Need a place to ride!

General
1

Hi all,

    Well, I just went out and bought myself a unicycle (Sem/XL 24"). Why?
    Just liked felt like it, I guess. I wanted something that would get me
    outside and maybe move me around a bit better than foot power.
    Rollerblades and bicycles are done to death.

    Now that I've got this contraption o'death, I'm wondering what people's
    experiences are with the best places to ride/practice? My apartment
    complex is basically one large hill, with regular flat parts for people
    to park on. But I can't really practice there, there's too many cars for
    me to potentially hit. The ideal place to practice would seem to be our
    tennis courts. They're sunken, so there's this big wall around them that
    I could hold on to. But apartment rules say "No rollerblades or
    bicycles" are allowed on the tennis courts, and I haven't tested the
    interpretation of that rule yet (thus I'm not getting my hopes up about
    it). My parents live on a small road with few cars, which is where I've
    been practicing, but the pavement up there is old, cracked and
    micro-hilly, so I keep falling into these ruts and losing my momentum.
    Any suggestions for places I could look? I plan on taking a drive down
    to the local little league park today and testing out their parking lot
    (late afternoon all the games are over).

Batting about .997 for landing on my feet, Duane

============================================================
Duane Morin dmorin@tiac.net OR, come see my new house at: (denizen of
alt.romance) http://www.tiac.net/users/dmorin (See original plays and other
neat stuff!!)
====== “Now I will believe that there are unicorns…” =====

2

Re: Need a place to ride!

dmorin@tiac.net (Duane Morin) writes:

> Now that I’ve got this contraption o’death, I’m wondering what people’s
> experiences are with the best places to ride/practice? My apartment
> complex is basically one large hill […]

Are there any good hallways in the apartment complex? A friend of mine lives in
this building that seems to have been genetically engineered for unicycle
practice… LONG hallways about 5.5 feet wide.

On the appropriate days of the week, you should be able to find vast empty
spaces at schools, churches, and institutional learning facilities.

–
Phillip Burgess (pburgess@netcom.com), a man with a tape recorder up his nose

3

Re: Need a place to ride!

dmorin@tiac.net (Duane Morin) writes:
> Now that I’ve got this contraption o’death, I’m wondering what people’s
> experiences are with the best places to ride/practice? The ideal place
> to practice would seem to be our tennis courts. They’re sunken, so
> there’s this big wall around them that I could hold on to. But apartment
> rules say “No rollerblades or bicycles” are allowed on the tennis
> courts, and I haven’t tested the interpretation of that rule yet (thus
> I’m not getting my hopes up about it).

 You can rarely convince those in authority that you are in fact allowed to
 ride a uni in places where the signs read "no bicycles". That's why I've
 lately been considering making up a little sign that reads "WHEELCHAIR" and
 attaching it to the frame of my uni. Can you imagine getting a ticket for
 being on a tennis court with a wheelchair?" Never.

Mark

4

Re: Need a place to ride!

Thus did dmorin@tiac.net (Duane Morin) speak:

>The ideal place to practice would seem to be our tennis courts. They’re sunken,
>so there’s this big wall around them that I could hold on to. But apartment
>rules say “No rollerblades or bicycles” are allowed on the tennis courts, and I
>haven’t tested the interpretation of that rule yet (thus I’m not getting my
>hopes up about it).

Well, I headed down to the tennis courts the other night at about 9pm, when the
main office is closed and all the tennis players are gone, but there’s still a
little light left. Had a grand time riding back and forth along the wall. A
security guard came down on his rounds, and I thought he was going to kick me
out, but all he said was “Let me see you get up on it. I want to see you ride
it.” I’m trying to explain to him that it’s harder to stand still then it is to
move, but he didn’t seem terribly interested when he realized that I wasn’t
about to do tricks. Ah, well, at least he didn’t kick me out.

The irony of it all: When he said “Let me see you get up on it”, I hoisted
myself up by hanging on to a sign that says “No bicycles, rollerblades or
skateboards allowed on the tennis courts!”

And now, my impression of a beginning unicyclist getting philosophical:

    "There is no 'coast' on a unicycle. If you're not going to work until
    the

            end, don't start."

