How fast did you guys learn?

[null]

Funny to see all the old forum members at the start of the thread, most of whom aren’t here anymore.

Doing unicycle from before, I could ride without holding on within 15 mins. I have seen this from my other friends who knew the unicycle also. I got so taken by riding I didn’t learn to mount / dismount until several hundred kilometers in. This led to stupid situations like getting stuck in a park forest where there where no place to hold onto for mounting.

Edited May 30, 2020 by null

[Wayne Rosa]

I just received my inmotion V8, and am trying to learn on my own, don't know anyone that rides in my area. (Southbank Victoria Australia) I'm 57 by the way so this will be fun and maybe interesting. 

[RockyTop]

53 minutes ago, Wayne Rosa said:

I just received my inmotion V8, and am trying to learn on my own, don't know anyone that rides in my area. (Southbank Victoria Australia) I'm 57 by the way so this will be fun and maybe interesting. 

Welcome to the addiction,  exercise program.  Your feet will hurt in the beginning. 

1)Foot position-  front of shin should be about center front to back. maybe just slightly further back. 

2)Look in the direction you want to go, not down.

3) 15 minutes every day.You can spend more time each day if you want to but the first 15 minutes makes the difference.

4) Don't over think. Your thinking brain is not the one to figure this thing  out. Just give your lower brain time. 

5) Everyone seems to have a few days of regression, ...And when you think that you have got as good as you can get, Your skills will continue to improve.  

 

[M640x]

I could ride straight for approx 10ft after 10 minutes.  Anything beyond that with any sort of control took about 2 weeks.  Riding and feeling comfortable, 300 miles.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Senior Coffee

[unowheelio]

Today was my first day  I'm only writing this to encourage future riders - not to brag. 

I rode about 150 feet the first time. I fell off a few times within an hour (never hit the ground, just bailed). Within two hours I had ridden 15 miles.  

I can ski (water and snow), rollerblade, skateboard, snowboard etc.  If you're active in these balance sports, don't expect a months long learning.  

Nothing wrong with those who take longer.  I'm sure they get much more satisfaction from the journey.  

I guess what I'm saying is don't get discouraged if it takes you a while to learn, but don't be surprised if it comes naturally if you've been involved in other balance sports.  "The race is long, but in the end it's only with yourself" 

[Kai Drange]

I've had my V8F for 8 days now. I didn't realise there would be a learning curve on this, so ironically that probably helped me learn fast. I held on to a fence for a while end then just started riding slowly, even though doing so felt really scary. A lot of waving arms and difficulties starting/stopping, but it felt like my body had figured out the absolute basics after aprox. 30 min.

But I don't feel I have mastered it yet, though. Going slow, sharp turns and starting/stopping still feels sketchy sometimes. And I can't ride as much/long as I want because the muscles in my legs and feet gets tired. My wheel have lots of scratches already. When a colleague saw it after I had been riding it a couple of days she asked me "Oh, you bought it used?".

[Vellberger]

On 6/12/2016 at 5:05 PM, Master Ong said:

Thats a genius idea!

For me it was a bad idea.  Tried it yesterday. Allthough I have relatively good control to my V8F, I wannted to test it for fun. Well... after about half a meter the shopping card was going left while I was going to the right, ending up sending the EUC to the ground.  It was a bit awkward because of the other shoppers. 

But anyway. I guess it´s because german shopping cards do have all four wheels free rotating around the z-axle. On the pic it seams that the rear wheel axles are fix. That is a difference I should have considered before.  

[Vellberger]

On 6/28/2020 at 3:27 PM, Kai Drange said:

When a colleague saw it after I had been riding it a couple of days she asked me "Oh, you bought it used?".

If there are no scratches, you just haven´t used it yet.   (So is my opinion as a newbie)

[Matthias Degroote]

10 minutes but I had driven a normal unicycle before

[foxtrotgolf]

I learned by diving into the deep end, so to speak. Highly recommend it.

It took about 20 minutes. 15 minutes of shakily riding around the inside of a tennis court while holding the fence. Then I pushed away and aimed for the center, determined to stay on top while it crazily veered left and right. It worked! The first time, I stayed on for about 20 seconds. I was swerving so much, I thought both my pedals would scrape, but if you trust your body and the device and don’t overthink it, you will stay upright- even the first time.
 

This was on a Nikola plus. I imagine a smaller wheel would have been easier. Several times, I lost confidence, and jumped off, but was eventually riding several laps around the tennis court on the first day. 

[Urban Wheeler]

I started in my hallway for 10 min, then went to the park near the fence, after 10 min i was on my own,,, the only part that took me longer was to get on it without beeing shaky

[Nostris]

Ok, so a question. Is there any relationship between the speed, or lack there of, in learning to ride an euc and the rider being left or right handed?   

[Llorx]

On 6/22/2016 at 4:59 PM, Tech Nossomy said:

Two weeks every day for about an hour and a half. That was a 14 inch. Embarrassing.

Not that embarrassing man xD I've read that 14 inches are a bit harder to start than starting with a 16 inches wheels (I hope so. I also learned on a 14 inch one hahaha).

Edited July 17, 2020 by Llorx

[.....]

8 hours ago, Nostris said:

Ok, so a question. Is there any relationship between the speed, or lack there of, in learning to ride an euc and the rider being left or right handed?   

Too many variable that are unique to how each of us learn things. It took me a while to learn a little, and Im pretty damn quick about most action sports. The only reliable correlation I can make is... the more you ride, the better you get. I'm left handed, but I dont think that makes much a difference. I also have an 18 and an mten. I'm much more slow speed stable on the mten, tho it has a mere 50miles in compare to the 500miles of my big wheel. I learned on the 18 first, but I dont think that matters. Just ride what you got and thatll solve that.

