Looks like Drummond has a subscription at the Associated Press;
Look, Ma, no hands! Conquering the Great Outdoors on one wheel
By JANICE PODSADA
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Marta Zwierzynski knew the relationship was getting serious when her boyfriend, Chris Wonderly, had a Unistar LX shipped to her home in Hatfield, just outside Philadelphia.
It didn’t have a doublewide, downhill rim or a 3-inch fat tire, but it was street-legal and ready to ride.
“I thought Chris ordered it for himself,” Zwierzynski says.
But no, it was her own unicycle. “It took me about three months to learn, although I didn’t ride it everyday,” says Zwierzynski, a 25-year-old chemist.
One world, one nation, one wheel. While the first two may not be attainable, there’s hope for the third. Why waste valuable resources to manufacture a two-wheeled bike when one wheel will suffice?
And just like rock beats scissors, cruising along on one rim nearly always puts mountain bikers, skateboarders - even motorcyclists - to shame.
Vroom, vroom. I’m hell on wheel.
While unicycling was once limited to sidewalks and sideshows, it now embraces the Great Outdoors.
Like other beginners, Wonderly was content, at first, to roll along on concrete - until he veered onto the grass one day, and then onto the dirt. After that, smooth surfaces lost their appeal.
“I just kept challenging myself,” says Wonderly, 26, who began riding about five years ago.
Most people can learn to ride a unicycle in about 15 hours, says John Drummond, the owner of Unicycle.com, an online retailer based in Marietta, Ga.
In the last decade, off-road, cross-country and mountain unicycling have become popular with kids and adults, says Drummond, who learned to ride when he was 12. He gave it up as a teenager, only because “you can’t pick up a date on a unicycle.”
When he began riding again at age 40, Drummond took the family to the National Unicycle Convention in Seattle in 1999 and discovered one-wheelers who were bouncing down mountains.
Worldwide, he says, about 3,500 people engage in extreme unicycling.
A standard street unicycle costs about $100, but the skinny tire and lighter axle aren’t built to withstand a beating. Off-roaders should plan to spend at least $300 or $400 for a unicycle, helmet and the very necessary padding. A basic off-road model starts at about $200, while a handcrafted top-of-the line model can cost more than $1,500, Drummond says.
And lest you think one wheel is too dangerous for navigating rugged terrain, think again, says Wonderly, a mechanical engineer from Exton.
The original “Look, Ma, no-hands!” sport is safer than mountain biking, he says.
A mountain bike can reach speeds up to 30 mph. Fall, and you can get tangled up in the handlebars or frame, says Wonderly, a former mountain biker.
“Every single mountain bike rally I was in - at least one person got taken away in an ambulance,” Wonderly says. “It made me think.”
And in a nod to Mother Nature and tree-huggers, a unicycle (top speed 10 mph) doesn’t tear up the turf like a mountain bike, Wonderly says. “When people ride mountain bikes, they tend to skid with their rear tire and it erodes the trail. Unicycles can’t skid,” Wonderly explains.
If that isn’t enough convincing, then there’s the mega-cool factor: Dang, if you don’t look awesome - padded up like a 7-foot-tall Power Ranger astride that single, fat tire.
“It looks like you’re ready for combat,” Drummond says. “Helmet, wrist guards, forearm pads.”
Real aficionados like Jeff Prosa, 27, of Cresskill, N.J., add a pair of black, over-the-knee shin guards, specially designed for off-road unicyclists.
Prosa tried other outdoor sports before settling on extreme unicycling.
Mountain biking? “I just couldn’t get into it” Prosa says.
Skateboarding? “Not a lot to do there - you’re just rolling up and down on ramps.”
Unicycling with a friend in college, he found his niche. “I enjoy being outdoors. The downhills are a lot of fun, and you can go a lot of places a bike can’t,” Prosa says.
On a balmy September afternoon, Zwierzynski, Wonderly, Prosa and Mike Malsbury, 26, of Horsham, assemble at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia to conquer the bumpy trails and rocky outcroppings that hug the banks of Wissahickon Creek.
“It’s a lot more careful and meticulous than mountain biking,” Wonderly says. As the afternoon proceeds, that becomes apparent as Wonderly and Prosa size up each new challenge.
Here, an 8-foot chunk of metamorphic rock; there, a 20-foot fallen tree lying on the forest floor at a 30-degree angle. What’s the slope, how slick is that log? Which route won’t kill us? Hop it or zoom it?
Hikers who encounter Wonderly bunny-hopping down a set of natural stone steps, or Prosa gliding along a fallen tree, are astounded.
“To see these guys on a unicycle is extraordinary. It’s like walking on water,” says Vince Romano, 49, of Philadelphia.
Wendy Foulke, 62, of Wyndmoor, watches as Wonderly executes a slow-motion flight off a 4-foot rock ledge.
“Wow, you could be made into a woman if you don’t land right,” Foulke says.
“I hope it’s not that easy,” Wonderly answers.
The trick, he says, is to lift off the seat and stand on the pedals.
You don’t, however, have to pogo up and down rocks to unicycle the Great Outdoors.
Zwierzynski, for one, prefers navigating the gentler stretches of trail on her Torker Unistar LX while her fiance tackles the rocks.
Oh, did I mention?
After her unicycle arrived, it wasn’t long before the ring showed up.
A year later, Zwierzynski and Wonderly are engaged, and she carries her unicycle, at all times, in the trunk of her Acura.
“You never know when you’ll need it,” she says.
November 20, 2005 12:15 PM
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