Quote of the day (from non-riders)

Usually I get only smiles and cheers, but a few days ago there was a cyclist who followed me almost a km before I had to get off on an overly steep hill. As he passed me, he asked me with sarcasm in his voice if it was not better with two wheels. Yes, I said, but I’m trying to get rid of the support wheel. :grin:

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Today I rode around Tórshavn on the Faeroe Islands and when I passed a teacher with his class on the other side of the road he shouted “where is your other wheel.” This is truly international.

There was also a kid on the campsite who was trying to tell me thing in Danish (?) - I don’t even know whether it was about the unicycle but since I just rode onto the campsite I guessed it must have been. He was a bit disappointed when he realized that I don’t speak Danish then smiled and said “good bye” and went off.

I think people commenting on my unicycle are going to be the motto of this holiday.

I normally respond to this by telling them “This is the other wheel”, it usually leaves them wondering :rofl: :joy:

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Today I got a new one: The guy behind the counter who checked me in for the ferry from the Faeroe Islands to Iceland asked me whether this was my unicycle chained to a post outside. When I said yes he laughed and explained that people on the Faeroe Islands don’t steal bicycles with two wheels, let alone one wheeled ones. He figured that no one on the Islands could ride this anyway.

Somehow I spent three days here and everyone I talk to tells me they have seen me riding. I must be famous by now. :wink:

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On a muni ride with a friend a few weeks ago, we passed a family with a small child (4-6 years old). As we passed by the child exclaimed “Dad, look! Tricycles!”.

I had a good laugh from this one and figured close enough.

On the same ride we passed a summer camp of older kids doing MTB and my friend (who is waaay more skilled then I am) was able to show off some more technical skills and impress them. Afterwards all eyes turned to me and I told them they could go on ahead. Having recently recovered from a rolled ankle trying to ride at my friend’s level, and to keep my pride in check I opted to walk the harder features.

The Faroes have seen some top-class unicycling in the past… I didn’t think to share this with you on your touring thread, this links to Mike Taylor’s Faroes video he made a while back (you’ve maybe seen it already) – you might recognise some places.

Even though you can balance at the edge of a cliff, doesn’t mean you actually have to do it.
Lol and then on youtube after the Faroe vid, it loaded this one, also with Mike Taylor:

Mowing the grass and cutting the hedge while on uni.
Im sure with enough practice I could be so stable at hopping. Still find it difficult and very tiring.
Very nice to watch.

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Omg the stationary jump at 1:25 and the pallet jumps……I can just about do a curb!

True, very true – just like ‘just because you can ride a unicycle doesn’t mean you have to’ :wink: . I was coming more from the perspective of visiting some of the places you see on these videos when you are visiting the same area (fair enough it might not have been practical for r4nd1nt).

I’ve done that on occasion, visiting various places which feature in Danny MacAskill videos, like those in the post below – I didn’t consider doing a front flip over the fence in the photo like he does in the video though (although I did take a dive into the ground when I hit a hole in the road beside it)…

https://unicyclist.com/t/danny-macaskill/127597/2?u=drd

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Awesome, I recognized some places, a lot of it was filmed in the capital (Tórshavn) where we spent our three days.

Judging by the wheel size in the video I might have covered more kilometers, if less spectacular ones, on my rides. :wink:

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I got a not uncommon comment from a non-rider yesterday, a guy in my neighborhood walking his dog. It was: “Is that harder than riding a bike?” I responded with a friendly, emphatic “Yes!” and because he seemed curious but I wasn’t in the mood to stop, I said something I often think as I passed him: “If it looks really easy to you, then it’s a lot harder than you think. If it looks very, very hard, then it’s a lot easier than you think!” He smiled and we parted. It’s nice to pedal better now as I can get in more convos and interaction in passing. I like these pleasant civil exchanges in moderation, but I can do without the adulation and too loud and long honks, though I am pretty used to the mix. Now some people who walk who “know me” and are happily impressed to see my improvement, that is is very fun and nice. A got a shout out from a couple like that just yesterday (ironically right after a rare fall that included an amazing ninja 3/4 roll on concrete that they did not see and I do not know how I pulled off. It spared my unhelmeted head (also rare), and recuperating right shoulder, and I got not a scratch).

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Oh, I forgot to post this: Literally the first Icelandic person I saw when I entered the country - a border guard, obviously - told me that I’ve lost half my bicycle…

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You should have told him that you sawed it off due to the airline’s weight limit for luggage.

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I don’t think this would have been very believable considering that I was just getting off a huge Ship with no luggage weight limit that I’m aware of… :wink:

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A quote I heard today…”You just made it onto my list of the coolest things I’ve seen in 2021. I mean, you see this stuff on YouTube, but never in real life!”

Told to me by one of the managers at Discount Tire after he saw me riding my new Oracle 27.5 in the parking lot while they were repairing one of my car tires that had a screw in it.

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Yesterday I got a Icelandic comment on the fact that the wheel diameter of my largest unicycle is 36 inch: “Astonishing, that’s the diameter of my winter tyres” - admittedly the tyre width is quite different…

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A little background info: A couple of months ago someone had stolen my bike from where I had left it locked up. I’d all but given up on looking for it, when while I was on a unicycle ride earlier today, I saw someone zip by me on a Batch bicycle that matched mine perfectly. I hadn’t seen many bicycles from that particular brand much in Knoxville, and this happened to be just a couple miles from where my bike was stolen from in the first place. So, doing what any curious person would do, I hop off my uni and bolt after him (uni in tow, of course. learned my lesson). Naturally, I did not catch up and found myself asking several passerbys if they had seen a man on a red bike in a white shirt pass by recently. I eventually got to two people walking from the direction I was sure I’d seen him go- One earnestly responded with, “Wait, did he just take the other half of it?”

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That’s a great response!

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Aww. It is not better with two wheels.

However, it is more efficient. At the cost of boringness.

My preferred response to that one, which I amazingly haven’t heard in quite a while, is “On my other unicycle.” Maybe people don’t think of that one when you’re on a 36"?

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Love it!

I have been known to tell people “This was a tricycle!” which gets a bemused look.

Recently I stopped and a couple of cyclists came up and one said “Just get another f…ing wheel!” to which I replied “I don’t know how you can afford to run two wheels in these uncertain economic times”. We had a good laugh together at that.

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