meh… Unicycling isn’t something you can really promote, and it’s not going to get as popular as skating or biking, since it has a much steeper learning curve. However, I think that unicycling IS getting more popular, just by seeing Moab attendance, traffic on this site, torker getting into uni business, koxx, etc. We’ll always be a niche market, but on the other hand the day may come when unicycling is recognized as something people do sometimes. Maybe they aren’t even in the circus…
tbh the unpopularity of unicycling is what made me want to learn in the first place and keeps me motivated as every time I go down the street I get the looks and comments. Having to get everything online is a slight drawback but hey UPS doesn’t take that long…
I absolutely love that about unicycling. After having done skateboarding, in-line and BMX, I can realy appreciate this. The closest thing I’ve seen to a “no unicycling” sign is a “no cycling” sign at our town bandshell.
I wouldn’t mind seeing unicycle parts at the LBS I think that would be great. I think to a degree, because of the learning curve, unicycling could become popular to the point of easier accessabillity without the marketing frenzy that surrounds skateboarding. I would love for unicycling to shed the clown image while still remainig unique.
I look forward to the day when people don’t feel the need to comment quiet so much because they may have seen a unicycle the week before and I’m not the only one. But I like it being a minority interest. I really love the way that we can be a community and that if I go to a unicycling event anywhere in the country I am going to know a lot of the other people there.
There are things that people do not know about Unicycling and one is how much fun were are all having otherwise everybody would be riding.
Second as Soon as it gets to popular alot of the freaks are going to quit a find another sport that not every Jack can do.
Third the People who are interested they are going to ask…I work at Municycle.com and when have all kinds of people but our favorites are the freaks that stay around and ride and just have fun…One wheel addicted:D
i think the introduction of street unicycling has given unicycling much more appeal, especially to the teenage audience. I havent really been working my ass off promoting unicycling in my city but its hard when theres only like 2 other people who ride seriously.
Apart from the “no unicycling”-signs it is really optional to worry about these things. I don’t care about “keeping it real” or whatever, I just want to unicycle.
For most of my unicycle life I had to ride alone most of the time, since no other unicyclists were around. Often I had not enough or none opportunities to ride indoor due to a lack of unicycling clubs. And outdoors it can be hard to find a quite spot to practice in the city.
What was unicycling like before the internet and Unicycle.com? Maybe eventually there will be more availablity, but I can assure you unicycle.com doesn’t really need to reduce their business. That is essentially what you are saying by asking for more competition. Now if the competition helped to grow the market place, and not just remove customers from UDC then I would see the benefit.
What would the current outcome be of increased competition? If you took the current sales and divided that up among many companies, they would all likely fail. Not only would you have more overhead, but less buying power. So prices will likely go up. In addition, the likely hood that people would stay in the business after loosing a large share of their business is unlikely. They would move on to another endeavor that would make more money. Now you would have a situation where less unicycles, parts, brands, etc… would be available.
I am not saying that having competition is always bad, just in real small markets it can be a problem.
I agree completely with what all of you are saying. I would love to see people view unicycling in general as an actual sport, rather than a circus act. I doubt this will happen any time in the near future though, because there isn’t much to promote it. People become interested in action sports (like skateboarding, BMX, snowboarding, etc) because it is publicized in some way through television, word of mouth, computer… On the other hand, most aspects of unicycling are obscure to the public. The best thing I’ve seen recently was that Master of Champions show - but it doesn’t help that on the same episode were foot archery and grating cheese with cars.
Oh, I second the Kris Holm action figures - I’ve always wanted one of those!
Dude, how did you manage that? I’m really looking forward to seeing/hearing it.
Exactly, I rode alone ever since I got a uni at 10 (I’m 26) until about a month ago I convinced a friend to learn. Now he is ordering a Nimbus when he gets back from vacation
Unicycle parts in cycle stores would be nice. However I personally wouldn’t want it to get too popular. One thing that I think makes unicycling so cool is how few people can/do actually ride.
I agree…that way, only the people who want to do it…there are kids who wealk around with a skateboard who can barely ride to be “cool”. I enjoy the cool comments we get because we’re unknown…there’s an entire thread about it.
About the UDC issue…how much profit do you think they make? Assuming that most people who would buy more than one unicycle are web-savvy enough to find this, that’s not an enormous number of people…would more than say, 3 companies be able to exist on UDC’s profits?
I’ve met John and Amy Drummond from UDC, they are very nice people.
As for getting “extreme unicycling” out, next week I’m doing trials demos at the state fair. Which supposedly has 85,000 people a day (not all watching me of course, and not all at once)
I met John and Amy also at NAUCC. I sincerely appreciated their attitude when dealing with them. They may have a near monopoly but act like they don’t know it.
If I need something I won’t go elcewhere for a planned purchase unless they don’t have it, whatever IT may be.
When Chris Taylor was in Edmonton, he did a Learn to Unicycle class in the gym. It might not have been awesome, but it was a try.
I think the thing that needs to happen is to get people close to a unicycle, talk to them, and let them know that they can do it if they have the interest. Most people just seem to think that it’s an unattainable trick, not something that they can learn.
when i start working at the lbs, i’ll take my muni to the comps that the bike stores team are in, and then slowly start the takeover of unicycling. muahahahahaha!
