Ultimate Wheel Question

Hello,

I was riding my UW for some of my college friends tonight. Someone asked me how many people in the world are able to ride an UW.

That reminded me that I’m the best unicyclist I’ve ever seen, and the only person I know that can ride an UW.

So, does someone with more knowledge than me want to make a guess as to how many people can ride an UW? John Foss maybe?

Thanks,

George Barnes IV
President, ISU Unicycle Club

George,

UW is not that uncommon, I would have thought quite a few of the
unicyclists on this list can ride one. There seamed like hundreds at EJC
this year (probably only a dozen).

Roger

                     The UK's Unicycle Source
                   <a href="http://www.unicycle.uk.com/">http://www.unicycle.uk.com/</a>

----- Original Message ----- From: “gbarnes” <forum.member@unicyclist.com>
To: <unicycling@winternet.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 5:15 AM
Subject: Ultimate Wheel Question

> Hello,
>
> I was riding my UW for some of my college friends tonight. Someone asked
> me how many people in the world are able to ride an UW.
>
> That reminded me that I’m the best unicyclist I’ve ever seen, and the
> only person I know that can ride an UW.
>
> So, does someone with more knowledge than me want to make a guess as to
> how many people can ride an UW? John Foss maybe?
>
> Thanks,
>
> George Barnes IV President, ISU Unicycle Club
>
>
>
>
> –
> gbarnes Posted via the Unicyclist Community -
> http://unicyclist.com/forums

gbarnes wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I was riding my UW for some of my college friends tonight. Someone asked
> me how many people in the world are able to ride an UW.
>
> That reminded me that I’m the best unicyclist I’ve ever seen, and the
> only person I know that can ride an UW.
>
> So, does someone with more knowledge than me want to make a guess as to
> how many people can ride an UW? John Foss maybe?
>
> Thanks,
>
> George Barnes IV President, ISU Unicycle Club
>
> –
> gbarnes Posted via the Unicyclist Community -
> http://unicyclist.com/forums

George,

i suspect there are quite a few wheelers out there…in various stages of
ability - some dithering, some riding.

I would like to see more wheelers. We need to get the word out that it is
really fun, intense, and not terribly difficult.

And virtually injury free since it’s pretty hard to get into
trouble on it.

It does have its own learning curve but this can be absorbed by anyone who
wants to put in the effort.

> So, does someone with more knowledge than me want to make a guess as to
> how many people can ride an UW? John Foss maybe?

I know I can’t…

A lot of people have been getting on my case about ultimate wheels lately.
I guess that’s because I have ridden just about every unicycle type I’ve
ever heard of, but still haven’t mastered the UW. Every year I try to ride
one 30 meters at NUC or UNICON in the Ultimate Wheel race. Sometimes I
make it and sometimes I don’t. I have one, so I should practice. Now I
have a friend (Terrell Williams, the guy who did the seat post on my ATU)
who’s getting into it and wants me to come practice with him, so I should.

So how many people? That goes into the whole question of how many
unicyclists are there? I don’t think anybody knows. But this is a very
common question of media people.

An article on MUni will be in the National Geographic Adventure magazine
in October or November. They called me many times for fact-checking, but
the big question was how many people do off-road unicycling? I told them
basically nobody knows, but then I thought about it. If somebody’s
supposed to know, shouldn’t it be the president of the USA or IUF? Hmmm.

Unicycle manufacturers are very reluctant to give out sales data.
Basically they don’t. But maybe we haven’t asked them the right way. As
our unicycling organizations become more businesslike, perhaps they will
pay more attention to us. But that’s only part of the story. If 10,000
people buy unicycles, how many people actually ride them.

And what counts as being a rider? Surveys and statistics on people who do
sports for recreational purposes usually come out with bicycling as one of
the top activities. To get this status, people must ride their bikes at
least twice a year, or something like that. So to count ultimate wheelers,
it should be anybody that can ride one, basically, whether they do it
often or not. This should be taken as a percentage of the overall
unicycling population.

