What inspired you to learn



U

Underdog

Guest
I just wanted to get some peoples stories of what inspired them to learn
to ride a uni. There's probably already been some threads like this but
I'm kinda new to the forum and would like to know. My inspiration came
from a film festival I saw in February where they showed "Into the
Thunder Dragon." I absolutely couldn't beleive my eyes. I thought,
"Cool, I gotta learn how to do that." Prior to that my impression of
unicycling was that it was 'entertainment.' Now I know that it's a
serious sport.:cool:

--
underdog - level 0.5 rider

toast is god's way of saying 'eat more butter'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
underdog's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/6197
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
In the mid-1980's I took a one-year class in acrobatics (one
night per week). On one occasion the workshop leader brought
some unicycles for a change. Quite a few of my fellow would-
be acrobats enjoyed it and many could wobble for a few
meters after just one hour of practice. I only made a fool
of myself and decided this was definitely not for me. Never
thought of unicycling again until...

My circus-crazy daughter Jorga wanted a unicycle very badly
(how she got that unworldly idea I don't know), and we
bought her a 20" Showtime for her 11th birthday in January
2000. I enjoyed teaching her how to ride and freemount. I
was still a non-rider at the time but I quickly found
rec.sport.unicycling and other internet resources. When I
saw her picking it up I noticed a slowly-emerging itch to
try (again) and learn myself as well. Many people in
rec.sport.unicycling who had never met me were very helpful
and several also advised like: scratch that itch - learn to
ride too - why let her have all the fun.

In June 2000 we discovered a unicycle club not very far
away. They were very open to beginners and I took my first
lesson in June but the second only in September 2000 after
the summer break. So I reckon 10 September 2000 is day 1 of
modern history.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
be sure to remove the saddle and simply sit on the seat
post. this is far more comfortable - tennisgh22 on the
comfort of Savage unis
 
At the age of 5 or 6, my family watched the Detroit
Thanksgiving Day Parade from my grandfather's 2nd floor
office on Woodward Avenue. The street was about to be
widened, and the front part of the building we were in was
going to be torn down. This vantage point was a one-time
thing, and was just about where the parade assembles.

That parade made a strong impression on me and my brother
and sister, and my grandpa (a graphic artist) encouraged us
to draw pictures of it on these huge newsprint pads he set
us up with afterwards. Among other things, I rememberd the
unicycles, and noticed them in the following years in the
parade on TV.

Now I'm not sure which group of unicycles it was. I'm told
that in 1967 it was the St. Helens Dill Team, but in 1968 it
switched over to the Pontiac Unicycle Club. They were the
ones I saw in subsequent years.

About a year after I had finally learned to ride, either 12
or 13 years later, I would enter the same parade with the
Redford Township Unicycle Club. In the snow. Woohoo!

I count that early parade as my main inspiration. I'm sure
there were other influences, such as Dr. Seuss with his zany
vehicles, and probably other childrens books.

Many years later in 8th grade, around the time I had been
trying to ride the P.O.S. Troxel I borrowed (which fell
apart before I could master
it), I saw an even more amazing unicycle performance. This
was in my junior high school talent show, which I also
did a performance in (I'm not going to describe it and
there were no unicycles involved). Jim Bossey of the
Pontiac Unicyclists performed on a regular 24" Schwinn
and a 5 or 6 foot giraffe, which he rode off a jump ramp.
I still remember thinking he was absolutely positively
going to die. When he didn't die, I was totally blown
away. This was probably the Pontiac Unicycle Club's
regular jump ramp that they used in shows, to jump over
prone unicyclists. Probably a foot high or so. I remember
at the tryouts that Jim also had a 10 footer, and
something I've never seen before or since, a 10'
handlebar unit. I never saw him use either of those,
because the stage was too low.

Anyway, it was another three years after that before I
finally got my hands on a "real" unicycle to learn on, the
Schwinn Giraffe of Bradley Bradley!

