[Edit: fixed empty thread]
I finally gave in, and I bought a Coker from my LBS last Friday. The weather wasn’t very good, but I had a new toy and was determined to use it.
Freemounting took a bit of practice, but after a few tries I successfully made it onto the uni, and I rode a few yards until I had to dismount or hit a car. My second attempt at riding was much more successful, as I figured out how to turn the thing. I made a few loops around cars in the parking lot, and got a feel for how a Coker rides.
I’m relatively new to my apartment complex, so I decided to ride around town a little bit, and see if I could find the bike trail that is located somehere near my place.
The first few blocks of riding were in a commercial part of town, and all the sidewalks were nicely cleared of the previous night’s snow. Unfortunately, my ride took me into some residential areas, where some sidewalks had 3-4 inches of wet, slushy snow that stole my balance repeatedly, forcing me to practice my very poor mounting technique.
While my riding was less consistent in the back streets of town, the riding experience was much more fun. A little old lady who was shovelling her sidewalk stopped me. She very seriously made me promise not to hurt myself while riding my unicycle. A little farther down the street, a pair of four year olds shouted “Nice tricycle!” I had to duck under some tree branches while I was riding, and pair cheered gleefully. I got the same cheers fifteen feet later when a snow-covered sidewalk got the better of me.
I rode a little farther, learned that my planned shortcut was actually a dead end, and started back the way I came. The little old lady was still shovelling her sidewalk. She seemed amazed and overjoyed that I was still in one piece. I assured her that I was being careful, and continued on my way.
Eventually I made it back to my apartment complex, and made my last UPD of the night. A cute young woman was staring at me and my unicycle, so I was thinking “Don’t fall down. Don’t fall down. Don’t fall down…” instead of “look out for that rock.” Of course, the rock won, so I hastily remounted (at least that came easy this time), and finished the trek to my parking lot.
I still haven’t figured out how to use my cycle computer, but according to its numbers, my trip covered two miles in one hour, with an average speed of 17 mph. I’ll have to take a second look at the cycle computer’s instruction manual.
Rob
Afterthought: Is there any chance we can get the Coker company to rename themselves “Koker”? That would yield YAKS instead of YACS as an acronym for “Yet Another {C|K}oker Story”, and I think YAKS looks better.