So...what got you guys into unicycling?

[AngryGumball]

Sorry if this is a duplicate thread, I searched and found one dated as far back as 2003. So, what got you interested in unicycling?

For me, it was shortly after my brother got into fixed gear (fixie) bikes. I kind of thought of the fixed gear as being a unicycle with training wheels in a sense as there's no coasting. I am also into yoyoing, and got into messing with a diabolo (Chinese yoyo), which shifted my interest this direction (since I initially associated unicycles as a 'skill toy'). The interest was there but somewhat hidden and waned after a while. Just recently, I was at a local bike shop where I spotted a lone Sun Flat Top uni sitting there...a bit over priced but this was the first time I actually got up close to one. From there, I told myself that one of these days I'll probably pick up that one. New Years Day, I was at a thrift store, aimlessly browsing around and decided to veer towards the bikes where there were a couple beat up kids bikes, a trike, and....a Schwinn unicycle. I quickly grabbed it, checked the price (tagged at $40, but was on sale as that dept was having a new years sale), left with a unicycle I spent a little less than $30 on, and it feels like a tank compared that Sun ( just visited the same bike shop earlier because I had to get a spoke key to fix my spoke tension). Once I can ride, maybe I'll start whipping out yoyo tricks as I'm cruising along, or mess with the diabolo. I also plan on learning some flatland basic tricks (wheel walking, simple hops, maybe some spins). So yea, that's pretty much my story.

How about the rest of you?

[anton005]

About ten years ago I spotted a guy on a big unicycle (probably a 29"), he was not a clown or in the circus, he looked like he was commuting! That kind of blew my mind at the time. Years went by and the image of that guy never left my mind. About four years ago I decided it was time, I bought a torker 24 inch uni. I spent almost a week with it here and there, didn't make much progress, it ended up hanging in the garage for almost a year. Then something happened, I found this site! Took the uni out of the garage and spent a good two weeks on it, finally made it. Here I am.

[UnicyclesArePerfect]

Haha I thought this would be a good place to post a first post! Well a few months ago I was talking to a friend at school. He and I had some stuff to get rid of and on of his was an old 16 inch chinese unicycle with a plastic rim. I really wanted it so I traded him some DC hightops for it. I learned to ride it in about 2 days then a month later I bought a QuAx, then for christmas I got a kh 20, kh seat and kh post. I now am pretty good at trials. Trials is all I ride and I absolutely love it I can hop onto 5 pallets right now and ride along rails so Im so happy I decided to go with trials!!! I got my friend into unicycling now also! So yeah thats how I got into uncycling!

[johnfoss]

I probably posted mine in that thread from 2003, or one of the ones before that.

[Biped]

My first witness of someone riding a unicycle was a 24 hour bicycle fundraiser for cancer research (24 Hours of Booty). It was August 2009 and some guy was riding this 3 mile circuit on a unicycle. I found it irregular but it didn't seem like much that I was interested since it didn't go too fast... the high end road bikes were what made me salivate.

About a year after that I saw a guy riding on a sidewalk while I was walking to lunch on a work day. In this case we crossed paths on the sidewalk... he was riding slow to allow us to pass... and seemed pretty stable even slow.

At this point I had a close up look at someone on a unicycle without the distractions of 1200 other bikes in the area.

Here's where the rationalizing started kicking in. At the time I was using a 35# mountain road bike for endurance training. Although I was enchanted with multi thousand $$$ road bikes I was already riding 20-30 miles on my mountain bike to get a decent workout. Riding a more efficient machine like a road bike meant I was going to have to ride 30-40 miles for a decent workout. Even MORE time in the saddle; time I didn't have.

I used to be a long distance runner till my knees and low back started to complain. After repeated attempts to restart my running program flareups with the knee and back forced me to conclude that my running days were over... which is when I took up cycling.

Now I see this unicycle... Hmmm... a LESS efficient machine than a roadbike. Somewhat similar to an elliptical machine (circular motion; upright posture; minimal impact to the knees; unsupported hands/arms) but could be ridden outside.

On top of all that... I used to own a personal training studio where I worked with people with chronic orthopedic concerns that prevented them from doing traditional gym exercises. These folks often needed base exercises to be modified to meet their needs. I also advocated balance training... since balance skills are proven to recede with age...

I had 2 -1-liners for my exercise clients...
1. The number one reason for admission to nursing homes is injury due to falls
2. To increase the neurological demand of an exercise... reduce the base of support.

To the point... I ended up buying a Torker CX 20" off of Craigs list for $50. It wasn't put together correctly so I had to order replacement cranks (cranks were installed on the wrong side). While I was waiting for the cranks I was anxious to get started so I visited a LBS and purchased a 24" CX for $129. Now I had 2 uni's and I STILL didn't know how to ride.

It's been about 16 months since that initial 20" purchase. I can ride decently on pavement and plan to explore some off road trails this year.

In retrospect, riding a bicycle is vastly superior at burning the quads and exhausting the lungs. There's no way to achieve that sort of intensity on a unicycle.

But the uni certainly does win in the neurological demands department.

