Saw an old (looked early 70s) Schwinn giraffe about 5’ on the show American Restoration. They knew nothing about it and paid $350 thinking to restore it and make money on it. It was kind of rusty, but complete. I think they way overpaid, but it was fun to see a unicycle on the History Channel.
Yes they way overpaid, if it needed to be restored. Now I have to find the show and Tivo it!
The Schwinn Giraffes came out in 1977, and were manufactured through 1983. Some were still found in stores for many years afterward, though. Did it have a picture of a giraffe on the sticker? That makes it an earlier one; roughly 1980 or earlier.
I am happy to say that I have one of those Schwinn Giraffe unicycles. It still has a bit of a sticker on the side, although much of it has worn off. My best memory is that I bought it in Warren, Ohio somewhere around my 30th birthday in 1983. It took me years to learn how to free mount it (I taught myself) but I have been riding it in parades ever since. I have wondered for a while if every parade will be my last but after reading comments on this forum I am sure I have at least another 5-10 good years of riding in me on that old giraffe.
Didn’t get a close enough view to see if it had the sticker. It was rusty. I recognized it as a Schwinn because of the forks and the seat. You could read Schwinn on the seat.