I saw an amazing thing 2 days ago: I was idly 1 foot idling on the sidewalk
downtown and two young (20-25) guys walked by. One said to the other, “That
looks easy.” So I talked to them, and let him have a try. Though he said he
never tried a unicycle before, he got about 1 1/2 revolutions on his first try.
But then he tried again and rode at least 50 feet down the sidewalk! Slightly
shakey, but still amazing. Then I confronted him with the fact that he must have
ridden before, and he again claimed not to have, and certainly had no reason to
lie. He said he had done “similar things”, like stiltwalking and bicycling.
Have any of you seen someone like this before? It took me so many tries before I
ever rode 50 feet without holding on to something!
Prior to this, the fastest learning I’d seen was my 14 year old nephew who
learned to freemount and ride 50 feet in a single 3 hour practice session, but
that included MANY MANY tries.
In message “What’s the fastest anyone learned to ride?”, Nathan Hoover wrote… >I saw an amazing thing 2 days ago: I was idly 1 foot idling on the sidewalk >downtown and two young (20-25) guys walked by. One said to the other, "That >looks easy." So I talked to them, and let him have a try. Though he said he >never tried a unicycle before, he got about 1 1/2 revolutions on his first >try. But then he tried again and rode at least 50 feet down the sidewalk! >Slightly shakey, but still amazing. Then I confronted him with the fact that >he must have ridden before, and he again claimed not to have, and certainly >had no reason to lie. He said he had done “similar things”, like stiltwalking >and bicycling. > >Have any of you seen someone like this before? It took me so many tries before >I ever rode 50 feet without holding on to something!
About 20 years ago when I first started to promote the sport of unicycling in
Japan, I once let someone try my unicycle. He held on to a fence while
getting on, and IMMEDIATELY rode off for at leas 15 meters! I was absolutely
amazed, but this man had never ridden a unicycle before. Perhaps that is some
kind of world record? I could check his name if the recordkeepers want to
consider it a record.
>Prior to this, the fastest learning I’d seen was my 14 year old nephew who >learned to freemount and ride 50 feet in a single 3 hour practice session, but >that included MANY MANY tries. > >—Nathan, getting psyched for NUC! > > >
Regards, Jack Halpern Kanji Dictionary Publishing Society, http://www.kanji.org
Voice: +81-048-481-3103 Fax: +81-048-479-1323
The fastest I’ve ever seen was one of my flatmates when I was learning to ride
ten years ago. I spent every evening for days clinging onto lamp-posts etc. He
was a lifeguard and fitness instructor at a local sports centre. He got on it
and just rode it. How I hated him He swore he’d never done it before in his
life. I just swore.
Jed Nichols
At 12:40 26/07/99 -0700, Nathan Hoover wrote: >I saw an amazing thing 2 days ago: I was idly 1 foot idling on the sidewalk >downtown and two young (20-25) guys walked by. One said to the other, "That >looks easy." So I talked to them, and let him have a try. Though he said he >never tried a unicycle before, he got about 1 1/2 revolutions on his first try. >But then he tried again and rode at least 50 feet down the sidewalk! Slightly >shakey, but still amazing. Then I confronted him with the fact that he must >have ridden before, and he again claimed not to have, and certainly had no >reason to lie. He said he had done “similar things”, like stiltwalking and >bicycling. > >Have any of you seen someone like this before? It took me so many tries before >I ever rode 50 feet without holding on to something! > >Prior to this, the fastest learning I’d seen was my 14 year old nephew who >learned to freemount and ride 50 feet in a single 3 hour practice session, but >that included MANY MANY tries. > >—Nathan, getting psyched for NUC! > >
In message “Re: What’s the fastest anyone learned to ride?”, Jeremy
Nichols wrote… > >> >>Have any of you seen someone like this before? It took me so many tries >>before I ever rode 50 feet without holding on to something! >> >>Prior to this, the fastest learning I’d seen was my 14 year old nephew who >>learned to freemount and ride 50 feet in a single 3 hour practice session, >>but that included MANY MANY tries.
In my book ANYONE CAN RIDE A UNICYCLE I claim that one can learn in less than
hour, often in less than 30 minutes, to ride for several revolutions in more or
less a straight line. I have seen countless cases of this when teaching
unicycling in Japan. The important thing is to use the correct practice
techniques, whcih are ouotlined in that book and are based on the pineering work
of Bill Jenack.
He swore he’d never done it before in his