So I still have no idea. What percentage of unicyclists can ride an
ultimate wheel? A safe bet is probably between 0 and 3. Pretty low. Maybe
less than a thousand people on the planet. I’ll say 3000 as my guess, but
don’t know how many people do it in big unicycle countries like Japan,
where unicycles are fairly common but I don’t know about ultimate wheels.

Now to go and practice…

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com

“The difference between a winner and a loser is character.”

John Foss suggested:
> So I still have no idea. What percentage of unicyclists can ride an
ultimate
> wheel? A safe bet is probably between 0 and 3.

I estimate that I know about 50 unicyclists in the UK. Of those, I know
for a fact that at least 4 (Miark, Beth, Di and me) can ride UW. I imagine
there are more than that.

Of course, the unicyclists I know tend to be those that go to clubs and
conventions, so may not be a representative sample. And I’m probably
underestimating the number of unics that I know anyway.

One of the questions at http://www.unicycle.uk.com/uni-fanatic.html is
“Have you successfully ridden an ultimate wheel?” I know this test exists
on more than one site, but is there any record of what proportion of
people taking the test have answered Yes to any specific question?


Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html “The secret of life is
honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made” -
Groucho Marx

Greetings

In message “RE: Ultimate Wheel Question”, John Foss wrote…

>Unicycle manufacturers are very reluctant to give out sales data.
>Basically they don’t. But maybe we haven’t asked them the right way. As
>our unicycling organizations become more businesslike, perhaps they will
>pay more attention to us. But that’s only part of the story.

We do have some figures for Japan, though not accurate. JUA director Kooji
Sugano estimates that at least 8 million (probably closer to 10 million)
unicycles have been sold in the Japan in perhaps the last 15 years.

Stay on top, Jack Halpern Executive Director for International Development
International Unicycling Federation, Inc. Website: http://www.kanji.org

Danny Colyer <danny@juggler.net> wrote:

> I estimate that I know about 50 unicyclists in the UK. Of those, I know
> for a fact that at least 4 (Miark, Beth, Di and me) can ride UW. I
> imagine there are more than that.

emma, ian, and emmas sister,(all from reading) definatly can leigh,
kaliegh, mark ruston, I think can

> Of course, the unicyclists I know tend to be those that go to clubs and
> conventions, so may not be a representative sample. And I’m probably
> underestimating the number of unics that I know anyway.

Membership of Union of Uk Unicyclists was 38 before Mostyn ( I havn’t been
told if any more joined then) so I’d revise the estimated number of Uk
riders up quite a lot. I think I could name at least 100. and then there
are others that I know of, like the sufolk, plymouth and richmond school
groups with a number of riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of
age, distance and money

sarah

actully its a bit scary thinking I know SO many Uk unicyclists!

British Muni Weekend September 14th-16th Bracelands Campsite, Forest of
Dean http://www.vimes.u-net.com/bmw.html

> We do have some figures for Japan, though not accurate. JUA director
> Kooji Sugano estimates that at least 8 million (probably closer to
> 10 million) unicycles have been sold in the Japan in perhaps the last
> 15 years.

Super-impressive numbers! Japan has got to be the biggest unicycling
country by number of riders. Is USA number 2? I wonder. Germany is
smaller, but has a lot of unicyclists… and what about China?

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com

“The difference between a winner and a loser is character.”

On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 21:42:56 GMT, Sarah Miller
<sarah@vimes.u-net.com> wrote:

> riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

Klaas Bil

“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been
picked automagically from a database:” “biological warfare, Taliban,
Aegis radar system”

> > riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age
>
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

I’m not Sarah but I think she meant something like this:

In referring to school or youth-based unicycle clubs, it isn’t that riders
are too young to participate, but are too young to drive, or otherwise be
in charge of where they’ll spend the weekend. In the US there are lots of
school-based unicycle clubs that have never had any members attend a
unicycle convention. They may have heard of it, but participation seems to
be less likely unless the club does it as an organized group.

Hope that helps, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com

“The difference between a winner and a loser is character.”

