Unicycle articles (but wait there's more...)

General
984

One-wheeled wonder
ALLAN BRETTMAN
The Oregonian
26 May 2009
The Oregonian

SUMMARY: Vancouver inventor’s unicycle balances and pedals itself

Vancouver engineer invents self-balancing unicycle Battery-powered cycle can go up to 10 mph and be mastered in about an hour One-wheeled wonder Difference is

in starting

and stopping

ALLAN BRETTMAN

VANCOUVER --Off in the distance, a unicycle rolls around the ellipse that circles downtown’s Esther Short Park.

Nothing unusual there, though you might think of Vancouver as more of a meat, potatoes and bicycles-only kind of town. But there’s something different about this unicycle.

There’s a blocky-looking thing under the saddle. And the rider isn’t pedaling, yet the contraption is moving. And the rider is playing a guitar.

By the time the rider rolls into closer view, it’s clear that the unicycle is battery-powered. And it’s clear that the rider is doing his best to promote the wizardry of inventor Daniel Wood.

Wood, a high school dropout and self-taught engineer, invented the electric, gyroscope-packed, one-wheeled cycle to help launch a new company in downtown Vancouver.

The invention is known as the SBU --for Self-Balancing Unicycle --and offers the promise of taking some of the circus-stunt nature of the unicycle to the masses.

The SBU delivers on one-half of the equation --front to back balancing --but the rider still must figure out the essential left and right balancing that’s essential to turning and staying upright.

Nevertheless, Wood, a 30-year-old refugee from a Vancouver high-tech firm where he was laid off last year, has created a product that appears to have few parallels in the market.

He’s spent more than two years developing and perfecting the design with this in mind: “I wanted to make something I would want to ride.”

There are other electric unicycles, and the two-wheeled Segway has shown the importance of gyroscopes in keeping a wheeled vehicle from tipping. But the SBU appears to be one of a handful to have combined the two features.

Now Wood and his partners need people to pay $1,599 apiece for an SBU in the midst of a recession. Four units are on order, all from people who have said they’re interested in being distributors.

Wood has gotten two technological gadgetry celebrities on the SBU --Adam Savage, host of the Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters,” and Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway.

Savage contacted Wood just moments after he saw a story about the SBU on the Web site, gizmodo.com. “I gotta have one,” Savage recalled telling Wood in an e-mail.

Savage, whose program regularly features construction of contraptions, is a longtime unicyclist. He commuted on them when he lived in New York City and, to amaze his friends, he’d bounce down stairs on a unicycle or juggle while riding one.

So he was eager to try out the SBU when Wood and his friends arrived on the “MythBusters” set in January. He quickly was hooked.

“I love it!” Savage said in the phone interview. He keeps the SBU on the set.

A regular unicycle and the SBU are different enough that it’s an apples to oranges comparison, Savage said.

The biggest difference would be starting and stopping.

The SBU’s internal gyroscope senses, through the rider’s movement, whether he wantsto go forward, slow down or stop. Lean forward enough, and it can go faster --up to 10 mph.

A skilled rider can ride uphill and downhill as easily as on flat ground.

But it takes a skilled rider to make the SBU perform at all. First-time riders will spend much of their introductory moments sitting on the saddle, walking the SBU with one foot and making tentative attempts to roll with both feet on pedal-size platforms.

Most people can be up and going in 45 minutes, Wood said.

The Segway’s Kamen wasn’t one of them. While Wood was able to get the famous inventor on an SBU during a visit to Kamen’s house in New Hampshire during a robotics conference last year, the Segway inventor needed help to stay aboard.

Even Savage says the SBU’s commercial prospects are challenging.

“It seems to me a fairly niche market,” he said. “But someone had to do this. It just had to get done.”

985

New in Newtown: hockey on one wheel
CLUBS Elise Dalley
28 May 2009
The Glebe
Copyright 2009 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved

YOU don’t have to be a clown to play hockey on a unicycle but it probably helps.

This local crowd don’t get their thrills from late-night warehouse raves or train tagging.

