I didn’t compete at 24" at Unicon because I hadn’t trained on one, I had lugged three unicycles to Unicon, and a 24" would have been a bit much. These are also very short sprint races…I can cruise at good speed but I don’t have a high max speed, so my chances of doing well are pretty limited. The Japanese riders would have eaten us alive. But some of the top Japanese riders were not at the Marathon and 10km which I found disappointing.
Watching the really fast riders like Seisuke though…it’s not at all silly. It has it’s place and it is fun to watch. I dont’ think watching a whole lot of large wheel carnage on a track would be anywhere nearly as fun. Everything has it’s place, and silliness is relative. After all, in athletics, there are any number of events that dont’ really have a ‘point’ or is silly if you think about it. 100m sprint? When was the last time you needed to run as fast as you could for a 100m? And what does it achieve? Long jump? What’s the point exactly? Javelin? Why would you throw an outdated weapon when you can buy a gun these days? Shot put? What exactly is the point of hurling a heavy lump of metal?
I think there needs to be a limited class somewhere. Just so that there can be a class where everyone is on the same equipment and it is 100% about who can pedal the fastest. If there wasn’t a historical 24" class, then I think a 26" or 29" would be better.
As for 29"…it’s the size I ride most of. I did Uninam on a 29" Unguni and loved it.
I think the difference between geared and ungeared unicycles is at least as great than the difference between say a bicycle and a recumbent. After all, they both use two wheels, and the only difference between them is the body position right? Would the UCI allow recumbents to race against bikes in a cycle race? It might be advantage on a flat time trial to race an aerodynamic HPV recumbent. With geared and ungeared unicycles, you are changing fundamentally how the unicycle is driven.
Golf? If you hadn’t seen it before, surely it would be silly trying to hit little balls into little holes?
Tennis? Hitting a ball back and forths? How silly is that?
Rugby? Running around with a little ball and jumping on each other? Duh!
Cricket? Hitting a ball with a stick? Double duh!
Sporting silliness is relative to how long a sport has been around and how many people have gotten used to it. When you think about what you are doing fundamentally, most of it is silly and pointless. Unicycling has been around a long time, but the silliness is probably due to the association with clowns and circuses. After all, is it any more silly to be riding around balancing on one wheel than it is on two wheels? And the speed differences between the two modes of transports is coming down all the time.
I toyed with the idea of having another Unguni attempt followed by a Guni attempt at the 24hr. But the amount of effort organising each attempt is huge.
Records achieved with a 36 guni aren’t equivalent to records achieved with 36 uni, same with 29 guni v 29 uni etc. They are different records, different classes of machinery.
Similarly, while events like RTL look to be great things to participate in and achieve personally, in terms of a fair and genuine competitive event the results don’t have a great deal of meaning without a way of recognizing the differences between geared and ungeared, via different categories etc
Parity of equipment is a fairly standard building block in most sports.
Oh my gosh, this is SUCH a fun thread! I promised Chuck I’d stay out of these conversations because moms can be a bit biased. But reading this is such an entertaining education about the sport of unicycle racing, I just have to thank you. I find myself laughing, agreeing, and disagreeing out loud to my computer. All of you have wonderful points to get across.
Be careful not to make too many categories. Chuck’s dad participates in drag-strip, dry-lakes, and Bonneville car racing and it’s sort of ridiculous how many classes there are. Sometimes they’ll make a pass to achieve a world record, go back to the pits to make a slight change to the car, take another pass and get a different record. At Bonneville this past week the same car did this FOUR times. (Silly? dunno, it’s all relative, right?)
One thing many of you have right is that Chuck is modest, humble, respectful, driven, passionate, no one said “crazy”, etc. I’m proud of him, too, but then I am a little biased.
Thank you all for this conversation… makes me want to learn to ride one of these things!
My perspective (being from Colorado) is that unicycles will have truly arrived when the first guni beats the train to Silverton in the Iron Horse. I’m guessing 3 years from now.
Do it!!! I was crowding 40 when I learned, and I know people that have learned even later in life. Good source of exercise, and then of course there’s all of us to hang out with online.
OK to anyone saying unicycling is silly compared to bicycling, or compared to anything else, I submit this from one of the great (sadly former) thinkers of our time:
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.”
Kurt Vonnegut
