I learned to ride in 2018 at age 46. I am now 52.
I tried to edit the post to which you replied, but that post has reached the age of “not able to be edited”.
I didn’t know about that, but if you say so…
As far as I’m concerned, my judo experience has probably saved my shoulders and/or elbows at least a few times. I have basically never fallen on another direction than forward (on the road), so learning to roll in another way than forward is not that useful in my opinion.
Anyways, I’m pretty sure that martial arts based on strikes are not as effective as judo, aikido or jujitsu.
Hi, My name is Greg Thomas, and I still ride my original 1963 20" Loyd Unicycle. I rode prolifically from 1963 to 1969 before joining the Air Force. I was a member of the San Diego Unicycle Club, the largest club in the world with 600 members and 200 riding members. I was the Vice President of the club from 1967-1969 under founder Phil Bartell, who owned a local bicycle shop in National City. All three of my kids learned to ride and still have their vintage 20" Schwinn unicycles. A little history lesson for you unicycle buffs out there. Schwinn did not enter the unicycle market until 1968. There were several models prior to that trying to gain a piece of the market. The most popular and the best quality was the Loyd Unicycle (only one L in Loyd). Yes, it looks just like the Schwinn, almost. The Loyd had the classic polished stainless flat forks you see on today’s Schwinn. Other than that, it had a standard one layer rim which didn’t like riders who like to jump up and down, a squared off vinyl seat that didn’t last long and ended up with metal corners protruding through the vinyl, and of course the infamous pinned cranks that also did not like riders who jump up and down. Sometime before 1968, Schwinn bought the rights to Loyd and introduced their own line of unicycles based on the Loyd design. Now the good part. Schwinn incorporated their stainless tubular rim and their rounded black vinyl banana saddle. They also introduced their own pin-less crank system, although I don’t recall if that was right away in 1968, but would have been soon after that. Being a total nut on a unicycle and riding in over 200 parades in the San Diego area, playing basketball on unicycles at the Del Mar Fair, and appearing on TV doing some tricks, my Loyd needed an upgrade, so I replaced my bent rim with the tubular Schwinn and jumped on that new Schwinn saddle. I still have the pinned cranks, although they have never been quite straight and level do to jump-roping, stair climbing, and other ridiculous “Mom, don’t look!” tricks. I refurbished my unicycle two years ago and re-chromed the hub, installed stainless spokes, new seat post (ran out of new places for adjustment holes), and installed new cranks and pins. The cranks were still off-set a bit due to the worn hub which I could not find a replacement for at the time. Recently the hub failed and the axel was slipping inside the hub. A new internet search found a vintage Schwinn pinned hub at Allis Bike & Fitness in West Allis, Wisconsin. Alas, my cranks are straight and off I go into my 61st year on my 1963 (modified) Lyod. I’ll be 73 this year and I don’t see me hanging it up just yet. I can still ride frontwards, backwards, one-footed, and with the seat held out in front of me. I did get rid of my 8" unicycle with the big ass horn and my custom built 8’ 6" unicycle I built in high school Metal Shop, which were crowd favorites at local parades. Today, I’m just too damned heavy for the 8" unicycle and don’t need breaking bones on the 8’ 6" unicycle. So there you have it, class dismissed!
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Dang, I didn’t realize I was holding my breath through all of that, until the end! 
Welcome @GREGORY_THOMAS ! Incredible first post!
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That was a really great post. It’s nice to hear about someone that has been riding most of their life. A lot of us rode as kids and hopped back on as a “mid life crisis” activity. It’s also interesting to see you continue to ride your original unicycle, have you ever thought of trying a new and improved version or larger wheel sizes? I had owned two 24" Schwinns, one cotterless one cottered. I fixed up the cotterless Schwinn that I was riding regularly and gave it to a friend’s kid. I still own the cotterless Schwinn with the original saddle and a flat dry rotted tire. I keep it around for old times sake. I own several more modern cotterless crank unicycles as well as several larger wheel road unicycles and munis with isis hubs. I definitely feel there is an all around better ride quality in all of them compared to my old Schwinns.
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My history: I was 48 when I began riding and now I am 66.