Their underground fun involves simply a wheel, an ice hockey stick and a tennis ball.

Founding member of the Newtown Unicycle Club Cris Bailiff said it was the exciting and wacky nature of the game that got him involved.

``It’s loads of fun because it’s a bit silly,‘’ he said.

``You are trying to work as a team, which is something you don’t usually do on a unicycle.‘’

Growing interest in unicycling outside the circus world has seen this sport peddle ahead with success in Newtown.

``It has taken off slowly, but now we have three semi-regular teams,‘’ Bailiff said.

``We think there are a lot more unicyclists out there than make themselves known though.‘’

The club was set up about 10 years ago by a few interested members of a local juggling group and now has 20 to 30 players meet weekly.

While hockey is the main focus, members also train for sprint and distance races as well as unicycle juggling and even high jump.

  • The club meets at Lillian Fowler Reserve in Newtown at 10.30am every Sunday.
986

Unicyclist to cross country on a wheel and a prayer
CLARE KERMOND
28 May 2009
The Age
© 2009 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. www.theage.com.au

SID Rajan is used to getting strange looks. People stare at the big, oddly shaped black bag he often carries. When we meet in Federation Square, a group of schoolchildren would rather watch him reveal the contents of the bag than explore the city. “Please, Miss, we want to see this thing.”

Oblivious to the small crowd watching him, Mr Rajan, 24, methodically unpacks his pride and joy, a big-wheeled unicycle.

He isn’t just a unicycle fanatic, he’s a long-distance unicycle fanatic, hence the extra tough, extra big wheel. He’s now putting his hobby to worthy, if ambitious, use with plans to cycle the width of Australia to raise money for charity.

This week Mr Rajan flies to Perth to begin the first leg of his solo-unicycling adventure. Starting out on Sunday, he aims to ride from Perth to Adelaide, about 4000 kilometres, over two months. He’ll return to Melbourne to fulfil some study commitments and then begin the final part of the trip in late October, riding from Adelaide to Sydney via Melbourne and Canberra, about 2000 kilometres.

He will be the first person to unicycle across the country but the second to cross the Nullarbor.

He’ll ride from sunrise to late afternoon, with a rest day about every four days. On his back, he’ll carry about 13kilograms of equipment, including water, food, camping gear and a repair kit.

Asked the obvious question, why, Mr Rajan says he has known he would ride long distances since the first time he climbed onto a unicycle in 2004, as a student living in Singapore.

“I had an Australian friend living there too and he said something like, ‘of course it would be impossible to ride across Australia on a unicycle’. So I decided to do it.”

This won’t be Indian-born Mr Rajan’s first long distance ride, he has ridden for two weeks at a stretch on trips in Vietnam and Laos and more recently rode from Launceston to Hobart along the coast over about five days.

The trans-Australia trip will raise money for two charities, the Clown Doctors, who use humour in their work with children in hospitals around Australia, and the Ved Vigyan Maha Vidya Peeth, a foundation that provides free education to children in rural India.

As for the appeal of the unicycle, Mr Rajan says it has a wonderful simplicity. “There are no breaks, no suspension, no gears. Every bump goes through my body. If I want to turn, I just lean into it. It becomes an extension of my body. And here, up high, when I’m going fast, I can feel like a bird.”

987

Thats funny, I’m surprised they didn’t recognize you from the photos.
-ro

988

This isnt really an article, but i thought it’d be the best place to put it. its an email which i recieved from my sister. here’s how it goes
" A unique feat for a cause:

Friends!

Siddharth Rajan, the son of VGS Rajan from our Corporate Banking team is a sportsman, who among other things rides the unicycle, which is a single-wheeled, pedal cycle, which has no brakes or handlebars.

Siddharth is attempting a very ambitious unicycle ride that will cover over 6000 kms. from Perth on the Western Australian coast on the Indian Ocean, to Sydney on the east coast on the Pacific Ocean. The ride, which he has named The 3 OCEANS’ UNICYCLE TOUR starts off on the 31st May 2009, and will end in December 2009 (with a 2 month break in between)

The ride when completed will make him the first person to unicycle across Australia, and only the second to unicycle across the Nullarbor desert.

