Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew a semi detailed version of the history of unicycling. I’m interested in how the actual unicycle was created, and also how it has gainned popularity and evolved into the form you see it today (ie. how it went from the circus to MUni and other crazy forms). I’m a student, so unfortunately I don’t have any money to buy books–but i’d love to hear from you knowledgable uni folks out there.
Thanks,
jen
Jen,
This is a question oft discussed on these boards as you can imagine.
The brief history is that the unicycle was probably developed sometime in the late 1880s. It is believed that it was first made by taking the back wheels off of a penny-farthing which is one of the early bicycles having a large front wheel (anywhere from 40 to 72 inches in diameter) and a much smaller rear wheel. (Some penny-farthings had the smaller wheel in the front but that is probably not relevant for this discussion).
Penny-farthing riders found that sudden stops often resulted in the rear wheel coming up off the ground causing the rider to be balanced on just the large front wheel. So some just decided to remove the rear wheel altogether and see what happens.
Early on in the late 19th century unicycle riders began doing trick riding and putting on performances of their skills. Unicycle racing also developed at around the same time.
Sometime when you have a few bucks and can get ahold of a copy of Sebastian Hoehers’ book Unicycling: from beginner to expert you may see illustrations from trick unicycling competitions of the 1890s as well as a photograph from a race in 1886. All of this was done on big wheel unicycles.
I’m not really sure when unicycle wheels started to get smaller and will leave the subsequent developments for others here to post about.
Cheers,
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
Hi Jen,
I’ve held on to a few of John Foss’ posts that outline some of the name history in unicycling. It’s by no means exhaustive but it’s a start. Here’s one:
The original Mr. Pashley began building bicycles in England more than 60 years ago. The original Mr. Miyata began building bicycles in Japan over 110 years ago. Mr. Schwinn? He’s long gone. Mr. United? I think that was a made-up name. Same goes for Torker, Savage,Cycle Pro, and many others. Mr. Jugglebug? That was Dave Finnegan, aka Professor Confidence but he sold the company to SportTime, and I think they added the unicycles after that. Mr. Coker? He specializes in tires. David Coker is our contact when it comes to the Coker Tire company, but He doesn’t read/post here. Mr. Semcycle? That’s Sem Abrahams. I think he was the first unicycle "star"to have a unicycle with his name on it. He comes to most of the unicycle conventions (and lots of juggling ones too) and is an expert rider and professional performer. Former Guinness record holder for tallest unicycle(twice), and original author of the 10 skill levels and the IUF StandardSkill rules. But he doesn’t post to the newsgroup. Mr. Unicycle Factory? That’s Tommi Miller. He’s a custom builder, and wasthe place everybody went to get special unicycles and parts before the Internet made doing it online so much easier. Tommi does not use email. Mr. DM is David Mariner. He’s been building unicycles himself, since the1970s. A great source of unicycles for professional performers in the UK and all of Europe. Maker of the first production unicycle with a splined axle (the ATU). I think he also made the first production unicycle with a brake (the Vortex). Mr. Wyganowski is Paul Wyganowski from Minnesota. He’s a bike frame maker,who started building custom unicycle frames for members of the Twin CitiesUnicycle Club (TCUC). Now his market has expanded to all the customers of Unicycle.com and beyond. Hunter is Rick Hunter (Hunter Cycles of Santa Cruz), another frame builderlike Paul Wyganowski. Rick started out by making a MUni frame for Bruce Bundy. Mr. Cordy is Charles Cordy, a deaf man who came up with his own design and hand built almost the whole cycle, not just the frame! (I have deaf relatives, so Mr. Cordy is extra cool). Mr. Wilder? The unicycle is built by Scott Bridgeman of New Jersey (www.muniac.com). He hasn’t posted lately, but I think he reads the group. His site is loaded with unicycle information. The cycle’s name comes from Wilder State Park (Wilder Ranch) in Santa Cruz, CA. It’s a great place to ride a Wilder! Kris Holm? I think we all know who he is. He posts a lot. Profile? This is a bike-parts company. What they make for us is the Poznanter hub. David Poznanter, from Santa Cruz, is a hard-core MUni rider who helped Profile design the world’s second splined unicycle hub. That was all the names I came across while going through the unicycles at Unicycle.com. Here are some others:Telford: Geoffrey Telford Faraghan. A computer engineer (professor at Stanford) from Redwood City, CA, designed his elegant frames based on the Rick Hunter design. Bedford: Darren Bedford imports and resells unicycles in Canada, and posts frequently to the newsgroup. Matthews: Bill Matthews made/imported his own brand of unicycles from Southern CA until his death about 10 years ago. Emory: This is a guy in Florida, also making his own frames. Don’t know much about him. Loyd: Loyd Wicker Smith came up with the design that later became the Schwinn unicycle. Loyd started making them in the late 50’s, I think. There are lots of other older brands out there, but I don’t know much about them. Many are distributors, (like Torker, Savage, Cycle Pro) and didn’t actually make the cycles they sold.
That was fun!
John Foss, the Uni-cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com