Probably most of you have had someone come up and ask if they could try your unicycle before. usually you have to hold them up and the get like 2 or 3 rotations down before they fall. Yesterday, some guy asks me if he can try (I asked him later and he assured me he had never ridden a unicycle before). He mounted against a fence and rode 30 feet on his own…I absolutely flipped out. He tried again and kept riding about 30-40 feet on his own haha it was crazy for a first time rider
So I was wondering if there were other instances like this. Whats the furthest distance you’ve seen a first-time rider ride?
Non-riders, by definition, don’t ride at all. They therefore have never ridden any distance.
Then there’s the problem of being sure they’ve never done it before. They might just be messing with you for their own fun. It’s not like any of us have ever done that before, right? 
I had one of those experiences in about 1988. A guy I knew (I had never seen him ride a unicycle before, and I haven’t seen him ride since) asks to try it. He has maybe a dozen false starts and some one or two revolution flukes, then he pedals frantically along the grass for 20 or 30 feet before flying headlong down the grassy slope. He repeats that a couple times, considers it a success and moves on to his next challenge of finding some beer.
Amazing.
Geoff
This is why people who learn to ride unicycles too easily never seem to stick with it or really appreciate it. The harder a time you had, the more it means to you when you learn it.
Still doesn’t explain the constant “challenge” of the finding some more beer thing… 
A family friend asked to try my unicycle once and I was amazed that after a 3 or 4 minor spills he was able to ride consistently down the driveway.
Here I was thinking he was some sort of super human, I guess some people just ‘have it’, huh?
Couple of months ago a grandpa phoned me after deciding to buy a uni for his grandson who was about 10 years old. The boy’s dad was transferred from Cape Town to some smallish town, meaning the boy had to quit his ice skating, which he was apparently very good at, and grandpa thought Uni is similar enough and better than nothing.
I sold him an 16’ on the weekend with not too much hope of the boy managing, and the monday, the grandpa brought me a bunch of photo’s of his grandson zipping up and down the street, doing turns and hopping.
Not bad for a weekend.
I was impressed especially since it took me ages.
My sister hopped on my brother’s unicycle and rode 50 meters. The 50 meter limit was only because she would turn slightly to the left, so she’d eventually hit a curb. In that first hour she also learned to free mount. The next time she tried, she could ride in a straight line and ride up the curb, but not free mount. Those were the only two times we could convince her to ride…
I have a kid on my street that I’ve known the family for years and he had not ever tried a uni. I had him mount holding on to a large trash bin and sit there getting the balance for a few seconds, then he just pedaled off and road about 10 meters, first try. He’s a snowboarder and skateboarder so has good balance.
I taught my cousin in 5 hours of practice