Siddharth will be raising money for 2 charities on this ride. One of them is the Ved Vigyan Maha Vidya Peeth, a project sponsored by the Art of Living foundation for the education of underprivileged children in rural India. The second charity is the Australia based ‘Clown Doctors’, a core project of the Humour Foundation, members of which interact with sick children to bring cheer to their lives.

Details are available on his website called www.3oceansunicycletour.com you can visit the website and leave a message of encouragement on the guest book. Those of you, who also wish to contribute to the charity fund, may do so by following the instructions given on the website.

We wish Siddharth all the best on his ambitious feat! "

989

I was just added to this cool website out of Las Vegas called bikinginlasvegas.com. I can’t wait to go back to Bootleg Canyon and ride all the trails I missed out on last trip! :smiley:

http://www.bikinglasvegas.com/cycling-blog/2009/06/05/theres-unicycling-and-then-theres-unigeezer/

990

Cycling Clothing

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Team Cycle Clothing And Cycling Accessories From Probikekit

http://www.probikekit.com/

991

Unicycle for Arts Program

Here is a story about two students riding unicycles across California to support Arts programs at their Schools:

Here is their web site:

http://www.unicycleforthearts.com/

992

Here is another story about the same unicycle fundraising trip:

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/2009061196984/News/Local-News/Unicyclists-balance-fun-fundraising-on-trip

993

Larchmont teen, dad to ride unicycles for charity
By Melissa Montgomery
13 June 2009
The Journal News (White Plains, NY)

LARCHMONT - When 19-year-old Sophie Wharton first got a unicycle six years ago, she never expected to be using it as a fundraising tool.

Next month, in an effort to raise $50,000, she and her father, Philip Wharton, plan to ride 100 miles in four days - from Montreal to St. Louis de Gonzague, Canada.

The money raised from “A Balancing Act” will help build schools in rural regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where there are few educational resources.

The proceeds will be donated to the Central Asia Institute, a nonprofit organization that has built nearly 80 schools in the Muslim regions since its 1996 founding by mountain-climber-turned-humanitarian Greg Mortenson and the late Silicon Valley pioneer Jean Hoerni.

Mortenson took an interest in building schools in the area after wandering into the Baltistan region of Pakistan following a 1993 attempt to scale K2, the world’s second-highest peak.

The Whartons, who live in Larchmont, were inspired by Mortenson’s book, “Three Cups of Tea,” and wanted to help raise money to build more schools.

Sophie Wharton, a psychology major at Harvard University, said education is one of the most powerful and important steps to making the world more peaceful.

“Educating women impacts health and mortality. … Even one school can make this domino effect,” she said.

The father and daughter came up with the idea of a unicycle ride.

“My daughter suggested that we try to do 100 miles,” Philip Wharton said. “We also thought it would get people’s attention.”

He said the unicycle’s maximum speed is about 6 mph. They chose the fundraising route, they said, because the area is flat.

Sophie was introduced to unicycling when she went to circus camp for three years. She recently taught her dad, 49, to ride.

He works as a real estate developer, sits on the board of a charter school in the Bronx and coaches another daughter’s soccer team.

“It’s fun working hard toward something, and getting it,” he said.

The Whartons have already received $17,000 in pledges.

They have been training every weekend. Sophie said she believes they are not only building muscle for the effort, but are also building confidence.

“I think we can do it,” she said. “We’ve been going at the pace that we need to to be unicycling for five hours a day, 25 miles each day. We will be sore by the end, but we will be able to complete it.”

They plan to travel light, stay at inns during the trip, and will carry a BlackBerry to recount their progress on the Internet and a global positioning system to stay on track.

“Every foot that we go is raising money,” the elder Wharton said.

On the Web

Learn more, including how to donate, at www.abalancingact.org. Follow the Whartons’ trip online at http://drop.io/abalancingact.