In 2026 my (ex-)husband, my two sons and I went to Switzerland to participate in Unicon XIII. My husband and the boys, 15 and 13 y.o., had been riding for a couple of years and were competitors, and I was the non-competitor-mum 
. During Unicon I looked at all the amazing things people could do with their unicycles. Therefore, I decided to learn unicycling, so I could be a competitor at Unicon XIV, which would be held in Denmark, where I live. My calculation was that it ought to be possible to learn within two years … I’m not a fast learner! But I succeeded and participated in 7 competitions at Unicon XIV, mostly where riding straight forward was the main theme.
After that I have been to 5 more Unicons as a competitor – in New Zealand, Italy, Canada, Spain, and France. I like it. To my experience the events always are held in a nice and friendly atmosphere, although some of the top competitors really compete hard!
Unicycling have brought me around to many different countries, and I would not have missed it. I have met some real unicycle celebrities, John Foss, Connie Cotter and Roger Davies among others. Very nice and dedicated people!
My favorite unicycle is a 26” with alu-frame (see avatar). I have dropped the 29”, because my freemounts on it are pretty bad, and I don’t ride faster on the 29” than on the 26. I have both road and muni tyres for the 26”, as well as for my 24”. And then have a 20”, which I used for playing uni-hockey in a club in the last couple of years. However, there were more and more cancellations of training sessions, and this year it was not possible to get members enough for hockey.
So, I have more and more become a nice-weather-rider in the summertime. I feel I am a unicyclist, but the sad fact is, that I ride less and less …
I hope for a warm spring and summer for some more rides this year. I still think unicycling is fun
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I’m currently sitting icing my right knee after a fall yesterday. The affected knee is twice the size of the left one. I’ve only actually fallen (as in not on my feet) once since starting to practice in September, yesterday made twice. I went off sideways, at the time I thought most of the impact was caught by my hands (protected by wrist protectors/gloves) and only a slight knock to the side of my knee. Not quite enjoying unicycling at the present!!
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Hang in there, this shall pass and you will be back in the saddle. Wrist protection is key I never ride with out them. I do ride without knee pads more often than not. Do you feel if you were wearing pads you would be fine? I often point out that you never see Terry Unigeezer Peterson with out knee / shin protection. As good as he is and no matter riding street or trail he is armoured up
As older riders it is more important than ever to use our PPE I wish you a speedy recovery. I know in my case often after a bad crash I loose confidence, it’s important to get back at it asap.
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Although our experience is very different as I didn’t even learn to unicycle until I was mid 30s and didn’t get into it until post 40, I recognize some of the same things.
I was an avid freeride mountain biker and on the cutting edge of that sport in my 30s (extremely steep descents, drops, bunny hops, gap jumps, etc.) and did some mountain bike trials, so Muni was the natural start for me once I finally tried unicycling. In the last years I frequently ride with various top Muni riders, and it is generally evident that I have more experience, but I think my age most shows when pushing the edge: I have a pretty good idea of what I can do and push myself near my limits but rarely go too far, whereas many younger riders (or even some not so young exceptions like Noli) just try and fall and try and fall until they land a drop or passage. I generally don’t do this, I think partly due to starting older but also due to my MTB experience: I had 2 major MTB crashes in my 30s, one where I flew 7m in the air, landed on my head (helmet worked well made me a lifelong advocate) and slid 7m on my face breaking my nose, chipping 2 teeth and loosing a lot of skin mostly inside my mouth, I ride extreme muni (mostly) within my limits.
In contrast to John, my unicycle skills now are better than at any younger age: freestyle I started last year at age 52 (learned wheelwalk, one-foot ww, hop-on-wheel, 180-unispin, seat bounce, etc. all in the last 9 months) and I would say my muni level has been close to flat the last 4 years mainly because of restrictions from my 3rd ACL knee surgery (tore freeride ski jumping in my 30s, then the other freeride mountain biking at 50). I think sometimes it’s almost an advantage not having started earlier: in mountain biking I am not even close to the level I used to be (mostly because I used to ride and practice 5 days/week and now I uni instead and also have family now) but also because of age that I can’t just try a 5m gap jump and crash a few times, as the recovery would be much longer and worse now. Same with volleyball: as I used to be really good in my 20s and 30s, it is very frustrating that it is immediately evident that I am so far below my previous level, e.g the decrease in my vertical jump is glaringly obvious (I used to dunk easily and now I am mostly afraid to try and jump to touch the rim as I don’t want to humiliate myself). But I played unicycle basketball at Unicon and again at the French nationals and it’s fun as I have no previous reference and only improve.
