Thanks very much to John Stone and Nathan Hoover for allowing me to use them as sources!
Thanks also to Brian and John from the Norwich Bulletin for letting me ramble on. Brian even watched a substantial portion of Universe II 
Nice article.
Congrats!
Hot diggity-dog. Excellent, Dave. 
Very good, Dave!
Nicen!
Nice article.
A quote at the end from Nathan:
āThey kind of do belong in the X-Games,ā Hoover said. āThereās a bunch of stuff a lot dorkier than unicycling thatās in the extreme sports.ā
Well, it does beg the question, what extreme sports are dorkier than unicycling?
I mean, cāmon, I saw the X-Games in San Fran. a few years back, and I never heard any razzing from the crowd. No calliope music, no clown referencesā¦ if only we could have it so good 
It begs the question, is unicycling dorky? Why wasnāt i told about this. 
Congrats on getting some press! Oh, and I like the T-shirt youāre wearing.
āDorkyā is in the eye of the beholder. For Maestro, itās much less likely to get razzing if you have a big unicycle competition, with lots of riders and big apparatus. I havenāt experienced such an event in a public setting, but I know several have been done in Canada. In that type of setting, people donāt necessarily think of the circus aspect.
Good press!
Dorky? why not Off the wall, out of the ordinary, strange, interesting, challenging, different, unique,or experimental?
What other sport has ever been taken from an entertainment tool to a recreational level in this way?
Skiing started recreational, snowboarding followed as its stunting sibling. Skateboarding was designed with tricks in mind, bikes were a mode of transport first, trick platform second. Unicycling is unique in that it was designed to look hard. Thats what its purpose is, to be very impressive to watch. Originally a unicycle would have made a rubbish trick platform or mode of transport, but its developed beyond that. Show me a skateboard used for anything but stunts? A snowboard used as a mode of transport?
Only unicycling looks impressive by design, and takes skill and dedication to even begin to use (iāve had 3 hours of lessons and I can snowboard. It took me 3 weeks to learn to turn right on a uni). Itās so wide ranging in its scope from geared super cruisers right down to amusing micro giraffes, with everything from street to freestyle and Muni in between. Its a great conversation starter, and nothing else, in the world, can make people stop and stare like dropping 3ft after riding 100 yards along a 4 inch wide wall. The things people like us do, whether we commute on our unis, go down mountains, hop up walls or wheel walk around gyms, is so against public expectations theyāll stop, stare, watch and even pay to see it happen again.
Unicycling came from the clowns, and the majority of the public still believe weāre just clowning around, and any minute weāll get out the clubs and the spinning plates. Well it might take years, and many articles like this one, but I hope that soon the stigma is lifted, and people begin to see that weāre not putting on a show, weāre testing ourselves and weāre throwing off the traditional stereotypes of unicycling.
Iāve started tricking to show people Iām not some carnival freak on a leash, or colourful clown on a silly-cycle (I quote). When they jeer I hop onto a wall, ride & drop. When they sing I crank grab & rubber a stairset and ride it. Then as I ride past the now silent gawper I ask them āClowns canāt do that now can they?ā
Weāve worked hard to try and isolate our community from the stereotypes given to us by the public and the press. All we need now is a public showing of what we can do. Clowns canāt do Muni, or Street, or Freestyle. And its articles like this one that show people what unicycling is really about.
Bravo Dave, for being a pioneer and making tricks, stunts and long distance riding on our favourite machines possible. And bravo for making people see that weāre not confined to the big top.
Loose.
Great artical!
Well done.
What kind of audience does that paper hit? Is it a local paper?
Joe,
Trampoline (from the circus). Gymnastics of all types (from pre-history).
That said, I agree with the rest of your post. I also agree with Nathanās post. He communicated the basic idea he meant to say, with a nice short amount of words.
But Iām not sure what other sports he meant by ādorky.ā
I see skateboards being used as transportation all the time.
Clowns are actually people when they take off their costumes. Whether or not any individual who makes their living or some income from clowning can or can not do trials, Muni, etc can only be determined on a case by case basis. It may be that clowns donāt do that, but it is in no way clear that they canāt do that.
This is a very old argument, but I would simply and respectfully, ask what makes you the final arbiter of āwhat unicycling is really aboutā? You may not be a circus performer or clown, but is unicycling in these contexts really not unicycling? Because my riding is mostly limited to touring around my neighborhood for pleasure and exercise, does that make me not a real unicyclist?
You are of course right, the wording of the comment is wrong and should be clown donāt (stereotypically) do that. Even some āclownsā such as those who perform for circuses like the cirque du soleil push the boundaries of what can stereotypically be assumed to be clownish behaviour on a unicycle, and not only can they do it, they do.
I didnāt actually say, at any point in the post I made, that any particular type of unicycling is better or more ārealā than any other. I tried to present a balanced argument that unicycling isnāt dorky, everyone does it for different reasions and that its because of articles like daves that its becoming more mainstream.
Iād say what unicycling is really about is challenging yourself to do something different and exciting. If you do it in any of the ways I mentioned or in any other way, thats as much the spirit of unicycling as anything else. Presumably you started unicycling for much the same reason as anyone else does, to see if you can do it and find out how hard it really is. Unicycling is about challenging yourself and having the perseverence to keep at something. Whether you then go on to ride down mountains, on streets or just commute, or do it for other peoples entertainment, its all the same really.
The real spirit of unicycling is that people have to have perseverence and dedication to do it. Almost anyone can, not everyone does.
Loose.
How about Street Luge?
Street luge was never a sport meant as entertainment, by the very nature of its practice it was first carried out under the cover of darkness or in remote locations so that it wasnāt discovered by the police. Also, although sure there arenāt many unicyclists, their numbers dwarf the luge population. The british championships for this year have had a total of 17 entrants, ok sure there are other groups arond the place, but weāre still only talking maybe 60 people out of 60 million in britain. My point is that it does not enjoy nearly as much participation as unicycling does, moreās the pity.
Dave
Thatās great publicity Dave. I hope this generates a bunch of business for you. They sound like great wheels/unicycles. I hope I can get one someday.
Someday soon!
Congratulations, Daveā¦ thatās GREAT news! I hope it is the first article of many more to come.
Nice article Daveā¦glad to see you getting some attention for the great work youāre doing.
Nathanās comments were right on. While Iād say Iām basically a ādistance hackā, Iām also unable to ride my custom 36" without being aware of how closely tuned to my size and geometry it is. And every day, every ride it gets better. Approaching the one year anniversary end of this month, and just ordered my first replacement tire tonight. The current one has 800 miles and Iām hoping for 1000, but just playing it safe. The wheel is still dead on true.
Like Nathan, a customer for lifeā¦
Tom B
Good stuff Dave! You are a pioneer of high quality unicycles and Iām so glad youāre getting recognised for it! Iāll have to get a Livewire wheel at some stage too!
But Nathanā¦unicyclesā¦dorky 
? What were you thinking? lol
Ken