[poison]

I'm still learning. Bought V10F one week ago, I had some time with expirienced friend. I understand how it works, still have some problems with driving, but no problem to jump on or getting right/left.  I'm very tall and heavy - 192cm and about 120kg. I'm very motivated to learn it. I saw there are some people that have learned for months and some after 30minutes or 1hour. So as I see - there is no rule. About two days ago some friend od facebook local EUC group puts video with girl that was dancing Macarena on EUC after 30minutes of riding. 

I had just 3 tranings, weekend was on wedding etc. so I'm just back to life. 

 

[Dgar]

I started with a 14" wheel about a month ago.  At 59, it has been a few years since I have been active so I was pretty out of shape and was exhausted after only 10 min of trying so had to stop for a while to rest. That first day, I used a fence to go back and forth for the first three 10 minute sessions. The 2nd day I was able to go about 10 feet on my own. By the 3rd day I was able to go down to the end of the driveway. After the first week I was riding around the block on the sidewalk but had to bail often on the 90 degree corners.  I had to take a week off because of work and other things but when I came back, I felt more comfortable on it. After 3 weeks, the corners on the sidewalks no longer presented a challenge. After 4 weeks, I feel pretty comfortable on it. I still need something to hold on to when starting up but I am very close to doing it on my own now.

I am still amazed how how impossible it seemed the first time I tried stepping on it and now it just comes 2nd nature. It just takes time for some of us to get to that point. 

Looking at getting an 18" wheel and having to learn all over again. I"m sure it will go quicker the 2nd time around.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Dgar

[Circuitmage]

It took me about 30 mins to be able to stand on mine.

about 45 mins to go straight a ways.

about 2 hours to feel really good about turning in both directions.

about 4 hours ( 3 days of short practice sessions) to decide I would ride it out to work.

about 2 months to feel really comfortable on it as a daily rider.

about 1 year to learn the lessons of riding a motorized vehicle too fast (with prior motorcycle and 2 wheel scooter experience) and not falling too much

and after a few years, now on my 3rd wheel...still learning a bit.

 

[pandel]

About a month practicing every other day for about 15-20 mins. until the first very shaky curve, because I am very bad at learning anything body balance related. As a kid I wasn't allowed to learn anything in this regard, like inline skating, ski, snowboard, ice skating, whatever. So my brain was absolutely not used to handle things like that

After that, I pushed myself every day a bit further and especially searched for uneven roads and light trails to force myself to learn quicker. I bought my shiny KS18L, tried to drive as much as I could and began to start practicing backwards riding at the beginning of the fourth month to push me again. At first it felt like I could never learn backwards, but in the end it was the same thing I thought going forwards a few months before :D, and now I can do both without any problems.

Far from being perfect I feel really safe and comfortable now. Never started anything before that I love so much :-)!

[Rehab1]

3 hours ago, pandel said:

As a kid I wasn't allowed to learn anything in this regard, like inline skating, ski, snowboard, ice skating, whatever. So my brain was absolutely not used to handle things like that

That’s sad! 

3 hours ago, pandel said:

 Never started anything before that I love so much :-)!

Congratulations! You missed out of some fun activities since childhood but now you can make up for it!  

[Alexei]

For the first time I tried to ride on a friend's car. He laughed for a long time as I fell. But then he showed me how to do it, and after a few minutes I was confident. It took about an hour that's all 

[pandel]

@Rehab1, yes, it is sad. I was extremely good at playing the piano and because my aunt was a professional musician my parents thought that I might become a professional, too. So my mother disallowed anything that could lead to a broken arm, hand, whatever...

 

On 8/5/2020 at 2:59 AM, Rehab1 said:

Congratulations! You missed out of some fun activities since childhood but now you can make up for it!  

That's the plan , I just bought a pair of inline skates, because I thought, if I can ride a EUC I can master those, too 

[Kai Drange]

1 hour ago, pandel said:

@Rehab1, yes, it is sad. I was extremely good at playing the piano and because my aunt was a professional musician my parents thought that I might become a professional, too. So my mother disallowed anything that could lead to a broken arm, hand, whatever...

 

That's the plan , I just bought a pair of inline skates, because I thought, if I can ride a EUC I can master those, too 

A fun summer activity with probably some transfer value to EUC riding is slacklining. I bring mine with me on picnics or whatever, and that is always enjoyable for everyone there regardless of skill level and age. My favourite related winter activity is Snowskating. I'm not good at either activity, but still fun.  (I'm going off-topic here, I know. Hope it is OK  )

[Rehab1]

1 hour ago, pandel said:

@Rehab1, yes, it is sad. I was extremely good at playing the piano and because my aunt was a professional musician my parents thought that I might become a professional, too. So my mother disallowed anything that could lead to a broken arm, hand, whatever...

Ugh. Reminds of the movie August Rush.

Well forum members love videos complemented by the rider’s personal music score. Would love to see a video featuring both. 
 

1 hour ago, pandel said:

That's the plan , I just bought a pair of inline skates, because I thought, if I can ride a EUC I can master those, too 

Good for you! Never too late!

[lirva]

Took me week, 30 minute sessions for going forward 10 meters without falling and one year to go backwards 10 meters. 

Edited August 6, 2020 by lirva

[mike_bike_kite]

I'm 57 but fairly fit and it took me an hour to learn how to ride. Not that I was any good afterwards but I could just about navigate round a tennis court. My legs felt like jelly though. I was taught by a good rider and I think that makes things much easier as they can point out any obvious mistakes and give encouragement when your spirits start to drop.