And I have really had fun learning freestyle unicycling tricks for the first time in the last year: as I am learning so many new things and don’t have my young self to compare to (yes, my 11-year old daughter and I started learning drag seat together, and she basically learned in 2 weeks and now 6-8 weeks later I practice and practice and even though she doesn’t really she’s much better, but even so I am learning and getting better).
As to the mental limit on the max speed: I have that on the road. I ride with younger riders who in muni have similar strength and fitness (in particular uphill muni) but then on the road are way faster than me: I have the strength, the balance, the control and the cardio, but my brain just won’t let me ride faster (I haven’t ridden it much but I am hardly faster on my 29 Schlumpf than my 36 because I just “can’t” go faster). I think something around 24km/h is also about my comfort level/limit. I have run out many UPDs in the low 20km/h and never fallen on road and I want to keep it that way. On the track I also have this problem going fast, but I will have to try and remember John’s statement here that the danger is so much lower as you’re generally within run-out speed when you UPD on the track, so I will try to push harder (on the road that sadly does not apply as I have never has a >24km/h dismount but I also don’t want to try). I don’t ride much track (first experience around Covid and then 3 races last year) but it was a little disheartening at the French nationals fall 2023 where ALL of the 11-14 year old riders I train were way faster than me in the 100m and particularly the 400m, where I think I slowed down in the 2nd half not because I was tired but because I was mentally scared (I wasn’t even out of breath when I finished).
Along with the kids I train in my club, I just signed up for the Winter EUC in March (Flatland, Trial, Street) and will be participating in my first Flatland and (if I maintain my courage) also my first Street competition. Even nicer, they have a 50+ category 
So I will hopefully also be learning some flat tricks in the next 2 months. And we had trial practice yesterday and that was fun too. Maybe I’ll get motivated to practice and finally master big SIF hops (at the French nationals I only managed 2 palettes).
After competing in the German Freestyle nationals last fall, I am planning to also compete in Freestyle at Unicon.
@John: There are sadly so few 25+ Freestyle riders (I think only 2 male participants at the last Unicon). Organize a gym to practice and join me in individual Freestyle this summer.
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How often do you actually see clowns riding unicycles? For me, not very. And I used to work for the National Circus Project, where we trained clowns! Mostly in the form of elementary school students. Anyway, I’ve been over being compared to clowns for a long time, mostly because the people saying it usually don’t have much actual experience seeing clowns in person.
About “falling skills”: I’ve also heard that Akido is great for rolling falls, though I don’t know if I could identify Akido if I saw it. I learned a forward roll-type technique for fast falls, that has served me well. A few years ago my most recent “scary” fall was while riding the bike path on my 36", paying too much attention to my music (bone conducting headphones) and not enough to where I was. There was a spot with this small rise, which I didn’t pay attention to until I hit it; suddenly I was too far forward. Tried to pedal hard as possible but it was too late, I was going to go off the front at about 12 mph (19 kph). As my foot came down I realized this was going to be too fast to run out of, at least with the downward force from the taller wheel. Fortunately my brain still remembered how to dive roll, and though it wasn’t pretty I only ended with a few scrapes (and a broken bell on my handlebar).
Best way to practice falls is to practice activities that make you fall a lot, like new tricks. These mostly end in low speed falls, which are easier to handle, but practicing techniques for how to safely “exit” from unsavable positions will definitely help you. Learning Freestyle tricks back in the day led to tons of repeated falls of various types; enough to burn in some landing techniques.
