Jim's Unicycle Page

Unicycle

I first learned how to ride a unicycle the summer of 1985. I had a good friend in high school who had borrowed one from another friend of ours. He started learning how to ride it, and I couldn't pass up the chance to give it a spin. My friend finally could ride it around the block and was satisfied enough to let me use it.

I started practicing in front of my house by holding on to the mailbox post next to the street. It took many hours of going about a half a pedal forward and falling off. Finally, after about two weeks practice, an hour or so a day, I could ride it down the block. Luckily it didn't take any longer, otherwise I would have had to replace our mailbox, which was about ready to fall over.

At the end of that summer I left to go to the University of Illinois. It was there that I ran across the Illini Juggling and Unicycle Club. I initially got involved with the club since I just learned how to ride the unicycle. However, it didn't take long before I was hooked on juggling as well.

When I joined the club that fall, there happened to be two really good unicyclists involved in the club, Dave Winston and Dave Goldman. It was with the help of these two unicyclists where I learned most of my unicycle tricks. I was able to learn how to idle, ride backwards, ride with one foot, walk the wheel and many other tricks. I really haven't learned many new tricks since that first year I joined the Juggling and Unicycle club. Some of it may be because I spend alot of my time juggling, and at this point I'm just getting a bit too old to do any new things on the unicycle ;-).

Photos

Here are a few photos of me unicycling.

My early days as a unicyclist.

Street fests and other shows.

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Please email jamesjbarlow@gmail.com with comments and corrections.