I heard a new one the other day.
I’ve been riding the same route to work, 4 or 5 days a week at about the
same time each morning for a few weeks now. So I see the same people quite
often along the route. One of these people , a man with small child in a
push chair, I normally meet somewhere on the two bridges section of the
ride.
Normally he says nothing and we pass, the other morning he came out with
" your getting better, you don’t wobble so much today" I siad thanks and
then started to think about what he had said. Now I’ve been riding 11
years, I ride the same route each day, quite fast on a 28 inch wheel, I
DO NOT wobbble( any more than the natural uni weave). BUT, this chap has
only seen me on the bridges, where the path is narrow, and un even, and
there are two tight corners that have to be taken slowly as I can’t see
what might be coming round them. That day he saw me a little earlier on
the route, just rolling onto the first bridge…
My conclusion. This chap has taken my concern for his safty as
“wobblyness”… because the uni weave is more noticeable at slow speeds
and I’ve been slowing down to pass him and the kid carefully.
Still, it made a change from the " you’ve lost a wheel" that I get from at
least two people a week. My current reply is to grin and shout back " No,
I found this one" or occasionaly, “yes, they’ll nick anything round here”.
People always say “you’ve lost a wheel” to me too. The funny thing is that they all think they’re being original and that they’re the first person who has ever made that remark:)
It is always nice to hear a thoughtful comment, I had only just gone around the corner so he thought it up quickly.
A Circus is arriving today about 0.25miles from my house so for the next week I am expecting a lot more comments. The only one I have heard so far was the Mother telling the kid ‘No you can’t go to the Circus’ and then started whinging about blatant advertising!
I wonder if the comments round my way are changing.
Over the last year they seem less aggressive, I used to get a lot of “FALL OFF!” and “What a show off” and rude laughing if you fell off even if you were obviously hurt.
Comments particularly from teenagers these days usually start with. “Wow … COOL!”.
My son & I got that today followed by “Can you do a back flip?”
The other day my friend and I were practicing stuff on the road, when all of a sudden some idiot drives by and yells, “UNICYCLERS ONLY HAVE ONE BALL!!”. This made me angry because not only was he stupid enough to make such a comment, but he was stupid enough to call me a ‘unicycler’, not a unicyclist.
But to make my day better, later on as I was unicycling down the sidewalk a bicyclist biked by and said, “woo-hoo, way to go!” and stuck up his thumb. Its people like that that make unicycling worth while.
i ride on main street in my town sometimes. and i always get annoying reactions similar to yours. the most popular one is do a wheelie. i hear it so very often and it is anoying. some times i give out a fake laugh and some times i ingore it. don’t the people know that a wheelie is nothing compared to riding a unicycle
What angered me so much about the comment made to me was not that it was a stupid comment, but that it was a rude and hurtful.
Another time I was riding home and someone took the time to stop their car, roll down their window, point and laugh at me in a very insulting way. Ii hope then next time the guy stops in the middle of a busy road he gets hit by another car…muahahah)
This, Sarah, is a fine reminder that the same event is usually seen differently by each person who views it and that we should all always try to keep our minds open and try inasmuch as we can to give others the benefit of the doubt. It is a life lesson, I think only incidentally related to unicycling and as such, shame on you for posting it here rather than “Just Conversation”.
Probably the most popular one I get is a variation of someone telling me to hop.
Bikers say “can you do a bunny hop?”
skaters say “can you do an ollie?”
I think that a unicycle hop should have it’s own name.
Several weeks ago I had an encounter with a motorist coming in the opposite
direction. He yelled something that ended with “FALL OFF” just as he threw
a water bottle out the window. The bottle which was about 1/4 full whizzed
past me and almost hit a mother and daughter that was leaving a park. I
wasn’t startled but did a dismount to get a better look at this guy’s
vehicle.
