Have you heard of any place where bike messengers use 36" unicycles and gunis instead of bikes?
No because it would be significantly slower and thus less profitable. It has been discussed preivously on these forums
Being different is important when it comes to marketing. Delivering goods by unicycles could underline a company’s image of simplicity, balance, effort or just it’s uniqueness. Speed isn’t everything.
aye, but it helps a lot. That’s why people use bike messengers instead of walking messangers.
when it comes to being a messenger yes it is
The only reason bike messangers exist is for the speed.
I’ve stopped off at a pub in London a few times where bike couriers meet for a drink after work. There’s a lot of respect for me and the unicycle, but there’s no way that I’d be able to make any kind of living against what these guys do. They are paid per package delivered, so the more packages they can do in a day, the more they earn. I’d just never be able to come close to what they do.
As for image… well, the people asking for the package to be sent or the people receiving it never get to see the courier themselves. That’s just down to the receptionist in both companies. And even then, the receptionist never gets to see the transport, because that’s locked up to a lamppost outside.
I’ve given it some thought in the past, but, sadly it would just never ever be a feasible money earner.
STM
A deli on purdue university’s campus was considering hiring all the 29" and larger unicyclists to deliver sandwiches but they had unrelated problems and had to close. I could probably convince someone on campus to let us deliver for something…individuality especially on a campus like ours will earn a name so its reasonable to think it could be done but not in a bigger city or for complete profit/speed reasons
Well couldn’t you have a trailer that has the delivery stuff on it hooked up to the coker or whatever it is??
1) Either this trailer.
2) or this one.
What about the company logo unicycling past thousands of pedestrians and traffic? what you need is to be paid by the hour, not the package, and sell yourself as advertising as well as couriering
Yeah maybe something more personal like sandwhiches could work, particularly if they use unis all the time so it becomes known as “that sandwhich shop where a dude delivers your stuff on a unicycle”, it could be good for business.
But for speeding documents across town forget it, not only will you get fewer done in the day, but people will want to use you less as you’re slower, so you’ll get fewer jobs too.
no trailer though, without handlebars to hold you back you could unicycle carrying that sign
I’m sure someone told me about a messenger on a unicycle in London. He eventually got a bike instead, not because it was faster, but because some of the companies using that courier firm complained that having a unicycle turn up at their offices wasn’t good for the company image image, and the firm told him to stop.
I dunno who told me it, maybe it was someone at Lunis.
Joe
Uh, is the trailer supposed to make the unicycle go faster?
In any case, those are lame multi-wheeled trailers. One of these would be much more stylish!
Yes, messengering, in general, is all about speed. Unicycles can’t compete. For the sandwich shop it could have been interesting, but what a situation for them to be in (if they hadn’t gone out of business) if they couldn’t find enough unicyclists! Brett Bymaster is long gone from the Perdue campus. Anybody else there doing 25mph gliding?
The unicycle courier was James, from Hackney. he didn’t last long, for that reason.
Ok, ok. Let’s forget the idea about messengers on unicycles. But what about money transport? The frame could be welded from armor steel …
I’ve been speaking with the manager of one of the Jimmy Johns sandwich shops on Purdue’s campus a lot lately. Since the two stores near campus are mainly staffed by bicycle messengers as opposed to delivery drivers they have agreed to give us a shot early in the spring when weather improves for a while and sacrifice a minute or two in return for something interesting. Of course we all have fixed gear bikes or access to them as well in case it doesn’t work out but some of the cyclists that deliver are no faster than us so it shouldn’t be a problem to toss a couple sandwiches in a backpack and make a few dollars outside of an office chair :). I’ll be sure to let everyone know how it works out when the time comes.
Nice! And then you can give a uni lesson as a side dish. 
Yeah, I was asking him about it this evening. He did it for two weeks, although most of that time was spent trying to build up the confidence of the courier company to actually beleive he could deliver stuff on a unicycle. Once he finally got some half decent multi-drop stuff come in, he got spotted by a top bloke in one company who commented to the top bloke in the sending company. Neither of them liked it much, and as the two companies accounted for about 50% of the couriers business, they couldn’t argue much when they both asked them to stop using a unicyclist.
He did go on to a 2 wheeled fixie after that, but only stayed a couple of months or so.
STM