I hope this question is OK for this forum. What made everyone first decide to try unicycling? It’s not very prevalent in the big picture. I’ve mentioned on another thread that I’ve never seen a unicycler in my everyday experience. There are so many other choices out there - skating/boarding, biking, snow skiing/boarding, mountain climbing, etc. Tell me your story - I know you want to.
Re: What made you first pick this up?
Very OK. In fact, it got four pages a year ago in what got you interested in Unicycling?.
My story is the same except I’ve passed level 4 since then.
There’s got to be more stories to be told.
Well, I’m a speedcuber. I solve Rubiks Cubes – FOR SPEED!
Anyway, I saw on a WEBSITE that someone had solved a cube while idling in 20 something seconds. So I wanted to learn to unicycle.
I got one for Christmas last year, like, the Christmas before the last Christmas we had. It was a really crappy unicycle, but it worked. After mastering the unicubing, I started doing a bunch of stuff like Trials/MUni/etc.
That is my story.
I couple years ago I was thinking about how I could get from my school’s parking lot to my classes with out walking. The parking lot is about a half mile away from the school. I thought about bringing a bike (too big) and riding a scooter (too dorky). After thinking about it for a while, I settled on getting a unicycle. Why a unicycle? Well, it looked like fun, was quieter then a scooter, and it could fit in my trunk.
So after about a month of research, I went with the Torker. A quick trip to Ebay and a couple weeks wait for shipping later and I hade myself my very own uni. At the time there was only the chrome Torker, so that’s what I went with.
After a couple weeks to learn to ride, I was ready to start using it for it’s original intended purpose. As it turned out, the school year was ending and the following semesters I have always won the parking lottery so there was no need to ride it to class. Of course, even if I don’t use it for what I originally intended I don’t regret it at all. As it stands now, I have a half dozen unicycles of different types, sizes and cost. This is one hobby I don’t intend to give up on anytime soon.
Re: What made you first pick this up?
Spite, plain and simple.
I like to do things that confuse other people - mix chocolate milk and orange juice, read books in trees, and other junk like that. Basically, I enjoy things that other people think are stupid and/or dangerous. Most of my friends think unicycling is stupid and/or dangerous, so it seemed like a perfect choice. I have yet to regret it.
Rob
boredom…
i was bored one day, so i goes to a local bike shop. i sees this unicycle on da wall. i say is that as hard as it looks? i remember seeing one as a kid in somones trunk. the owner goes, “nah, i can do it.” he rode like 10 feet in the store. i said, “thats awesome, ill take it!” brought it home. my mom said id kill myself. my dad said i expected nothing less, youre crazy. my friends said i was insane. know what? ive taught at least 6 people to ride since then, bought 6 additional unicycles to the first, and havent regreted any of it. thats muh story.
I was abducted by aliens who implanted in my brain the ability to ride and few skills at a mediocre level. They also put a block in there to keep me from getting any better. The must also have put in a touch of optimism to keep me trying.
I can prove it all.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
I heard that long hours in the saddle had a physical effect like Viagra. I don’t like taking medications, so I learned to unicycle.
boredom…
i was bored one day, so i goes to a local bike shop. i sees this unicycle on da wall. i say is that as hard as it looks? i remember seeing one as a kid in somones trunk. the owner goes, “nah, i can do it.” he rode like 10 feet in the store. i said, “thats awesome, ill take it!” brought it home. my mom said id kill myself. my dad said i expected nothing less, youre crazy. my friends said i was insane. know what? ive taught at least 6 people to ride since then, bought 6 additional unicycles to the first, and havent regreted any of it. thats muh story.
Re: What made you first pick this up?
“digigal1” <digigal1@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote in
message news:digigal1.13br54@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com…
>
> I hope this question is OK for this forum. What made everyone first
> decide to try unicycling? It’s not very prevalent in the big picture.
> I’ve mentioned on another thread that I’ve never seen a unicycler in my
> everyday experience. There are so many other choices out there -
> skating/boarding, biking, snow skiing/boarding, mountain climbing, etc.
