One foot balance

[SGeek]

I got my Inmotion V5F yesterday and while I can balance somewhat and ride in circles around my yard, I am struggling with the one foot balance needed to mount smoothly.  I end up doing the panic leap on, often bashing my off ankle on the pedal instead stepping of on top of it not to mention looking awkward.  I can't seem to find the balance point to do a graceful long one foot push.  Any tips for how I can improve? I've done the lean on the wall thing, but that only helps when I have a wall. 

[Gbo]

I find that you need to get your calf pressed against the pad so the wheel is held vertical when weight is applied. Then don’t push off but press with the front of the foot and let the wheel pull you forward. Pushing off seems to make the wheel unbalanced.

[Skampster]

The best tip I can give. 
 

Time………………

[Scubadragonsan]

16 hours ago, SGeek said:

I am struggling with the one foot balance needed to mount smoothly.  I end up doing the panic leap on, often bashing my off ankle on the pedal instead stepping of on top of it not to mention looking awkward.  I can't seem to find the balance point to do a graceful long one foot push.  Any tips for how I can improve? I

A technique I called "blocking" that is very useful to build up your leg muscles. Blocking is using your leg to stop any size wheels from tilting or leaning toward where your body weight is mostly lean toward. It's like your leg has become a stick planted into the ground to stop the wheel from leaning; in this case, planting is down the center of the wheel. Together used, another technique is called "grabbing." Grabbing feels like you are wrapping your arms around an object; in this case, using your leg to wrap around the wheel. Blocking helps stablizing and grabbing helps controlling, esp. during mounting and unmounting. Anyone riding the wheels, I am sure consciously or unconsciously applying these techniques, they're nothing new, simple mechanics. I hope this gives your mind a breakdown of what you may be doing and now you know what to focus on.

[Setonix]

I got my first uni last week. I can ride relaxed way in a straight line and a circle on the grass. Today I took the uni to a quiet area on asphalt which was also good for practising free mounts. Earlier in the week I would hit the pad while putting my second foot on the wheel, but now I can more consistently stand still, let the wheel hang towards the inside, have my other foot next to the uni and with 2 steps, get on the pedal. If my foot is not in the correct position, it isnt too hard to wiggle and replace it. It is important that the wheel stays in the middle when lifting the second foot. Since you will mount like all the time, I’m sure you will quickly get the hang of it

[SGeek]

Wow.  Thanks to everyone. I'm new so I can only thank one comment per day, but thanks to everyone. In addition to your comments,  a couple other things I found useful are:

Rigid soccer type shin guards. Part of problem was my shin was painful after the first day so I wouldn't apply the appropriate amount of force to keep the wheel at the right angle. Short of taking time to heal, a shinguard helped immensely. 

This video over emphasized the position for one leg balance, which helped me a lot too. 

Now my next problem is high speed wobbles, which is a different topic.

 

Thanks again. 

[Cerbera]

5 hours ago, SGeek said:

Now my next problem is high speed wobbles, which is a different topic.

That is usually a sign of leg muscles not yet accustomed to the weight or characteristics of the wheel. If that is the case it will get better over the course of a month of daily rides. Also, there is a subtle change of techniques required when going fast, movements become smaller, for greater influence, and try and avoid any temptation to grip the wheel with your legs - wobbles are best left to fix themselves with guidance from only 1 leg to bring them back under control, and squeezing with both legs usually makes them worse. It can help to get low and crouch on the wheel when you sense them starting, (but not when your legs are still new and weak) and if that fails then at least you are lower to the ground for the inevitable crash !

Edited September 12 by Cerbera

[meepmeepmayer]

9 hours ago, SGeek said:

Now my next problem is high speed wobbles, which is a different topic.

This goes away with practice and improved riding technique. You new riders are expecting to learn way too quickly

Think of wobbles like this:

• The faster you go, the more violent will any ground imperfections hit your wheel, trying to make it wobble.
• Every rider can compensate for a certain strength of incoming wobble attempts from the evil ground, and that speed gets higher with experience and better stance.

As a consequence of these facts:

• Every rider has a certain "wobble speed" where speed wobbles appear, and with more experience and a better stance, that speed increases. The trick is to be good enough so your wobble speed is above the speed your wheel can go or that you would normally ride. Then you're free of wobbles (until the ground really takes a dislike to you - technically a surprise pothole and a crash is just a real bad wobble that you couldn't compensate).

That's my mental model for wobbles, and I think it works quite well. I literally had bad days (where you're tense and unrelaxed) and good days (where you're standing on the wheel super relaxed and everything just flows), and noticed being more wobbly on the bad days.

Anyways, again: practice and good technique/stance (be relaxed!) will fix the wobbles. That just takes time to learn. (Exact foot positioning can make a huge difference for a relaxed vs unrelaxed stance, so experiment and adjust.)

