Took Joey (Joejumps4fun) back to the LAX airport this morning for his flight back home to Virginia. He was here for 5 days to interview me and get MUni footage for his upcoming documentary, “In Unison”, due out this May.
We had a blast and Joey got to see lots of famous landmarks, including Hollywood and Venice beach. In case you haven’t seen it, this was a short video I made, with footage shot by Joey, (using my camera) from last Friday at Simi Valley, CA. 
Great video’s in the last 2 posts! Can’t wait to see the actual documentary.
Need advice
I want to be politically correct in my documentary (which is almost complete)
So far my riding styles are called:
Mountain
Street
Flatland
Freestyle
Trials
and the last one is what I need advice on:
I always call it “Distance” riding but what, according to the commUNIty is the correct terminology? “Touring,” Commuting"? I really don’t like the word “commuting” because it implies traveling to work. Can anyone tell me what’s the UNIversally preferred term for distance riding?
“Distance” is really best as it can include any size uni, but mostly it would refer to 29-36ers, both geared and ungeared. Some might want to include 24-26 GUnis as well. So the term “Distance” is best imo. Some might even prefer “cokering”, but this would necessarily leave out 29ers by definition.
The styles you listed are the basic and main disciplines, but then there is also “xc”, “slopestyle”, giraffe, racing and probably a few others. The list you have is sufficient imo, as it covers the most standard and recognizable styles. 
Question
Does ANYONE know the first name of the French guy Davis who patented the pedocaetre in 1851? This silly device is in Jack Wiley’s unicycle book and Sebastian Höher’s unicycle book. I need to know for my script on the history of unicycling.
Joey,
I don’t know the answer to that but I would love to see giraffe riding included. For many riders giraffes are held in high regard. If nothing else explain how balancing on a giraffe is not harder than balancing on a normal uni.
Excerpt from my film (Origin/History)
Here is an excerpt from my film “In Unison” on this origin/history of the unicycle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_MfF-eRP90
Very nice Joey, that looked very professional. Loved the animation.
Good production, and even though I’m pretty well versed in bicycle history I learned a few things, so no slouching on the information either.
Have you considered entering the finished movie in to the Bicycle Film Festival? It’s world-wide and gets a fair amount of publicity. Odd bikes tend to feature prominently so I’m sure unicycles would be well appreciated.
When can we see the whole documentary? Great job… do you mind if I embed the Uni history video onto my site and in a blog?
Neigh! Excellent research and production! I don’t know if anybody has put together as complete a compilation of unicycle “discovery” in a video. Your film names George Hendy (sp?) as being believed to be the first. Where was the source for that one? Apparently there were many claims to being the first unicyclist/unicycle performer from that time period, so it would be great to find real evidence of who did what first.
Also, an interesting point about the danger of penny farthings. It’s not just sudden deceleration, but if you hit a big enough bump without being prepared, such as hitting that turtle if you didn’t see it, you’d go over the front then too. Even riding up a little driveway ramp can be enough to pitch you forward if you don’t lean back ahead of time.
Wow, fantastic! Can’t wait to see the entire doc!
Great film! Looking forward to the final documentary 
Liked the animation and it was informitave, I didn’t know alot of that
Not in a club, But I live and work only a few miles north of there, and there are others in this area as well…
I’ll talk to you “40 year old Diabetic takes up Muni and plans a 50 mile charity ride” it might help my charity ride pick up pace, only have 3 comitted donations so far
Certainly!
Nice video, really well done! If you’re coming to NAUCC, you should enter it in the video competition.
One technical note: The term “penny-farthing” was not commonly used to describe high-wheel bikes at the time; in fact that term was virtually unknown until after the decline of the high wheeler in favor of the “safety bicycle” we are now accustomed to. You should at least address that point in the documentary; at the time unicycling was invented, the high-wheelers would have been called simply “bicycles,” and later “standard” bicycles. It was only after they became the exception that other names were found for them.
I won’t post it since Joe may want to do so himself, with a little description, but the actual “In Unision” documentary trailer is up on youtube now!
Resources & George Hendee
Haha! Thanks for calling me by my surname! Makes me feel like I’m in the army again
I decided to focus on George Hendee as a possible original learner for many reasons. The internet is a poor source of unicycle history information, even on the forums, I’m sorry to admit. I’m sure we can all agree there is no definitive proof for the first unicyclist because this information wasn’t thoroughly documented (or that we haven’t discovered it yet). I did come across a “first patent for the unicycle” on a website but this wasn’t really helpful in my research. My main sources were Dr. Jack Wiley’s “the Unicycle Book” (I own the hardcover) and “Unicycling from beginner to expert” by Sebastian Höher. Both these books have a “history” section and both books seem to agree with each other in terms of the facts–there is very minimal deviation between the two. Most of the drawings and photos in my film came from these books. Now onto why I focused on George Hendee:
In Wiley’s book, many possible “first unicyclist” and “first inventor of the unicycle” claims are offered–Sebastian Merrill Neuhausen stated in an interview before his death in 1972 (age 99) that he had ridden a penny-farthing on the front wheel in 1892. Wiley goes on to define five persons who have made the claim of inventing the unicycle: Ahrens of California (historic bike shop burned down…no additional evidence); Lou Lacher claimed invention of the unicycle and his obituary said he was the first to ride a unicycle on a tightwire in NYC before the “turn of the century”. Sebastian Merrill (mentioned earlier); the father of Albert H. Minting was “world’s first unicyclist” according to a 1902 editor of Illustrated Arena (not good enough for me–need more info!). But the reason I chose to focus on George Hendee is due to Wiley’s research. Of course I can’t find evidence and trace his sources so I’m simply trusting on his knowledge and research. According to Wiley (p.24), Hendee, a well-known trick rider in the 1880’s, was reported to have removed the rear wheel from a penny-farthing and to have learned to ride the front wheel alone. A recent article stated, “it is a matter of record that Hendee is probably the first man to master the unicycle.” Sounds good enough to me. I checked out the rest of George Hendee’s background and it seemed to fit, although there was no additional sources backing this up. He was a remarkable penny-farthing rider and an outstanding trick rider in his time. So this is why I choose to focus on him–based on Wiley’s research, it seemed appropriate to tag Hendee as PROBABLY the first to master the unicycle. Any of the above mentioned folks in Wiley’s book could have been among the first to learn, in fact, probably many PF riders learned how to ride on one wheel during the same time. Take a look at J.Hobby’s unicycle (the third drawing in my video)–Höher tells us he built it in 1870. Again, I don’t think it matters so much as long as we understand and agree that it remains an unsolved mystery. Nothing wrong with finding the answers…so I do encourage the search to continue!
Sorry for that long-winded response. I hope this gave you insight to the ‘how and why’ of my research. And yes, I know PFs can “come a cropper” when hitting a bump or object–not just from rapid deceleration. I worded it as such so that the narration would flow and not sound over embellished.
I hope everyone enjoys and finds approval of my “history/origin” segment. I will admit, I have hopes that this video to be the definitive answer to the question, “How did unicycling begin?”
movie trailer
haha! Sorry it took me a while, Terry–I was finishing my response to John Foss.
Here is my trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbrkI6tqZD8
If you have ANY questions about the film, please ask me here. Comments are also encouraged on YouTube. Feel free to spread it (the link).
Looks great Joe, and you have some really talented riders in there! Do you know yet the approximate length of the complete documentary, and the release date?