--
johnfoss - Walkin' on the edge

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com"
www.unicycling.com

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not
because they are easy, but because they are hard." -- John F. Kennedy,
1961
------------------------------------------------------------------------
johnfoss's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/832
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
When my uncle was in highschool i guess he purchased a
unicycle and learned to ride in it. about ten or fifteen
years later when i came along i was exposed to it a few
times but never felt any interest in it, probably because
the clown impression a unicycle makes. Well needless to say
i didnt even try to learn to ride it. Then one day about
five or six years ago my cousin was digging around in his
dads old junk, when he happened upon the unicycle. Looking
for something new to do he decided to try it out, so his
dad said that if he learned, his dad would buy a new
unicycle for him. Pretty soon he did learn, and acquired a
new unicycle. Needless to say this didn't go without my
noticing it,and i was soon trying, although it wasn't until
a year later when i bought a unicycle for myself that i
actually learned how to ride. Everything has just kind've
gone from there.

--
brennan - hey look a two wheeled unicycle

with the death of the clown the unicyle is reborn
------------------------------------------------------------------------
brennan's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/4378
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
i saw my friends older brother riding a coker and i was like awesome, i
want to do that, and he let me borrow one of his 20 inchs the last weeks
of the summer of 2003 and i went from that:D

--
JVTFm - hopping with one pedal

"all your base are belong to us"
"life is short and god is man"

------------------------------------------------------------------------
JVTFm's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/6432
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
It was the weirdest thing ever I had no inspiration at all.
I think it might of indirectly have something to do with my
interest in juggling. I was just at the point where the easy
tricks, were easy, the medium tricks were easy, and the hard
tricks seemed to far off, and it started to get boring. So I
gave it up for a while. Then out of the blue I wanted a
unicycle. I remember it almost exactly. It was a year and a
half ago and I was driving down Hawthorne St. just passing
the Corner Store, when I said aloud in my head "I want a
unicycle." Couple months later I bought a 20" Torker and
taught myself. These forums and the Gallery have inspired me
to take it further in the last few months, but other then
that, I had no inspiration at all, starting off. Has this
happened to anyone else? or am i just weird.

David

--
darchibald - Unofficial level 3.8

"Testacles still intact" ~ My mom's reaction after watching me do a
suicide mount.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
darchibald's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/6240
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
Well, I'm a Rubiks Cube World Champion. And I heard of this
guy who could solve a Rubiks Cube while idling. So I thought
to myself, "Wehooa!! COOL" I wanted to try. And I did.

--
James_Potter - Rettop_Semaj

-If there was an eleventh commandment, it is to be "thou shalt dip thy
pizza, for it is, wicked."-
--Thedan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
James_Potter's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3807
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
I was walking through a flea market one weekend and spotted a piece of
junk 24" uni and decided to buy it and learn to ride. That was a little
over a year (and 5 unicycles) ago. I guess you could say I just got the
bug :D

--
Krashin'Kenny - Crash Tested

If you ain't crashing, you ain't going fast enough!!!!!!!!!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Krashin'Kenny's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3420
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
I got hooked on unicycling when my buddy Jesse Shumaker and
George Barnes decided to ride their Cokers across Iowa.

Now I have a 24" united, 36" Coker, and 26" GB4 Muni

you can check 'em out at http://www.gurai.unicyclist.com/

or http://www.gb4mfg.com

--
onetiredguy

I invented popular videos games such as "Dig Dug" and "Q-Bert"

I also came up with the name "Frogger." Can you believe they wanted to
name it "Highway Crossing Frog"?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
onetiredguy's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/5768
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
I was inspired about 8 years ago now when i was at the local
carnival and there was a circus workshop with pedal go's and
plate spinning type activities. But there were also a few
unicycles and people having a go, when i realised that you
didn't actually have to be born with the ability to unicycle
i found out about a local club and learnt to unicycle! It
had the biggest impact on my life!

--
little_leigh - 1ft all the way!

*-* Just nod and smile *-*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
little_leigh's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/6356
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
I used to mountain bike a fair bit and saw Kris Holm doing
muni on a movie called New World Disorder.

Andrew

--
andrew_carter - www.unicycles.com.au

HTTP://WWW.UNICYCLIST.COM/GALLERY/ANDREW
andrew_carter (at) mail (dot) com
http://www.unicycles.com.au
New photos added 11/04 - http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albuu61
------------------------------------------------------------------------
andrew_carter's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1052
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
About 4 months ago i got home from holiday in The
Netherlands and i rang my best friend, he told me his
brother had got a unicycle and that he could ride aswell,
that was that, if he could ride i had to (im kind of
competitive i guess) took me 20 mins the next day to ride
20m or so and from then i was hooked. I kept riding every
day and eventually bought the unicycle off my friends
brother. In two days i will have ridden for 4 months and i
guess you could say i caught the bug, i now have a new muni
and am loving it. So thats it really, my friend could ride
so i had to.

