I took my unicycle to school today. Now that I’m in high school, I get a locker. As luck would have it, my trials uni does not fit in my locker. I went to the office to see about finding a place to store my uni until I could take it home and was greeted rather unfriendly by the school’s principal. He was not impressed with my “mad skillz”. Instead, he saw only fit to nearly confiscate my unicycle. I told him my situation and then he let me keep it in his office, although very grudgingly, and only after telling me never to bring it back again.
MY beef is that skateboarders bring their skateboards to school all the time. I don’t necessarily dislike skateboarders, but it seems unfair that unicycles, being a much cooler form of transportation, are not allowed in school as much as skateboards are.
They wouldn’t even let me take my uni on the nature walk. I was mad. I brought it to school and my teachers were impressed, and they knew I was more controlled uni’ing than most people are walking (well, maybe not) and they STILL wouldn’t let me take it. Stupid nature walk. Instead I had to walk with the commoners.
At least I didn’t have any homework.
on a side note, I’m much closer to getting a new computer, so our Folding stats will increase (in a couple months when I get all the money I need…). Money. Argh.
A unicycle is more like a bicycle with respect to your situation than a skateboard. Skateboards fit in lockers. If every kid who rode a bicycle to school wanted to store his or hers in the office that would probably be one packed office.
Put a chain and lock in your bookbag and lock the uni up with the bicycles. I used to do this in New York City way back when.
I’m with Raphael, lock them up to the bikerack. Skaters get away with it because their transport can fit in their lockers. Ben and Brad uni to school and include theirs with the bikes. Then there’s the occasional show-n-tell time in elementary school when the unis go into the classroom for a demonstration.
The only difficulty is that there has been some vandalism in the past to some of the bikes so the boys ride their 20" (two blocks and four blocks). We would rather take a chance with a $15 tire than a $35 Coker tire.
never has my Coker at the bike rack seen any grief. More of amazement as I am walking behind people walking to their bikes saying, Oh MY GOD (in a Janice kinda way)
i take it inside everywhere i ride mine, except there’s two buildings on campus where i’ve been told to keep it outside. so i keep a chain wrapped around it. riding a unicycle with a chain as big as the one i have wrapped around the seatpost tube gets, there are just as many chain comments as unicycle comments
and did the skateboarders get to take their decks on the nature walk?
last year, my sophomore year in high school, i rode my uni to school everyday. most of the time i locked it up and every now and then when i wanted to, mostly because my last room was close to an exit and far away from the bike racks, i’d bring it into class.
my advice, lock it up at the bike racks, and don’t have the same anti-non-unicyclist attitude like it is with skaters, except, you’re right that people who don’t ride unicycles just don’t get what it’s like.
the thing about the nature walk seems appropriate, probably a liability thing.
But better yet, put it where the bikes go. Then what can the powers-that-be say? Taking pedals off every day would be bad wear & tear.
I was annoyed a few years ago when my friend and I rode our big wheels (this was before Cokers) to work at Intel on Bike To Work Day. We got our picture taken outside, as two of the most intrepid cyclists. But Security did not want to let me in the building with the 45" uni. I had forgotten to bring a bike lock. They let me store it in my cube, but once only. Got to look at it from the building “owner’s” point of view. Why should they let you bring it in? An administrator is going to envision tire tracks and pedals into shins. It’s their building.
As for the nature walk, remember this one overriding principle: it’s school. Presumably they have something to teach you on the walk, and you might be just slightly more attentive if you’re not off in the distance riding on that log.
Enjoy high school. Those of us who have finished did our time and somehow got through it. I rode my Schwinn Giraffe to graduation.
A decent education is a privilege granted to only a small part of the world’s population - and that for only the last centrury or so. Unicycling is a privilege available to even fewer people. And now suddenly it’s a Right to ride a unicycle during a school lesson?
If it’s transport, put it with the transport; if it’s a toy, leave it out of lessons.
>I don’t ride
>the 12er very far, because I think my body would protest.
Very far meaning what? If people do 100+ mile rides on their Coker,
surely you could ride 33 1/3 miles on this diminutive machine?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
If the crank is moving then it really sounds as if it’s loose. - onewheeldave trying to pinpoint the cause of a clicking crank
I was just curious to where abouts in Canada you are located. I am just outside of Toronto, and I know that my teachers can’t wait until I bring my uni to school so that I can give demonstrations and such. Mind you, I think our principal would go nuts if she saw my uni, but then again she’s almost never at the school.
I should see if I can get a 12" unicycle somewhere and gear it up so it’s like a 24". That would be cool.
Yeah, I guess unicycles are kind of distracting at school, but I’m almost as controlled on my unicycle as most people are walking there. I guess I can see how teachers might think I could hurt myself, so maybe they do have a reason for not letting me ride it on the nature walk, but at least they could be a little more polite and understanding.
You know what, I don’t think there even are bike racks at my school. I just realised that. People are too busy buying cigarettes to afford bicycles.
Okay, I guess I was a little mad when I wrote this thread, but I doubt non-unicyclists ever will understand. I’ve gotten a friend started on unicycling and he almost “gets it” now. My brothers are still too afraid of SCS (spontaneous castration syndrome), which is often associated with unicycles, to try to learn how to ride.