994

I’ve read the book “Three cups of tea” and their chosen charity it is a very worthy cause.

It looks like they’re on 20’s too which makes the 100 miles seem actually quite challanging.

995

Murata: Robot Unicyclist’s First Visit to Europe
19 June 2009
PR Newswire Europe

HOOFDDORP, Netherlands, June 19 /PRNewswire/ – Unicycling robot MURATA GIRL will visit Europe for the very first time from her home in Japan to perform at the ARS Electronica Centre in Linz, Austria from June 20. She will perform alongside her cousin, cycling robot MURATA BOY, at demonstrations at the ARS Electronica Centre and in Linz’s main square. MURATA BOY will also accompany young cyclists around an obstacle course on the ARS Electronica Centre’s main deck.

MURATA GIRL is a unicycle specialist whose ultrasound sensors enable her to keep a fixed distance away moving objects. She has a gyro sensor and a flywheel in her chest which help her to keep her balance. She can ride forwards and backwards as she has ultrasound sensors in the front of her body. She is very shy and has been known to blush!

MURATA GIRL’s cousin, MURATA BOY, is a cycling robot, capable of riding his bike along a 2cm-wide balance beam and can even nimbly negotiate tight S-curves. MURATA BOY also has sophisticated gyro sensors and a flywheel in his chest to help him balance. Like MURATA GIRL, his batteries are carried in his backpack. MURATA BOY can be controlled via a remote control with advanced motion sensing technology. He has the same ultrasound sensors as MURATA GIRL and he can avoid crashing!

Both MURATA GIRL and MURATA BOY have been developed by Murata to illustrate Murata’s electronics expertise and the robots are regularly demonstrated to Japanese schoolchildren to try to get them interested in pursuing careers in technology.

18 photos of Murata Girl and Murata Boy, cycling robots, can be found at: http://bit.ly/xlzE0 5 short video clips of Murata Girl, unicycling robot, can be found at: http://bit.ly/lsxhU More videos on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYzkeSky37k

For the full demonstration timetable, please visit: http://www.aec.at/news_en.php?iNewsID=1179

About Murata

For more information on Murata, please visit: http://www.murata.eu

Company contact:
Jonathan Kosters, Murata Electronics (UK) Ltd
Tel: +31-23-56-98-455
E-mail: [email]jkosters@murata.nl[/email]
Web: http://www.murata.eu

Agency contact:
Sally Ward-Foxton, Publitek Limited,
Tel: +44(0)1225-470000
E-mail: [email]sally.ward-foxton@publitek.com[/email]
Web: http://www.publitek.com

Murata Electronics (UK) Ltd

Company contact: Jonathan Kosters, Murata Electronics (UK) Ltd, Tel: +31-23-56-98-455, E-mail: jkosters@murata.nl; Agency contact: Sally Ward-Foxton, Publitek Limited, Tel: +44(0)1225-470000, E-mail: sally.ward-foxton@publitek.com

996

An aspiring unicyclist recounts futility and face-plants in his battle for balance A two-second ride spells success and a tough bar to beat for a Milwaukie man Futility and face-plants in the battle for balance
PETER FRICK-WRIGHT; special to The Oregonian
21 June 2009
The Oregonian

An aspiring unicyclist recounts futility and face-plants in his battle for balance A two-second ride spells success and a tough bar to beat for a Milwaukie man

Futility and face-plants in the battle for balance

PETER FRICK-WRIGHT

I took up unicycling because I needed to maintain my capacity to persevere. As adults we stop flexing that muscle, abandoning new things to save our egos. We forget how often persistence is mistaken for talent. With the unicycle, I had the perfect tool with which to practice public failure.

I would also get to count hours spent playing in the driveway as work.

It turned out to be even harder than I thought. After several futile attempts, I tried to convince myself that my extra-tall, top-heavy body type made it simply impossible, like sleeping on an airplane.

But then after an hour of trying and failing, I stood on the pedals and braced against a brick wall for support. I leaned forward, I moved forward. I felt balanced, let go of the wall and maintained control, all parts of my body working together for nearly two seconds of harmonized thrill.

