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Walter Nilsson sold me my first unicyle

Started by Carey · · Last activity · 7 posts · 435 views

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01 / Original postWalter Nilsson sold me my first unicyleCarey · 5 May 2006 02 / This pagePosts 1–7Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #7Carey · 6 May 2006

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Original section
rec.sport.unicycling
Published
5 May 2006
Last activity
6 May 2006
Original author
Carey
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  1. Original post
    Carey
    Archived post
    #1

    When I first came to this board I mentioned the unicycle that my Dad got
    for me back in about 1961 when I was 10. It was a nice unicycle with a
    pneumatiic tire that was about 12 inches in diameter, but it had a
    pretty fat tire.

    I knew that the man who sold it to us had ridden across the country on
    a tall unicycle because he told me about it when I met him and he also
    said he had built a one wheel motorcycle. He was pretty old at the
    time and had pictures of the motorcycle (you sat inside the wheel) and
    other places he had been (pyramids, tops of buildings etc). We lived
    in LA at the time and he lived nearby somewhere in the basin.

    After searching around on the internet recently, I found some
    information and was reminded that his name was Walter Nilsson. The
    unicycle he sold us was a pretty high quality one for the time and I
    rode it for many years. It disappeared when I left home and my parents
    moved. Wish I still had it--way too small to be of much use to me
    today, but what a piece of history.

    Carey

    --
    Carey
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  2. UniBrier
    Archived post
    #2

    Cool, Google brings him up quite a bit for his 'trans-continental
    unicycle ride' (http://www.unicycling.org/btdt/fhs.html):

    Quoted message said:

    Robert Ripley (from Ripley's Believe It or Not) persuaded Walter Nilsson
    to travel 3,306 miles across the USA, in 117 days in 1934. He used a
    number of unicycles on the trip including a short giraffe with a
    miniature wheel, pictured in Jack Wiley's The Unicycle Book.

    And his '1935 monocycle' (http://tinyurl.com/z4kvy):

    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |Filename: nilsson.jpeg |
    |Download: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/13286 |
    +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

    --
    UniBrier

    Steve

    Hop Drop & Roll

    “If something is to hard to do, then it's not worth doing. You just
    stick that guitar in the closet next to your
    shortwave radio, your karate outfit and your unicycle and we'll go
    inside and watch TV.” – Homer
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  3. JJuggle
    Archived post
    #3

    I'll bet when you rode it everbody was talkin', but you didn't hear a
    word they were sayin', only the echos of your mind. And did people stop
    and stare, but you couldn't see their faces, only the shadows of their
    eyes?

    Cool. 😉

    --
    JJuggle

    Raphael Lasar - Matawan, NJ

    '8th Annual LBI Unithon' (http://jjuggle.unicyclist.com/lbiunithon) -
    Saturday, June 3, 2006
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  4. manon1wheel
    Archived post
    #4

    thats AWSOME.

    ive seen that monocycle on tv like 50 times before

    Riley

    --
    manon1wheel

    Riley
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    James_Potter-
    I fall with my upper body travelling backwards and my lower body
    travelling forwards from 5' up and hit the concrete with my tailbone
    and right elbow. It hurt, but I found it quite funny.
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  5. podzol
    Archived post
    #5

    This is great!
    Thanks so much for posting this history! It's great that these
    youngriders on the fora can make a connection with some of the early
    one-wheeled visionaries!

    Are you riding there days, Carey?

    Blake

    --
    podzol

    THE MISSING WHEELS TOUR DA YOOP!
    Check out the charity ride, planning is under way.
    Seeking riders and support.
    *http://missingwheels.unicyclist.com/ *
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  6. terrybigwheel
    Archived post
    #6
    JJuggle said:

    I'll bet when you rode it everbody was talkin', but you didn't hear a
    word they were sayin', only the echos of your mind. And did people stop
    and stare, but you couldn't see their faces, only the shadows of their
    eyes?

    Cool. 😉

    Skippin' over the ocean, like a stone..." 😎

    --
    terrybigwheel

    Impotence: Nature's Way Of Saying "No Hard Feelings".

    Uni is just a cycle I'm going through. 😎

    You -can- "Tune a fish". You simply adjust their "scales"! 😄
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  7. Carey
    Archived post
    #7

    Yep, that's him. He had a workshop that was filled with gadgets and
    junk--pretty dark and a bit scary to a 10 year old, but I was with my
    Dad.

    Yes, I am riding today. After laying off for 35 years I got a Torker
    LX 24" a few years ago. Then, I decided I had a need for speed and I
    got a KH29XC...which I plan to take to Durango in two weeks for the
    Iron horse. I hope to ride the first 15 miles to Hermosa on it--if
    going from sea level to 7000ft doesn't kill me.

    Ref the Midnight Cowboy song (that was the movie I remember it being
    in)...I think it was written about 15 years after I learned to ride.
    :-) I turn 55 this year.

    He was a neat old man, reminisced about the old days, his most famous
    riding days were during the Depression. Some of his pictures showed
    him riding around the edge of some tall buildings and things like that.
    Sure impressed me. I am pretty sure he was THE MAN in unicycling back
    then.

    Carey

    --
    Carey
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