The way i got started was similar to others. My brother and I recived one for christmas and ever since then i have unicycled . I now own 2 of my own. I enjoy it because i like challenges and i know that i can allways learn something new on it.
My reason is exactly as you say, how many people do you see riding a unicycle? I’m in a rural area. I just love to ride around the quiet roads and think of what the cars that drive by must be thinking! It just kinda makes me chortle (chuckle and snort, uh never mind).
It’s just the fact that it’s such an eccentric thing to do. And hey, I could already juggle! So why not?
to be unique and noticeable
When I was just a youngin (6 years ago), i saw my cousin riding his unicycle around his neighborhood and everyone stopped to watch. from that day i knew i wanted the attention that unicyclers get. its great to be recognized. how can you not stop to watch a unicycler? its mesmorizing. when’s the last time you stopped to watch some kid skateboarding down the street?
Re: What made you first pick this up?
> digigal1 wrote:
>> *I hope this question is OK for this forum. What made everyone first
>> decide to try unicycling? … Tell me your story - I know you want
>> to. *
Roadwork is really boring. Finding new ways to do it makes it less so.
Unicycling, very much less so.
Ever since I was little I’ve been looking for a hobby to keep me busy but was never able to find anything very challenging. I was riding around on my monkey bike when someone in a passing car screamed"yeah thats right, the circus is that way!" Somehow at the time the circus made me think of unicycling, so after my next pay check i went out and bought one at the local bike shop and sure enough, its kept me busy without getting boring.
When I was 10 or so, my buddy next door got one as a present and soon could ride. I tried his a few times, couldn’t get it, gave up. Fast forward 30 years. One day I’m thinking back to that friend and his unicycle, and it suddenly hit my why he learned to ride and I didn’t: it was his unicycle, so he could practice more. Went out and bought one the next day, got over the hump, and became an “around the blocker” for a year or so. Then, right about this time last year, I started riding off road, went to Moab, met tons of people much more advanced than I was, and have been trying to keep up with them ever since. I think unicycling and skiing are similar that way: lessons are okay, but eventually the best way to improve is to hang with people that are better than you are.
Condensed version: It was time for my mid-life crisis, and I was too poor to afford a Ferrari or 'Vette, so I bought a uni instead.
Re: What made you first pick this up?
On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 13:27:28 -0600, “bugman” wrote:
>I heard that long hours in the saddle had a physical effect like Viagra.
Oops. Did it work out the way you wanted? 
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“Heck, even my toes were aching from trying to grip the soles of my shoes! - Tommy Thompson”
In 1963 or 1964, I read an article in Popular Mechanics or Mechanics Illustrated entitled, “How to Build and Ride a Unicycle.” The riding part intrigued me. I got one for my next birthday, a used, homemade 20" with a straight steel plate seat padded with foam rubber and a crude cover. I learned to ride it in three days. I did cut a 2x4 U, drilled and cut the steel plate and screwed the 2x4 to it to make a reasonably shaped unicycle seat. I wrapped it in foam and put the cover back on it. The next year I bought a brand new 24" Oxford. That was high-tech.
I went to China with some friends, and a couple of them could ride- one had a basic 24x3 and they told me about off road riding and I thought it sounded pretty cool. I figured it’d be one of those skills where you learn to do it basically, then stop and just have it as a conversation topic.
Anyway, after blabbing on and on about getting one, my girlfriend got me a 20" for my 18th. I didn’t really try to learn it for another 3-4 weeks, but as I was on a year out of school, I decided to really try to learn it. It took hours and hours over the course of two days to free mount (had to learn to do this, as my girlfriends shoulder was getting sore!) and ride down the street. Then I decided to just learn to go forwards and left and right. Then backwards, and then hop up curbs etc etc. I thought “I’ll just try and learn this” but when I learned it, I’d want to learn something new and it just escalated!
Someone lied to Bugs. --chirokid–
Re: What made you first pick this up?
Gurrrr, this question plagues my mind.
I have no idea why I wanted to learn to unicycle. My parents tell me I wanted on when I was 7 years old. No getting one, I asked again for Christmas the next year.
It came under the Christmas tree that year. It was a little 20" piece of crap Sears model. The cranks were one piece. This even included the axle for each pedal. But, that was the uni that I learned to ride on. Now, my household has 8 unis, and all my daughters ride too.
Having said all that, I still have no idea why I wanted to learn to ride. --chirokid–
Part Insanity…Part HEY COOL
hiya =)
Over the years their have been lots of unicycling things that i’ve seen. Most just people bring up unicycling in random conversations. And I can’t for get the unicycling animitronic clown outside a matress store that waves at everyone but it was stationary 
I first actually considered unicycling after I saw something on Teletubbies (they showed a clip of a kid riding his unicycle). Then their was a kid in St. Louis that i had to prove wrong. Then just before the summer started I broke up with my girl and was all but I saw a unicycle in a b*ike shop window and I got myself a 20" torker. I got all with lots of owwwiieeee’s.
Now i just have to find a grass skirt and learn to play my ukulele while riding. well that’s my story and i’m sticking to it. Along with some of the strange things I like doin, which looks like it wouldn’t be all that strange here though… oh well
…incentive to ride…
My brother and I had both been juggling for several years and saw unicycling as a natural progression. Half jokingly, we put “unicycle” on our Christmas list and, sure enough, our grandparents bought us a cheap-o from the local cycle shop.
Things took off from there and haven’t stopped since. We now have six uni’s/uw’s between us and thousands of hours in the saddle.
Years ago I saw one at a yard sale and passed it by. Later I regretted that (slightly).
Fast-forward several years: I see another one at a yard sale. How could I resist? A 20 inch Cycle Design. Asking price $35 USD. It didn’t take too much work to talk them down to $20.
I’m not allowed to buy anything at a yard sale that I won’t use (my own rule). So having bought it, I was forced to learn.
I figured that once I learned to ride it, that would be the end of it. It didn’t seem to have many possibilities. Reading rec.sport.unicycling I found out how wrong that was.
–Mark
Interesting, because that is exactly what I thought. The uni looked like a nice new challege for a 43 yr old. My goal was to ride to the mailbox and back (~1/4 mile). I nailed that goal pretty quick and learned that I really enjoyed the hobby along the way.
I been into unis for 6 whole weeks now…