“You’re a local legend and we love you!”
I’ll take that 
From two lads walking dogs after I had passed them with our dog pulling me on my 36". My usual route but not my usual unicycle.
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What a nice guy…
Some people ask me: “Do you need a Driber Lizence to ride this?”
He was looking to my 36" Unicycle.
Most of the time , you hear the same but that one, was a good one. 
. I think: Oh man, what to you think about unicycling, do you have to much drink or amoke or the people are a little bit stupid.
I don’t know it but i onow that i don’t need a drivwr lizence to ride a Unicycle.
a very young boy : - why hasn’t he got a bike?
a father to his son: - someone stole his handbar !
me: - but I still have a handbar !
father: - Oups sorry: someone stole his front wheel !
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On Sunday evening I decided to ride my 19" trial uni and go for a short ride, which ended up being 12km, which is quite a lot for such a small wheel. I still have muscle ache. Halfway the ride I didn’t see a bump on the road and the uni was about to shoot away under and in front of me, but my leg got tangled between the pedal and the wheel so I ended up with a strange dance, but still standing and a lot of blood because of the pedal bite. Naturally at that moment there was someone walking his dog. I quickly got on and told him that that sometimes happens, though I hadn’t had pedal bite in many years.
He didn’t seem to have noticed that I almost tumbled off, but he said he had never seen anyone ride a unicycle in town and I ended up having a talk about the unicycle as he was genuinely interested.
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Omg 12km on a 19”!! How long did that take you ?
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I thought about 1.5 hours. Dont quite remember.
Yesterday I took the 32" out for spin, also around 12km, which went a lot faster than with the 19" 
Anyways it was very nice weather and there were many bikers, among which there was an older woman (grey hair) on a race bike with her hubby behind her. She was very focused on her riding and from the corner of her eyes must have seen me riding towards her in the opposite direction. She had noticed my hands hanging from my sides and shouted angrily “Hey watch out! Keep your hands on your steer”. Then as she passed me, I held my hands in front of me as if they were on a steer, though I didn’t have any handle bars on that uni.
I’ve had people joke with that remark, but in this case the woman clearly hadn’t expected a unicycle and thought I was on a bike myself.
Such moments are always very short and I wish I could have seen her face when it had dawned on her I was on a uni.
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This is typically the kind of context in which I use the word “bicycle” instead, even though I went by unicycle 
That reminds me of a time where I was sitting by the side of the cycle path after a big climb getting some air, with the uni next to me. Some peeps also walked up to me and figured I must have fallen off or something and asked if I needed any help.
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This isn’t really a quote but it is a unicycle related interaction from a member of the public.
Context - we ride with a combo of me on my unicycle and my wife Terez riding our Urban Arrow with our two kids in it.
Our son is 5 months old so the logistics involve me riding down to the start of the route / near a playground with our daughter in the Urban Arrow - so that she gets some playground fun… while Terez walks down with our son in a small sling, pushing my unicycle.
To be clear. We know this looks a bit odd and eyebrow raising and secondly that she doesn’t mind doing this (I’m not getting the easy option by taking the bike down first)
Anyway - it’s what works and once we’re all together both children can safely and happily ride in the cargo bike while I monocycle along with them.
But back to the odd look of Terez pushing a unicycle with a baby in a sling.
She was arriving yesterday at the playground when we noticed that a man was running after her - and had been running after her for a decent stretch.
The rough conversation went like this:
Man: “That unicycle, do you ride that? While carrying the child like that?”
Terez: “No it’s my husband’s”
Man: “Oh thank god, I was worried. You know. That would be child endangerment. Illegal.”
A pause - while I’m processing the total shock of the interference
Man: “Does your husband wear that [sling] and ride the unicycle?”
Terez: “No?!?”
Me: “We’re allowed to push a unicycle around [firm face]”
Man: “I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel awkward. I was just worried that you’d be riding with the child. “
Me: “Sure, if you saw us doing that you’d be right to be worried, but we don’t.”
Sure no malice was meant but this but the whole thing shook us both up. The interference in our lives and questioning of what we were doing when all that it involved was pushing a unicycle (however odd it may look) seemed to tigger my inner sense of apoplectic annoyance and anger.
First time ever that I’ve felt a member of the public doubted our words or intentions and seemed to want to act as a police officer without any just cause.
