HI all,
I have just been in the parade in our town, with some other poeple from our circus club - mostly stiltwalkers. I thought I would unicycle, never giving a second thought to one of (I think my own) rules of unicycling - the ability to freemount negatively correlates with the number of people watching. In fact, since I was a bit nervous and there was pressure to keep going because the car behind us kept threatening to run us over, I found I couldn’t ride at all. I had to pretend I was helping my son with his stiltwalking.
Very embarrassing. But I don’t think anyone noticed. I had a very ernest “I’m not supposed to be riding this thing down the hill, but ofcourse I can ride if I want to” expression on my face.
I think I’ll steer clear of parades with my unicycle in future.
We’ve experienced this more than we would like to admit. I tell the unit behind us in every parade that I will be in the back of our unit so they can know who I am and how to follow us. Time and time again, the unit behind us has banner carriers that just won’t slow down. In the last one, the banner carriers behind us were on roller blades and several times were literally brushing my wheel with their banner. I had to get stern with them a couple times. It’s very frustrating…and one would think something that only requires a minimal bit of common sense. Very disrespectful. But that’s the way things are and overall, I don’t let it spoil the fun of our parades.
I find it is helpful to remind the cars that people watching the parade would much rather see me ride a unicycle than see them drive a car.
As for free mounting during parades, we have a lot of novice riders in our parades (I am one). I have found that people watching the parade get a kick out of standing up and letting you use their shoulder or arm to mount.
A few things left out of parade riding descriptions is one, it can get very very hot, two, the fricking parade can move very very slowly, and three, it can get pretty strenuous to try and stay on the wheel the whole time. I’ve pretty much strictly a Muni rider and after a recent 3 hour single track ride in Santa Barbara, three of us rode in a local parade–I still had all my filthy, sweat soaked trail gear on. After several hours in the sun going about .05 miles an hour, I was worked. I’d never idled so much in my life. I did get a chance to buff up my wheel walking and so forth, stuff I never practice any more. I also had a blast, despite being so burnt by the end. Most parades are parties, so if you ride in that spirit you can’t help but have fun.
That wouldn’t be pleasent here, I’m in a small town and there are horses in the back.
Our group normally gets to ride in the middle behind the cheer-leaders.
