Being one who often forgets to pay attention while riding, I seem to fall quite
a bit. It doesn’t bother me, really – I rarely get anything more than scraped
knees – but it is sorta embarassing (and probably not much of a help in terms
of promotion of uniing to the public), but oh, well. I did take one big spill
last year. I had just gotten a shiny new miyata to replace a rather beat up,
worn out schwinn, and was zipping around campus marveling at how much faster I
could go (I probably wasn’t really going any faster, but psychologically the 1/2
inch shorter crankshafts made everything seem to zip by). Anyway, I was on my
way to cs class when it happened. I tried to go up a low curb the way I usually
went up low curbs on my schwinn – by sort of leaning back with all my weight on
the seat and sticking the wheel out in front of me with enough force to propel
it up and over (does that make sense? I’m not sure that’s what it really is, but
that’s what it feels like). It’s a technique that works fine on the schwinn,
which weighs about twice as much as the miyaya, but this time there just wasn’t
enough interia to propel me forward. The cycle stopped dead. I didn’t, and was
plunked upon the pavement. Fortunately there was no one watching me. I limped
into a nearby building and examined the damage. Nothing too bad – just ripped
jeans and an arm I couldn’t use for a day or two. But it definetly showed me
that my new uni was different, and that I’d have to get used to it before giving
things my customary lack of attention again. Oh yeah – and now I either jump
curbs or take it slow, with my body directly over the uni and my weight on the
pedals. -sara
Re: crash, pow, boom!
Speaking of spills, I’d be interested in learning about the interesting spills
that other folks have experienced. Since most of my wreckless riding was done
when I was a young kid, I can sort of tell about those spills without too much
embarassment 
My worst spill was when I was camping up in the mountains with my family. My dad
will never forget watching out the window of the tent as I headed downhill on
the mountain road which ran alongside our campsite. I got balanced a little too
far forward and began peddling faster and faster until my feet could not keep up
and became at one with the asphalt.
My funniest spill was when I was chasing a friend on my unicycle after school
and he made a quick dart away in front of a 4 foot doughboy pool. At least the
uni stopped and stayed dry…
Dan