rec.sport.unicycling · Public discussion

Countersteering really works

Started by Stu Carter · · Last activity · 2 posts · 211 views

Thread details

What we know about this thread

Original section
rec.sport.unicycling
Published
1 August 2005
Last activity
2 August 2005
Original author
Stu Carter
Posts
2
Discussion status
Public discussion
Total views
211
Views / 30 days
0

The navigation and discussion metadata provide context. Posts remain in their original chronological order.

Showing posts 1–2 of 2
Posts remain in their original chronological order.

Text size
  1. I was riding again on Saturday (I'm not so good at getting on my unicycle
    that often!) and decided to practise a couple of things. 1) Turning 2)
    Coasting.

    1) It finally worked. I've been reading a lot on countersteering and had
    worked out that it should work nicely. The error I had been making before
    was to not countersteer far enough before attempting to turn the other
    way. It seems to need quite a confident turn of the lower half in the
    wrong direction to instigate a good lean. Beforehand I was giving a little
    flick of the hips and then failing to perform a good leaning turn.

    So, if you're working on good turning, keep at it! It can work. I also
    accidentally ended up in a spin for about 3 revs until my legs got
    confused and I tried to put pressure on with my foot right at the top of
    the circle. I fell off unsurprisingly.

    Thanks to all who have commented on turning so far - all your advice has
    been invaluable and I can only see things getting better from here!

    2) I didn't manage a coast, but what I _did_ manage was to put small
    plastic pedals on my uni so I wouldn't tear up the nice floor. I also
    actually dared to take my feet off several times. Mostly falling forwards
    suggested that I'm doing something to slow the uni down just before taking
    my foot off, but on one occasion I came off the back, the pedal came up
    and grabbed my leg and over I went flat on my back.

    Somehow, I fell very gracefully and it didn't hurt a bit, so that's given
    me extra confidence to not worry too much about falling off. Now I just
    have to balance the fore-aft falling until I stay on.

    Coasting is tough, but I can't wait until I can do it. 5 months and 3 days
    until my target date!

    Cheers,

    Stu
    --
    :wq!

  2. I think of it like skiing. Beginners learn to turn by letting their
    body fall in the direction they want to go and following up by turning
    when the center of mass is at the necessary angle. However, when
    making performance turns you don't have the luxury of waiting that
    long. Instead the equipment is quickly driven off to the side to
    achieve the turning angle.

    Ken

Active in the last 60 minutes

Active in this thread

0 users · 0 guests ·0 bots ·0 total

No signed-in users are active right now.

No known search crawlers active right now.