Quote of the day (from non-riders)

The boys were confronted and wanted to emphasise what you can’t do so they didn’t feel they weren’t with it. The girls were genuinely curious.

It isn’t an uncommon gender difference.

When boys are impressed they can be very complimentary.

Absolutely. But also: it’s not an uncommon age related difference. The girls were maybe 4-5 years old, the boys must’ve been in their early teens.

But yeahs, I rarely get openly negative reactions when unicycling, but when I do it’s usually from male teens.
The other predominant category (actually, this happens way more often) are mostly elderly people pointedly stepping aside when they see me approaching, like saying: “See how I have to stop and give way to you in order not to have my life threatend by you, riding this stupid thing?!”. Usually, their looks would tell enough, but I guess it can’t hurt to exaggerate a bit if you want to make a point.

I had an old bloke push his wife into my path at a narrowed point where we could have all fitted through.

Where I live it is legal to ride a unicycle on the footpath (sidewalk) but we must give way to pedestrians.

I do wonder about what is reasonable for the pedestrians to do. I had one bloke complain about me because he couldn’t control the two huge dogs he was walking. I only needed a narrow space and I would have ridden down the ramp if he already hadn’t gone there with the dogs.

I wondered why you looked different (mimes shoulder movements)

To be fair to him, visibility at that point was about 1/2km and he was jogging in the opposite direction so he probably only noticed tall slightly weird looking cyclist until i was a lot closer.

Fortunately I live in a city where cycling is relatively normal and there are some quite good paved cycle paths so my interactions with pedestrians and cyclists are generally good. I would say though, you remember the 1 bad interaction over countless parents pointing out “that’s a unicycle” to small children or “nice bike” type comments.

Other road/path users are always themselves. You still get the slow groups blocking the path, unguided pets/children and various flavours of dodgy cyclists (on the phone with bags of shopping on the handlebars are a particular menace). Cars are cars everywhere and familiarity with the concept of cyclists doesn’t make them more safe.

He probably wanted to get rid of her, but since there wasn’t a bus around to throw her under… :rofl:

Same here, though I’m not sure if we must give way to pedestrians. I consider it sensible, though, and usually act accordingly. Admittedly, sometimes I get carried away when in a hurry or in “flow”.

I get it that some of them are tempted to make a step to give way. If they do it in a normal way (i.e. not passive aggressively) I thank them to express my appreciation for their attempt to act in a regardful way. I also thank automobilists etc. if they give way when they don’t have to, or if they have to wait because of me (e.g. on a narrow street, where it’s only possible to pass one after another). I think, if more people showed those small signs of respect, traffic would be a more pleasant thing for everybody, no matter the means of traffic.

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“Look, on one wheel!”
“I’d be happy to have at least two more wheels.” (Tricycles is where the fun appears to start, for this lady)

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„I too want one of these unicycles!“

By the tone they were speaking I couldn’t determine whether they were serious or rather mocking me. Normally, I‘d say they were making fun of me, but half a minute later I heard them talking again in the exact same tone, in the store. So, that‘s prolly just the way they speak.

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I was riding down a paved bike trail. Guy with nose in phone looks up to say “hi” to someone whom he supposes is also walking (I’m on a 20” and riding slow on purpose to work on my balance and technique) … startled … he says “a unicycle!?”

Me and my dad often go riding and a common comment is when people ask him, “Where’s the other wheel?” He points to me and says, “She’s got it.”

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