My first unicycle exploration began at Saint Helen, the catholic middle school I attended. The story goes something like this. The pastor of the school was somewhat of a physical education advocate. Since the enrollment of our school was a little to small to support any competitive sports except basketball, he furnished the gym with all manor of apparatus in an effort to maim and disfigure his students. We had full size trampolines, parallel bars, mini tramps, rings, ropes, horizontal bars, pommel horses, tumbling mats, boxing gloves, ( which by the way were used to settle differences between students) peg boards, a scaffolding that went to the ceiling and made a great monkey bars, bongo boards (what in the devil was a bongo board?). Maybe I'll type that in a search and see what comes up. But I digress. A tandem bicycle, and oh ya, a unicycle.
Now the old priest wasn't really trying to maim us. He actually hired professional gym teachers, who after brutal calisthenics, instructed us on how not to kill our selves on these instruments of destruction. However, this was 1966, and the only place any of us had ever seen a unicycle before was in a circus. As fate would have it, one athletically gifted student, worked at trying to ride until he had done the impossible. A couple of his closer friends, bolstered by his success, alas learned to ride. Well the priest thought his was great. This prompted him to buy a few more unicycles, and number them, so the students could check them out for a few days like library books. There were about 100 students in the school, and about 40 of them were all trying to learn to ride. When a few more learned, a few more unicycles showed up.
After about thirty kids learned how to ride, I got my chance to check out a unicycle. I was ten years old then, and at the bottom of the 5th to 8th grade pecking order. With the unicycle at home I quickly learned to brace myself in the entrance of the living room, and careen the three revolutions across the room and crash-land into the sofa. This didn't last long, however, as my mom, for some perverse reason, wanting to preserve her furnishings, kicked both me and the poor unsuspecting unicycle out of the house to practice. Where I lived there were no paved sidewalks or driveways. This meant learning on a dirt and gravel road. I may still posses today, evidence on my body, that the dirt road was a might more punitive than the living room couch.
This was the beginning of the transition from a mild manner parochial school into a danger zone. It always seemed to me a little odd that the nuns would hand out writing assignments for running in the hallways, or skipping steps. Yet it was astonishing allowable, and commonly practiced, to scramble for the nearest unicycle when the bell rang to change classes. All of the fifteen or so students who were fortunate enough to snag a unicycle, would cruse up and down the halls, weaving in and out of everyone changing classes, until the last possible second. Then they would stash the unicycle outside the classroom door, to attempt to repeat the antics when the next class let out. Eventually the nuns persuaded the priest to permit riding in the hallways only during recess.
The following year, the school acquired two 6' unicycles built by a bicycle shop called City Cyclery in Painesville, OH. This place was noted for its custom bikes. I remember walking into his shop to pick up my own Schwinn unicycle, and seeing a bicycle built for ten hanging on the wall. My unicycle was customized with a heavy duty rim and spokes, and a 24 X 2.125" tire. This baby was made to be abused, accept for the delicate black pear shaped saddle.
By this time we were all trying to out do one another with stupid unicycle tricks. We just made it up as we went along. There was no one else to show us what could, or for that matter what couldn't be done. You needed permission to try and ride the 6' unicycles. By this time the priest knew by watching us that bodies seemed to mend much easier than unicycles when one is learning to ride. He didn't want to have his prize high unicycles demolished. That's where my downfall almost stunted my unicycle development for life. I was racing another student down the hall after school, when I unintentionally dismounted. I tried to catch my seat, but failed. Even though it was my own unicycle, I still received a good lecture. Not about racing, that of course was permitted in the hallways after school. But dropping the seat was nearly unforgivable. As the school year progressed, I repeatedly asked to ride the 6' unicycle. This was always followed with a denial and a lecture about dropping seats causes damage ect.
The best riders were not doing anything I couldn't do, but ride the high unicycles which were getting higher. The school added two eight foot unicycles to the fleet. Finally the priest let me try the 6' unicycle. After traveling halfway across the gym, he instructed me to dismount, to see if I could catch the seat. Well, there wasn't much to hold me back after that. The school made up a banner, and we began riding in local parades. Back then you didn't see unicycles in parades, and we became much in demand. When the school got a ten foot unicycle I was the fifth student to ride. The City Cyclery continued to supply us with all types of contraptions with one wheel. Some of the odder unicycles were a 9' three speed, a tandem, ones with off center hubs so you went up and down, 8' bicycles, and wheel on top of wheel. We had one with a 12" wheel, a motorized unicycle, and four 12' unicycles. Eventually 90% of the school could ride a unicycle, and we had a traveling drill team of 55 students that would ride in parades and performances around the east side of the country. We rode in the Macy's day parade, performed in the Cotton Bowl, Tangerine and Orange Bowls. We were on a game show called To Tell the Truth, and a few other lesser known local shows. What an experience it was for middle school kids. We were all strictly amateurs, but the team's traveling expenses were often paid by organizers of the events we were invited to.
When I was a freshman in high school I did manage to drop the seat again, but for some strange reason the old priest didn't give me a lecture. I was riding a 12' unicycle with a younger student on my shoulder, for a performance in Cleveland, when the chain came off. I tried to hang on to the guy on top with one hand and the unicycle with the other. I somehow I managed to break my arm. Fortunately the little guy on top was unscathed. You would think that might have persuaded me not to do be quite so foolish. That was the only time I was ever hurt on a unicycle, but I did push the envelope a bit more.
Steve McPeak ( a professional circus performer) was reported to have ridden the tallest unicycle in the world at 32'. I had aspirations of breaking that record. I came home on winter break in 1974, and heard that my unicycle team had built a 23' unicycle. The idea was to master this and eventually add on another 12' section to break the record. The problem was, no one seemed to want to ride the 23' cycle. I found a shopping mall that was high enough to ride it indoors. Unbelievably the store manager consented to let me try and ride it there after hours. A number of friends (read vultures) and family came to pay their last respects, I mean watch. I climbed up a highboy they used to change the lights with, stood the unicycle against the wall, and climbed on. I was there a good twenty minutes trying to work up the nerve to let go. I finally just kind of blocked out where I was, and what I was doing, and pushed off. Only I pushed off a little to hard. I was headed directly for a store front window and desperately trying to bring the mass of that monster underneath me. I was so scared, my feet were bouncing up and down off the peddles, and the whole unicycle was wobbling in a great harmonic motion. Maybe I just didn't want another lecture about dropping the seat, but I managed to relax enough to bring her under control, and proceeded to make large lazy circles in front of the Sears store for another 15 minutes.
I did ride the 23' in a number of performances, but shortly afterward I heard someone went 50 foot. I made up my mind then and there that I wouldn't go any higher. Now I come to find out most of the higher unicycles have been ridden with support.
We became aware that other schools, and clubs who saw us places, were starting organizations of there own, and riding in parades. But when I typed in "UNICYCLE" I never dreamed I would see such a vast variety of riders out there. All the clubs, conventions and competitions. I used to ride to all my classes in college. It was very handy. I could carry my books in one hand, and an umbrella in the other. The faculty didn't seem to mind, when I brought my unicycle in the class room and set it in the corner. Heck, sometimes I even rode it in the hallways while going from class to class just for old time sake. I got away from riding when I graduated from college. Mostly I have been raising my son, sailing Hobie Cats on the great lakes, and kayaking the white water rivers of West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The only unicycle I own is my 30 year old Schwinn. I think I might just get a new unicycle and start riding again. If I still know how?
HEY! IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AND GO OUT FOR A RIDE.
Dave White
Dave White