Me too. Your situation seems very similar to mine, even with our different riding history. The sentence I quoted above took me immediately back to the Chamrousse Ski Resort outside of Grenoble, where I joined 25+ other Unicon 20 Muni enthusiasts for a non-competitive day of riding an Olympic ski mountain. There were two groups, the “enthusiast and older” riders that started lower on the mountain, and the “experts” who went to the mountain bike park and rode the lifts to the top. Of course I had to ride with that group, which was full of many elite and very fit riders! I was probably the oldest one in the group. Wobbling Bear made the better choice for guys our age, getting off the bus at the first stop. Also he’s about 10 years older than me.
It was a spectacular ride, and I didn’t have trouble keeping up in the mountain bike park, because the group did what Muni riders do, stopped for lots of challenging spots to do multiple attempts. That was fun to watch. We also passed through a huge herd of sheep up near one of the lifts! But the second half of the ride was different. Starting from the level of the parking areas and buildings, a singletrack trail dropped down a trough of what I would call Moon dust. Super-fine dirt that I’ve also experienced in the high mountains around Lake Tahoe that poofs up into the air, sticks to your sweat, and makes a big mess when you fall on it. Those trails were STEEP! And the pace was fast. I have “decent” braking skills but didn’t trust my traction enough and ended up running long sections, sometimes because if I waited for a gap to get back on, everyone would be past me and I’d be playing catch-up. Which happened several times.
I did so much downhill running my quads were toast, and I was worried about my knees. Along the way I did make some improvements in my “trust” of the brakes vs. traction to ride down some of that steep stuff, but I was very glad when we got to the bottom. A few hours later, after food and a shower, was my only opportunity to compete in the IUF Slalom, one of my favorite events. I was so beat up from earlier, I would need several minutes to recuperate between each attempt. I did all right considering, but I came in 7th in the "old guys"50+ age group; possibly my worst performance ever in that event.
My pictures from that day start here
Maybe this year I will focus on getting my revs up, at least on flat ground with the 24", and see if that translates to riding fast in general. If not, I don’t think I’ll mind that much, because I think I’m okay with riding safer!
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That’s huge! I wish I knew more about it. How did it get so big, and how did it fade away? I think we would have heard more about it if it had still been active in 1974 or later, when the Unicycling Society of America had Bill Jenack doing a quarterly newsletter with lots of info about his unicycling contacts all around the US and world. Would love to hear more about that group!
I have a Loyd unicycle (eBay purchase), but you definitely know more about them than me. Mine came with a bicycle seat on it, and I’m curious to know if that was original or added by the owner. It’s definitely a worse seat than any rectangular thing intended for unicycing, it’s a narrow saddle that pretty much guarantees pain!
You described a squared-off vinyl seat on your 1963 model. Did you ever see any with black, narrow road bike-type saddles? I don’t know the vintage of mine. I think Loyd unicycles may have been more regional than national, but not sure about that. I hope Loyd Wicker Smith got a generous deal from Schwinn to license (or buy) his frame design, it served them well. In fact you could still buy a split-frame Schwinn from Unicycle.com up until fairly recently. Their website still lists the brand but no longer has any Schwinn products. Their blurb about the Schwinn brand also could use a correction or two (Schwinns were around at least until the mid-90s).
I believe the Schwinn unis hit the market with the 1967 Christmas season, but 1968 is probably when they started showing up everywhere. Cottered cranks were the standard back then, which encouraged riders to not do too many jumps and drops–or else. Note for anyone riding cottered cranks, the pins should be inserted in opposite directions. That is, the pins should not be paralell with each other like you pounded both in from the same side of the wheel. Greg, check your pins and see if one just needs to be flipped around, it might even out your cranks!
Cotterless cranks (square taper axles) were introduced in the 1930s, but didn’t become mainstream until much later. I think Schwinn and Miyata both switched to cotterless around the same time, 1980. I only know of one example of a Miyata with cotter pins; it’s a 1978 example from the Bill Jenack collection (now in my collection), and is believed to be the first Miyata unicycle in the USA.
The biggest innovation Schwinn brought to unicycle was their patented saddle design. These were manufactured by Messenger, a company that also made many of the older, rectangular style uni saddles, possibly even the ones on the Loyd unis. When Schwinn revamped their unicycles for their reintroduction to the market in 1986, they added some plastic bumpers and a design that could take more of a beating without ruining the covers.
