Well that unicycle sat in a closet for quite a few months. I suppose all of our other Christmas presents had broken or failed to keep my interest when I decided to give the unicycle a try.
We lived in New York City at the time. I learned to mount the uni in the hallway of our rent controlled apartment. Soon I was leaving my handprints all up and down those walls, barely maintianing any sense of control.
As spring approached, I ventured outdoors and struggled to learn to ride from one side of the courtyard to the other. That faux-unicycle had a mind of it's own, but I finally got to the other side. After several months I worked up enough vigor to manipulate that thing half way down the block, and once even made a turn. The mechanics were such that it was so hard to ride, that it became very frustrating. I put it back in the closet.
About a year or two later I was walking past a bicycle shop in Manhattan when I saw a new 24" Schwinn unicycle in the window. Mind you I had never seen a real unicycle before- there was air in them tires! I promptly walked into that shop and asked the man how much it was. $40 he said. "I'll take it" I replied.
I'll never forget there was a mailbox right out in front of that bicycle shop. I climbed up on that uni and took off. It was light floating on air! I could ride straight and turn when I wanted. I rode all the way home and I've been riding ever since.
In the 28 years since I've gone through 4 unicycles (not including the one for my kids!) and I just finished buiding a giraffe.
I've met a few friends along the way who also have compelling stories of how they started, and I've made new freinds out of those who had that inbred desire to learn how to ride. I tell them all the same thing, "get one with air in the tires".
Mike, the UniChef