You actually met Claude Shannon? Wow, that’s much better than meeting the head of state!
although it was only 2 years ago, I don’t remember exactly why I started. I think I was surfing the YouTubes and was like “hey, unicycles are legit.” So, I asked m parents for one for Christmas, and since then it’s been a blur. I haven’t ridden my bicycle since I mastered the uni.
Originally:
When I went to college I had to park about 2 miles from classes. I had a bike rack and a bike, but it was a cheap rack and I felt like I needed to lock it up in the trunk while I was gone. The process of remounting and taking off the bike rack got old quick.
My mom was dating someone that rode a unicycle and he got me interested and trained me. Good teacher, I never got hurt while learning. The unicycle was loads better for the commute. Just toss it in the trunk and I was off. I graduated and the need for the unicycle subsided. I took about a 10 year break from it - largely left forgotten in the basement.
Now:
While out on a walk about two months ago I saw a guy on a muni coming out of a mountain bike single track. Keep in mind that up until that point in my life I had seen exactly two unicyclists (other than myself). The guy that taught me with his stable of 70s era schwinns (with whom I lost contact), and this guy on a muni. I had no idea such a thing existed and was shocked at the tire on that beast. I really regret not flagging him down to chat, but I didn’t want to bother him.
I thought more and more on that new unicycle and a week or so later decided to dust off my old schwinn. I originally planned to just go 50 feet up the road and back just to prove to myself that I still had it - just like what I had done every couple of years for the last 10, but then I decided - forget that, I’ll just go on my standard jogging route (5K). Of course by the time I was done with the ride I remembered how much fun unicycling could be.
Over the course of a few weeks unicycling gradually and completely replaced jogging (I hate jogging). After those few initial weeks I was hooked. I eventually got a muni for myself - the thing that inspired my reawakening.
I’m still trying to get in shape for the rooty single track trails in our area, but I’ve made really good progress.
Thanks and i agree there’s something more than just riding a unicycle, it’s a passion. In my opinion there’s a lot of people that aren’t respected and sometimes criticized because they ride a unicycle. They think it’s something you should only see in the circus or something, but when hear stories like Dan Heaton like in the video i last posted. You find out that people ride because their doing it for the love of unicycling not for fame or trophies but just for love of riding.I feel that because of that passion it spawned unicycling sports like mountain unicycling, street unicycling, freestyle unicycling you name it. It’s amazing what people can do because of the passion of riding and that’s why i ride.
My good friend was riding trials and I could ride a bit on a unicycle and I was like “I wonna do that too one day!” (riding down 5-6 stairs :P) And I was hooked!
Once a unicyclist, always a unicyclist 
qft
I was tired of watching my girls having all the fun in the circus and decided to join them. Here are three pictures of them. More can be found on our site www.beymer.com
http://beymer.com/circus/circus_photos/family_photos/2011_season/images/D100_2011-06-16_16-48.html
http://beymer.com/circus/circus_photos/family_photos/2011_season/images/D100_2011-06-23_17-24.html
http://beymer.com/circus/circus_photos/family_photos/2011_season/images/DSC_1559.html
i started unicycling 6 months ago, i love it! i wanted a unicycle for about 4 yars now but at mi location they are preety hard to find, so finaly i got my hands on my craapy sun ! but still ive got a downhill trek remedy that i love, and i love cars! and i want to get a huffy slidder "drifting downhill tricycle, so thats my story, btw i wanted a unicycle when i played a unicycle game in a nintendo 64 jajajaja
i’m new to unicycle… i’ve started unicycling november of 2013…
i got interested to unicycle simply because i saw/watched my favorite japanese actress rode on her unicycle, that was like august or october of 2013. i was amazed that she can do that. so after watching her video, i searched on the net all about unicycle… i thought that time, if she was able to learn on riding a uni, i might as well can do that… and after learning riding, i got more and more addicted to unicycle. and as of now, i’m learning more and more skills as i practice and practice…
Who is that actress? Do you have a picture of her on a unicycle?
I used to BMX as a teenager, though I was probably never as good as I wished I was. But that fitted my personality of always doing different from the other kids in the village - hey, that was the 80’s, hardly anyone was into BMX and mountain bikes were such an uncommon thing. Fast forward to my mid-20’s, I’m living in London, and a year after a Vespa accident, I received a big check from the insurance. I had fixed the scooter in the meantime, and it was the weekend and we were in Camden Lock where among the hippy/punk shops, there’s a juggling shop. Pretty chrome uni in the window became mine. It had a terrible cheap seat and each UPD would tear it apart! I rode it for six months, never really became proficient and when I moved back, it went to my parents and started to gather dust. Until the day where my parents lent it to an neighbor kid… a month later, it burnt down when their garage went up in flames. End of part 1.