Thanks for sharing that great history of your unicycling adventures. It makes me curious to see if your club ever got a mention in the early days of the Unicycling Society of America Newsletters. Someday we’ll get them all indexed and be able to look those things up without having to flip through pages… 
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Thanks for your supportive words! At the moment my knee bend is too limited to think of riding anything with pedals (I tried on one of my bikes yesterday) and even walking is a challenge. I guess the fact that I’m still reading here means I haven’t given up completely but the wearing of knee pads and other gear seems certain. I religiously wear wrist protectors because I play mandolin and cello and the thought of a broken wrist is too much to bear!
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I’m in the same boat with you. My hands are my living and I can’t afford for anything to happen to them. Get well soon.
After joining the Air Force in 1969, and my younger unicycling brother joining in 1970, we pretty much lost contact with the club. I spent 6 years 9 months of my first 9 years deployed to Vietnam, Thailand, Okinawa, and Guam, so I didn’t spend much time stateside, let alone riding regularly.
The founder of the club, Phil Bartell, was very active in promoting unicycling to the public. In addition to encouraging families and friends of riders to join the club and participate in supporting activities and help keep up a very busy schedule of events and parades, we also provided free unicycling lessons every 3rd Sunday at San Diego’s Mission Valley Shopping Center. This created a lot of public interest and the club grew rapidly. I think Phil Bartell left the club and possibly the San Diego area in the 1970s, as I was unable to make contact with him at his former bicycle shop in the late 1970s. It is highly possible that without his leadership, along with the popularity of the Schwinn Stingray and skateboarding, that unicycle enthusiasm faded in the 1970s.
| johnfoss
January 7 |
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GREGORY_THOMAS:
I was a member of the San Diego Unicycle Club, the largest club in the world with 600 members and 200 riding members.
That’s huge! I wish I knew more about it. How did it get so big, and how did it fade away? I think we would have heard more about it if it had still been active in 1974 or later, when the Unicycling Society of America had Bill Jenack doing a quarterly newsletter with lots of info about his unicycling contacts all around the US and world. Would love to hear more about that group!
I have a Loyd unicycle (eBay purchase), but you definitely know more about them than me. Mine came with a bicycle seat on it, and I’m curious to know if that was original or added by the owner. It’s definitely a worse seat than any rectangular thing intended for unicycing, it’s a narrow saddle that pretty much guarantees pain!
You described a squared-off vinyl seat on your 1963 model. Did you ever see any with black, narrow road bike-type saddles? I don’t know the vintage of mine. I think Loyd unicycles may have been more regional than national, but not sure about that. I hope Loyd Wicker Smith got a generous deal from Schwinn to license (or buy) his frame design, it served them well. In fact you could still buy a split-frame Schwinn from Unicycle.com up until fairly recently. Their website still lists the brand but no longer has any Schwinn products. Their blurb about the Schwinn brand also could use a correction or two (Schwinns were around at least until the mid-90s).
I believe the Schwinn unis hit the market with the 1967 Christmas season, but 1968 is probably when they started showing up everywhere. Cottered cranks were the standard back then, which encouraged riders to not do too many jumps and drops–or else. Note for anyone riding cottered cranks, the pins should be inserted in opposite directions. That is, the pins should not be paralell with each other like you pounded both in from the same side of the wheel. Greg, check your pins and see if one just needs to be flipped around, it might even out your cranks!
Cotterless cranks (square taper axles) were introduced in the 1930s, but didn’t become mainstream until much later. I think Schwinn and Miyata both switched to cotterless around the same time, 1980. I only know of one example of a Miyata with cotter pins; it’s a 1978 example from the Bill Jenack collection (now in my collection), and is believed to be the first Miyata unicycle in the USA.
The biggest innovation Schwinn brought to unicycle was their patented saddle design. These were manufactured by Messenger, a company that also made many of the older, rectangular style uni saddles, possibly even the ones on the Loyd unis. When Schwinn revamped their unicycles for their reintroduction to the market in 1986, they added some plastic bumpers and a design that could take more of a beating without ruining the covers.
Thanks for sharing that great history of your unicycling adventures. It makes me curious to see if your club ever got a mention in the early days of the Unicycling Society of America Newsletters. Someday we’ll get them all indexed and be able to look those things up without having to flip through pages…
2 Likes
People would only pay me to stop playing the cello, but I enjoy it it 
I admire you.