--
munimanpete - come on and do the muni

"Look mum, that boy's on a circus bike"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
munimanpete's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/6311
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
I was at a party/bbq in England and there was a bunch of
people tryin to learn to ride this little red unicycle... at
the end of the day I still wanted to learn properly, so I
asked if I could borrow it for a few days.

After I learned to ride I talked my dad into gettin me one,
I learned how to idle and I could do the odd little bunnyhop
but I kinda just stopped riding it (it did have a fairly
uncomfortable seat).

9 and a half years later I heard of this local surgeon
called Ken Looi who was competing in MTB events on his
"MUni", out came the old unicycle and after a bit of a
google search I discovered a thing called an "airseat
conversion", that was about 6 months ago now and I've just
competed in my first MTB event on my "MUni" :p

--
pete66 - Level 4 Unicyclist
------------------------------------------------------------------------
pete66's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/4812
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
For several years after his amazing stunt tightrope walking
between the World Trade Centers, Philippe Petit performed on
the streets of New York. Much of his time was spent in
Washington Square Park which is where I pretty much grew up.

His act was simple and elegant and consisted of juggling,
unicycling, and slackrope walking. I spent many hours
mesmerized by him and decided that I had to learn to juggle
and unicycle.

Which I did. And to quote 'Margaret White'
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074285/quotes), "I liked it.
*I liked it*."

Cheers, Raphael Lasar Matawan, NJ

--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists

'6th Annual LBI Unithon - Sat, June 5, 2004'
(http://jjuggle.unicyclist.com/lbiunithon)

*Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball!*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JJuggle's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/24
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
JJuggle wrote:
> *For several years after his amazing stunt tightrope
> walking between the World Trade Centers, Philippe Petit
> performed on the streets of New York. Much of his time was
> spent in Washington Square Park which is where I pretty
> much grew up.
>
> His act was simple and elegant and consisted of juggling,
> unicycling, and slackrope walking. I spent many hours
> mesmerized by him and decided that I had to learn to
> juggle and unicycle. *

that's funny! I knew well Philippe Petit when he started to
learn tightrope walking. we used to roam cafés of Paris: I
played the euphonium with my brassband and he started
performing with a rope he secured between two trees. (he was
good at tricks with cigarettes which is useful for
performing indoors:p )

one night he told us he was after a girl who happened to
live in a huge building near Montparnasse station so he
wanted to perform some tricks with torches and asked us a
booming performance ... that was beautiful! but some people
in the building didn't really liked that at one in the
morning !(some others sent money -which was pretty
dangerous: ever received a coin that went 10 storeys down?-)

never seen him unicycling at that time. The unicycling
celebrity was "coin-coin de St. tropez" who used to rush
towards people and make sudden half-turns . I told myself
"funny I've got to try that ..." which I did 33 years later
(I keep promises :D !)

bear

--
wobbling bear - GranPa goes-a-wobblin'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
wobbling bear's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/3716
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
My 12 year old daughter asked for one for her birthday
last year, and I thought it looked like a really
interesting thing to do. I found a beater Schwinn and
after about four hours of trying I was hooked. Now my 12
year old twins and I find any excuse we can to go riding
together. Just a great sport - and a killer workout that
can be done almost anywhere.

--
uni_bear
------------------------------------------------------------------------
uni_bear's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/6516
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395
 
little_leigh wrote:
> *It had the biggest impact on my life! *

That is very true! I have met some really amazing people,
both on and off unicycles, through unicycling...

I was inspired to learn after I saw 'Hot Stuff' at a bike
festival. They had uni's to try, so I gave it a shot. After
a while, I could go a (very) little way, but I wanted to
ride one! I bought one off Roger not long after hat.. and
never looked back!

Joe,

--
joe - Who needs cranks anyways?

:cool: *www.cool.unicyclist.com* :cool:

'I like to show off in front of people not to show them what I can do,
but to show them what can be done on a unicycle' - Sofa

'SIXSIXONE' (http://www.sixsixone.com)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
joe's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/957
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/32395