…Well nearly.
Weekend, and the day was fine and warm enough, so I decided to put my
best bravery kit on, and venture out for a ride along the local canal bank.
This section has quite a wide towpath for much of its length, which makes my
inevitable UPDs more than likely to be dry. I meandered past the
stationary narrowboats and headed out along the bank. Nice level riding
is a canal towpath, no hills, easy, even for me, and so after about 3/4 of a
mile I had only fallen off twice, and taken one short rest. Only the ducks
had passed comment, although the big old oak tree had thrown a leaf or two
at me as I passed…
The path had a number of large and muddy puddles following the recent
monsoon like weather, but these were not to prove a problem for me. I
dismounted and edged carefully around them (I think edging is one of the
less well known level 4 skills ). “Ride though them” you say? No way. If
I see a pond I don’t wade in to see how deep it is. Some of these
puddles could easily have been two inches deep, that’s near unfathomable by
my standards, and God knows what might be lurking in their turbid depths.
My skill level is more appropriate for walking around them, and I do it very
well.
I have not done vast amounts of ouitdoor riding, and so it is maybe not
surprising that to date, when riding, I have only seen other unicyclists in
the gym, never on the road, so imagine my shock when, coming around the next
bend, at a fair old speed was another uni rider. When he came close I
said, jokingly “So THAT’S where my other wheel went!”. I expected him to
stop and engage in some trivial chit chat, but no: instead his actions
astonished me. No slackening of pace, an under the breath growl, followed
by an emphatic hand gesture that left me in no doubt that the conversation
would go no further. He continued on, having more or less ignored me. I
stared after him for a minute or so, but could think of no suitable
explanation for his actions. All very odd. No idea who he was, probably
late teens/early twenties, on a wheel maybe 26 or 28 inches in size, big
wide tyre. Near Marple, Stockport. UK. I am not frighteningly ugly,
at 5 foot 4 hardly very threatening, and although Asian, I don’t imagine I
could be seen as a significant terrorist threat. My unicycling was not
belittling his own skills. So why? Has Mikefule inspired some of the less
pleasant animals from Sherwood Forest to take up unicycling? Days later, I
still do not understand. Maybe I was lucky not to have been pushed into the
water.
When I suffer the " other wheel " joke from the public at large, I find
it easy to take it well, and not to react negatively. The guy probably
thinks he is the first to ever make the joke, and he will probably get
brownie points repeating it to his friends in the pub later that
evening…“and so I said to her…etc etc.”. Why should I take away his
moment of storytelling glory? I wonder if this particular canalbank
unicyclist has been reading too much rec juggling, and thinks he should get
annoyed as a matter of course? Did I upset him that much with my comment?
Would it have upset you, had you been the other wheel rider?
We tend to think that , as members of the “uni tribe”, that we are in
some way different or better than the general public. A little different
maybe, not better of course, but it still comes as a shock to meet another
rider whose attitude is totally off key. I used to wonder how people could
be so offhand, so rude, how they could live life with so few signs of a
successful education? I came to realise that people are happy at their own
level, their sense of enjoyment is finely attuned to whatever their IQ and
motivation enables them to do with their time, whether that be to watch
Coronation Street, or to embark on some great personal voyage of
exploration. It is sad though that any of those people need to be, in
addition, so intentionally rude. Whatever next?
Anyway, I continued my ride, finally trebling my UPD total, not getting
my feet, nor anything else wet, not seeing any rivetingly interesting
wildlife, and returned to the car with maybe a little more than a couple of
miles ridden. My longest ride yet, which made up somewhat for the very
confusing incident…
Nao
–
I read a book " Relativity Made Simple."
And simple it was, as long as you could follow easy mathematical concepts
such as:
A=B, B=C, therefore A=D.
- and anyway, Roger’s a bit older than your suspect… but then again he’s so fit he could easily be mistaken for a younger bloke 
