I have been uni’ing since I was 13, 26 years ago. I had this cool bike before then, but after I discovered uni’ing, I pretty much let the bike rust. After we gave it away, I never went the route of my friends, who were all getting 21-speeds. Instead, I got another Schwinn uni (a 24"), and later, a giraffe.
In high school, my brother (long-distance uni’ist John) and I rode around after school. I did errands and got to places either on a uni or by bus. There was no need for a bike, and street-riding is not much to look forward to. Both of us attended the same college, which has a pretty insular feel. There were few streets running thru any of the places we wanted to go. So we still went bike-less.
After college, we eventually discovered larger wheel sizes, so now we really didn’t need bikes. In fact, I worked for 4 years, till I was 30, at a school close by, so I uni’ed to work every day. When I took a job across town, I decided to get a bike, but as fate would have it, it got stolen, and so did its replacement. Eventually I figured out a way to own a bike without having to worry about it being stolen: I never rode it, except when I took my little daughter for rides.
7 years ago, I took a job in Brooklyn. Initially I took the subway everyday, but one day I decided to go by Coker, and after that, I have commuted to work on a Coker or guni for the past 5 years. And that bike that I had finally got stolen last year. I didn’t notice for about 6 months. Apparently I’d left it outside.
All tolled, I’ve ridden a bike regularly for two of the last 26 years. I own over a dozen unis but no bikes other than a couple Super Trick Cycles and a tandem that I got on the cheap.