"Are you unicycle guy?"

General
1

Today Emma accompanied me on her bike to the donut shop. On the way we pass the large empty parking lot for the Middle School. On the return trip home Emma wanted to ride around and I was happy to take the time to practice some hopping and backwards riding.

After about 15 or 20 minutes a kid rides up and shouts, “hey, are you unicycle guy?” Slightly amused, I shouted back, “why yes, but apparently so are you.” Yes, this young man was riding a unicycle, too.

He explained that his folks have seen me riding by many times, but he had yet to spot me. Someone saw me and Emma and told him, so he rode up to meet us.

His unicycle is the ultimate POS. He bought it at Toys R Us. He’s had it for a few months and already parts are loose. The seat may prevent him from ever fathering a child. And the seat post isn’t long enough to accomodate his height by a long shot.

Ok, that’s the bad news. The good news is he rides quite competently, is completely self taught, and although he said he couldn’t, he freemounted without any trouble. He was able to freemount a 24" Schwinn as well.

He’s been on the web and seen the skill levels and has some interest in pursuing those, although he indicated that distance riding is more what he is thinking of.

Anyway, with his parents permission, we’ve exchanged emails and he has my phone number. Looks like I’ll have someone to ride with once in a while. What a blast. I’m sure, given his age, he’ll be riding circles around me in no time.

And tomorrow, the 4th of July, is his birthday and he should be logging on to unicycle.com and getting something a little sturdier. People have seemed happy with their Torkers, so I recommended that as an inexpensive step up from his crappy unicycle. If his folks are feeling a bit more generous who knows what he’ll end up with.

How cool. I didn’t ask if he knew how to juggle.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

2

That is a cool story. I’m sure since he finally got to me you, you’ll be seeing alot more of him. Hec, you may even become his mentor!!! :astonished: :astonished: :astonished:

3

Say it isn’t so! :astonished: Cool story though.:smiley: I have yet to see any one in my immediate area that can unicycle. I did find out that one of my customers, who I also consider to be a friend used to Unicycle. Unfortunately he has some equilibrium issues that have him on permanent disability from the police force. He wasn’t quick to jump on, but was blown away with the quality and advancement in Uni technology.

4

Nice, Raphael! Perhaps you can pull him to a Unatics meeting this summer? A big adventure for a kid.

5

That thought had occured to me, if only to get me there. :slight_smile:

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

6

Re: “Are you unicycle guy?”

We need to perfrom an emergancey rescue: Raph’s been abducted. Tell us: who are you, and what have you done with JJ? You probablely thought you were being sly, adding that part about juggling for texture… heck, I was on to you when ya neglected to mention who the kid would have voted for in the last election… if he was able.

The Raphael I knew had a destinctive body marking- so let’s see it, alien scum.

-C

7

Re: Re: “Are you unicycle guy?”

The destinctive (sic) marking is below. Are you suggesting Chris, that unicycling is not my primary reason for frequenting this newsgroup?

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

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8

Ahhh, balance is restored to the uni-verse. So, will we get to see Mr. Guavara, and his juggling side-kick, in the Land-O-Lakes later this month?

-Christopher

9

No.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

10

The plot pleasingly thickens…

…today my daughter had a play date with a friend who came over to our house. Emma has been working on her unicycling (and will be accompanying me to the Unatics meeting tomorrow, a first for us both) and wanted to show off her skills to her friend. So Emma gets on and rides around a bit holding my hands and then we offer her friend a try. So she gets up and sits there, not uncomfortably, and non-challantly mentions that her mother rides a unicycle.

So I do a bit of a double take and ask her to repeat that. I mean this kid has seen me ride and she never thought it worth mentioning that her mother rides. Perhaps this is what happens to kids with parents who do weird stuff; they take it all for granted. So she says, yeah, her mother rides.

Anyway, her mother comes over later to pick her daughter up. I say, “hey, your daughter tells me that you ride a unicycle.” And she replies, “yes, but I don’t ride that much anymore.” “But you do ride around still once in a while, right?”, says I. “Oh yeah”, she says, “I do.”

So, perhaps inappropriately, I extend my leg to display my destinctive (sic) marking, and say, “so do I and I was giving your kid a bit of a lesson.”

Well, she looks at my leg and says, “so you’re that guy everyone tells me about riding through our neighborhood.” “That’s me”, I reply.

Alright, the conversation now takes some odd turns.

Item 1: She mentions that she spent some time trying to get her son to ride, but he wasn’t that interested. Not her daughter, though. Hmmm, perhaps, by way of benefit of the doubt, it just didn’t occur to her that a 9 year old could learn to ride.

Item 2: This one may explain why I (as do others) spend so much time here at RSU. To wit, she seems vaguely interested in getting together to ride sometime, but not that interested. I mean, she’s just found out someone she knows has this similar peculiar interest, but it doesn’t seem to excite her at all. And I told her about the kid who is the main subject of this thread who probably lives just a few houses from her, but that’s not that interesting to her either. Ok, so maybe I am obsessed.

Item 3: I did ask her why she started unicycling. I wish I had recorded her words, but here they are in paraphrase. Tell me this doesn’t resonate with you. “It seemed like something that can’t be done, and every time I ride it still seems like something that shouldn’t be physically possible.” It’s pure wonder and awe. And not something that’s hard to do, but something that can’t be done.

So, the long and short of it is that there are all these people lurking about to ride with. I still envy those who have found them, but I’m working on it for my own part. All in all, pretty cool.

Cheers all,
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

11

Re: The plot pleasingly thickens…

Maybe she doesn’t find you as charming as all of us do.:smiley: So you are not going to the Land of Lakes at the end of the month?

12

Re: Re: The plot pleasingly thickens…

Fair enough.

Which of the letters in the word “no” is giving you trouble? :smiley:

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