Does anyone ride a unicycle?

Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy an old bike, hacksaw it in half, remove the handle bars and plonk a seat in there? :D

Not sure what the cost of unicylces are, but does this appear to be a long term thing or one of those 'fads' kids get when it's around birthday time?
 
I have one but don't ride it much at all anymore. Best way to learn is to start riding up and down a corridoor or tunnel type thing so you can put your arms out and hold yourself. Then move to just a wall for support on one side, then go along a wall with an end to it so you try solo as it were or have someone support you then let go. Only after you can ride pretty solidly without support should you practice rocking on the spot as it will be a million times easier than trying it before being able to ride.
 
I've a unicycle and it's great fun.

There's no reason that a 13 year old shouldn't be able to learn it easy enough. Make sure that the tyre is pumped to a high enough pressure that only about 2p piece width is touching the ground or it will be harder, also higher pressure than this is difficult to start with. If possible learn on a flat surface as it's very hard at first to go uphill, and downhill momentum can build up quickly and be hard to control. Starting off use a wall and encourage him to only use his fingertips to balance on the wall when he's moving. Get him to try and learn early on to mount and start riding without support, whilst getting him to practice riding with the wall, maybe alternate. And to learn to turn it's a good idea to keep practicing figure of eights as you can learn to turn one way and not the other if you don't. It's not likely that he will fall flat on his face much, but warn him that it does happen, and it does hurt - soon he will learn to 'run off' the unicycle if it feels like it's falling. And try and get him to learn to slow down as slow as possible and then speed up and repeat as this helps balance a lot. I'm not perfect but I hope this will help :)

They're a laugh, get a starter one (or if you can afford it a koxx 1) and get him out there. Perserverance for a few days should have him off to a flying start.
 
Well, it took him about 4 days to get the basics and he can now bunny hop, turn both to the left and right, go up stairs and now he's trying to juggle whilst cycling. He's also trying to master idling (staying in one spot) and backwards.

The issue now is that he is saving up for either a 5 foot giraffe

http://www.oddballs.co.uk/oddballs-15m-giraffe-unicycle-p-2332.html

or an off-roader.

Not sure which is the quickest way to casualty...........................
 
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