I was scared to ride on ice at first, then I tried it and was amazed how stable
I was. I used to ride two wheels to work and there was a patch of ‘teflon’-mud
about 20 yards long after a rain storm. It was very difficult to ride through,
so I expected the same on one wheel on ice–but no, much more stable.
I was pretty much riding along the flat, just the occasional ramp. My only spill
was going sideways across a hill over rough ice.
A fun trick that was much easier than it sounded was to get up speed then lock
the wheel and slide.
I found that unicycling during the winter monthes was a fun challenge. While
attending University of Wisconsin-Madison I would ride to all my classes on my
uni. There would be only one or two days a year in which the snow was too deep
for me ride through it. Usually I would not fall off the uni, no matter how much
ice or snow. The best part was that my feet always stayed dry and since I didn’t
go fast enough to get that stripe down my back, I stayed clean. I never had a
problem with parking my uni either, I would take it in with me and put it in the
back of the classroom. Unfortunatly this year I haven’t had much of a chance to
ride my uni in the snow since I’m done with college and my job is far enough
away where I have to take a 4 wheeled uni.
I did get a little snow riding tonight, on my 8-foot. Here in Minnesota we just
had our Winter Torch Light parade. The parade starts at 7 pm and all the units
in the parade are supposed to light up somehow. We put lights in our spokes and
along our legs. We had a good turnout from our club, about 15 people. All in
lights. The temperature was hovering around 5 F. Being that cold we were
bundeled up like Eskimo’s. Since the roads where in ‘good’ condition we decided
to let tall ones ride in the parade. The middle of the street was dry so that
where Jamie (he also rode an 8 footer) and I stayed. At one point the parade the
pavement switched to brick. The brick was very slippery from the snow. Both of
us were just trying to stay on and not do a nasty wipe out. Also, the brick had
ups and downs in them that were hard to see from the 8’. Being night time didn’t
help any either. About 3/4 the way through I took a tumble. Of course everybody
thinks I’m hurt, since I rolled on the ground, but I get up right away. After
trying to figure out what made me fall I start looking for a place to get back
on but all the light posts (or other good posts to mount a 8’ uni) have snow and
ice around them. I wasn’t about to brave ice and snow on a 8’. So we had a few
people hold the uni in the middle of the street and I climbed up. After
carefully getting on the seat, I yell for the people to scatter and I start to
pedal. I’m still nervous about getting on that way for the 8’. But it worked and
the crowd went nuts. The rest of the parade went fine with no further mishaps.
And to be true Minnestians from the frozen tundra, we stopped and had ice cream
after the parade was done.
Happy winter unicycling.
Andy B. Cotter | cotter.cae.wisc.edu | Will work for food! | This e-mail is
a natural product. The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance
its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered
flaws or defects.
Hmmm, sounds like fun, I'm at a definite disadvantage. :-) No snow or
ice here (except above 5000' in the mountains, or in ice skating rinks),
just earthquakes, mudslides, and (ugh!) tornados.
Do you folks play, say, unicycle ice hockey?
Craig Milo Rogers
but i havent tried uni-ice hockey - i think a team have tried it though against a team of ice hockey players or was it rollerhockey ? i think it was ice… would be fun
