Wheel Walking

Learning to "Walk the Wheel", the next to a wall method:

Mount the unicycle parallel to the wall with one arm stretched, touching the wall.
Ride along the wall until the pedal next to the wall is straight up.
Lean toward the wall, placing more pressure on the wall with the outstretched arm. [This stabilizes the one's position to make the next step easier.]
Move the foot on the top pedal to the top of the wheel with the back of the foot actually on the frame as well. [The foot being on both the wheel and the frame at the same time, tends to keep the wheel from moving in the next step.]
Carefully, move the foot on the bottom pedal to the top of the wheel. This foot can also be placed partially on the frame, if that is more comfortable. This is the foot that will become the pushing foot first, in the actual wheel walking steps (6-7) below.
With the "pushing" foot, push the wheel forward, moving along the wall, touching the wall with the outstretched hand frequently to maintain sideways balance. (If this is the very first stroke, the other foot remains on the frame, letting the wheel slide past it.) Otherwise, the other leg is stretched forward, and its foot must be lifted up and moved back toward the frame.
As the foot pushes forward about 12 in., the leg straightens and the front of the foot must rise up off the wheel, but the heel remains in firm contact with the wheel to the end of the forward stroke. Continue touching the wall with the outstretched arm to maintain sideways balance. The front of the other foot just begins to make contact with the wheel right next to the frame and becomes the pushing foot in the next step. Go to step 6.

Suggestions and hints:

Dustin Kelm racing at the 1996 National Unicycle Convention

This is probably going to be harder than anything you have learned so far, but stick with it. It is very satisfying once you can do it, and it opens up the door to other cool tricks like one-foot wheel walking and gliding.

Walk the wheel along the wall with an outstretched arm as far as possible. Turn around and walk the wheel along the wall in the other direction.

Using the wall for "support", allows one to learn forward - backwards balance without worrying about sideways balance. A possibly better "support" than a wall, is a friend or two holding one's hand on one side or both. Another possibility is a chain link fence, like at a tennis court.

A pushing stroke should be 12-15 in. on a 20" wheel. There should be several inches between the feet whenever they are on the wheel, since both feet are on the wheel at the same time only when one foot is starting its stroke and the other is ending its stroke. To achieve a long stroke, start the stroke with the toes as close the frame as possible; as the toes push, the rest of the foot can actually slide across the frame until the heel slides off the frame onto the wheel. Doing this actually allows to add 6" to the stroke vs. placing the foot flat on the wheel just in front of the wheel.

Once comfortable wheel walking along the wall, try veering away from the wall, and next try wheel walking 45 degree away from the wall immediately.

If you get stuck at about 15-25 steps and aren't making any progress, try starting in the open rather than against the wall. Idle slowly with small arcs. Put your first foot on the wheel while it is stopped at the end of the arc. Use the foot to push the wheel and follow with your other foot. Since you are starting from a position of balance you will get a better start.

Lean back more than you think you need to. It feels very precarious at first but if you lean too far forward, you end up going too fast - wheelwalking needs to be (comparatively) slow.

You may find yourself making progress by stepping real fast a number of times until you fall forward. This will give you some more distance, but it is not how you ride once you are good at wheel walking. When you are proficient at wheel walking you will find that your feet move relatively slowly, and that you have a lot of control over the wheel.

Your arms are very important! You don't have the pedals to help you correct your balance. You may think it looks stupid riding with your arms out and fingers together, but it's what you need to do. Start with boths arms horizontal and fingers together, arms out to the side. If you start to fall to the left, slowly move your left arm out in front, keeping it horizontal. Do the opposite if you start falling to the right.

Wear unicycle shorts (you can call them bike shorts if you want). Loose shorts get in the way and bind against front of your legs. You don't want to keep pulling at your pants during your many attempts - besides, you need to have those arms out!

One thing to consider - falls during wheelwalking can (and do) hurt. There is a high risk of falling backwards and it's much less likely that you'll land on your feet.

Shoes matter. The more traction you have, the more control you will have. MacGregor turf shoes are good, as are Nike shoes with the zig-zag pattern. These are the cheap Nikes without air in the heel.

Once you learn to wheel walk, the next trick is learning to return your feet to the pedals. You can start on this when you are comfortable enough riding that you can look down and see where the pedals are and wait until they are where you want them to be.

The most common approach is to put your dominant foot on the pedal while it is forward before putting the other foot on the pedal behind. This means you can push down on the pedal to maintain the momentum until both feet are on the pedals. If you find that the unicycle shoots out in front of you, try putting your dominant foot on the back pedal first. Either way you will then place the second foot on the pedal while your first foot follows the pedal along.

An alternate approach is to 1 foot wheel walk for at least a couple of paces. Then hang the other leg down so it meets the upcoming pedal. As this pedal goes over the top, you can push it down, and meet the other pedal with the foot you were 1 foot wheel walking with.

As you get better at remounting after a wheel walk, you will find that you can return your feet to the pedals no matter where they are.