ride a V8:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6o8ZMlo5ko&t=413s

I waited till day 5 to attempt free mount, which I got on my third try after compensating for my only time on a grassy field. Since I could already ride, no need to do the one foot hop drills, I just pushed the EUC forward with one foot on and stepped on with the other. In Wrong Way's video, Kate (Monokat) had ridden 60 to 80 km before attempting free mount on a 77 lb Sherman as seen in his video, and she got it on her second try (using the same push and step on method):

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

 

I also didn't do those 1 foot jumps, etc.. I simply tried free mounting - till i could. Riding was easy. I mostly had problems mounting, because i could not get the wheel to go forwards..  As soon as i placed my second feet on pedals - 2 secs later i lost balance. Because wheel wasn't going forwards. I didn't know you need to lean forwards a lot more.. If i knew you need to lean way, way more. I would have been riding in less than 5 mins.

I literally hopped on euc with both feet and 2 seconds later stepped off.. For 3 days. Because it wasn't going forwards.  

 

Compared to that time.. Now it's so easy. You don't even need to look at euc while mounting. If you miss place the feet - you can reposition them while riding. Moving one or other around. You can literally stop and keep balancing in place for 2-3 second before stepping off. And riding at old granny's speeds, after stepping of train behind some slow folks. (I don't wanna ask 10-20 people to let me true.. I simply ride slowly behind them for 3-5 mins.. Before speeding off.)

Edited November 3, 2022 by Funky

[mrelwood]

3 hours ago, Funky said:

If i knew you need to lean way, way more. I would have been riding in less than 5 mins.

Which is exactly what you would’ve learned if you’d have learned to ride first by mounting with supports…