I saw a unicycle today, and I was thinking those things must be dangerous, if I tried one I would probably land on my face, does anyone know how to ride one, and how does one learn?

Count me in. Learned when I was a kid. A few years ago someone brought one to work and bet some young guy he couldn’t ride it. After he dislocated his elbow she sent an email looking for volunteers. It had been about 35 years since I had ridden one, but I agreed to give it a try. The picture on your left was taken then. I know it isn’t a very good picture, but what it shows is: It’s just like riding a bike, it took 3 or 4 tries, but you never forget. Not too bad for a 50 year old.

Unicycles are great fun! I was never the best at riding one but I could mount, go straight and turn which got me most places I wanted to go. When you fall off a unicycle that's called an "accidental dismount". Usually what happens is the uni goes zooming off and leaves you standing there. It's usually not very dramatic which is good since it happens a lot.

It's easiest to learn with the help of people who know how to ride but I taught myself. Find something you can hang on to and get on the seat, then try to go forward. You won't go anywhere and will fall off. It's frustrating but you have to keep getting up and falling off until your body gets the feel for it and learns how to balance. I practiced for 15-20 minutes every day and after a month I could go in a straight line for about 50 feet. The first couple weeks were the most frustrating but if you stick with it you will eventually learn it.

If you search on google or something there are several resources on the internet where you can learn and ask questions.

I bought one at an antique store last summer. It took me a good six weeks of trying before I finally got it. I still can't start without leaning on something but it's a blast. Once up the block and back and my legs are on fire! I can't believe the guys that ride em all the time and can juggle while they're doing it. Unbelievable. Oh yeah, I'm 48 so it's never to late to learn. Do it.

I saw one for sale a couple of weeks ago and chickened out on buying it just yet, but I still think about buying one. If I got one, I'd try and figure out how I could get it on the trainer just to get used to the idea of riding like that, then work from there...

Koffee

I learned to ride one when my youngest learned to ride a regular bike. When he'd go out to ride, I'd go with him on the uni. I still ride it - I picked my boys up from the bus stop the other day with it (actually - I rode next to them while they walked).

I can see my daughter now...she'd pretend she had no idea who I was if I did that!

Me and two friends bought unicycles together when we were, oh, 13 or so. We rode everywhere, down the street around the neighborhood. Maybe 10 miles in a good day. Then, we got the idea to ride through the woods. What a blast! Come to a ditch and dare each other to do it. Then we all wound up doing it! It was 1974, long before the mountain unicycle and possibly predating the mountain bike even. I still have that 24"Schwinn Unicycle. They're made very well.

There were several guys in my neighbor hood with them. We would play 2 on 2 basketball (no dribbling) and touch football.

They aren’t very dangerous as Chris pointed out.

I’d love to get one again. I loaned mine to a friend to use to teach classes at the ‘Y’ and never saw it again. Every time I see one in a bike shop I think about it, but just haven’t pulled the trigger because I just don’t know when I would ride it. However at the moment I’m thinking they are great for errands since you don’t need your hands to steer. I could ride up to the carryout and get… Hmmm wonder what the wife would say about one more bike that is only half a bike?

I saw a show on I think it was OLN on thes two guys that were touring nepal and tibet on mt. unicylces. they were doing crazey free ride drops and they went down this super long stairway/trail/road that went over a pass in the himilayias in a rhodedendron forest at 16,000 feet. The one guy was like "yea you can go more places and do a lot more terrain stuff with a unicyle than you can a mtb"(as the film showed him hopping down a bluff going ledge to ledge like a trials rider) they also taught some tibetian monk how to ride a short distance(none of them had ever seen a unicycle).