As the title says, what made you want to unicycle?
Here is my story:
At lidl a quite a few years ago, they had some £30 unicycles. My dad decided to get one, and started to learn. He gave up, as he was not making any progress. I wanted to learn it, but I was not tall enough at the time to even touch the pedals. I wasn’t really fussed about it anyway.
Anyway, around July last year, we where clearing out the shed, and found that unicycle which we totally forgot about. My brother saw it, and I said I think I am proberly tall enough to ride it. However, my brother (Who thinks he knows everything) said its a fixed wheel, you will never be able to ride that. I said “you want to bet?”. So I decided I am going to prove him wrong. I learned to ride it over the next month or so. Then his face when I shown him riding it I will never forget However, when I learned that unicycle from lidl broke (its from lidl, no point in repairing it). So, money I had that I would of ended up spending on going out and video games, I got a nice unicycle.
Because of that bet, I have discovered my new hobby, which I think will last for many years to come. Since then, I ride a 20" a mile to school everyday.
In a nutshell:
My brother said I would never be able to ride it, and I wanted to prove him wrong.
I was one of those kids who wanted to run away and join the circus. Then my highschool started offering circus skills as a school sport. I did a bit of juggling and other things, but unicycling is what stuck. Although i learnt years ago, it only really became a passion when i finally had enough $$$ to buy some decent ones. Now i ride as often as i can a love every minute
I’ve always wanted to ride, but there was a divine coincidence that pushed me to take the challenge.
First of all, I saw an old Schwinn 20" at the thrift store for $10. I saw it and thought, hmm I’ve always wanted to learn how to ride one of those.
Secondly, my three year old son told me that he had a dream, but not a night time dream. His dream was to ride a two wheel bike without help.
So, I made him a deal. We would both learn to ride with half the wheels. For him it was by-by to the training wheels, and for me…
We had a lot of fun getting up early every day to practice, and it was cool to learn along with someone who was very determined, but at about the same comfort level. Of course he was thee, but I wasn’t going to be too picky about that. And it was really cool to show him that we can always learn something new.
It took my reading about learning to ride as an editorial on the last page of a mountain bike magazine, mention it to my wife and ,for my birthday my wife got me a norco 20 " uni, now I have a 24 ,29 and a 36er
I have an older cousin who was like my best friend growing up. He had a science teacher who rode a unicycle in class one day. He came home and said we should both get unicycles. He got one for his birthday and I got one for Christmas a few months later.
I’ve told this story a thousand times, but here goes:
I was maybe 6-8 years old, and a circus troupe came to my school to put on a show. They let us try the juggling things, the tightrope/balance beams, and a few other things, but not the unicycles. So I went home that day begging my mum for a unicycle. She refused, as being young I probably wouldn’t ever learn to ride it and it’d just gather dust (She revealed recently that she did actually try and get me one, but they were super-expensive and so she didn’t want to spend so much on a toy I’d likely never use!).
Fast forward a few years, I’m in my early 20’s, sitting in a pub with my best buddy. I drunkenly tell him my heart-wrenching story about how I was never allowed a unicycle. A couple months later (for my birthday), get a knock at my door, containing a red unicycle and a birthday note off my friend! Apparently he had decided that the price was worth paying ‘to see you fall flat on your arse’
Joke’s on him. It’s been like 2 years and I’m riding every day, and have three unicycles in the stable including his original one! I did however do about 90% of my learning to ride at his house, so he could get some entertainment, and definitely fell on my arse (and hands, and face, and every other body part) plenty of times, which he found hilarious.
However, when I learned that unicycle from lidl broke (its from lidl, no point in repairing it). So, money I had that I would of ended up spending on going out and video games, I got a nice unicycle.
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Repair it , it’s easy and becomes the perfect learning machine
I bought a lido for 50€ and when my wyfe got pregnante se had to remain at home during weekend
I said to myself now or never and in a winter I was able to ride.
The part where you put the cranks on has completely wrecked. It has actually bent, and therefore you can’t put a crank on.
So if I had to rebuild the wheel with a new hub, it would cost £50.28 for hub, spokes and nipples. Then pair of alright pedals would be £13 and paid of cranks would be £8 , so it would work out to be £71.28, it would be much cheaper and easier to buy a new one.
It is a shame as you said that I could just fix it, as I would and give it to my niece who really wants to learn it.
