Riding a Unicycle is an excellent addition to any jugglers collection of abilities! Before you consider purchasing a Unicycle, a word of warning and follow the technomono guide about choosing the best hoverboard under dollars and best electric unicycle.
Learning how to unicycle (only the fundamental forward riding movement on a level surface) on average will require approx 10-20hrs to find out.
I want you to understand that there is a lot of falling off and getting back on the unicycle back again. If you aren't ready to spend an hour a day for a couple of months or persevere with lots of small 30min sessions, then it's advisable not to waste your cash on a relatively expensive item that'll sit at the corner of your discard staying unused!
If you educate Unicycling at workshops for kids, then I'd advise making sure that the pupils use some knee pads, wrist guards (or at least gloves) and helmets. Jeans are not comfortable riding in. They should have a bright space beforehand that nobody else is allowed to walk into.
The legislation seems to be very vague when it concerns the question of if you are permitted to ride your unicycle on the pavement or the street. The legislation also appears to vary (when there's a law to be found) involving Nations. In the UK at least, a Unicycle cannot be defined in any way for a bicycle, and therefore ther
e is no mention of rules to follow along at the Highway Code.
The best advice is that if a Police Officer stops you on the pavement or street, then only apologise, explain that you didn't know any better, and proceed! I wouldn't advise unicycling on a bustling road. Too many motorists will end up distracted at what you are doing and wind up crashing into matters;--RRB- If anybody has better guidance than this, please allow me to know as I can only go on my own experience, having been stopped on both pavement and road!
Unicycle One-Liners
If you like Unicycling and start using it anywhere you go, here are a few useful lines in the much bigger collection of one-liners in the superb Unicycling.org on the best way to deal with those who try to be humorous by asking"where is the other wheel?"
It is on backorder.
You are kidding; it was there last time I looked (and promptly drop off)
My other wheel? I don't require a training wheel!
I got the bike on sale, half-off...I did not know they meant the bike.
Don't be daft, where could I place a second wheel?
Different Kinds of Unicycle
Standard
That is your average unicycle. The seat is directly over the wheel, and the cranks link to the axle. Available to buy from my Unicycles Page (the UK only!)
Easier to ride than ordinary unicycles
Ultimate Wheel: Here is the normal unicycle, but with no seat pole or saddle! You need shinguards before going anywhere near this unicycle!
This is a plain wheel with an axle extended on either side with posts. As you have no pedals, you have to stand to the posts and roll together, which can be pretty impossible for almost all unicyclists (thus the name"hopeless wheel")!
Monocycle / Monowheel
This is a wheel with the seat indoors! All these are fairly rare. The wheel is a ring, typically pushed by smaller wheels pressing against its internal rim!
Multi-wheeled Unicycles
Yes, you can have more than one wheel and be riding a unicycle, as long as only one wheel is touching the ground! One wheel is on top of the other... This implies that to ride forward, you have to pedal backwards, which makes the top wheel go backwards, thus hammering the wheel on the floor to go forwards! You can only get a three-wheeled version which would let you pedal forwards! There's even a variant with 13 wheels organized like a series of cogs!
It's easier to ride a giraffe unicycle than a regular unicycle (but please know on a standard unicycle first)!