Greetings

In message “RE: Ultimate Wheel Question”, John Foss wrote…
>> We do have some figures for Japan, though not accurate. JUA director
>> Kooji Sugano estimates that at least 8 million (probably closer to
>> 10 million) unicycles have been sold in the Japan in perhaps the last
>> 15 years.
>
>Super-impressive numbers! Japan has got to be the biggest unicycling
>country by number of riders.

The number of unicycles does not represent the actual number of riders,
and it certainly does not represent the number of active unicyclists that
participate in competitions and the like. The latter number is only a
small fraction of the total.

>Is USA number 2? I wonder. Germany is smaller, but has a lot of
>unicyclists… and what about China?
>
>John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com
>
>“The difference between a winner and a loser is character.”
>

Regards, Jack Halpern President, The CJK Dictionary Institute, Inc.
http://www.cjk.org Phone: +81-48-473-3508

> The number of unicycles does not represent the actual number of riders,
> and it certainly does not represent the number of active unicyclists
> that participate in competitions and the like. The latter number is only
> a small fraction of the total.

Of course.

But when the press is asking for these numbers, or a person is wondering
how many ultimate wheel riders there are out there, they weren’t asking
about conventions.

As long as we are working to promote unicycling (as those of us in
organizations like the IUF and USA are), we must remember that the people
who go to conventions have already been covered. The ones who need our
attention most are the ones that don’t.

And that’s obviously a mega-load in Japan, for example. Most of them
probably fall into the same category as the school-club cyclists I
mentioned in a previous post today. With no exposure to what the
conventions are about, there is less incentive to go to one. Also with
kids who do it as part of school rather than a parent-supported activity,
they won’t be going to a convention anyway unless the parents are
interested as well.

Stay on top, John Foss President, Unicycling Society of America President,
International Unicycling Federation jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com

Sarah Miller mentioned:
> > riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

prompting Klaas Bil to ask:
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

If a child’s parents don’t want to take their kid to a convention and
there is no other adult willing to take responsibility for the child’s
safety, that child won’t be able to go. Even if there is someone
willing to take the child, there’s the issue of paying for the
convention, travel and food. The child may not have the money and his
parents may not want to pay.

I suspect that’s probably what Sarah meant. I’ve known a lot of kids who
wanted to go to juggling or unicycling conventions but couldn’t, for the
reasons above.

(Looking back at Sarah’s post, she didn’t just mention reasons of age,
she mentioned reasons of age, distance and money. I think the distance
and money tend to be less of an issue for the adult jugglers and
unicyclists who attend conventions - even if they’re skint, as I was when
I attended conventions as a student, they’ll find a way and their parents
won’t stop them).


Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html Recumbent bikes page:
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/ “Make it idiot-proof and
someone will build a better idiot.”

Sarah Miller mentioned:
> > riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

prompting Klaas Bil to ask:
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

If a child’s parents don’t want to take their kid to a convention and
there is no other adult willing to take responsibility for the child’s
safety, that child won’t be able to go. Even if there is someone
willing to take the child, there’s the issue of paying for the
convention, travel and food. The child may not have the money and his
parents may not want to pay.

I suspect that’s probably what Sarah meant. I’ve known a lot of kids who
wanted to go to juggling or unicycling conventions but couldn’t, for the
reasons above.

(Looking back at Sarah’s post, she didn’t just mention reasons of age,
she mentioned reasons of age, distance and money. I think the distance
and money tend to be less of an issue for the adult jugglers and
unicyclists who attend conventions - even if they’re skint, as I was when
I attended conventions as a student, they’ll find a way and their parents
won’t stop them).


Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html Recumbent bikes page:
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/ “Make it idiot-proof and
someone will build a better idiot.”

Sarah Miller mentioned:
> > riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

prompting Klaas Bil to ask:
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

If a child’s parents don’t want to take their kid to a convention and
there is no other adult willing to take responsibility for the child’s
safety, that child won’t be able to go. Even if there is someone
willing to take the child, there’s the issue of paying for the
convention, travel and food. The child may not have the money and his
parents may not want to pay.