I returned home and related my experience to my neighbor. We both have
motorcycles and that stereotypical biker look (beards, etc). I found this
guy’s vehicle parked in front of his house only blocks from where he
assaulted me. What a idiot to do something in your own backyard. We sat in
front of his house reving the bikes and took down tag numbers, house
numbers, etc and went home to cool off. He was home the whole time but
didn’t come out.
The only thing I’ve done since then is to make his street a regular part of
my evening ride so I can ride a few circles in front of his house.
I was at a school in Austin going down a pretty steep hill when these guys said to me “Oh there he goes, Cool Guy, on a unicycle! Oh go go go” Out of all comments, this particular one made me mad. He said it so sarcastically, like he could actually ride it.
It’s funny insecure highschoolers are more creative in there attempts to make you feel stupid and thus themselves better. they either get lazy, or stupid in college, as they usually only yell a few swear words at you or assume you are gay, or in the circus, or in a gay circus. Or in a gay circus for their swearing delight and advancement in social status. Nevertheless obviously you are a threat to them and need to be dealt with before you deviate from every other faceless tool that conforms out of fear. You ever get bored of walking and just decide to run to where you are going? If you aren’t dressed for running, then people yell at you as much as they would a unicycle. Try walking backwards down the road, you will get the same flavor of crap, you just won’t see who said it for an extra 20 seconds.
-gauss
If you carry a thing and a driver threatens and/or assaults you, aiming the
thing at his right eye (yeah, I’m a lefty) will often cause him to brake
hard and reconsider his manners and intentions.
Purely hypothetical speculation, of course. I don’t even OWN a thing…
If that’s a little too cold-hearted for you, stores do sell non-functional
replica things.
“If that’s a little too cold-hearted for you, stores do sell non-functional
replica things.”
whoa there, big fella’
firstly u need to take cognisance of the laws in your area regarding pointing ‘objects’
it generally amounts to assault and if done without due provocation (being sworn at hardly ever cuts it), can land u in very deep water
the same goes for the replica thingies
secondly, bear in mind that non-functional replica thingies may well elicit a functional non-replica response
u get hit in the chest by one of those travelling at 1000fps and u wont care about the other wheel anymore
> whoa there, big fella’
> firstly u need to take cognizance of the laws in your area regarding
> pointing ‘objects’
Of course I would never do anything like that.
> it generally amounts to assault and if done without due provocation
> (being sworn at hardly ever cuts it), can land u in very deep water
> the same goes for the replica thingies
I wasn’t referring to be sworn at, I was referring to assault: thrown
bottles, swerving cars, et cetera. All hypothetically, of course.
>
> secondly, bear in mind that non-functional replica thingies may well
> elicit a functional non-replica response
I’m cold-hearted enough that it’s not an issue.
> smile, ignore, walk away
The smile scares 'em too.
>
> don’t escalate something that was nothing
Cycled to the State Fair, just a few blocks from work. All the suits and skirts mosey down out of the office buildings for lunch to get 'em some of that holesome fair fare. I stoped by the petting zoo, road through the stables, then picked my way through the throng of pedestrians. As I a passed a couple skirts, one says to the other ‘Dork.’ the other cut sultry eyes in my direction and said, ‘Ya? I gotta get me some Dork, then.’
The high school where I do a lot of practicing is exceptional in the number of good comments I get. I could count on two fingers the number of bad comments I’ve had in 11.9 months so far.
The second one so far was yesterday when I was trying, unsuccessfully, for the millionth time to get wheel walking going from an idle. A football game had sprung up during my practice time so I had an audience (happens all the time). Eventually some ignorant, foul-mouthed idiot said in a loud voice, “Why doesn’t he just ride the f***ing thing?” or something similar. I ignored him for a while then moved a little ways away. But in thinking about it I realized how arrogant unicycling really is. “Mouth John” probably couldn’t even think of being able to ride a uni and here I was trying to ride it with my feet off the pedals. That’s pretty arrogant, isn’t it?