65 y.o. beginner.
Now I’m 69.
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Thank you, Hukuma
Hi John,
So here is my refurbished 1963 Loyd 20" Unicycle, or should I say my Loyd/Schwinn Morph?
Loyd’s original rim was not tubular construction, so inevitably it did not like my hoping around. And of course the pinned cranks didn’t like it either. Before Schwinn bought the rights to Lyod, I found another Schwinn tubular rim with 36-Hole spokes that was also a 20 x 1.75. After Schwinn came out with their own Lyod based unicycle they upgraded to tubular rims, but with a 28-Hole pattern and hub. Today, it is almost impossible to find a 36-Hole pinned replacement hub for my Loyd, as Schwinn soon went pinless cranks early on. So 2 years ago I had my hub rechromed, replaced the cranks and pins, added stainless steel spokes, and replaced the post. The Schwinn seat was added in 1968.
So today my Lyod/Schwinn Morph has Loyd forks, Lyod pinned 36-hole hub, Schwinn 36-hole tubular rim, and Schwinn seat, aftermarket post, cranks, pins, and fork shims.
I’d say it looks pretty awesome. You wanted to know if I was interested in moving up to a more modern unicycle. Well, first of all, at 73 I don’t ride that regularly anymore, and second, after riding my Lyod for 61 years, there’s no sense in moving on now.
I’ve also included a photo of me dressed as a hobo clown and freestyling in the 1965 Toyland Parade in San Diego.
Cheers,
Greg Thomas
January 7 |
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I was a member of the San Diego Unicycle Club, the largest club in the world with 600 members and 200 riding members.
That’s huge! I wish I knew more about it. How did it get so big, and how did it fade away? I think we would have heard more about it if it had still been active in 1974 or later, when the Unicycling Society of America had Bill Jenack doing a quarterly newsletter with lots of info about his unicycling contacts all around the US and world. Would love to hear more about that group!
I have a Loyd unicycle (eBay purchase), but you definitely know more about them than me. Mine came with a bicycle seat on it, and I’m curious to know if that was original or added by the owner. It’s definitely a worse seat than any rectangular thing intended for unicycing, it’s a narrow saddle that pretty much guarantees pain!
You described a squared-off vinyl seat on your 1963 model. Did you ever see any with black, narrow road bike-type saddles? I don’t know the vintage of mine. I think Loyd unicycles may have been more regional than national, but not sure about that. I hope Loyd Wicker Smith got a generous deal from Schwinn to license (or buy) his frame design, it served them well. In fact you could still buy a split-frame Schwinn from Unicycle.com up until fairly recently. Their website still lists the brand but no longer has any Schwinn products. Their blurb about the Schwinn brand also could use a correction or two (Schwinns were around at least until the mid-90s).
I believe the Schwinn unis hit the market with the 1967 Christmas season, but 1968 is probably when they started showing up everywhere. Cottered cranks were the standard back then, which encouraged riders to not do too many jumps and drops–or else. Note for anyone riding cottered cranks, the pins should be inserted in opposite directions. That is, the pins should not be paralell with each other like you pounded both in from the same side of the wheel. Greg, check your pins and see if one just needs to be flipped around, it might even out your cranks!
Cotterless cranks (square taper axles) were introduced in the 1930s, but didn’t become mainstream until much later. I think Schwinn and Miyata both switched to cotterless around the same time, 1980. I only know of one example of a Miyata with cotter pins; it’s a 1978 example from the Bill Jenack collection (now in my collection), and is believed to be the first Miyata unicycle in the USA.
The biggest innovation Schwinn brought to unicycle was their patented saddle design. These were manufactured by Messenger, a company that also made many of the older, rectangular style uni saddles, possibly even the ones on the Loyd unis. When Schwinn revamped their unicycles for their reintroduction to the market in 1986, they added some plastic bumpers and a design that could take more of a beating without ruining the covers.