I suspect that’s probably what Sarah meant. I’ve known a lot of kids who
wanted to go to juggling or unicycling conventions but couldn’t, for the
reasons above.

(Looking back at Sarah’s post, she didn’t just mention reasons of age,
she mentioned reasons of age, distance and money. I think the distance
and money tend to be less of an issue for the adult jugglers and
unicyclists who attend conventions - even if they’re skint, as I was when
I attended conventions as a student, they’ll find a way and their parents
won’t stop them).


Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html Recumbent bikes page:
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/ “Make it idiot-proof and
someone will build a better idiot.”

Sarah Miller mentioned:
> > riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

prompting Klaas Bil to ask:
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

If a child’s parents don’t want to take their kid to a convention and
there is no other adult willing to take responsibility for the child’s
safety, that child won’t be able to go. Even if there is someone
willing to take the child, there’s the issue of paying for the
convention, travel and food. The child may not have the money and his
parents may not want to pay.

I suspect that’s probably what Sarah meant. I’ve known a lot of kids who
wanted to go to juggling or unicycling conventions but couldn’t, for the
reasons above.

(Looking back at Sarah’s post, she didn’t just mention reasons of age,
she mentioned reasons of age, distance and money. I think the distance
and money tend to be less of an issue for the adult jugglers and
unicyclists who attend conventions - even if they’re skint, as I was when
I attended conventions as a student, they’ll find a way and their parents
won’t stop them).


Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html Recumbent bikes page:
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/ “Make it idiot-proof and
someone will build a better idiot.”

Sarah Miller mentioned:
> > riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

prompting Klaas Bil to ask:
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

If a child’s parents don’t want to take their kid to a convention and
there is no other adult willing to take responsibility for the child’s
safety, that child won’t be able to go. Even if there is someone
willing to take the child, there’s the issue of paying for the
convention, travel and food. The child may not have the money and his
parents may not want to pay.

I suspect that’s probably what Sarah meant. I’ve known a lot of kids who
wanted to go to juggling or unicycling conventions but couldn’t, for the
reasons above.

(Looking back at Sarah’s post, she didn’t just mention reasons of age,
she mentioned reasons of age, distance and money. I think the distance
and money tend to be less of an issue for the adult jugglers and
unicyclists who attend conventions - even if they’re skint, as I was when
I attended conventions as a student, they’ll find a way and their parents
won’t stop them).


Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply)
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/danny.html Recumbent bikes page:
http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/ “Make it idiot-proof and
someone will build a better idiot.”

Klaas Bil <klaasbil_remove_the_spamkiller_@xs4all.nl> wrote:
>> riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

generally too young. Very few parents will let their little darling wonder
the country going to conventions alone untill they are 16-18 years old.
Under that age most Uk youngsters are reliant on parents or other "trusted
" adults accompanying them. Not all parents have the time, money or
inclination to do this. Then there is the cost!

sarah


British Muni Weekend September 14th-16th Bracelands Campsite, Forest of
Dean http://www.vimes.u-net.com/bmw.html

Klaas Bil <klaasbil_remove_the_spamkiller_@xs4all.nl> wrote:
>> riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

generally too young. Very few parents will let their little darling wonder
the country going to conventions alone untill they are 16-18 years old.
Under that age most Uk youngsters are reliant on parents or other "trusted
" adults accompanying them. Not all parents have the time, money or
inclination to do this. Then there is the cost!

sarah


British Muni Weekend September 14th-16th Bracelands Campsite, Forest of
Dean http://www.vimes.u-net.com/bmw.html

Klaas Bil <klaasbil_remove_the_spamkiller_@xs4all.nl> wrote:
>> riders who don’t get to conventions for reasons of age

> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

generally too young. Very few parents will let their little darling wonder
the country going to conventions alone untill they are 16-18 years old.
Under that age most Uk youngsters are reliant on parents or other "trusted
" adults accompanying them. Not all parents have the time, money or
inclination to do this. Then there is the cost!

sarah


British Muni Weekend September 14th-16th Bracelands Campsite, Forest of
Dean http://www.vimes.u-net.com/bmw.html