Hello!
I believe I’m not the first person to ask about this, but as I’m having problems finding a similar kind of title (the search gets me a ton of off-topic threads with ‘first unicycle’ and freezes when using quotes), I decided to give it a go. So: What model would you recommend for a beginner unicycle? I feel I should get a 24 inch cycle for I’m rather tall and I wish to use it just for some easy cruising. And if someone around here happens to be Finnish, I’d very much like to know if you’ve bought your unicycle from Finland? If you have, where? How much did it cost you? Did you buy it new or used? Thanks!
Oh and btw, as you can see, this is my first post here, so let me introduce myself: I’m a 17-year old guy from Nokia, Finland. I study at Nokia senior high school and do jogging and IRCing. Hope to get to know you all better!
unicycle.com is the best place to get any unicycle. Try the 24 inch Torker, they make great beginner uni’s.
But if you’re in Finland, you’d probably want to order from unicycle.uk.com since it’s a bit closer.
Welcome. I think you’ll find that there are some really awesome people here on the forum. They’ve been very helpful and provided tons of encouragement while I was learning. I completely agree with the 24 inch Torker suggestion. I started on a bottom-of-the-line Torker 20 and just bought a Torker DX24. The level of quality is very good. I think this unicycle will last me a long while.
There is also a Unicycle.com in Sweden. That is even closer to you than the UK.
Go to www.unicycle.com, then click on the little Swedish flag.
I myself never checked out the Swedish site, but if is anything like the others, it will be quite good.
Good luck
I recommend a Torker 24" LX. You can find them on Ebay for about 75 bucks. I saw one in a bike store the other day and was thoroughly impressed for the price.
Me again
Actually, I just went there. Everything is written in Swedish. I have no idea of the difference between the Swedish language and the Finnish language, but perhaps it is close enough?
Also, I had a comma “,” after my link to unicycle.com that would lead nowhere. Here is the direct link to the Swedish website–at least the postage should be cheaper if you order from Sweden. Unicycle.Com in SWEDEN-- http://www.unicycle.se/
Again, good luck!
Thank you all for your great replies!
I checked the Torker LX and it seemed very good and fitted my budget. Unfortunately unicycle.se doesn’t offer the model so I’ll search Ebay. I checked the German Ebay site (ebay.de) and found lots of unicycles for sale at very low prices. There were no auctions for a Torker LX at the moment but I’ll be checking it every once in a while.
By the way, I can’t remember a single time I’ve seen a unicycler here in Finland! I guess it just hasn’t pushed it’s way through just yet. And it might be that people relate unicycles to circuses, and are afraid to actually try one in the fear of being stamped as a clown. Skateboarding is a megatrend here, there are skateboarders on every corner.
I saw a unicycle group from Finland when I was at a youth circus festival in Latvia in 1990. Nice people.
Your choice of a 24" is a great size to start with. Then if you get more involved, you can branch out into a more specific model. Living in Nokia, if you get into MUni you’ll have to get one with the “Nokian” Gazzalodi tire!
Nokian tyres have long traditions here in Nokia city. It’s actually the same company of which Nokia mobile phones diverged (is that a proper word? :P) decades ago.
I’ve done some researching and it seems that Torkers are not sold (at least in the internet) in the Europe, or they are priced very high. The shipping and handling costs are very high when ordered from the USA, so I started looking for the other models. How about Torker’s CX? Is it of any worth? Comparing to LX there are differences between the color and the seat, but both have the better kind of ‘main cap’ bearings. I’m a total newbie at this so I don’t really know what else to look for when looking at the technical data. What do you think? Any experiences? Thanks!
I read the previous threads about the CX model, and I got the image it’s quite crap. If the saddle is bad then it’s definately not worth buying. I’m now making the choice between a Schwinn and the Torker LX. I asked the local reseller to check how much it would cost to import one of them and he’ll let me know on monday.
Yes, I’ve phoned every bike store within 50km from where I live, and in almost every case the answer is ‘no, but we can order one for you’. Some stores have had unicycles for about 100 euros, and they’ve only had them in the size of 20". I tried one at a local shop. It was titled “Extreme”, and it was 20" too. It felt good, but I’m still looking for the 24" size. I’m also curious if I can get a better brand for about 100 euros.