4 hours ago, Cerbera said:

wobbles are best left to fix themselves

This is a great tip. If you're wobbling, don't grip the wheel (that makes everything worse), but let it freely buckle under you until it stops being dumb. Some strong one-sided input (like braking into a turn) can also help because it powerfully gets the wheel out of its wobble mode and into some other movement.

[Brutal-Force]

I have only been doing this since may, but both problems are related to your strength and experience.

Not only is it difficult to mount early on, its also difficult to shift weight to one foot, or to stop wobbles from happening. This is further compounded by the fatigue you feel the longer you ride. The best thing to combat these are time and rest.

I keep saying, don't over do it because that could lead to an accident simply because you didn't have the strength to stop correctly.

A 30 min. ride used to kill me and my feet. Now four months later I can do 1-2 hour 30 mile rides, but trust me you start feeling it at the end.

 

Edited September 12 by Brutal-Force

[Setonix]

11 hours ago, Brutal-Force said:

I have only been doing this since may, but both problems are related to your strength and experience.

Not only is it difficult to mount early on, its also difficult to shift weight to one foot, or to stop wobbles from happening. This is further compounded by the fatigue you feel the longer you ride. The best thing to combat these are time and rest.

I keep saying, don't over do it because that could lead to an accident simply because you didn't have the strength to stop correctly.

A 30 min. ride used to kill me and my feet. Now four months later I can do 1-2 hour 30 mile rides, but trust me you start feeling it at the end.

 

At what speeds do you experience wobbles? Because I've been riding "analogue unicycles",  I know that when riding more than 15km and hour and then UPD-ing (UnPlanned DisMount-ing) it is possible to just run it out without falling. The difference though with an analogue uni is that you sit on a seat, so your feet generally aren't locked in on the pedals. Faceplants on these unicycles is like super-rare. 
Anyways I set my first alarm at 15kph, so I am aware. My max speed on asphalt has only been 20kph and at such low speeds I definitely don't experience wobbles, so at what speeds do wobbles start happening? Is possibly also dependent on the wheel width. The KS S16PRo has a very nice wide wheel.

[Brutal-Force]

It really depends. Its less a speed specific problem then a terrain/accel/braking problem.

Emergency Braking almost always experience a wobble. You also may experience them after you start tiring/fatigue. 

You could probably run out 15 kmh (provided you are aware in time) but you would be running pretty fast and my guess you would have already been leaning forward, so stopping will be kind of hard. You will inevitably end up on hands and knees.

You are riding at relatively low speeds, I don't think I would be afraid of a wobble at 9mph/15kmh, but with a S16 pro @68 lbs, when you get into the 20-30mph range, a wobble can get wild like a bucking bull.  The trick is to NOT jump off. The average human running speed is around 8 mph for men and 6.5 for women, so I think the likelihood of you successfully running it out every time is probably unlikely.  You have to learn how to manage a death wobble without panicking.

I have had two or three scary as s#$% moments. One was when I was planning to go through a light that turned yellow, changed my mind when it turned red and panic stopped. I rode it out, but it was scary as hell. I was doing about 30. The second one I was riding along in the car lane on the right side about 20-25 mph and some douche drove by and honked the horn really long which spooked me. Again, I was able to ride it out, but almost dumped it.  The only other times was me practicing in the movie theater parking lot on emergency braking. If you brake, but then let off and put pressure on one side or the other like you are going to carve, it will help. I think the more aggressive you ride, the more likely you will get a death wobble.

At the end of the day, it really is about practice. I haven't had many more wobbles since I ride about once or twice a week now. If you are doing a lot more, you would have already gotten the experience and know what I am talking about.

Keep riding....

Edited September 13 by Brutal-Force

[Setonix]

This morning I rode 6K on a very quiet cycle path. Now I just need to make the kilometres to get the feel for the EUC. There was one time where my mind wandered and I was riding maybe 17kph when I felt a wobble that woke me up. Then I could slow down until it was gone. I don't expect to be riding 20mph. Already 20kph feels like very fast. I can see from my speed that should I fall off, then I won't be able to run out of it. It just emphasizes that protection is very important. I just had knee and wrist protection and a helmet. I don't have the fancy Leatt knee/shin guards yet, but all in good time.

[Cerbera]

On my Master (stock knobby) wobbles start kicking in at 50 kph+, which is about the top speed I ever reach on it due to there being no roads / cycle paths round here where it is safe to do much more than that, so it's a bit frustrating that I never get to practice overcoming those, or rather ONLY can do so by using techniques that involve braking. But TBH it's so rare that I feel a need to go faster than that (pretty much only when out-running unleashed dogs or drunk people) that it doesn't really worry me. Terrain-based wobbles happen at much lower speeds of course, but enough practice and leg strength means those are 95% recoverable.

Edited September 14 by Cerbera