Well, there is a place near my house with some very nice hiking trails that would be awesome for Muni. The thing is, it says “NO BICYCLING!!!” in big letters with pictures and everything. So, can I uni here? The sign doesn’t say I can’t… Anyone else had experiences with this?
i’d bet not on a trail like that. in some places i’d argue that i can uni because it’s more walking speed, but this is likely a trial wear kind of thing. i wouldn’t chance it because a big ticket could result.
My attitude towards that sort of stuff would be to ride it and if they ask you to leave then don’t complain too much. As far as erosion and such, I’ve seen singltrack mountainbike trails that get ridden more then any hiking trials I know and you can hardly tell the trail is there in many places. I usually ride on “no biking” trials on my mountain bike simply because there in my back yard, and I don’t want to have to drive 40 minutes to legitimate single track. At the same time, I don’t go on weekends, or busy times, and I always yield to hikers and try not to be a pain or loud and obnoxios, and if I get hurt I’m not going to try and sue or anything. So yes, I understand that it isn’t the most honest thing, but to me trial use is a large grey area, especially on a unicycle. The reason most of the “no biking” sings are there is due to liability, or hikers groups being mean and pushing it through with legislation and such, as they tried to do in the catskills recently, and if there isn’t a fight from cyclists then it goes through without a problem.
you can prolly ride it if you use one of these:
http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/unicycle_factory/custom.html
scroll down a bit and you’ll see what i’m talking aboot.
i agree, go try it out. I rode at a school that had a sign saying: No bikes rollerblading, rollerskating, scooter riding, skateboarding. But no one minded that i ride my uni. The only thing i got was a person working there telling me not to play on the steps.
If a trail says “No Bicycling” it means no unicycling too. Don’t try contorting a definition of bicycle that excludes unicycles because that logic isn’t going to fly with the people who put up the sign.
If the trail is designed specifically as a hiking trail you should definitely stay off of it. It’s not good for the mountain biking community to be poaching hiking trails that are very specifically hiking trails and not biking or multiuse trails. The mountain biking community in your area is likely working hard to get access to more trails. Poaching the local hiking only trails does not generate the good karma that is necessary for them to make progress on getting access to more trails. Poaching makes the local mountain biking community look bad, and as mountain unicyclists we are part of the mountain biking community. Poaching gives the enemy ammunition to make it more difficult for the MTB community to open new trails. Consider it bad karma.
Now if you want to start threading through the grey areas, then things get less black and white. Some trails are more poachable than others. If you are familiar with the local trail and land politics and with past history of the area you can identify trails that are more politically open to poaching. There are some local trails in my area that were once open to bikes but no longer. They get poached by some bikes. There are other trails that are most definitely hiking only trails and it would be stupid to poach them on a bike or unicycle.
There are other issues too. Hiking only trails are often built differently than MTB trails or multi-use trails. There are issues with how the trail tread (the trail base) is reinforced to handle MTB use. There are issues with drainage, slope, visibility, trail design, etc. that are different for hiking only trails vs. MTB or multi-use trails. Some hiking trails are just not suitable for mountain biking.
I did notice that everyone who said to go ahead and poach the trail are in their teens. 
Well jeez John, is there really anyone else left? The geezers are dropping like flies. Harper can’t be considered an adult, so you’re just about the only remaining voice of experience.
It would be interesting to graph out the average post count by age of poster for the last 12 months. I predict it would show the geezers dropping like flies.
It really depends on the trail and the area. Some places, like Marin County in California, have a lot of people fighting over trails, and the NIMBY morons who do things like argue against turning an unused, deteriorating fire road into singletrack (ostensibly because of environmental impact), will also do things like call the rangers if they see you poaching a trail on a unicycle. If there is less conflict in your area, you’re less likely to get in trouble.
Fundamentally, I think the stated reasons why mountain bikes are banned from trails (trail damage, speed) don’t apply to unicycles. But the real reasons mountain bikes are banned from trails are power and control. More or less, it’s a grade-school argument that “we were here first.” It is only because the hikers and horseback riders tend to be older, richer, and more powerful, that we have the situation we do.
Re: Can I Uni Here?
On Sun, 19 Feb 2006 00:50:51 -0600, tomblackwood wrote:
>It would be interesting to graph out the average post count by age of
>poster for the last 12 months. I predict it would show the geezers
>dropping like flies.