What made me decide to unicycle? Hmmm … Did I really have a choice after sitting on one for the first time?;)
When I was 11yo I was at the summer training camp with my sports club where I did apparatus gymnastics. (We’re an artistic sports club with floor exercises, unicycling, apparatus gymnastics, juggling, contortion, artistic cycling, ladder acrobatics, trampoline, gymwheel, skate acrobatics, rope skipping, trapeze, aerial silk, aerial net and dance.) Another boy encouraged me trying to ride his unicycle.It was fun and so since then I did unicycling.
I started unicycling March 15, 2014. That was right around the time the clocks “spring forward” for daylight savings time, and when I start noticing, every year, that the days are getting longer. I would not describe myself as a depressed person, but I have noticed that my general mood is better during months with more daylight. Anyway, I was feeling some early-spring optimism, and I think that’s what got me started on the unicycle.
Before ordering my first unicycle (Torker 24" LX), I spent a fair amount of time researching my impending purchase. I remember running across a quote by UniGeezer, the gist of which was that unicycling was the most awesome form of exercise. Having spent the previous few years in not particularly good shape, I was excited to improve my physical health. Thanks, Terry!
I was in school when I caught the bug, that was 15 years ago. We have a local group who visit schools teaching circus skills, they’re called the Earthbound Misfits
Everyone was having a great time stilt walking and diablo-ing. A couple of kids tried the juggling balls, but soon gave up after dropping them a few times. I stuck with the juggling balls until I could confidently juggle 3, then I saw the unicycle in the corner…
I asked the guy for a quick demo of it and, although I can’t remember the routine he did, it was like hearing the sweetest poetry, whilst sipping the tastiest wine, while viewing a work of art…I had found my true love in life! (The unicycle, not the dude riding it )
I convinced my mum to buy me one within a month
Since then I’ve owned, ridden and wrecked 7 unicycles (maybe 8), been hit by a car, broken bones and ridden thousands of miles…
I am still as much in love with unicycling now, as I was seeing that routine at school
Not sure what made me “decide”. I remember seeing a unicycle group in the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1967 or 68 (live), and that made a big impression. If all those kids could ride them, how impossible could it be? So that put the spark in my brain. I didn’t actually get my hands on (a borrowed) one until 1976, but I ended up sticking with it. I finally bought my own one in 1980. I think I finished that year with three or four of them. Now I have about 45 of them.
On behalf of the circus troupe, I’ll offer the reason why they probably didn’t do training on the unicycle. Unless they were working with your group for an extended period of time (5 sessions or more), it’s not enough time for beginning riders to make much progress. You don’t want to leave your crowd thinking any of the skills are impossible.
Also getting a completely new rider started, especially at young ages like 6-8, requires a lot of hands-on attention, which takes you away from being able to work with a larger group. Hope that helps! I used to work at this company.
Yes! I distinctly remember this was one of the first (if not the first) video I watched when, one day, I decided to search “unicycle” on Youtube. I’ve been hooked since.
As a teenager, I practiced a bit of juggling. Our library had a book with different patterns; it included a short mentioning of juggling on a unicycle. So I wanted to learn that at some point, but found that unicycles were too expensive for my half-hearted motivation (being just a juggling accessory). So unicycling went onto the back-burner.
In my early twenties, I once met a unicyclist who let me spend a few minutes sitting on her unicycle and held me for probably 2-3 revolutions. Made me realize that unicycling is harder than I had thought.
In late 2013 (?), I saw a Lidl unicycle on the skip and was thrilled to take it home. Realized that unicycling is hard and postponed learning to a later date.
In september 2014, I realized that I currently have the perfect basement for learning to unicycle and will be moving in 2015. So I had better take advantage and start learning!
(Yes, the Lidl soon gave up: The left crank/hub fitting was flaky, and by now also the left pedal is entirely loose. Still I’m very indebted to the lady who put the Lidl on the skip and thereby got me unicycling.)
Yes, that Youtube video and others introduced me to what unicycling can really be like. So even though I may still want to learn juggling on a unicycle some day, I’ve quickly grown much more interested in other uni skills…
However, when I learned that unicycle from lidl broke (its from lidl, no point in repairing it). So, money I had that I would of ended up spending on going out and video games, I got a nice unicycle.
Apparently he had decided that the price was worth paying ‘to see you fall flat on your arse’ 
)