ok well today i was unicycling for about 7 hours with my friends on foot and about 3 people asked me to ride for them when i wasnt on it, and 2 people, one of which was a drunk asked to ride it. Do you people have an briliant ways of fending off people who want to ride it? Should i just not ever get off?
Use the four step method; it works for me.
- Grow over six feet tall.
- Always ride with your seat as high as is comfortable for you.
- Overtighten the seatpost clamp so that you can’t raise or lower the seat without a wrench and lots of effort.
- Tell anyone who wants to ride it that you would let them try, except they’re too short, and you can’t lower the seat because it’s jammed.
Alternatively, you could just let them try to ride it. It can be great entertainment.
Get metal pinned pedals and tell them to step on the higher pedal to mount so the other one will come hit them in the leg:D
just sell it
Um, it’s odd that no one posted the simple solution:
Just say “No.”
Re: Help with people wanting my unicycle…
On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 22:52:05 -0500, “Hermit” wrote:
>Do you people have an
>briliant ways of fending off people who want to ride it?
Why? I offer them to give it a try. What can go wrong?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“Unicycling is like glue: you have to stick with it, and it’s not to be sniffed at - Mikefule”
Great minds think alike 
Re: Re: Help with people wanting my unicycle…
They can nick it, it’s annoying, you’re just walking for a bit because you’ve got a sore arse, and people go CAN I RIDE IT PLEASE PLEASE!!! Actually, they don’t even say please. Usually they don’t even say “Can I”, but just “I WANNA RIDE IT, NOW”
Either you ignore them, or you look em in the eye and say “Nope”, pretty direct, but that gets rid of the problem. If they dare to ask why, ignore them and ride as fast as you can 
And wow Klaas, you get up early 
i always just ask if they can ride, they always say no. well, once someone said yes, and they happened to be tall enough, so they took a little spin on my muni. i’m 6’4 so most people are far too short for my seat heights anyway.
I almost always say yes, just seems alot more friendly, and who knows, some of them might actually get in to it. Also it’s worth it for the ocassions when the person asking can actually ride, or even, as has hapened a couple of times, is pretty good. Also it gets me respect down the local jump park when guys who have been riding the huge gap jumps try my uni and dismount because it’s too scary 
Re: Help with people wanting my unicycle…
I don’t mind letting people have a go, or demo’ing stuff, if the people
are polite and enthusiastic. Its the morons, who are usually with a
bunch of there equally retarded mates, who pester you for a go, and ask
“how do you do that?”, believing that i can give them a simple
explanation of how to ride a unicycle, and then they will be able to
ride just like me.
This infact happened to me last night, they soon got bored of my
monosylabic responeses…
picture the scene… I unicycled down to the park about 2miles away to
go the the local juggling club, and was first there and juggling.
four chav youths wonder over
Chav: “is that you bike?”
Me: “yup” (avoiding educating the idiot to what it is actually called)
Chav: “Can you ride it”
Me: “Aye”
Chav: “Show me”
Me: “I’m busy”
Chav: “Go on”
Me: “no”
Chav: “Can I have a go”
Me: “no”
Chav: “why not”
Me: “it’ll break”
Chav: “I;ve just got back from Majorca”
Me: " " (couldn’t care silence)
Chav: “do you think i look brown”
Me: " " (couldn’t care silence, followed by why are you telling me
this silence)
Chav: “have you ever been to Majorca?”
Me: “no”
Chav: “have you ever been abroad”
Me: “a few times” (CRAP! a sentance, be carefull not to engage in
conversation!!)
Chav: “how much is your bike”
Me: “not much” (what happened to your interesting holiday stories!)
at this point im still juggling and they got bored and found some guys
playing football to impress their awe inspiring wit and flowery pros
upon.
Andy Parry
I do it the kind of opposite way, stayed at 5foot2. Sawed off the seatpost so that it’s way to short for most people.
Seeing as I am all growed up - I always say no to kids cos I don’t want their parents sueing me for the pinned pedal injuries or anything more serious. In my experience the idiots don’t wait for me to explain how you do it and think that if I can do it, so can they.
Over 18’s can have a go. I always say “Don’t hurt yourself”, they always say “I wont”, try to ride off on it - thinking again that if I can do it, so can they, hurt themselves immediately falling off and hand the unicycle quickly back to me and walk off, before they can hear my imagined laughter.
It always works this way. I have never let anyone have a go and they have managed to ride it, never mind ride it away anywhere. Apart from those people who I ride with ofcourse.
Cathy
Re: Help with people wanting my unicycle…
Normally I just give people a go. When I can’t be bothered, I find that
some line about responsibility, liability and insurance works wonders -
although I’ve only used it once or twice.
-Iain
As a member of the Unicycling Society of America, I consider it part of being a good member to help spread unicycling. This means give people a chance if they seem like they really want to try. You never know who might get inspired and pick it up later, even drunk guys!
They have to be the right size to fit what I’m riding, and the conditions have to be right. For example, drunk guy in flip-flops + MUni with spiked pedals may not be a good combination. Of if I don’t have any time.
But the main deciding factor is if people ask nicely. That’s all you need. And I have been surprised from time to time, by people who can ride, and later admit they haven’t been on one in 10, 15, even 20 years. Those are always great to see.
More likely the person wants to see what it’s like. So I let them know up front they may get whacked by the pedals, and you don’t learn to unicycle in five minutes. Then they get a chance to experience it, and usually understand that more work would be involved to learn to ride.
Thinking about a solution to these requests made me think of a Seinfeld episode in which Jerry is being heckled by Kramer’s girlfriend (who works at Pendant Publishing with Elaine), so Jerry goes to her office and heckles her. My idea is instead of the ultimate comedian’s revenge, we do the ultimate unicyclist’s revenge: stalk the next person who annoys you while riding, and wait for them to ride a bike, drive a car, mow the lawn, etc. and start asking “Oh, that’s so cool, is it hard? can I do it? Can I try?”
I sometimes invite someone to try …
I’d do a hieght assessment first usually.
(I dont carry wrench)
… but, I say ‘at thier own risk’ …
(when I say that … some change thier minds)
… flip-flops or sandels not allowed.
(or anything else I notice … like the sidewalk is too busy … you don’t want to endager anyone else around if the uni goes flyin)
I always ask them to ‘grab the seat’ if they fall.
(if they can)
Yea, not many people can ride mine because either they are little kids who are too short for the longneck (it’s right up to the seat for me, so if you are even an inch shorter than I am it won’t work) or too tall like an adult or teen and I can just say I don’t have a wrench to move the seat up. But most of the time I just let them try it. Threadjack: Has anybody ever noticed that beginners always prefer the seat lower than they should?
This sometimes works for me, but you need a fairly serious looking machine: “I’m sorry, not on this one. If it was my smaller one, it’d be safe for you, but…”
That is courteous, and buys enough time for you either to ride away, or to assess the person asking. If their reaction is good, you can stop and chat, and possibly spread the word a bit.
If you do stop to talk, you can usually point out the “dangerous” aspects of the one you’re riding. Start with the pinned pedals.
Some people genuinely just want to make conversation, drunk or sober. The friendly drunks won’t try too hard, and will give it back to you with a laugh. Aggressive drunks should be politely deflected, then fled.
If I’m on a ride with the local group or even by myself I try to get anyone onto a unicycle who expresses even the most remote interest. Some try, some can ride. With some you end up holding almost all of their weight up. Having two people is a plus. Having a group is best because it’s more likely to have a unicycle set to about the right height. We always give warnings about pedals smashing shins during mounting and one of us will put a foot behind the wheel to keep it from rolling.