I am an expectant father who is a bit addicted to uni. I was just wandering at what age people have started their children on unis and at what age others learned? How young is too young and what size uni do you start with? No hurry here as the kid is still partying in mom’s belly, just curious.
The youngest rider at NAUCC 2006 was a little girl 3 or 4 years old.
Memphis Unicycle Club has had some 6 and 7 year olds who learned. We have a 4 year old boy who is showing interest now. His older brother started when he was 7. It has been my experience that at these young ages, it takes them a long time (about 6 months) to learn.
In the 10 to 12 year old age range, the kids seem to learn a lot faster. If they are interested, I would say let them start at any age. The key here being “if they are interested”.
The youngest kids will need a 12 or 16 inch uni. Our 6 year old learned on a 20 inch but his dad had to cut the seat post really short.
So, have mom swallow an itty-bitty unicycle:p .
I started my inner-child at 49;)
My son got a 16" on his 6th birthday. He was riding 10-15" regularly 10 months later, Riding around and freemounting occasionally 15 months later. He’s had it for 18 months and is now mountain riding with me on his sawed-off 20".
I think it depends on the child. The very yound girl at Nationals (4 years old, but small for her age) was of a determined mind set and had theability to focus intensely. I spoke with her mom about it, and her mom related that this was her daughther’s matter in just about everything.
I bought my son his bike for his 4th birthday and he wasn’t ready to ride at all. Didn’t ride without trainine wheel until he was 6 and the training wheel fairy came and took the extra wheels away. Unicycling seemed to come more naturally to him, perhaps becasue the desire was there.
Re: How old does one start unicycling?
unichomp enlightened us with:
> I am an expectant father who is a bit addicted to uni. I was just
> wandering at what age people have started their children on unis and
> at what age others learned? How young is too young and what size
> uni do you start with?
Many kids here have 16" unis at school, where they ride on it aged 10+
or something. I’ve just started riding unis a month ago, I’m 27 and
riding a 26"er.
Sybren
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don’t we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
Frank Zappa
I think it would be cool if someone could ride before they could walk.
But yeah, don’t force it, just show him how cool it is then he will want to learn anyways.
hm, my little brother learned in a week @ age 8
it was when I realised he could fit on the unicycle 
OK…I’ve seen unis fo kids ages 3-7, but the youngest person to learn was 18 months old and the oldest 90-something…For the 18-month-old, he could’ve used a novelty uni, you know, those six-inch ones, it would be fun! Anyways, as soon as you’ve got him running around the house with no one being able to stop him, he’s ready…then again, what do I know? I learned at 11(February 5, conveniently the day before Mom’s birthday) so I dunno. All I’m sure of is that in another topic, proportionally, if you have him/her(you never know) learn on a 20" 24" 26" or bigger, it would be the same as you learning on a Coker, though the topic was for 5-, 6- or 7-year-olds, I think a 16" is maybe still too big, I’d recommend cutting down the seat on the novelty uni, until they’re big enough for the ordinary uni…
EDIT: I think having a role model also helps! And unicycling parents, I’d like to have some of those!(not that I’m not happy that the one’s I have don’t ride)