“Did you SEE that!?” I yelled at my dog, Halifax. He had, and we were hooked.

Weeks passed; two seconds remained my longest ride.

My new balancing skills allowed for remarkable improvement on my mountain bike --I could ride 30 yards on my back wheel and track-stand through entire red lights --but I couldn’t quite make the transition from two wheels to one.

More weeks passed.

Needing encouragement, I talked with balancing expert Sam Salwei, who has some unicycle experience and travels the country doing headstands on ropes with a team called the Yoga Slackers. I needed to hear that I should stick with it, that finding balance always takes time but that it would happen.

“I can’t unicycle,” he said.

Great.

Other unicyclists’ stories of learning to ride generally go like this:

“I tried and tried and finally something magical happened and I could just ride.”

So with renewed dedication, I started a routine. If this were a sports movie, it would be the rock-music montage before the big game.

I practiced, I watched instructional videos on YouTube, I looked at pictures of Japanese unicycle hottie Kaori Matsuzawa; such was my dedication.

It helped.

But nothing magical happened.

However, one night as the sun went down, I hopped onto the unicycle next to my car, holding the roof for balance. Between rides, I visualized myself letting go and cruising around, envy of the neighborhood. When I tried it, though, I landed in push-up position, nose inches from the ground. I could quit and call it “saving face.”

But for once my ego wasn’t calling the shots, and I got up and tried again. I made it a little farther.

Reach Peter Frick-Wright at travel@news.oregonian.com

997

A fearless four on unicycles tackle the Reach the Beach ride --and succeed Long hours of practice, derring-do and thick skins deliver the riders to Pacific City One wheel, 100 miles --ow! That’s gotta hurt
JIM MOORE; special to The Oregonian
21 June 2009
The Oregonian

SUMMARY: A fearless four tackle the Reach the Beach ride on their unicycles A fearless four on unicycles tackle the Reach the Beach ride --and succeed Long hours of practice, derring-do and thick skins deliver the riders to Pacific City

One wheel, 100 miles --ow! That’s gotta hurt

JIM MOORE

When that caveman genius invented the wheel, it didn’t take long to figure out that if one wheel was good, two of them promised a lot more possibilities. And so the evolutionary branch for one-wheeled vehicles ended up pretty short. Wheelbarrows . . . unicycles . . . that’s about it.

But maybe it’s that Darwinian dead end that speaks to a certain group of people. Unicycles aren’t really useful, and they’re really hard to ride. And therein lies a twisted appeal.

The kind of appeal that attracts iconoclasts. Adventurers. Mavericks. Masochists. The kind of appeal that would lead to a local one-wheel club called the Unicycle Bastards. And, following that, the kind of peer pressure that resulted in four members riding their unis 100 miles as part of the Reach the Beach biking event last month .

That’s right --100 miles. On one wheel. With one gear.

“It takes a certain type of person to do this, no doubt about it,” said Jack Olsen, a group member. “It’s not for everyone.”

He’s actually talking about riding a unicycle in general, not riding a unicycle 100 miles. But once you’ve already gone past normal, why not see how far the road goes?

So Olsen, Chad Ramberg, Leif Rustvold and Bryce Jacobson set out from Beaverton early in the morning May 16. Riding customized unicycles with outsized 36-inch wheels, they spun out 100 long miles as two-wheelers passed them in a steady stream.

With just the one gear and the extra responsibility of 360-degree balancing, these guys average 12 to 14 mph on flats. On this day, Olsen reached Pacific City in just under nine hours. (“Halfway through I made the mistake of checking my pace and realizing I could finish in nine; that may have been a bad decision.”) His compadres took between 10 and 11 hours.

And they all paid the price for their folly --because there are several good reasons unicycles are not universally revered as long-distance machines.

One of those reasons involved Chehalem Mountain. Less than 10 miles into the ride, the unicyclists had to climb nearly 1,000 feet up this pastoral rise --a challenging climb for most multi-wheeled, multi-geared vehicles. But hard as it was, all four of them made it to the top --and without any UPDs (UnPlanned Dismounts).

