I almost threw away my October issue of BICYCLING Magazine without noticing a
little article about our sport. This issue sat on my bedroom floor for a while,
before being packed in a folder of stuff for me to read on the long drive out to
CA from NY. I didn’t read it. Then it eventually got unpacked and sat on my desk
(after my desk was repainted and re-assembled). Meanwhile, newer issues were
arriving and finding their way to me through USPS forwarding. Then I went to
Singapore for 2 weeks, and brought it along to read on the plane. I almost threw
it out in Singapore, but decided I might actually get around to reading it on
the way back (I didn’t)! Just so you know, when I get a copy of a unicycling
publication, ANY unicylcing publication, I read it immediately. No excuses.
Anyway, I finally noticed it before throwing the issue away. It’s big news when
unicycling is mentioned in mainstream publications (nobody mentioned seeing it
as far as I know!). This means the general public is getting a rare handle on
how to find out more about our sport. The article follows:
UNI MADNESS
One of the many less-than-mainstream cycling mags we receive at our office is ON
ONE WHEEL, the official publication of the Unicycling Society of America (Box
40534, Redford, MI 48240). In the Winter '94 issue, we were digesting a story
about speed records. Such as: U.S. hour record: 15.88 miles, set by Floyd
Beattie at the Major Tayor Velodrome in '86. 1 mile record: 3 minutes, 27
seconds, set by W.H. Barber in 1888. Top speed (measured through a 200 meter
time trap): 20.02 mph by Troy Mckee in '80. Interesting stuff, but then our eye
wandered to a story on the next page about Andy Cotter, a guy who toured Europe
on a “2-wheeled unicycle.” What the heck is this contraption? There’s no photo,
so we read on in puzzlement…Oops! They got us. A 2-wheeled unicycle is what
mono-wheelers call the machine we’re most familiar with: a bicycle.
Bicycling magazine has a forum on America Online, for all you AOL people. I
their internet address is bicmag@aol.com
If the above article contains information which is interesting to you, you
should join the USA. Membership is open to people of all nations ($20 US if you
live outside of the 50 states where they can bulk mail). Hopefully, in the near
future, there will again be an IUF section in ON ONE WHEEL, like the one from
which those speed records came.
John Foss, President International Unicycling Federation unifoss@cerfnet.com