I did Bike trial and motorcycle trials in the past. A friends who attended the Bike Trials World Championship in Japan, visited schools and learned about unicycling benefits. Then he bought one and bring to Brazil. One year later he started to ride trials on his unicycle. I saw Kris Holm on New World Disorder. 2 months later a guy started to make unicycles, and he made a 16’ for me (It was in 2001).
I’m riding since 15 November 2001! But I was training BIke Trials more than Unicycling.
In september of 2007 I bought my K1 uni and I really started to ride!
A friend of mine bought a unicycle, about three years. One afternoon he told me: " Are we going to play guitars or stay here ridin the unicycle? We went down stairs with beer and hemp and we start to learn. About 4 hours later, three beers and two or three joints we start to pedal.
Step by step, we ride a little more every day.
Well, about three years ago, I was watching this talent show, (I can’t remember the name of the show) and it showed these guys doing trial uni, and it was soooo awesome, I just had get one that year. So I got one for Christmas!! It’s been fun ever since.
A few years ago, Shapr posted a muni photo in a programming channel I frequented; that was my first wakeup that unicycles were actually available (and being ridden) for things other than circuses and parades. At the time, I thought, “Hey, mountain unicycling, that’s pretty damn cool,” and then promptly forgot about it.
More recently, my wife and I were considering acquiring bicycles (neither of us has had one for a few years) as an alternative means of recreation, exercise, and just casually roaming around town. I remembered my reaction to Shapr’s muni pics and said, “Screw this! I want a unicycle!”
I saw something on TV (Disney channel I think) about someone who went around teaching kids to juggle and unicycle. It looked cool so I went on youtube and saw that “trials love 99”. A minute later me and my friend were searching for trials unicycles
For me it was just something that looked like a fun challenge, so I got my first uni back about 1966 ( ) and learned pretty quickly. I was able to ride down stairs, spin in a tight circle, pick up small objects, ride backwards and one-footed.
I took it about as far as the ancient technology of some 40 some odd years ago allowed, but finally quit riding around '68. I don’t remember the brand of my first uni-it’s in my “vintage” uni vid though. Also had a schwinn 20" and 24" back then. Funny how after all those decades without any riding, I was able to get right back on again at age 50, like I’d never quit!
yeah we’re ok, we started with the technology to enable us to complete idiots But imagine what unicycles will be like in 40 years time Will we be saying the same?
What? lol, not sure what you meant there. But seriously, the uni quality back then was pretty weak. Even cotterless cranks weren’t available when I started, let alone splined!
I remember my cottered cranks would wear pretty fast and could not be tightened after a certain point. The cotter pins would just get rounded and so the cranks would move around when you pedaled. I can only guess but if today’s unis existed back then, I might have turned out to be pretty good!
Read about Aspenmike riding the 78-mile Copper Triangle (Fremont, Tennessee and Vail passes in a single day) last year in the Denver Post and that inspired me to get a $20 20" uni on craigslist to give it a try. I was thinking that it would help my balance while mountain biking and it would be cross training in a way, but it has become so much more than cross training for mtn biking.
I never thought I would be taking it on mountain biking trips. Hoping one day I’ll be good enough to go to the Moab Muni Fest.
I went to a camp near brisbane and 2 guys there had crappy learner unicycles they both had been riding for about 4 years but only Muni so I played around got totally inlove and BAM bought a Kh20 07. Really happy with my choice
I saw someone doing some trials riding on the UC santa barbara campus and was really intrigued. I then went to youtube and all the tricks and types of riding I saw blew my mind. Then I got one for christmas and went from there. Hooray
I got in uni by simply wanting something to do. To this day, I have no idea where ‘unicycle’ came into the equation, but it did. I’ve never really seen anyone ride one (even in the circus), and didn’t know about this website. I got on eBay and ordered a 24" Gravity. I went on base and drove over to the basketball court. The backboard pole had two suporting it, just enough room for me to sit in. I would push myself off and ride as far as I could for about an hour a day. Many people would drive past and stare, some even came to me to talk about it. Once I managed to get to the other side of the court, I moved over to the tennis court. From there, I learned how to free mount, and ride even longer. Once I rode from the tennis court, to the golf shack and back (.75 miles roughly), I moved on to the running track and the roads around base. I went home and showed my friend, who was curious about riding. I lent him my gravity, since I then had my Nimbus II, and he started practicing. I have yet to go home to see how he’s doing, but from his wife, he is progressing nicely.
Now, I have a 4th 24" and a 29er I ride. I’ve been riding over a year, but can’t do much besides ride off a curb, and occasionaly hop up on one. But I plan on fixing that soon. Been riding ever since. I don’t even bat an eye to bicycles anymore. And riding distance is what I do mainly.
I went out to skate and pedrotejada went with his unicycle, I was really impressed with it and I tried to learn I couldnt learn in the first day.
After 15 days I went out in the street agai and pedro lent me a 26er and we spend sometime riding together, when I arrived home I practiced and finally learn to unicycle in a week or less.
Thanks pedro this sport is awesome
I was a diver on the University of Florida’s swim team in 1964 and was fooling around in the gym doing full twisting back flips on the mat when I spotted a unicycle. I recall the seat was covered in several layers of adhesive tape. My first attempt resulted in a few complete revolutions before I went down. The next went a little farther and I got progressively better. That was my only foray into one-wheeling until I competed at the National Sky Diving championships in Marana, AZ in 1969. Someone had a uni there and I discovered I hadn’t lost the ability to ride. I don’t think I rode again until ten years ago when, on a whim, I bought an entry level CyclePro 20". I’ve been riding that and an inexpensive 28" Sun on and off ever since.
That was a big part of it for me, too, and I think you know that I met the guy, right? His name’s Tom Pennell.
And I was also lucky enough to be growing up in Manhattan, where I had an annual dose of the circus (sometimes two circuses) and got to see the King Charles Troupe and occ’ly other uni’ists.
After my bro and I learned, we’d ride our unis across town to the Metropolitan Museum, where street performers used to be allowed to earn a living. There was a regular named Chuckster who inspired us to learn a few tricks, tho we quickly surpassed him (tho not in juggling, his forte).
) and learned pretty quickly. I was able to ride down stairs, spin in a tight circle, pick up small objects, ride backwards and one-footed.
