Unicycles

[buddhakeith]

I was thinking about getting into unicycling, and wanted to know who else does it. The one person I know of is John Higby, but does anyone have any tips for starting? or where to get a cheap beginner cycle?

[cubemaster21]

i wanted to get into it too, however, my parents won't let me get one because they think i'm gonna hurt myself alot.

[Izzy]

I bought mine for cheap on ebay.  Only advice I have is to start out slow and wear a helmet...at least in the beginning.

[yoyoGstring]

Great place to start.
I began riding with a basic Torker from these guys about 10 years ago.

http://www.unicycle.com/

[Beau]

I dabbled in unicycling a year or two ago, but didn't get too far with it before losing interest.  It's fun though; extremely challenging, a bit nerve-wracking, quite frustrating (especially in the very beginning stages), and more strenuous on the bod than you might expect (VERY good exercise). 

Progress in the beginning is excruciatingly slow (or at least it was for me), but it's not quite as dangerous as it might appear.  You generally can jump off when you start to lose balance, rather than truly falling.  By the time I lost interest, I was able to go about a hundred feet in one direction, but in that time (at least 20 combined hours of practice), I only fell on the ground a handful of times, and only one of them was truly painful (and that was only because I foolishly tried to catch myself with my hands, a surefire way to injure the wrists). 

My tip: gauge your expectations, be very patient with yourself, and don't expect to be jumping on rocks any time soon.

[GlowDoug]

It took me about 2 and a half days to learn to ride a unicycle. Granted, I was about 12 years old at the time.  It is like a bicycle in that once you learn, you never forget how to ride it.  I can still jump on a unicycle and ride without any problems at 47.

I learned on a very inexpensive Sears model unicycle and let that take all the beatings while learning.  Shortly after learning I purchased a nice 24 inch Schwinn uni.  I agree that Unicycle.com is now the place to go when you want to buy a unicycle.  Good luck with it.

[buddhakeith]

Thanks for all the input guys. I'll be checking out unicycle.com, and if I can earn a few more bucks, I'll probably end up getting one from there

[yoey]

So did you end up getting one?

Unicyles are a blast. I got my one and only in the 5th grade when I was really into juggling.  I lost it somehow during a move in 9th grade and haven't had one since. I was getting back into juggling and was about to purchase another unicycle about a year ago when I saw a yoyo video which has taken all of my play time so I haven't put too much thought into it since. I still want to get another one though.

Only advice I can add to the other posts is make sure your shoe laces are tied and you'll be fine.

[tylerlong]

I got one, they are really fun, and a great way to impress people.

[Faust]

I've tried a few times, but can somebody please tell me how to ride a unicycle without hurting the little fellas?

[yoey]

Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

For me I think it was just a mixture of being careful about how I shifted my weight and getting used to it.

[mrneumann5000]

I have a unicycle but I never ride it. I can get about 50 feet before I fall off it. Also, check out some sick unicycling videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bygIwKA3BMo (External Embedding Disabled)

[cameronjp]

I do trials Unicycling. takes tons of practice, and quite a bit of endurenece/strength, but SO much fun!

Sorry for the necro :p

[thomaswit]

I ride a 24" schwinn, its great for riding distance, but I would get a smaller one 20" or so if I was going to ride for people. Riding is hard at first, it took me 2 weeks of riding everday to ride from my mailbox to my neighbor's. Advise I would give on starting out is to ride down the hallway where you can keep your hands on the wall to help with balance.