Last week, while in Hartford, Conn. on business, I spied a tall, black gentleman riding a unicycle with a yellow seat at Pearl & Trumbull. I waved and called out to him, since I wanted to chat (I was also dying for a quick spin on his wheel as well ;-)), but most likely he thought I was just another heckler and he just whizzed on by.
We need some sort of salute and/or shout with which to identify ourselves from afar to our unicycling brethren so as to prevent such unfortunate mishaps from recurring.
I respectfully submit this to all, in hopes of settling on a suitable Unicyclist’s Shout and Salute.
I was riding my Coker home from work a couple of weeks ago. A guy in a pickup truck rolled down his window and said, “that looks like a 20” on steroids." I knew he was a rider right away. I caught him at the next stoplight (of which there is an excess in Seattle) and chatted with him for awhile and tried to encourage him to get his Schwinn out and ride more often. Sometimes people say or do things and you just know.
Back in my college days there were three of us a UW (Go Huskies) with horns mounted on the seat post. After we gored too many people we swiched to the rubber bulb type, just reach down back and start honking.
Very effective in allerting pedestrians. Any time we heard a horn we would start honking like a bunch of love sick geese until we found each other and then go ride red square.
Mine’s still on the old 1976 24" Schwinn, works too. Doesn’t seem to fit quite right on the Miyata, maybe I need a Japanese horn.
This has crossed my mind occasionally. Except in over 15 years of riding, I have NEVER unexpectedly seen another unicyclist. Well, not riding a unicycle, anyway.
But what if I saw one? Would I say, ‘Hey, I’ve got one too. Stop a minute.’? It would be simple and practical, but lacking in elegance.
And if we had a secret code? Well, that would only work with the tiny percentage of unicyclists who would know the code.
So I reckon something along the lines of, ‘I’m a unicyclist too. can you stop a minute,’ is the disappointing but inevitable suggestion.
This is an excellent suggestion. I would recommend accompanying this cheer with the heaving of a couple of water balloons for emphasis and to distinguish us from, say, wandering Musketeers that have inadvertently strayed into our area.
One or two people have simply said “I have one of those”.
I always stop for this and have a chat. They are usually the
sort who has a uni hidden in the garage somewhere and hasn’t
touched it for years. Hope I encouraged them to dig it out.
I once heard someone saying, “I want a go on that” - not to
me though, but his mates. I decided to give him the opportunity >>:-).
Turned out he could ride a 20" and managed the Coker without
any trouble at all.
So I guess all you need to do is show genuine interest, rather
than the heckling the rider is certain to be sick of.
After giving it some thought, I think perhaps a shout of “ROCK!” might do the trick. If you tell a rider to “rock” (idle), you are in effect asking him to stop for you. Non-unicycling folks would not be familiar with the term. It also has a nice exciting ring to it. Sound usable?
Firstly, I’ve only ever heard it called idling or hovering. Secondly it sounds either like it is derived from a naff 1970s ‘That really rocks, man!’ or, worse still for UK riders, ‘Rock on, Tommy!’
Nope. Not in favour of ‘Rock’. That’s my vote, anyway.
> One or two people have simply said “I have one of those”.
> I always stop for this and have a chat. They are usually the
> sort who has a uni hidden in the garage somewhere and hasn’t
> touched it for years. Hope I encouraged them to dig it out.
That’s what I was thinking when I first met Guy Hansen by chance this
summer. Then he mentioned that he was going to UNICON and had something
like 30+ unicycles. So much for ME encouraging HIM.
i don’t know if this has been mentioned, but i read here that asking what your level is usually gets people on unicycles to stop and realise that you unicycle too.
