Unicycle

"iakobski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I fancy a unicycle for fun and local journeys.

Can anyone advise what would be easiest to learn on 20" or 24"?

If the answer is 20", would I expect to buy a bigger one once I can
ride well enough to go out on the road?

Talking about funny bikes, I saw a penny farthing fly past the pub I was in
the other day. I was wondering what he'd do at all the traffic lights round
here in south London. Craftily place a foot on top of a car?

iakobski said:

I fancy a unicycle for fun and local journeys.

Can anyone advise what would be easiest to learn on 20" or 24"?

If the answer is 20", would I expect to buy a bigger one once I can
ride well enough to go out on the road?

I've only ever ridden my 26", but my understanding is smaller cycles are
easier to learn on. However, that isn't to say learning on a bigger one
is impossible, and I know this because that's what I did. Don't expect
it to happen overnight, though. I know a lot of people have got up to
speed quicker than I did, but I imagine I'm not at the bottom of the
pile and it took quite a while. Even though I don't use it much it
certainly repaid the investment in time and money. It's one of the few
ways you can get a real kick (and useful exercise) from managing to
cycle a whole km. A whole 10 meters, when you're starting!

The wheel size *is* the gear size, of course (unless you want to gear
it, but that is either mechanically or financially Non-Trivial), so
bigger wheels are certainly more useful for covering any sort of distance.

No real regrets starting at 26", since it will take a while whatever you
get (Guy, you getting anywhere with yours yet?). I got a Pashley Muni,
which is well built and really does go over rough ground as well as
smooth tarmac. That wouldn't be so easy on a 20", and since I live on a
rough lane...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

iakobski said:

I fancy a unicycle for fun and local journeys.

Can anyone advise what would be easiest to learn on 20" or 24"?

If you asked that on rec.sport.unicycling, the ensuing thread would be
unlikely to reach agreement.

How tall are you? As a rough guide, I'd say the 20" would probably be
easier if you're under about 5'6", the 24" would be easier if you're
much over 6', and anywhere in between it won't make much difference.
But YMMV, and there are people who have learnt on a 36".

Quoted message said:

If the answer is 20", would I expect to buy a bigger one once I can
ride well enough to go out on the road?

If you're planning to ride any sort of distance then it's worth thinking
about a 26", or even a 29". Either should be quite possible to learn
on. I would *not* recommend a 36" for learning on.

OTOH if you want to race or play hockey then the rules will limit you to
24".

Roger or Miark at <URL:http://www.unicycle.uk.com/> will give you good
advice and good customer service (I'm not connected to the business, but
they are friends of mine).

Two more things. Firstly, take a look at the FAQ. It's somewhat out of
date, but I found it useful 11 years ago:
<URL:http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/faq.html>

And Charlie Dancey's book "How to Ride your Unicycle" offers good advice
to beginners:
<URL:http://www.unicycle.uk.com/shop/shopdisplayproduct.asp?catalogid=126>

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

iakobski said:

I fancy a unicycle for fun and local journeys.

Can anyone advise what would be easiest to learn on 20" or 24"?

If the answer is 20", would I expect to buy a bigger one once I can
ride well enough to go out on the road?

It depends on your height. If like me you're well under 6' a 20" wheel
would probably be best. I have a 20" DM Ringmaster which I got as a
50th birthday present. Learning to ride it was much harder than I
expected. I can now ride it, but not as well as I'd hoped for. More
practice required this summer. The 20" wheel is probably still best for
me, but forward progress is slow and on long journeys (i.e. over 50
yards) the low gear does become somewhat tiring. I still need to get a
lot better though before I can justify moving up to a serious
cross-country unicycle, which would probably have a 26" wheel. Expect
Danny to pop up any moment. He's the great authority on unicycling
round here.

Here's a link to a thread I started which was very useful at the time.
I printed the thread off and left it lying around as a hint. Although I
did get the unicycle Sue's immediate comment was, "Mid-life crisis?
That was 15 years ago."

<http://tinyurl.co.uk/cgfs>
Full url =
<http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.cycling/browse_frm/thread/5d5ca2b64fb76c3b>

--
Dave...

dkahn400 said:

I have a 20" DM Ringmaster which I got as a
50th birthday present.

Hang on to that. Dave Mariner recently retired, I think his unicycles
are likely to appreciate in value.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

iakobski said:

I fancy a unicycle for fun and local journeys.

Can anyone advise what would be easiest to learn on 20" or 24"?

If the answer is 20", would I expect to buy a bigger one once I can
ride well enough to go out on the road?

20" might (or possibly might not) be easier to learn on, but it will
be less useful for "local journeys". For actually making progress
along teh street, I think 24" is teh minimum.

(20" would probably be better if you anticipate having all your fun
indoors)

regards, Ian SMith
--
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|o o|
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"iakobski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I fancy a unicycle for fun and local journeys.

Can anyone advise what would be easiest to learn on 20" or 24"?

If the answer is 20", would I expect to buy a bigger one once I can
ride well enough to go out on the road?

I am 5'7" and I learnt on a Pashley Muni 20". I've since bought an Onza Muni
24", and I think I would have found freemounting the 24" pretty intimidating
as a beginner. Probably the best thing to do would be to give Roger at
Unicycle.com a call and have a chat - I've always found him very helpful
(but not today as he'll be at SSMM).

--
Pete
===
850 Le Mans II, Marin Mount Vision, Onza Muni
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