A bicylist learns to ride a bicycle using the handlebars, and can after getting reasonably proficient, start to ride it without using the handlebars. For a unicyclist, it is exactly the opposite.

When learning to unicycle, one often flails around the arms in a bid to somehow hold onto the thin band that is the balance point. As one gets better, the crazy waving needs to go away, and learning to ride with a handlebar is a great way to ensure that the upper body stays straighter and that the wheel also tracks strighter. However, doing so needs practice.

When I first installed the T-bar on my 36-er last year, I was initially shocked to see how much the bar swung from side to side, even when I thought I was tracking relatively straight, but within two days of riding with a bar, and even without actually holding the bar, the extra movement got reduced, so I guess just having a handlebar in the visible region in front of the saddle gives a great reference point to let us know how we are tracking.

Initially, the handlebar seemed to behave like an instant-UPD button; just merely touching it meant I got ejected from the saddle, but I was able to quickly get used to touching it while on the move, and briefly being able to rest my fingers on it, before getting it out of the way. With the onset of winter, I’d stopped using the 36-er, and with it ended my practicing with bars, until this year.

When I decided to buy a 29-er with disc brakes, it was because the 29-er provides a wheel which is big enough to allow rolling faster than smaller wheels while being vastly easier to mount and hence far better suited for trips around town. The 29-er, a URC Roadrunner disc 29, was ordered with a handle-saddle. The handle-saddle feels quite a bit different when compared with a T-bar, which has much more of a bicycle handle feel, but once I started practicing, I was able to quickly get more confident.

I’ve now started practicing with the 36-er again, and found that the progress I’d made with practicing with the handle-saddle on the 29-er had helped me with riding the 36-er with the T-bar too. On today’s ride, I was able to consistently and regularly support myself with the T-bar, and was even able to ride a couple of climbs while holding the T-bar steadily with one hand.

The idea now is to continue to practice riding with the T-bar/handle-saddle, till I’m totally comfortable riding with them. When I now hold the bar, my free arm kind of ends up getting behind me in a way which causes a bit of upper body twisting, but that too is something I hope to be able to correct soon. Riding with both arms on the handle would make it possible to have the best possible upper-body position without unnecessary twisting, but that’s still a little way away.