Thought this might be a fun thread for folks to share some personal experiences. What have you done on a unicycle that was the scariest thing for you personally? Tricks, new unicycles, specific riding situation, pretty much anything works so long as it was a moment on one wheel that actually had you scared or very nervous.
I’ll start off. My most terrifying moment on one wheel was and will continue to be, crossing the pedestrian bridge to Belle Isle on my 36er. This bridge is about 6 or 7 stories above the James River in Richmond, VA. It’s a suspension bridge hanging below a highway overpass, so it’s almost constantly moving due to wind and highway traffic above. It’s probably about 10 or so feet wide, enough for people to pass one another comfortably. There are handrails on either side, but they’re standard handrail height, 4-ish feet tall or so. Walking across this bridge or crossing on my 20" or even 26" wheel doesn’t bother me at all. I’m not afraid of heights, and on those smaller wheels, the handrails are still above my waist. However, crossing that bridge on my 36er is absolutely terrifying. Not only does it place nearly my entire body above the handrail, but for some reason it also forces me to feel every little shake and wiggle that the bridge makes. I’m usually able to overcome the fear and ride across the bridge successfully at the beginning of a ride, however after completing many miles on the Island and feeling a bit sore and tired, I almost always have to walk back across the bridge to finish off the day.
How 'bout you, any one-wheeled scare or memories that you can think of?
Just before riding my 36er I walked across a street and got attacked by two barking dogs. Fortunately I felt safe because I was wearing the whole safety protection set. My legs were covered by long pumpgun knee protectors. I used my 36er to push the dogs away from me and the street.
Scary I don’t know, certainly strangest, but also something other peeps have experienced. When I first started, I had a moment where my feet slipped off the pedals and I was pinned on the seat, while still rolling forward. I believe this happened outside on a parking lot I had been practising. I was wondering how I could get off the unicycle or what I would crash into. It was a very strange experience.
The time I hurt myself the most was in my first year of unicyling where I saw peeps riding off stairs. The apartment I lived in, in DK, had 2 steps in the middle of the room. I figured to keep it safe and keep my hands on the wall both left and right. That section of the room was very narrow. I had not thought about what that meant when going doing the stairs.
Naturally while I tried to hold on to the wall on both sides, the unicycle dropped away beneath me and I landed hard with my hip on the stone stairs. I had to lay there a few minutes to let the pain seep away. I’ve never done anything that stupid after
That first story sounds similar to how my most recent “bad” fall happened a couple months ago. I was practicing mounting my freewheel unicycle, which is scary enough for me already. Then I had a weird mount that I tried to bail out of, but I somehow got myself in such a position where I was teetering on the unicycle on the saddle without both legs on the pedals.
I couldn’t quite get my legs in the right position to catch myself and I ended up landing torso-first on the pavement It felt like slow-motion going down, all I was thinking was “Please don’t break anything, please don’t break anything”. Thankfully I didn’t break any bones, but I ended up bruising my middle-lower back area. The worst part was I had to go to work 20 minutes later That was a fun day/week. No more practicing new stuff before work now, I say!
This would likely be my scariest unicycle moment (really second). When I first started riding my 36er about 8 years ago after a 50 year break from unicycles I was not comfortable riding across the bridge. So I had planned to ride up to the start of the bridge and dismount. I hit a bump at the start of the bridge and took a header clean off the bridge. It was about 12 ft down to the ground below but the ground was soft and I sustained no real injuries. It was my most exciting dismount to date.
From doing MUni i’ve had a few sketchy moments, but the one that stands out to me the most was infact when I was on solid concrete! This was when I was involved in a hit and run on my unicycle. The story pretty is that I was riding home post MUni ride, and a car came out of a car park, and was going way too fast and did not check to see if it was clear, and lo and behold it was not infact clear; I was riding past. I caught a glimpse of the car in the corner of my eye so attempted to make a sudden evasive maneuver to the right to avoid the car, yet the car was going at such speed they were not able to stop in time, as such their front bumper collided with my unicycle, suddenly spinning me round straight again. The driver made a quick getaway, without even attempting to stop to check if I was ok, or if there was any damage to her car, just sped straight off. In my eyes i was extremely lucky to have somehow not ended up on the bonnet of her car, as I feel like it would have had a largely different ending if that was the case.
Shlumpf hub slip for me. Also my worst uni injury…
Was riding home from work at about 10:30pm in the winter. Uni was pretty grimy and in need of a clean but it was doing this run daily and had put it off until spring. Conditions were ok, maybe a bit windy but good enough to ride a G29 in high gear.
Started to put a bit of extra effort in just before a short hill and suddenly I hear/feel a screech and start to pitch forwards. There was time to realise that the cranks were moving independent to the wheel and that it was unrecoverable. Given the malfunction, it was impossible to unclip or even twist to take the fall on my side so I went down face first.
Broken elbow and a messed up shoulder. Ended up walking the uni the couple of miles home on the broken side as the shoulder hurt worse than the elbow. Hospital was actually closer than home but I was in a bit of shock and just wanted to go to bed.
I’d fitted the Schlumpf in an Oracle frame and mud/grime had well and truly got into the bearing housings. My best guess is this overcame the friction in the false bearing and when a geared hub has no fixed point, bad things happen.
To be honest, I got lucky, I wasn’t wearing a helmet so if i’d gone down differently it could have been far worse.
The scariest moments with my muni are when I’m doing some steep sections and my foot slips off the pedals. Very scary feeling of being stuck on your unicycle saddle for a moment and no longer having control over which direction you’re going. Brrrr
I was practicing mounting my freewheel unicycle, which is scary enough for me already. Then I had a weird mount that I tried to bail out of, but I somehow got myself in such a position where I was teetering on the unicycle on the saddle without both legs on the pedals.
It felt like slow-motion going down, all I was thinking was “Please don’t break anything, please don’t break anything”. Thankfully I didn’t break any bones, but I ended up bruising my middle-lower back area. The worst part was I had to go to work 20 minutes later 
That was a fun day/week. No more practicing new stuff before work now, I say!
