I’ve heard of someone using ski poles to learn, but don’t remember who…
vintage unicycle seat on sale on e-bay!
That seat pictured in jbtilley’s post of the Sear’s catalog “Deluxe 20 in. unicycle” is on e-bay right now! Blue sparkle plastic!
Seems like a read somewhere, perhaps in a how to book, that using poles to learn to balance was dangerous. Which seems like it might be true. Think about what might happen if your face hit one of the poles as you fell sideways or forward.
I have examples of both that 24" and the 16" in my garage. Wow, $16.99 for the 16"! Mine is a slight variation, but it appears to be the Troxel I originally learned on. Many people from my generation believe unicycles to be impossible because they tried to learn on those. Terrible.
I never used them but they were out there. Generally they were too short, especially if you raised your seat up to a proper height (if the cycle allowed for that). The main danger was a sudden fall on one, where you could impale yourself or poke an eye out. Secondarily, learning to ride by holding onto something in front of you results in bad riding posture; something you would later have to unlearn.
The deluxe 20 uni from Sears in the picture above is what I got for christmas when I was 12 and learned to ride on
Did it come with the poles?
A cameo appearance by a unicyle…
Not for the faint at heart…
The coroner determined that the murder weapon was a Nimbus 24".
Does this count - the game is called “Joe Danger - The Movie”? 
not a movie, but today during the NCAA Tostitos Bowl game, the Kansas State University commercial featured a kid on what looked to be a Kris Holm 20"
Not a movie but in The Simpsons Season 24, Episode 7 ("The Day the Earth Stood Cool "), “hipsters” unicyclists appear at least in 2 opportunities.
Bongo the Bear
There is a Diney movie form the 40s all about Bongo the bear a unicyclist
I’ve seen that. Now that I think about it he rode through woods and stuff, so I guess he was a Municyclist.
What about me in a indie movie
I had the same one, which I received at about the same age! I remember the quilted red and white seat well, and the steel that poked out from the corners after hitting the ground several times.
Boxtrolls
There is an animated movie out on DVD called “Boxtrolls” which has a character called “Wheels,” whose main mode of transport is an ultimate wheel.
There may be something to that. I don’t know if I ever saw that film, but I think the storyline is about a circus bear that leaves the circus to either see the world, or return to his original environment. That being the case, he took his unicycle from the circus to the trails. He was ahead of all of us off-road unicyclists!
I will say that this is one of my favorite episodes of any anime. There is a swordsman on a unicycle in episode 7 of one piece.
check it out on Hulu here.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/100578
As a warning, this show is completely ridiculous (but still one of my favorites).
