It stands for un-planned dismount doesn’t it?
I’ve seen some people use it on this forum.
Where did it originate from?
Is it just americans that use it?
Does anyone else apart from me think that making absolutely everything a TLA (three letter acronym) is a little excessive?
Would it not just make more sense to say fall off?
discuss… 
I think it originated in rec.sport.unicycling, the Usenet newsgroup from which this forum gets its name. It could be older, dating back to the “unicycling mailing list” that existed before that. A little research of old threads might be able to determine who started the whole thing.
In the days before Web-based online forums, newsgroups were the way to go, but they were a little more geeky (less accessible) than what we have now. So there were even more scientists, computer geeks and other types of nerd then, than there are now. Many of these people are attracted to TLAs.
Yes. And whereas I think MUni is a workable term for us to use amongst ourselves, it is not intended for the non-unicycling public. For them we should still be calling it mountain unicycling (or rough terrain unicycling). Same goes, even moreso, for guni, funi, etc.
Yup. But that’s not nerdly enough.
I saw somewhere that someone said they used to call Muni UMX, I like that haha!
Ahh, that explains a lot. Thanks.
I totally agree that Muni works well among unicyclists.
UMX. Like it
Bicycle Motor X, Unicycle Motor X
Ha, Great stuff. Loved the video. Nice to see some variety, rather than just another trials line.
I need a keyboard just so I can demand random accompaniments like that.
It could also be used as describing word. “I just got up’d” This could apply to someone who nutted it on a rail, or fell with their buttocks on a sharp stick, something of that nature.
like, pwned or owned or epic fail
That’s actually what I thought you guys meant before I found out it’s true meaning.
no, falling off is different. UPD is used to signify those incidents where you had to step off the uni unintentionally but you didn’t actualy fall over. This is why we need the acronym, because it refers to something very sepcific that there isn’t a word for in the english langauge.
Before MUni there was U.M.X. I coined that term for an article about dirt riding in the Unicycling Society of America newsletter in 1981. Years later, when offroad racing events were added to unicycle competitions, those were called U.M.X. as well, because that was the known expression. But at the time, there wasn’t really any organized offroad unicycling going on. U.M.X. was used as a tie-in to BMX, which was very popular at the time.
Problem with U.M.X. is that it wasn’t what we were doing. In fact I’ve only ever heard of one example of a real motocross race on unicycles (at a winter event in Toronto a few years back). Moto races are short heats, that you generally do a lot of to narrow down to your top riders. We have usually always done medium to long races for time, and that was it.
The term “muni” came along in 1995 (on rec.sport.unicycling) and has become the common term for dirt unicycling.
I disagree. There is falling off the unicycle, and falling down off the unicycle. Both are UPDs. In fact, I don’t think we have a TLA to describe a UPD where you specifically don’t land on your feet. Though UPD generally means (unintentionally) falling off the unicycle without falling down, this is not certain. It’s still a UPD if you fall off the unicycle and then stumble off a cliff.
And if that fall was caused by a little tiny rock, it would be an LAD (Lame-Ass Dismount).
I find it funny when TLA’s become verbs. Even if the TLA is describing an action, saying “I LOLed” or “I UPD’d” is a little silly, IMO.
FYI in the USA it is SOP to TLA long words ETC…
According to ATT and AAA the USA improves our GDP by TLA during NWR. Saves lots of USD for our CFOs IMO. My CPU needs CPR now FWIW. I am reading this at the DMV for my BMW sorry if it’s FUBAR.
EOM
Falling off over a tiny rock would be lame but with the stumbling over cliff element added it will have been transformed from lame to the proportions of epic fail.
LMFAOed
wow, there’s some effort gone into that one.
what does AAA mean. American Acronym Association?
I understood GDP which I’m pretty pleased about and some of the others are very commonplace.
EOM - end of message
I’ve got a good idea what FUBAR might mean.
Old lung specialist think a UPD is a breathing treatment for patients.
On unicycles, it’s either planned or not planned(upd).
Let’s talk about the degrees of the upd. Landing on your feet…or not.
Even when falling on difficult trick it’s not planned to fail.
I agree with Kington99 on this definition. Somehow the image of dismount is more graceful than falling off. It makes it almost look intentional to the non-rider because they expect you to land on your face if you weren’t expecting to fall, but your reflexes kick in and it looks pretty safe. Falling off is more of a disgraceful dismount, and could involve landing on your hands or butt or crashing into something. It is good to have a seperate term and there is no need to confuse the two with ambiguity.
Stumbling over a cliff after UPD’ing would be the worst possible scenario for a UPD and I think it would transform it’s category into a crash or fall because you don’t dismount over the edge of cliffs unless you are suicidal.
I have been in that exact situation- Tony and Will should remember quite clearly. We were riding along a really sticky mud covered track near Whangamomina and there was about a 30m sheer drop down to the river. My pedals were getting very caked with mud after stopping a lot to clear mud from the frame of my MUni. I looked down to my right and thought “I wouldn’t want to go down there” and the next thing I UPD’d and slipped over the edge of the cliff, being left with my legs dangling down and held up only by my arms, and luckily my MUni fell back to where there was a ledge on the steep face. I clambered back up to the amazement of Will and Tony. I felt very lucky and was glad not to be smashed on the cliff and in the water below.
I think that David Stone is frequently credited with the first use of UPD. In this link Klaas Bil discusses a little of its history.
I can just imagine someone doing that casually.
Wow. Death defying tale. How did you get the Muni back? clamber down?