Their efforts were aided by unique doohickeys that look like half a mountain-bike handlebar mounted perpendicular to their down tube, jutting out between their legs and giving them an extra point of contact to help with balance. These custom-built devices feature a brake lever and can even include aero bars for added comfort.

Not that anything is going to make a uni-century all that comfortable. Besides putting even more pressure on the, um, inner pelvic region than a bicycle, a unicycle takes other tolls on the body.

“My abs felt like I’d been repeatedly kicked in the stomach,” Olsen said. “Apparently all those little balance adjustments add up.”

“Unicycle seats are definitely not designed for long-distance riding,” Rustvold said. “We’re talking pain management.”

Ramberg sums up the overall challenge nicely: “Half the wheels. Twice the work.”

Yes, these are tough men. Doing an unusual thing. In public. And that leads to an endless stream of comments from their fellow riders --and few of them are original.

As I pedaled my bike alongside Rustvold southwest of Newberg, a group of riders passed; one was whistling the circus-calliope song. Leif kept smiling.

“If you’ve got the personality to do this, you’re not bothered by that,” he said.

998

Cyclist; commutes on one wheel; One wheel suits commuter just fine; Derek Brouwer shrugs off the hecklers, unicycles to work
Philip Armour For the Camera
25 June 2009
Daily Camera

Derek Brouwer has heard every heckle in the book.

“Where are your juggling balls?” is common and so is “Look, a clown.” But most often he gets: “You lost your other wheel.” He usually quips back: “I don’t need my training wheel any more!” but the mood on the road was lighter on Wednesday.

“There’s a different crowd out there today,” says Brouwer, who rides his unicycle 12 miles from Erie to Boulder about once a week. “Actually friendly.”

We’re at the Bike to Work Day breakfast station at Whole Foods on Pearl Street, and Brouwer needs to recharge before heading out again. A 43-year-old systems architect for a local software company, he’s been unicycling for the last hour and a half and is sweating profusely.

“I need a massage,” he declares and gets into line for the free massage booth.

Back on the road, Brouwer and I ride back streets to his office. I follow him on my cruiser and watch as he steers with a dainty hip twist (No handlebars, remember?) and flaps his arms for balance.

Unicycles are a litmus test of a person’s temperament, and Derek elicits unequivocal smiles or sneers. Most of the pedestrians, drivers and other bikers we pass, though, can’t help but smile. Some even burst out laughing. There’s just something about a unicycle that’s happy and childlike.

Brouwer has been unicycling for three years and got into it because of his 17-year-old son, who is “stunningly good,” according to his proud papa.

Mary Rios, the founder of the 62-member Boulder Unicyclist Club (www.boulderuni.com), speaks fondly of Brouwer, who is a member.

“He gets out there quite a bit,” she says in a phone interview about seeing him at Hall Ranch in Lyons or Walker Ranch west of Boulder.

During the school year, Rios hosts a unicycle clinic every Friday afternoon at the South Boulder Recreation Center.

“I love the sport, because I suck at it,” Brouwer laughs. “I get to constantly enjoy getting better at it.” It’s also a great workout, he says, and claims to have “abs that can bounce bullets,” if you peel away the fat.

His wife doesn’t like to hear it, but women come up to him all the time wanting to talk about the unicycle or try it out. “I’m not into that or anything,” he says “But it’s pretty cool.”

The wheel on his commuter unicycle – a chrome Coker – is a massive 36 inches in diameter. He owns seven unicycles. On this one, his head is a good eight feet off the ground, but the added wheel diameter allows him to cover more ground per pedal stroke.

“When I ride on trails, I use a 24-inch,” he says, referring to the sport of mountain unicycling, a.k.a. Muni. This subculture of a subculture hosts an annual gathering, the Moab Muni Fest that attracts about 200 riders each March.

