Idiots On Unicycles

 

 

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In the New Forest, My 27th Birthday 2000.

Well it had to happen sooner of later, the temptation to buy a speed machine was just to much, for my 27th birthday I commanded a Coker. I'm a lucky boy really. So off we trekked (me & my good lady on a Bike) into the New Forest for a spot of deer spotting/uni thrashing. Not quite Canada but there were a few deer, they didn't hang around long as screaming kids taunted them.... So what's the puppy sucker like then ? Well we must have done about 6 miles in total, one thing became apparent I need some more training for the hills, it's a hard life being a fat bloke. The idea was that it would be a leisurely bike ride for Isabelle and a fun Uni event for myself - that it was, although it was very leisurely for Isabelle, I have to build up more speed, it's the speed versus safety equation, I can go faster on the flat than down hills - since down the hill the risk of runaway becomes high as you speed up uncontrollably.

 Oh Deer, no unicycle in this picture !


A smiling deer, okay he's not riding a unicycle.... But I was:

Watch out, turbo boy will run you down


Knocking on for 50mph it surprising Isabelle caught this shot before I ran her over ! I will shortly be supplementing my beast with a Cateye cyclo computer, which has the amazing capacity of coping with wheel circumferences of up to 300cm (Coker is 289cm ? - rough measurement !)

Wow check the wheel!.. even a smile


The full extent of that rather tasty wheel can be seen 36" of hot rocking rubber.

When I set eyes on a Coker I knew I would have one one day - its probably the same for you, if not a question of if its more a question of when ! Go on you know you want to ! Order one from Unicyclesource UK or USA today! So if you get one how the heck do you get on it ? Well there are several mounts which are possible but I think the most popular is just a simple step on and go (I wouldn't know the official name since I'm not good at remembering things like that and people call the same things different names anyway... ) Although not recommended the Coker can be mounted like a regular unicycle, but its not the easiest, and this is what I'd recommend:

  1. Stand with your uni with pscyco grin on your face
  2. Hold uni seat with one hand
  3. Walk along at a slow pace, when the dominant foot pedal comes up to approaching the horizontal position (you might want to line the pedal up so when you plan to get on its ready for you flat foot)
  4. Step on with your dominant foot and continue the motion forward, do not try and push the unicycle backwards as you would trying to free mount a smaller unicycle (this makes sense if you can already mount a smaller unicycle!)

This takes some practice and I myself like lampposts and other objects with little motion (post boxes, your friend's shoulder). Here's a few action shots

Watch out this man might be in your area !

somewhere between steps 3 and 4 step 4, ready to ride


Coker ponderings: I can't help wondering what would happen if Coker decided to make a 45" unicycle - would we all go out and buy one ? Who decided that 36" would be the optimal size ? Is it ? How did Coker decide to make a unicycle in the first place ? Who did their market research ?

Remember you need a Coker, crazy but true... it's time to go back