Fast forward 15 years, I’m back in London for work. A weekend, I go to Camden where I hadn’t been in years. More mainstream than ever, but the juggling shop is still there. I push the door and see all those fancy unis - chrome has disappeared. Now it’s all about freestyle and munis. Later that night, I find myself googling it, finding about unicycle.co.uk, and after a couple of email exchange with Roger I end up buying a Nimbus 24" Muni. Took my a while to enjoy it, and it nearly ended up at my parents garage where it would have been the end. But work took me to a very small town for some more months and I took the uni with me to have something to do in the summer evenings.
Now unicycling has become my yoga, it’s helped a lot with mental and physical balance. Love it!
And nothing wrong with bikes, I ride a Brompton to work all the time.
I have an old beater road bike I use when I need speed/distance, but I see it more as a utility vehicle than a hobby That being said, I used to be really into mountain biking!
My unicycling life started… I guess I was about 7-8 years old. Some guys came to my school and put on a show of circus skills, they juggled, tightrope-walked, unicycled and maybe a few other things. They let us try out the rope and juggling, but not the unicycles 
Probably for good reason! I went home that night asking for a unicycle for Christmas. Unfortunately I didn’t get one, and while I remember it as ‘meanie parents didn’t get me one’, I recently learned that my mum hunted far and wide for one, but they were mostly too expensive ‘for something I’d never be able to ride anyway’ 
Fast forward, I’m nearing my 23rd birthday, on a night out with some friends and drunkenly recount the above story and saying how I’d never really let the idea go. Few days later I get a knock at the door and a delivery guy hands me a big box containing possibly the weirdest birthday present ever A few weeks later I’m hooked for life!
Well I am a Juggler, and I was working a Halloween event with a bunch of other performers. Globe Walkers, Stilt Walkers, Tap Dancers, and a couple Unicyclists. I’ve always thought that unicycles were for circuses and clowns, but these guys were freestyling on them. And I’d never seen anything like it before. I was talking to them, and a couple of the other performers who were telling me how much fun a uni could be, and that it’s not just for circuses. I went home and looked up unicycles on YouTube and found videos of freestylers, Trials, & Muni and was just in aw with what people were doing with just 1 wheel. I bought my first unicycle off craigslist about a week later, and have been loving it ever since.
her name is ueto aya. this is her old video i saw in 2013, the clip was around 2002/2003. though i haven’t seen any recent video of her riding a uni…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKVnRsANyoE
and as of now, there are two obsessions in my daily life, 1st that japanese actress i mentioned; and 2nd my unicycle…
my first uni was a china-made 16inch beacuse it’s hard to find a uni in our country, this is where i learned to rode… after 2 months, i bought a 24-inch nimbus muni, because i wanted so much to rode off-road and take my uni into a longer distance… also, uni became my exercise to keep my body fit…
I’ve been a big mountain bike freerider for quite a while. A few years ago I went to the big MTB Bike Park in Porte Soleil in France/Switzerland with a group of friends for a week of freeride/downhill mountain biking. After having a blast the first day, it rained for the next 5 days straight and even snowed in August (the last day of 7 was nice again). The first rainy day we entertained ourselves with indoor activities. The second rainy day we put on rain gear and trash bags and tried to ride the trails but it was just too wet. On the third rainy day we hung out in the villiage and the central shopping area. We checked out the bike shops, and outside one of them a guy from the bike store had a 24" Muni. I had never seen a fat tire Muni and I looked at it a bit. The guy said I should give it a try and I spent about 15 minutes rolling back and forth along a wall in the pedestrian zone. As the forecast was for rain, I asked if I could rent it for the week and thankfully he said yes. The next few days I learned to unicycle in the parking garage while it rained and my buddies were bored doing nothing and I had a blast, so I bought the unicycle at the end of the week.
Now I’ve added a disc brake and really enjoying the downhills and 2 weeks ago I bought a 36" for commuting and light XC.
Very pretty, and she does a good job of riding on a studio floor - and with those shoes!
yup, even now i was still amazed that she can ride her uni with those shoes…
Nice. welcome.