But anyway… it happened and it was in some ways like a quote of the day, only it was just so bizarre and heavily nosy that I’m still baffled by the cheek of the whole interaction 
Could have replied “Why yes we do. We enjoy endangering our children recklessly with abandon.” Could have kept going too depending on context.
Pineapples will interject when/where it isn’t needed or warranted. Overlook it and keep enjoying your uni rides and time with your family. **Pineapples=person-of-questionable-reasoning-capabilities.
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Yeah some people are pineapples unfortunately. They are very annoying. Most pineapples I have here are those that tell me I shouldn’t ride on the pavement, when I am supposed to by law.
I think I would also have been very angry and I would have given him all the answers he wouldn’t want. I can be quite stubborn like that.
But wasn’t there some video or photo on this forum of someone who carried his kid on his back when riding unicycle? I would always imagine that there’d be a chance of UPD-ing and unluckily falling backwards.
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The problem with something like that is that you risk having the police and social services turning up to your door at 6:30am one day to take your children in to care because someone doesn’t understand sarcasm…
Anyhow, I can understand your unease at this interaction, it does seem somewhat intrusive.
To lighten things up though, you should maybe get a couple of “baby on board” signs to attach to your various unicycles, given everyone who has once of those in their car drives in an exemplary fashion that should show you aren’t putting anyone at risk…
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I can visualise the scene in two different manners: just depends on the attitude of the guy.
He could act as an arrogant would-be-policeman or an anguished person who just can’t control his feelings. In the second case a warm smile could be sufficient.
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I totally get you here. I think it was a mixture of wannabe-policeman and anguished person.
As I said we could see no malice was the aim. But the running after my wife to challenge her and then digging into the details as per if: I (her husband) wore the sling, was just a bit too much.
I didn’t get angry back at him. Just curt. But sure thing for most odd comments a warm smile is all that is needed.
In this case, it felt justified to show he’d offended an overstepped - as we’d already reassured him no child was in danger.
I’m not by nature an antagonistic person by approach or demeanour. But when it comes to how we look after our kids, I’m more ready to set boundaries where I feel there is a need 
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" I was going to say, you have lost a wheel, but it’s obviously not the case"
from an impeccably dressed CEO / Merchant Banker / Lawyer type man in his 50’s in the Central Business district of Sydney… I was pleasantly surprised to receive that rapport. I really like this part of unicycling… Having a “conversation piece” that breaks the barriers of simple communication anywhere with many people of differing walks of life.
I happily replied. There’s enough rubber in that tyre [36"] for two wheels [bike].
This occured when I was locking up my KH36 with Aerobars, outside a 5 star hotel in the concrete canyons of Sydney.
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“I thought someone had stolen one of your wheels”
a genuine comment from a tour coach bus driver waiting for his next tour group.
I was unlocking my KH36, locked up outside the Marriot Hotel in downtown Sydney. I had left it there for 2 hours while getting a medical assessment for work in the building next door
Two comments in fairly quick succession, on a paved cycle track :
- oncoming rider: “that looks hard!”;
- overtaking rider: “Is that as easy as it looks?”
I suppose both can be taken as a compliment?
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Friendly guy walking his dachshund calls out, nicely, “what happened to the rest of your bike?”.
I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment. Been close before, but now my time had come.
I replied “where’s the rest of your dog”.
Most comments like his are not friendly, they are usually meant to be derogatory and self inflating by the caller. But this guy was just having fun and we both had a laugh.
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Today’s stand out nasty comment got a bit under my skin.
“He’s lost his wheel to live!” (will to live, play on words)
Probably got deeper under my skin due to having had a hard slog of a ride, with progress going backwards skill wise - rather than forwards….
But then as I pushed on - big guy, bearded MTB type said with firm eye contact as passing me:
“That’s great mate!”
It’s amazing when a simple and direct and friendly affirmation of what we do is said. It really helps.
Most days I can live with and smile past the looks and somewhat silly/annoying barrage of “you’ve lost a wheel”… today it was very busy on the paths and I’d reached my limit of hearing non-meaningful or stating the obvious comments.
But it helps when someone is direct with what they think. I’d take that or no comment at all (like I wasn’t there) any day of the week over the oddly snarky stuff that sadly finds itself entering my ear canal 
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