I probably spend just as much time in the saddle on my uni as I did on the road bike (limited by my ischial tuberosities [ass bones]) but it is WAY more fun and much less boring. I don't view my rides as cardio workouts, I view them as uni rides.

I am hooked...

[King Of Suede]

A lot of my friends were really into skateboarding in middle school and high school. I could never get the hang of it.

However, I loved riding bikes. I had this old Trek MTB that I ran into the ground over the 6 or so years I had it. Once that broke for the last time and I had nothing to ride, I started watching BMX videos on youtube and came across this video:

Big Street (Unicycling) - YouTube

And thought "THAT is what I want to do" Not more than a month later, I had my first uni. That was December of 2010.
Been hooked ever since =)

[Feisty]

After watching UniGeezer's videos it is clear that Unicycling halts and then reverses the ageing process! I there wanted some of that action

[harper]

Here's a similar thread.

Here's another earlier one.

[Ducttape]

Originally Posted by johnfoss

I probably posted mine in that thread from 2003, or one of the ones before that.

My story is probably in one of those threads too

Originally Posted by Biped

In retrospect, riding a bicycle is vastly superior at burning the quads and exhausting the lungs. There's no way to achieve that sort of intensity on a unicycle.

Get a 36'er with short cranks and spin fast. That'll exhaust your lungs and burn the quads. Especially if your route has any hills at all.

I'll repost my story since I've been gone for so long. Started about 9 or 10 years ago when I was bored at my grandparents house. I was looking for stuff to do and found some plans for stilts. So I asked to build them. Learned to do that and walked around on stilts for a year or so. Then decided that I wanted to try something more challenging. So I bought a unicycle from a local juggling store in town(Serious Juggling; they ship worldwide btw) I got it with a seat post that was just a little too tall for me and for a year it sat in my room collecting dust until I was tall enough to practice on it. Took me about 3 and a half weeks practicing every day until I was able to ride and do level one skills. I rode around for about a year not knowing you could do more and then I found the forums and started doing trials; my skills and interest in unicycling skyrocketed from there. Since naucc 09 though I really haven't ridden too much. Figured I might get back into it if I paid a visit to the forums, I kind of miss riding but there's no motivation left.

[maestro8]

I started unicycling just to get enough street cred to come here and tell people where to post their threads.

This one, for example. It's a unicycling thread, but this is not the unicycling forum. And I should know now that I'm a proper unicyclist. So I'm going to tell you.

POST UNICYCLING THREADS IN THE UNICYCLING FORUM.

Thanks.

[Hazmat]

Simple, got my 1st bike (which i paid for) and after 6 months of riding it. I got bored and remembered that my dad has a buzzcutter. So i sawed it in 1/2 and made some minor modifications and it was done. my very first unicycle.

[saskatchewanian]

boredom, cold weather, and bad drivers.

[skilewis74]

Originally Posted by johnfoss

I probably posted mine in that thread from 2003, or one of the ones before that.

I've heard/read it so many times I prob could do a half decent job of retelling it

I told my story in an earlier thread like this but it's not in any of the links that were posted. I'll tell it again

In the book "Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot" it say's there's evidence suggesting doing a variety of things can make you smarter, one of which was ballance exercises. So one day while riding my b*ke home and I was thinking of what could I do w/ my daily routine to take advantage of those things and I realized riding a bike was balance, how could I take it up a notch? Eliminate a wheel.

That seemed totally rediculus since I have partial paralysis in my legs and was sure I could never learn to ride (I estimate 95% parallysis in my lower legs, 70% in my hips and glutes, 25% in my hamstrings and about 15% in my abs, lower back and quads). But it got me curious so when I had some time to kill I'd look for uni info on the net. Then I saw this picture and it really peeked my interest.

Then I started looking up everything I could find every spare moment I had until I saw this vid of Kris and I was hooked.

KH

I still didn't believe it was a possible for me but I became a fan, like I'm a fan of watching motorcycle racing, extreme skiing, and rock climbing vids. After four months of watching vids and finding this forum, I said to my self "why not? I'm relearning to ride my bike w/o hands and I'm getting better at it." So I bought myself a Torker 24" DX and started practicing.

I practiced on average an hour a day for two months before I had the confidence to ride around my very large block.

Four months later I was able to do my 2.5 mile commute.

Six months after starting I rode off my first curb.

At a year and a half I went on my first Muni ride.

[Heretical Rants]

Unicycles.

[Byc]

Whenever i saw a unicycle i wanted to try riding one. Especially when i saw those two living in the same part of town riding along, jumping off and on the sidewalks.
When we lived near arnheim during our year in the caravan some neighbours, tourists from germany for two weeks, had two daughters, one already able to ride free, the other still learning but very quick at that.
The great thing about the netherlands is that in every town or nearly every village you can find a bike store, and many of them also have unicycles (found that out after i purchased a heap one at the supermarket and had to change the saddle very soon). And the campsite was the ideal training place. Nice paced small roads and no car traffic.
Often we helped each other, one walking beside giving support when needed, or sometimes alone, starting alsongside the car and trying to ride as long as possible. (ha, found two small clips here, and here)

Greetings

Dru