His unicycle has typical commuter gadgets, like a light on the seat post and cycle computer, plus untypical gadgets, like an inflatable seat with a handle. For safety gear, he wears a helmet and unicycling gloves with wrist support. The pedals are wide, flat downhill mountain bike pedals with tiny cleats for grip.

Brouwer can only free-mount (mounting the unicycle without aid) going downhill or when he’s not tired, so route finding is critical. He mostly rides on the street and studiously avoids balance-busting curbs.

At one point, I give the unicycle a try to gauge the difficulty (it’s difficult) and succeed in a couple of pedal strokes. Brouwer clenches both fists in gleeful agony when I jump off.

“So close!” he exclaims, hoping for another convert.

999

I was featured in Sacramento Magazine, in an article entitled “Spokesmen”, featuring several interesting cyclists and lovers of cycling around the Sacramento area. I’ve copied the text clip from their web site, which is short, but there’s also a video slideshow which includes pictures of my garage.

I haven’t actually seen the magazine yet. I went to the store yesterday and all they had was the June issue!

Spokesmen

       Photography by Steven Holmes

Sacramento Magazine
July, 2009

Let’s face it: Bikes are the “it” mode of transportation these days. Riding a bike is not only good for the ol’ bod, but good for the environment—it burns calories, not fossil fuels. The Sacramento area offers prime cycling terrain, so it’s no wonder cyclists abound in our region. Here, we introduce you to a few cyclists—spokesmen, if you will—and their (mostly) two-wheeled toys.

The photographer was pretty cool, setting up lighting and a backdrop in my driveway. Unfortunately the time of day made the lighting pretty difficult for a riding shot, but he did like the visuals of the garage.

1000

I’ve been running unicycle sessions at one of the local primary schools over the last term. The kids made it onto the front page of the district newspaper, exciting day! :slight_smile:

Blog post
http://unplannedismounts.com/2009/07/01/bullartos-wheel-appeal/

bullarto_school_unicycle_advocate_cover.jpg
bullarto_school_unicycle_advocate_cover.jpg522×478 189 KB

1001

Local teen rides unicycle with Circus Smirkus
By Jennifer Gish, Albany Times Union, N.Y.
McClatchy-Tribune Regional News
2 July 2009
Times Union (MCT)

Jul. 2–Like a lot of 17-year-olds, Taylor Wright-Sanson is trying to figure out life beyond high school.

But unlike most 17-year-olds, he has it narrowed down to these two things: Studying computer science in college or unicycling with the circus.“The circus is way more fun,” says Wright-Sanson, a Circus Smirkus performer from Saratoga Springs. “It’s so awesome to have a job when you get paid to run around and have fun and get in shape.”

And while he doesn’t get paid for his role in Circus Smirkus – a Vermont-based organization that teaches kids ages 10 to 18 the art of performing and entertains audiences with a summer tour – his four summers with the group have turned a somewhat reserved kid into a bold performer whose signature move is a backflip dismount off his unicycle. And it’s left him considering the circus as a career, at least for the short-term.

“I’ve grown a hundredfold. I’ve grown as a performer, as a person. Socially, in the beginning, I was pretty shy and didn’t really like group activity games or clown things,” says Wright-Sanson who will perform with Circus Smirkus Sunday and Monday at the Saratoga Race Course. “Essentially, I’ve realized (you can) look as goofy as you want.”

Wright-Sanson received his first unicycle for Christmas when he was 13, he says, as his parents looked for a way to challenge their very active son. He’d ride the cycle sometimes just to show his friends what he could do, but didn’t really get serious about unicycling until he saw video of unicycle tricks similar to what a BMX biker would do. Extreme unicycling, so to speak.

Soon, Wright-Sanson was soaring beyond the tricks on the video. Circus Smirkus, which is brought to Saratoga each year by the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs as a fundraiser, looked like a good fit for a unicyclist looking to test his limits.

