I saw somebody mentioned wooden-wheeled unicycles - just how long has unicycling
been around? Juggling of course has been as far as there is writing there seems
to be references to it and the classic idea in people’s minds is the middle-ages
jester in royal courts, but unicycling must’ve followed the popularization of
bicycles, (late 1800’s, early 1900’s) right?
/
\ 0 | Bert Neff --|-- bneff@melpar.esys.com
| Leesburg, Virginia USA
/ \
RE: old unicycles
Bert Neff <bneff@melpar.esys.com> wrote:
>I saw somebody mentioned wooden-wheeled unicycles - just how long has
<unicycling been around? Juggling of course has been as far as there is <writing
there seems to be references to it and the classic idea in people’s <minds is
the middle-ages jester in royal courts, but unicycling must’ve <followed the
popularization of bicycles, (late 1800’s, early 1900’s) right?
Juggling goes back at least 4000 years, with paintings on the walls of some
Egyptian tombs.
Unicycling has no specific beginning, but it has been traced to around 1870,
when high wheeled bikes were popular, and a lot of people were hitting bumps and
experiencing “headers.” What’s a header? Imagine riding a giant wheel with you
sitting almost directly on top of it. Hit a bump that suddenly slows your wheel,
your body keeps going forward, your legs get caught under the handlebars, and
walah (now you don’t have to try it yourselves)!
Somewhere during that time, one or more people figured out that they could keep
riding on just the front wheel, and unicycling was born. This was why many of
the first unicycles had large wheels, and handlebars instead of seats. By the
turn of the century, there were dozens of unicycle performers, doing all kinds
of tricks and stunts, some of which may not have been duplicated since that
time! See THE UNICYCLE BOOK by Jack Wiley. Look for it in your local library.
John Foss, President International Unicycling Federation unifoss@cerfnet.com