I was invited to a bbq this weekend that I wanted to go to. However, being 160 miles away, it was going to cost about £40 in petrol ($80 in gas) to get there, which makes it expensive even before I’ve had a burger! So I decided to hitch-hike. At each end of the motorway (highway), however, there’s about 4-5 miles where I’m not likely to get a lift - So I decided to take a uni with me.
My 24" Blizzard with hookworm tyre was ideal;
It's fast enough over the paved and slight off-road sections that it saves a lot of time walking.
It's small enough that there was never a problem getting it in anyones car.
Asking if I can put it in the boot (trunk) assures me of personal safety as I can check for dead bodies before getting in the car.
It's a great conversation starter.
The only thing that would improve it would be a Schlumpf hub - but I had the money for that lying about, I'd probably not be winging about the price of fuel :)
Has anyone else used their unicycle to assist their hitch-hiking, or have any uni-related hitch-hiking stories?
Why? Is she your missus then and she didn’t mention me to you?
The first lift of the day yesterday was a very attractive buyer in her mid-twenties called Becky, and one of my lifts today was in a Jag XJS (That was the lift before the Lancia Delta). Does that count?
yeah some of us did a race (woodford to glenbrook) and on the way back the shuttle buses were few and far between. Everyone was in a line waiting for the next bus and occassionally a car would be leaving and offer people a lift. One car came along, drove past all the sore, tired families up to us and said “do the unicyclists want a lift?”. So we left all the other angry unicycle-deficient people in our dust. THE END
I did it once with my 20" but not really on purpose. I found that it brought me worse luck hitching a ride but thats probably because I was riding it.
I used it to get out of downtown (which was just going crazy because it was Canada Day) and then from where I was dropped off to my friends place. Because I was pedaling as fast as I could for the most part I was way faster than on foot and actually faster than traffic or pretty much any other form of transportation because I could ride through crowds and bikes couldn’t even do that.
Still, catching a ride while riding is going to take a long time, I don’t know about walking. It is possible too that people are more friendly to hitch hikers there, it was my only time ever trying to hitch a ride. I had actually tried to get a cab but they refused me because they made more money just doing inner city rides.
I was hitchin to Amsterdam last year. I stopped to get food at a lidl and they had one for sale. Last one in the store and half off. I couldn’t say no so it came with me.
Got us a lift on the ferry with a very nice couple, but customs had a look through my bag on the way back home. Could have been cause i looked like a scruffy hippy coming back from the dam, but i like to think it was the uni.
I hitchhiked from Sidney airport to Halifax airport after not being able to rent a car after RTL. the wheel did help with a trucker at 3:30 AM outside Beddeck but not at all after that. Long story, I will post it some time
I thought the same thing and tried it out a few times. It is a bit scary riding backwards with a full pack on, and one time a ute stopped behind me and because I was riding backwards I didn’t see it pull over and I was still riding with my thumb out when the passenger got out to alert me of their presence. I find just standing in a good spot is best unless you are on your way to a better spot.
I hitch hiked to the Juggling Festival with 3 unicycles earlier this year. I rode my 24x3" and carried a 16" and had a 12" strapped onto my pack. I had no trouble getting rides there and back, although riding through Palmerston North carrying a pack and two unicycles after a long festival was pretty exhausting.
