I’ve been perusing for a few days, so it’s time to introduce myself. I’ve been riding a unicycle for 32 or 33 years now, but haven’t been on it much for the past several years due to where I’ve lived. No real place to ride without driving somewhere. About 29 years ago I got a Norco 24" with a chrome frame and 150mm cranks. By today’s standards the construction looks on the cheap side, but compared to the complete piece of garbage on which I learned, it was a fine machine and a nice upgrade. It’s always held up nicely for me.
This Spring I looked at it sulking in the shed and realized that I needed to polish the chrome on the thing very soon or it was going to turn into total junk. I took it all apart and even unlaced the wheel so I could do the hub. I polished it up and reassembled it with a new tire and tube. I don’t think the hub looked this shiny when I got it new. It was always dull looking. Now it’s ready to ride.
I’ve been looking through all the ride pics and the muni ride pics on this board. I grew up riding a BMX bike, but I didn’t realize all the off-road unicycle riding was happening. Good gravy. I’m astounded at some of the places I see some of you riding. I won’t be posting any pictures like those. We just don’t have places like that in the flatlands of northern Indiana. But y’all have certainly inspired to me get the thing out and ride. There are some real nice bicycle trails in a couple nearby cities I would like to try out.
A couple days ago, I drove into our small town where I could ride in a parking lot. Oh good golly wally. I’m out of shape and out of practice. I used to be reasonably good on the thing. I used to be able to jump on and go, but I wasn’t going to try it that day. I was really unstable. I didn’t have any bad falls, but I jumped off several times for losing my balance. About 15 minutes and I was wiped out. It’s going to be a while before I can take it to any bicycle trails.
The picture here is me in the summer of ‘86 riding a 6’ tall unicycle in front of an uncle’s bicycle shop. Any of you in the southern Ontario area may recognize that sign. He had this in the store and wanted to see me ride the thing. It was an adventure, but I didn’t get this one. That’s a long ways down in the event of a fall.
Last I paid any attention to these things, a 36" wheel was unheard of. I was surprised to see them here now. I would like to try one of those eventually. They look interesting.