> Tell me your story - I know you want to.
>
It just seemed a natural progression when they let me out of the
institution.
Nao
I was at the after-school centre and the unicycle was right there.
For me, after seeing George Peck’s Rough Terrain Unicycling video in June 1997, it was clear that I needed to graduate from a mountain bike to a mountain unicycle. 4 or 5 of us saw that video that day, and every one of them learned to ride that year and still rides.
—Nathan
I’ve always been into hiking and biking, so unicycling seemed to be something in between those two hobbies which also gave a fantastic new challenge into the bargain, and just another good reason to be out in the country side getting some excersise. I remember seeing Muni on TV a few years ago on a UK programme called Country Tracks with a bloke explaining why he rode around the woods on a unicycle. Does anyone else remember seeing that or know who that was? Anyway I thought to myself that I must try that one day and last year did, and now I am hooked on Muni and can’t get enough of it.
Can’t wait for the clocks to go forward so then I can start getting some in after work.
One day my friend was playing on the computer when I was at his house and it was boring for me. So I just decided to get his crappy unicycle out of his shed that they had never used. Then when I could ride it a littel bit I taught Bryan m.
Sheer boredom one summer day at the age of 11 combined with discovering my brother’s long forgotten uni in the garage.
Now how my brother ever got around to buying a uni, I’ll never know.
i wanted a mountain board for christmas and if i couldnt get that i wanted some froot boots (yes froot) but my mom couldnt find any and i was looking at a kh signature uni in a bke shop when my mom was taking in here bke to get fixed. She saw me looking at it and asked me if i liked it, then sure enough it was under the tree a couple weeks later:) i’ve been riding a year now i started when i was 10
There was an old uni in my shed that my mom used to ride when she was a kid so one day i deceided to give it a go.
I was a hang glider pilot for about 6 years. I used to jump off perfectly good mountains, soar around for a few minutes or a few hours depending on conditions and land. HG pilots would always have some type of back up activity to do in case of non optimum flying conditions. Kite flying, model glider soaring, even using a sling shot to deliver water balloons to each other. During that time I remember seeing one of the other pilots trying to learn to ride a unicycle. I tried and failed miserably.
I get married, a year and a half later we have our first child. Financially and the possibility of getting hurt flying, I decide that hang gliding may not be for me anymore.
A few more years pass, another child, and needing a new challenge, something flashes in my mind, back to the afternoon when I saw a hang glider pilot learning to ride his unicycle.
I ask for and receive from my wife a 20" Torker for Christmas 2003, and now I’m back flying again.
“And me, I’m flying in my taxi,
Taking tips, and getting stoned”
Harry Chapin
my uncle moved and found an old unicycle that he had. he gave it to me, and i figured since I had a unicycle, I might as well learn to ride it. So I did. Now that he knows I’ve got a couple new unis since then, he wants it back so his kid can learn.
I have always done random strange things in the past. I eat bugs and climb things. I also was raised doing alot of road cycling. We have always had about 15 bikes in our garage and the cars sit outside. I was taught everything about bicycles and assembled mine from used parts from garage sales and trash picking. I also enjoy running Ultra Marathons. Naturally the type of thing between eating bugs, climbing things, and bicycling is unicycling. I think I may have made a comment out of the blue that it would be fun to ride a unicycle. I quickly forgot about it. Months later i got a unicycle for Christmas. It was a complete surprise. I was so excited that I forgot about all of my other presents and went outside. I tried for eight hours that day, eight hours the next day, the next day I was sick with a temperature of 102 so I only rode for an hour because my parents prohibited me from getting out of bed (nothing to do with being outside on a unicycle in an Indiana winter for 16 hours i’m sure.), the next morning I got it. Two days later I was riding on the street and freemounting. I am 18 years old, a senior in high school and I have been riding for less than three months. I am obsessed and I ride backward to school, as well as practice in front of my house for at least an hour a day. I have not gone more than 10 miles from my house without my unicycle since I pulled the wrapping paper off.