“(There are) kids who know how to move their bodies really well, and sometimes, associated with that, people are telling kids to slow down and don’t go so high or be careful,” says Wright-Sanson’s father Robert Sanson. “As a parent, knowing my child, I knew he was safe and knows his capabilities. In the circus, people don’t say, ‘Get down from there. That’s too high.’ They say, ‘Can you go a little higher?’ and they do it in an environment that’s safe.”

While touring with the nonprofit circus, Wright-Sanson has picked up other skills including clowning, Chinese poll and some acrobatic moves on a see-saw device called a “peter board.”

And somehow, the kid who used the unicycle as a way to test his physical limits has come through unscathed.

“I have never broken a bone in my life, and that always surprises people with all the things I do,” the performer says.

Well, his father did have to take him to the emergency room last year.

“He cut his hand slicing a bagel the wrong way,” Robert Sanson says. “That’s the big accident in his history.”

And that’s why he sticks to unicycling.

Jennifer Gish can be reached at 454-5089 or by e-mail at jgish@timesunion.com. Visit her blog at http://blogs.timesunion.com/parenting.

Circus Smirkus

When: 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday and Monday

Where: Saratoga Race Course, 267 Union Ave., Saratoga Springs

Tickets: $18.75 ages 13 and up; $15.75 ages 2-12; free under 2

Contact: (877) 764-7587; http://www.smirkus.org; ticket outlet at Crafters Gallery, 427 Broadway, Saratoga Springs

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JUST CLOWNING AROUND
6 July 2009
Dominion Post

MURITAI SCHOOL teacher Stephen Eames, with, from left, Barnaby Costello, 12, Isaac Pajo, 11, and Keoghan Harrison, 12, has good reason to allow his pupils to clown around in the school playground.

The 38-year-old teacher has spent the past few years getting his year 7 and year 8 pupils to master the art of riding a unicycle, the one-wheeled contraption popular with clowns, jugglers and street performers.

But Mr Eames, who describes himself as “a bit of a clown”, is using the unicycle as a motivational challenge for pupils.

“The main reason is the spinoff effects - building up perseverance, resilience and self- esteem,” he says.

The children are usually on their unicycles during lunchtime and, with Mr Eames’ guidance, they have built up their skill levels without any injuries.

“It is not like a bicycle where you can go over the handlebars - they can easily jump off a unicycle.”

Mr Eames has been unicycling for more than 15 years, buying his first one to provide himself with a personal challenge.

After bringing it to school a few years ago, he developed the idea of using it as a tool to boost confidence in some of his shyer pupils.

He says parents have commented on how the fresh approach has raised their child’s happiness and confidence.

The school is looking at adding another five unicycles to the four it already has, and Mr Eames is now hoping to begin a new sport at the school - unicycle hockey.

1003

Unicyclist pushes life to extreme for sport
Lacey Burley lacey.burley @thechronicle.com.au
25 July 2009
The Chronicle (Toowoomba)
www.thechronicle.com.au

Teenager wheels off for France

TOOWOOMBA teenager Kevin Wharton will be making tracks overseas when he competes in the Extreme Unicycling Championship in France next weekend.

Kevin, 17, is an extreme unicycling enthusiast and made headlines last year when he rode down Tabletop Mountain.

He currently holds the title of the Australian Unicycle Trials Champion and will fly out on Monday.

“I got my first unicycle when I was nine, but I’ve only been riding seriously for the past two years,” he said.

“I’m pretty nervous (about competing).

“This will be the biggest competition I’ve been in.”

The three-day championship begins with workshops on Friday and competitions on Saturday and Sunday.

Competitors must navigate an obstacle course of natural rocks and boulders and each mistake incurs points.

The rider with the least amount of points wins.

Kevin said he was looking forward to meeting his international sponsor, Koxx-One.

His father, who used to unicycle professionally, lives in Japan and will be attending the championships with him.

“I’m the only one outside Europe who is attending,” Kevin said.

Kevin films his rides (and crashes) and uploads them on the video-sharing website YouTube.

The videos, including his ride down Tabletop Mountain, can be viewed at

The competition will be held in Buthiers.

I’m pretty nervous (about competing).

I’m the only one outside Europe who is attending.