Is there a way to get a list out of unicyclist.com with poster names,
ages, and post count, other than doing them one by one?
from my experience its easier to get caught and be nice about leaving then to not ride at all. you’d be surprised how decent the security guards are at some places about the whole “well it’s not actually a bi-cycle. I mean there’s only one of them anyway”. As to a hiking trail, i suggest stay off it. If destroying native bushland (forrest for those in america) comes into it i advise you to stear clear as national rangers are on a whole other level of trouble then shopping centre security guards. Thats my two cents on the issue anyway.
this happened 2 me like a week ago… i asked the person that runs it kindly if i could ride it if there wernt any hikers on the trail…he said " no" then he said “…but we dont open it 2 any one on tuesdays and im here in my office all tuesday so you can unicycle then…and if its a slow day ill call you”
i was like omg you are so awsome its like amazing …“can i unicycle in the parking lot untill my mom pickes me up in a couple of hours” he said “just dont get ran over and if you do we are not liable” then he made me sign a liability form and its all settled
i think if you just go in there nicely that they will mostlikley understand and respect that you didnt just go on it any way and if they still say no its not the end of the world theres always some where else
warren
dude something you need to learn is you can and should unicycle anywhere. if theres a sign that says no loitering, or even no unicycling, jsut disregard it or knock it over and ride that place. or if you see a skinny in front of the police station-ride that thing man. everyone in my neighborhood skates the courthouse. so yea, just unicycle anywhere you want, and dont worry bout the trouble.
Ok, if a sign specifically says “No Unicycling”, then seriously, respect the law.
And skating the courthouse? Riding skinnies right near a police station on their property? Don’t be so reckless…just because you unicycle doesn’t make you above the law.
I’m with Albino_Gumby on this one, just ride places where it doesn’t say you can’t, and if someone in uniform asks you to leave, just be polite, humor him a little, and find another place. Simple as that.
i would probably say you couldn’t
if the ‘man’ goes through all the effort to specifically make a ‘no unicycling’ sign then i suggest not to ride. However since this is a rare occurence go for your life.
nonsense
You convinced me.
Sometimes ill see places with signs saying not to bike, skateboard, and ill be like, “hey! im on a uni, they need to be more specific if they dont want me to ride here!” and just ride through, most times they dont care, sometimes they do and ask me to leave, and i dont mind, still think they need to be more specific, or so vague that it counts anything that is ridable in a short and simple way, like a sign just saying “NO” that would do it =p
But sometiems you gotta follow what the signs say, other times who really cares and just go for it =p besides, if anyone aks, you just gotta say you never saw that sign then give a little smirk as you walk away 
if anyone ever gives you trouble, slip them a one spot for them to keep it quiet. washington is very persuasive. of course, woodrow is even more forceful.
I think trail poaching culture depends very much on country too.
In the UK, we’ve got far more access to land than in many other countries, including a legal right to roam on most open land on foot, even if it’s privately owned. There are also bridleways, which are trails that bikes and horses are allowed to use over most land, and footpaths for walkers only. There is some fantastic singletrack on bridleways, however, a lot of singletrack is either a footpath, or on open access land. There are a lot of areas where it’s just accepted that people can bike on the singletrack thanks to the land owners not minding, or actively encouraging it, and also most mountain bikers will poach footpaths a bit. It’s also the case that almost all trails aren’t “built trails” in the sense of purpose built mountain bike trails, and given we have a lot of rain all year round, it’s more accepted that hiking and biking trails change over time, so riding muddy trails and erosion is much less of an issue, except for extremely popular trails in honeypot areas.
In Scotland, there’s no access restrictions at all, if you don’t cause damage, you can go on the trail, no matter what signs are up. This is true if you’re on a bike / unicycle, or on foot. There’s also hundreds of fantastic trails and big big mountains. Lucky buggers.
But the underlying most important thing to do in any case you’re not sure, is like what Tom Holub said, find out from local mountain bike people what they do, where they ride. Chances are there’ll be some trails they all avoid because of hassle, and some that are tolerated or encouraged, which are just going to be less hassle to ride. Doing this both increases your knowledge of trails to ride and makes you more responsible as a trail user, so everyone wins. Ask in bike shops, or online on bike website or whatever.
Joe