Stupid things on a unicycle
JJuggle
Ok, we all remember the first real ride we had, e.g. making it down the
block, past the neighbors house, etc.
Who remembers the first really stupid thing they did after thinking they
had mastered the one wheeled monster?
Mine was riding in heavy pedestrian traffic up by Broadway and Astor
Place in NYC on my way to Washington Square Park. I was only a week or
so into being able to ride significant distances; I couldn't idle or
freemount. I came to a very crowded corner (right past the barber shop
where everyone went for $1 punk haircuts, for those old enough to
remember the neighborhood and spent any time there) and had to stop
suddenly. Well I couldn't. I fell forward and banged into and just about
pushed a woman out into oncoming traffic. Broadway traffic eats its
dead, by the way. The woman wasn't very happy as you can imagine.
The lesson for me was only half learned though. I stopped riding up to
crowded curbs, but didn't stop riding on crowded streets.
Cheers,
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
--
JJuggle - Frightened, but not away.
Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um...Well, There
are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh...Like what...
okay...um...For me, uh... ooh... I would say ... what, Groucho Marx, to
name one thing... uh...um... and Willie Mays... and um ... the 2nd
movement of the Jupiter Symphony ... and um... Louis Armstrong,
recording of Potato Head Blues ... um ... Swedish movies, naturally ...
Sentimental Education by Flaubert ... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra
.. um ... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh...the
crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face ...
-from Manhattan-
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unisteve
It was the lady's fault, no doubt. All these "normals" not watching
their direction of travel. I tell ya.
I have yet to hit someone. Hee hee. :D
--
unisteve - an altered-ego
"I live on the edge. Sometimes I fall off."
"If it ain't broke, you're not trying." -Red Green
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MUni14052
Hey JJuggle:
Yeah I did a pretty stupid thing once:
About 1 and a half weeks after I learned to ride my Uni, I went over to
a kids house to show him that I could Uni... Just like him. We went
across the street to a school where ther was a picnic table, oh, 3 feet
off of the grond, leading to some muddy grass. He jumped off of it with
ease. I didn't pay attention to the technique, he hopped sideways. So
stupid me... I go riding on the picnic table and ride off of it!! I
thought it would be easy, but since I went staight off of it, and my
face was BRIGHT RED!! :o <---That looked quite similar to my face if you
know what I mean!! It wasn't until then that he told me he had been
doing it for 3 years, and he just mastered it.
This may not be -that- stupid, but I found it utterly stupid.
-Joe
--
MUni14052 - Unipsycho Guy
If I had a nickel for every time I fell on a unicycle, I'd have 0 cents
:)
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phil
Thinking "hey, if I grab the seat and pretend it's a pogo stick, I can
hop up and down!", and not thinking that a living room full of furniture
might actually -not- be the best place to start...
Phil, just me
--
phil - Curiouser and Curiouser...
"Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."
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johnfoss
About a week after I learned to ride, setting off on a 10 mile ride with
friend Bradley Bradley. We had a Schwinn 20" and a Schwinn Giraffe. I
was amazed to make the first mile without a dismount, but after 5 miles
(the turnaround point), our crotches were utterly destroyed. You
definitely have to work your way up to such things, and we hadn't. Those
old Schwinn seats weren't the best either, and we were probably wearing
bluejeans.
So we ended up walking much of the way back, and finally when we were
most of the way home, my brother happened by and gave us a ride the rest
of the way.
The following year, Bradley and I entered the March of Dimes Superride,
and rode our Schwinn Giraffes (still wearing jeans and without modified
seats). This was a 75 km charity ride. We were the first to start (for
about 3' or so) and the last to finish. After that, we used big wheels.
--
johnfoss - oldbie
John Foss
the Uni-Cyclone
jf...@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com
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Wayne van Wijk
spent ALL of my money on a custom built 7' uni. I felt pretty stupid as I
sat on top of it gripping the side of a building for dear life whilst being
too scared to move. I had just remembered that I was really scared of
heights - even low heights. What an idiot.
It took about 5 trips up to the top of the unicycle before I was brave
enough to let go of the wall and pedal the thing instead of climbing back
down to safety.
Wayne van Wijk
JJuggle
Wayne van Wijk wrote:
> *After riding for about 1 month (I still could not idle or turn very
When I first thought of this question I really had in mind stupid as in
"dangerous, especially to others". But yours, Wayne, is quite amusing
and yes, stupid! (Although I'll bet that since you've put that 7'er to
good use.)
My first experience on a giraffe was on someone else's (I believe
Anthony Shave's, aka juggler133) 6'er. I got up and planted myself on
the seat but realized a) that I was scared sh*tless and b) the seat was
set just too high and while I could reach the pedals it was almost on
tip toes and not very comfortable. I sat there for a while trying to
figure out what to do. I was right against a post with a railing behind
me too far down to comfortably step off to. After about 2 or 3 minutes I
pedaled once or maybe one and a half times, far enough to get away so
that the uni could slip out under me and back. I underestimated the
impact of the fall and continued down smack dab onto my butt.
All this while my then 6 year old daughter was watching and laughing.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
--
JJuggle - Frightened, but not away.
Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um...Well, There
are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh...Like what...
okay...um...For me, uh... ooh... I would say ... what, Groucho Marx, to
name one thing... uh...um... and Willie Mays... and um ... the 2nd
movement of the Jupiter Symphony ... and um... Louis Armstrong,
recording of Potato Head Blues ... um ... Swedish movies, naturally ...
Sentimental Education by Flaubert ... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra
.. um ... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh...the
crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face ...
-from Manhattan-
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vortex_oow
My stupidest moment came right after I got the uni out of the box. I was
using a small barn door for support, while trying to get up and pedal
forwards. (Kind of a stupid idea, the door ment I had to turn slightly
all the time) My mum was helping my out. Suddenly, I UPDed and the uni
slammed into my mom's leg!
:eek:
After that, she still supports me, but from the safety of the livingroom
window :D
So JJuggle, your not the only person to have hit someone!
How does riding a giraffe feel?
--
vortex_oow - Level 2-ish Bedford Rider
::Una rota addo gaudeo::
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Arnold the Aardvark
did it in a crowded place. I fluffed the mount and
watched the Coker crash into a pram (occupied).
No harm done but that seemed pretty dumb to me.
Thankfully the kid's mother seemed unconcerned.
Arnold the Aardvark
yoopers
Mine is more funny than dangerous. I was in the midst of learning to
freemount and was in the street in front of our house. The boys had
taken off for a ride around the block and I was trying to mount up to
catch up to them. As I jumped the mount, my second foot went foward,
missed the pedal and I came down flat on my back in the street just as
five high school students were driving by in their Trans Am. I could
hear them laughing through the closed windows of their car.
B
--
yoopers - Bruce & Mary Edwards
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gluteous maximus
I wasn't watchin' where I was goin', and rode right into one of those
slotted storm sewer grates... the kind with the slots running parallel
to the curb. My wheel dropped in all the way to the bearing holders,
the impact broke my big toe, and I got a jolt in the saddle that woke me
up right quick... just in case the pain in my toe wasn't enough. As in
Bruce's account, a gang of college students in a car passing me just as
this happened laughed,... guffawed -- loudly enough for me to hear
through their closed windows. I was in too much pain to find it funny
at the time. I probably would have laughed if I'd seen it happen to
somebody else, though.
Hmmm... hadn't thought of this before, but it was an entirely different
kind of UPD... an UnPlanned Drop.
--
gluteous maximus - Cheeky bastard
I'll sit on you... and your little dog, too!
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spickydoo
The stupidest thing I ever did was try to ride home from a social
function aka drinking. I had been riding for about a year and even rode
whilest modestly intoxicated before with no problem. But this time I
could hardly walk. Thinking that riding would get me home faster I tried
it. I did manage to freemount and got about 100 M and then leaned too
far forward. I just rode it straight to the ground. Needless to say I
sobered up enough to realise that I would have to walk home. Thank god I
was drunk or it would have hurt far more than it did.
--
spickydoo - Slick tire muni rider
If the Titanic were made of Cheerios. would it have sank?
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JJuggle
spickydoo wrote:
> *Thank god I was drunk or it would have hurt far more than it did. *
The subject of drinking and unicycling has come up before and I will not
comment. However, I think it is worth noting that the above sentence is
a masterpiece of multiple meanings (and interpretations).
Cheers ("bottoms up"????),
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
--
JJuggle - Frightened, but not away.
Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um...Well, There
are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh...Like what...
okay...um...For me, uh... ooh... I would say ... what, Groucho Marx, to
name one thing... uh...um... and Willie Mays... and um ... the 2nd
movement of the Jupiter Symphony ... and um... Louis Armstrong,
recording of Potato Head Blues ... um ... Swedish movies, naturally ...
Sentimental Education by Flaubert ... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra
.. um ... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh...the
crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face ...
-from Manhattan-
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uniryder777
Stupid things to do on a unicycle....... ummmm......
Crankgrabbing the walls surrounding the liberty bell museum was pretty
dumb. The guard REALLY didn't like that. Funny tho' how tolerant cops
normally are of unicyclists.
But thats not the most stupid thing I've done.
I would say the most stupid (funny) thing I've done on my uni was ride
into a Duchess food restaurant and order a burger on my MUni. The really
weird thing was that the waitress didn't even seem to notice! She was
pretty good about it and I didn't get kicked out. I think I thoroughly
amused a host of the elderly.
I didn't have as much luck when I tried the same thing in Wendys though.
They just weren't quite as nice.
While I was on vacation in Florida I bumped into a cheerleading squad
who were all interested in learning how to ride. I must have helped 4 or
5 of em attempt to mount. They didn't get anywhere fast. I thought that
that was pretty funny. :D
--
uniryder777 - Intermediate Trials Rider
Bloody shins in CT!!!
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m_extreme_uni
When i was about 20mins into my first encounter with a unicycle, i said
to my friend who could ride (us both heavily into free-ride biking) that
if i got "that far" pointing to a drop on the side of someone's driveway
that i'd go off the drop. Well, next try i got "that far" it was about
50ft. And i rode off the drop, Tacoed the norco unicycle's rim and fell
down. It wasn't even my uni!
I was like like: YAY! i can ride, SH@T! i broke your uni!
It was pretty stupid.
-Ryan
--
m_extreme_uni
I must only use these powers to annoy!!!
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