Duane

============================================================
Duane Morin dmorin@tiac.net OR, come see my new house at: (denizen of
alt.romance) http://www.tiac.net/users/dmorin (See original plays and other
neat stuff!!)
====== “Now I will believe that there are unicorns…” =====

Path: winternet.com!interactive.net!news.sprintlink.net!psgrain!nntp.teleport.c-
om!nntp.teleport.com!not-for-mail From: jeff@teleport.com (Jeff R. Allen)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.unicycling Subject: Unics in Portland, OR Date: 16 Jul
1995 07:24:44 -0700 Organization: Little to None Lines: 13 Distribution: us
Message-ID: <3ub7fc$432@linda.teleport.com> NNTP-Posting-Host:
linda.teleport.com Summary: Looking for other unics in Portland, OR

I’m getting out of shape this summer since I’m too lazy to get out and uni much.
It sure would help me to have some other unicyclists around to take rides with,
etc. If you ride a uni and you are in the Portland Oregon area, contact me and
maybe we can get together for a ride or two. I especially like riding in
Waterfront Park downtown, but nobody even looks surprised. Maybe a pack of
unicyclists would shock 'em!

-jeff

–
Jeff R. Allen | When cryptography is outlawed, jeff@teleport.com | only outlaws
will have :6-E(BX*"@E#!

5

Re: Need a place to ride!

In article <3u98mj$hig@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> mabg9646@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mark
Balzer) writes:
>Path:
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!u
>xa.cso.uiuc.edu!mabg9646 From: mabg9646@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mark Balzer)
> Newsgroups: rec.sport.unicycling Subject: Re: Need a place to ride! Date: 15
> Jul 1995 20:33:23 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Lines:
> 18 Message-ID: <3u98mj$hig@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> References:
> <3u8g44$irt@sundog.tiac.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

>dmorin@tiac.net (Duane Morin) writes:
>> Now that I’ve got this contraption o’death, I’m wondering what people’s
>> experiences are with the best places to ride/practice? The ideal place
>> to practice would seem to be our tennis courts. They’re sunken, so
>> there’s this big wall around them that I could hold on to. But
>> apartment rules say “No rollerblades or bicycles” are allowed on the
>> tennis courts, and I haven’t tested the interpretation of that rule yet
>> (thus I’m not getting my hopes up about it).

> You can rarely convince those in authority that you are in fact allowed to
> ride a uni in places where the signs read “no bicycles”. That’s why I’ve
> lately been considering making up a little sign that reads “WHEELCHAIR”
> and attaching it to the frame of my uni. Can you imagine getting a ticket
> for being on a tennis court with a wheelchair?" Never.

>Mark

HAH! What a riot! Maybe you could mount a little back on your seat with a couple
of push-handles. And maybe you could stick some wheelchair footrests on the
pedals. If a guard spots you, you could move your hands like your pushing a
couple of wheels.

It sounds funny to me, but I bet somebody with no sense of humor would think you
were mocking the handicapped, or challenged or whatever. Especially if you got a
handicapped license plate and tried to park in a handicapped zone. Imagine
chaining your “wheelchair” to a handicapped parking sign…

Randy Morey | ==\ "Those who play the United Technologies Research Center |
|8| |\ sax play twice" East Hartford, CT | |8| __ o| EMAIL TO:
moreyrl@utrc.utc.com | |8|()
| |8|| |
All expressed opinions are mine, | __/ except for those that
aren’t…I think|

6

Re: Need a place to ride!

moreyrl@utrc.utc.com (Randy Morey) writes:
> mabg9646@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mark Balzer) writes:
>>dmorin@tiac.net (Duane Morin) writes:

>>>The ideal place to practice would seem to be our tennis courts. But apartment
>>>rules say “No rollerblades or bicycles” are allowed on the tennis courts, and
>>>I haven’t tested the interpretation of that rule yet (thus I’m not getting my
>>>hopes up about it).
>>
>> You can rarely convince those in authority that you are in fact allowed
>> to ride a uni in places where the signs read “no bicycles”. That’s why
>> I’ve lately been considering making up a little sign that reads
>> “WHEELCHAIR” and attaching it to the frame of my uni. Can you imagine
>> getting a ticket for being on a tennis court with a wheelchair?" Never.
>
>HAH! What a riot!.. It sounds funny to me, but I bet somebody with no sense
>of humor would think you were mocking the handicapped, or challenged or
>whatever. Especially if you got a handicapped license plate and tried to park
>in a handicapped zone. Imagine chaining your “wheelchair” to a handicapped
>parking sign…

Actually, I was worried that someone would think that I was mocking the
handicapped when I wrote this - so much so that I actually wrote a sentence
explicitly saying I wasn’t - then deleted it before posting.

It’s funny that you mentioned handicapped license plates, because that is
exactly what made me think of the “wheelchair” designation in the first place.
It was about a year ago, while reading a thread on rec.motorcycles about how
difficult (even impossible in some states) it is for handicapped motorcycle
riders to get handicapped plates for their motorcycles.

Mark