balancing act

[michael_s]

My 11-year old wants a unicycle. Amazon has a few, all with about the same reviews. Anyone here have any experience buying or riding they would like to pass along?
Other than "wear a helmet".

Thanks

[Winston]

... and knee, elbow and hand pads. Same gear as for rollerblading.


Good luck.

- Winston

[prymsnap]

As Winston said, don't forget the padding. Gloves are so important because in the event of a fall, the bottom of the palms can get shredded badly via the natural instinct to try to break the fall with that part of the anatomy.

[Winston]

Having fallen with and without hand pads, I'll second (or self-third) that. Rollerblade gloves have a bumper on the palm which works really well. Any sporting goods shop should have them.


- W

[Todd's keyboard]

You might want to read some of the advice about purchasing a unicycle provided by the folks at unicycling.org:

http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/faq...20unicycle

My experience with unicycles: Have lots of friends who ride them. Bought a used giraffe unicycle years ago. Sold it again before I ever learned to ride it.

Was talking with a friend a few days ago about writing a guide for how to learn (and teach) unicycle riding. (I write a column for JUGGLE magazine about how to learn various "juggley" arts. Jugglers have gotten used to me picking their brains for future columns.) He has lots of experience teaching kids how to ride unicycles and had some great tips.

I may soon buy a regular unicycle to help me write the column (and, finally, learn how to ride one myself). As I've known the people who make them for many years, "Semcycle" is on my short list of brands to look at. The "Semcycle" brand has been highly regarded amongst jugglers for many years. Am also going to ask my friends' opinions on "Torker" and some others.

Todd's still-all-in-one-piece keyboard