In the recent thread " Just when you thought unicycling was normal…", folks compared unicycling to mtn biking when it started. Road cyclists poo-pooed mtn biking, but as we all know, mtn biking quickly became huge.
I don’t think this will happen to unicycling, at least not to the same extent. The reason, of course, is any biker could just get on a mtn bike and go, while unicycling is actually a skill one must work at to acquire.
This is what some climbing buddies and I call a “gumby-filter”. We climbed in an area in Utah where the approach to the base of the climbs had a couple fairly difficult obstacles, which turned back all the “gumbies”, those who’d mill about on the ground asking things like “How does the rope get up there?” and “where’s the water fountain?” These are climber’s equivalents of “where’s your other wheel?”
Unicycling is its own gumby filter. It’s too much effort for the average person, certainly for the average American. And that’s a good thing IMO.