Thanks for sharing that great history of your unicycling adventures. It makes me curious to see if your club ever got a mention in the early days of the Unicycling Society of America Newsletters. Someday we’ll get them all indexed and be able to look those things up without having to flip through pages…
9 Likes
I love this thread - thanks @Bug72 for starting it.
It seems to me there are (roughly) four types of people who ride at an older age:
- Those who started young and just kept going - this seems to include a good number of the people who’ve really pushed the boundaries of the sport.
- Those who gave up riding when younger, then picked it up again, often really appreciating recent developments (especially the seats!).
- Those who’ve excelled at lots of active sports and take up unicycling as their latest challenge, often finding how satisfying it is to learn the skills, and progressing rapidly.
- Those who take it up without being sporty types, maybe because they’re looking for a quirky hobby, or because they have physical challenges they hope it might help with (a bad back or lack of general fitness), and enjoy progressing slowly.
(Apologies if I’ve missed out 90% of you!)
I guess I’m the last sort - I started in 2018 aged 51 partly because I used to fly a big kite in the summer on holiday, but our new dog hated it, and partly because I kept damaging my back doing day-to-day stuff, and needed something to strengthen my core muscles. I had a bicycle in the garage I never used (still true), but I enjoyed cycling and have fairly good balance, so suddenly decided I would learn to unicycle while away on summer holiday, buying a used one that was delivered to near our campsite.
It took me ages and I finished those 2 weeks going about 20 revs at best, but I stuck at it to the surprise of my family, and slowly got better, learning to freemount the following summer.
My first uni was a Nimbus 24" II from before they had ISIS cranks (2006ish but barely used), hindered in my case by a Maxxis Hookworm tyre (UK country lanes have lots of camber which the tyre is particularly bad at). I didn’t know any other unicyclists so I was reliant on advice and opinions online, where I found that (a) people often said a 20" was better for learning, and (b) the “coming of age” moment for unicyclists seemed to be when they got a 36". So those became my aims in my slow progress - along with trying to spend as little money as possible.
I first got a used 20" (but never really got the hang of it), then in 2020 I got a Nimbus 26" muni and a KH 36" that had belonged to the same guy - he had sadly died the year before and his non-unicycling friends were selling his unicycles. I started riding the 26" first, then gradually built up to the 36". However I had been very fortunate (I hadn’t realised just how fortunate at the time) that the 36" came with a Schlumpf geared hub (and a unique gear change system), however being so new to unicycling there was no way I was going to learn to use that on such a big wheel, so after lots of research and planning I bought a KH26 frame from another unicyclist and swapped the Schlumpf into my 26" wheel with the new frame. Then at last I could try out high gear, which was now equivalent to a 40" wheel, but harder to manage due to a narrower balance window for corrections as the cranks turn less than the wheel. I’m learning slowly (like everything else) and spend most of the time in low gear still, but it’s such a good feeling whenever I do get into high, even if it feels like I’ve gone down several skill levels in just trying to stay on.
I’ve not stopped enjoying unicycling throughout the now over 5 years that I’ve been riding, and I’ve never stuck at anything like this before. I’ve tried a few times to get into riding a smaller wheel (currently I have a 20" with 100mm cranks that’s fun to spin on, and a 19" trials, and I had a 20" 5ft giraffe for a year that I never even dared sit on!) but I’ve now (yesterday!) decided that I don’t need to go smaller than my 24". I’ve got so much to learn and develop, and I’m hoping up ahead I’ll have more time to ride (while also having to cut down on unis). I may even be getting rid of the 36" soon due to up-coming storage limitations, but as I currently mostly ride with our dog on a harness running with me, I don’t need to go so fast or far.
And one day I may even splash out and buy a unicycle that’s actually new rather than used, which I suspect will be a 27.5" or a 29", and will replace my 26" wheel. I can’t quite see myself parting with my original 24" at this point - it’s too useful and has too much history.
(Thank you for reading this far if you got here - and even if nobody does, I enjoyed writing it! 
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It’s great to hear your story Holyroller and thanks for participating in the over 50 thread. There are a lot of us over 50’s on this forum at various stages of development. I I just want everyone to know that no matter what skill level they are at they are welcome to share their experiences, ask for advise or give advise. I can guarantee your story will inspire someone, just as holyrollers story has inspired me.
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