Unicycle articles (but wait there's more...)

Big wheel on campus rides to help Afghans
By Peter DeMarco, Globe Correspondent | May 15, 2005

Heads spin as Zach Warren rides through the traffic hell that is Harvard
Square on a unicycle taller than a mailbox and more wobbly than a
rowboat. Onlookers can't help but smile -- a unicycle does that to
people, Warren says. Some can't help but stare -- because, well, what if
he falls?

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''Would I do that? Are you kidding me?" asks freshman Diana Link, who
paused in front of the Out of Town News stand as Warren flashed by, his
sneakers eye level to most drivers. ''At least he has a helmet on."

As crazy as Warren might seem during his daily ride to Harvard Divinity
School, where he is a first-year graduate student, it's nothing compared
with what he'll be doing this fall. That's when he'll be going for the
world record in speed unicycling.

Not familiar with the record? To break it, Warren will need to pedal 100
miles in just fewer than seven hours. Or, as his website says, ''Zach
must maintain 112 Rotations Per Minute (RPMs) to tie the world record.
That is nearly 2 rotations/second!"

Oh yeah -- he can't fall, either.

But that's OK, because Warren last fell from his unicycle . . .

''Today," he says, answering a reporter's question. ''Every day I fall
off it."

What hasn't been said is that Warren doesn't care about the record
nearly as much as about raising $10,000 for the Afghan Mobile Mini
Circus for Children.

For the past three years, the circus has traveled from village to
village, setting up in local schools. Composed of about 40 Afghani
teenagers and a handful of trained performers, the circus aims at
teaching Afghani youth how to tell stories, act, dance, play soccer, and
enjoy other fun activities that children have had little exposure to
during warfare and under Taliban rule.

Warren, 23, plans on joining the circus this July as a juggling
instructor (he's been a professional for five years) after a monthlong
tour of Ireland, where he'll be riding his unicycle and escaping from
straitjackets at performances for special needs students.

''Zach will be great" in Afghanistan, said Christopher Taylor, a
childhood friend who introduced Warren to the Mobile Mini Circus. ''In
many ways, he's a walking circus himself."

Warren says he picked up unicycling while at college in Indiana, where a
friend sold him his unicycle because he needed cash to go skydiving.
After about four days, he got good enough to ride the cycle to class and
soon became renowned as the town unicyclist.

''I'm a pretty forgetful person. I left it all over the place, but
people always returned it," he says.

When Warren moved to Somerville last fall, he started riding his
unicycle to class again, as well as to Central Square bars and generally
wherever he needed to go, eliciting smiles from most passersby.

''The greatest thing is when I talk on my cellphone while riding," he
says. ''Then people really go nuts."

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Unlike in Indiana, though, Warren now locks his unicycle. ''I had the
first one I brought stolen," he says.

To break the unicycling speed record, set in 1987 by Takayuki Koike of
Japan, Warren must finish his ride in less than six hours, 44 minutes,
21 seconds. And by his own admission, he hasn't come close to Koike's
time.

In fact, Warren's longest ride ever is 40 miles. With his summer travel
plans and research work -- Warren will be analyzing laughter patterns of
Afghani children he meets -- he won't have much time to train before his
Oct. 11 ride at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del.

Still, he hardly seems fazed.

''I can run a marathon fast. In just under three hours," he says. ''So
just add on another four hours."

Then again, Warren, who hopes to teach psychology, has fairly
philosophical views on success and failure.

This is a man who, while interviewing for a Rhodes scholarship, took out
juggling balls to explain his outlook on life. (''Juggling . . . is
about letting go, taking risks. Sometimes you have to drop something to
pick up," he says.)

One of the classes he's taking this semester is titled ''The Science of
Happiness." He's also taking a class called ''Death and Dying." ''So I'm
tempering things out a bit," he says.

Warren is also good friends with one of his mother's medical-school
classmates, 60-year-old Dr. Jules Lodish, who suffers from ALS -- Lou
Gehrig's disease -- and has reached the point where he can only blink
his eyes.

''We've been e-mailing for four or five years. We talk about all sorts
of things: girls, what it's like to be a father, what it's like to be a
mute quadriplegic," Warren says of Lodish, who communicates with the
assistance of a computer. ''He's so incredibly humble. He's someone who
lives his life at the threshold, despite what most people would call an
impossible circumstance."

Regardless of how his attempt goes, Warren says he's committed to
raising the funds for the Mobile Mini Circus through ride pledges.

Berit Muhlhausen and David Mason, the Danish couple who founded the
group, hope that such a donation will help them reach 25,000 new
students this year.

''Our Afghan artists who know just a bit [about] riding [a] unicycle
cannot believe what Zach is going to do," they wrote in an e-mail from
Afghanistan. ''Nobody has ever done anything like this for us before."

Of course, for Warren, the unusual is really kind of ordinary.

''That sure is a big wheel," said student Joseph Shamis, 22, gawking as
Warren zipped past on his unicycle, disappearing into Harvard Yard.
''Wouldn't you do it if you could?"

For more information about Warren's ride, go to www.unicycle4kids.org.


© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.


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KcTheAcy - Ohh Baby

¤-Kaycee
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Learning to ride a unicycle -- on a wheel and a prayer
By Peter DeMarco, Globe Correspondent | May 15, 2005

''Trust your wheel," Zach Warren says as I clench the edge of a dirty
loading dock, my legs quivering as I struggle to stay upright on a pair
of pedals.

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''Don't be afraid to hurt the unicycle," he assures me. ''Treat it like
it's an old shoe. It's meant to be knocked down and beat up."

I thank my instructor for his advice but inform him that it's not the
unicycle's health I'm worried about.

It's my own.

To truly appreciate the feat Warren will be undertaking later this year,
when he attempts to break the world record for speed unicycling 100
miles in a row, I ventured to give the unicycle a try. About 10 seconds
into my first lesson, I realized just how much trouble I was in.

Bicycles -- bless them -- do all the tough work for you. They distribute
your weight, provide handlebars for support, and permit you to coast
when you're tired or bored.

To stop, you just hit the brake.

A unicycle couldn't be more different.

Every muscle in your body seemingly has to fire to keep you upright,
there's nothing to steer with, and your legs can't rest for a second.
Fail to apply pressure equally to both pedals, and you instantly tip
over.

Believe me, I've got bruises on my rear end and elbows to prove it.

In a way, the required footwork is akin to working the gas and clutch
pedals in a standard-transmission car. But it's so unusually difficult,
it makes tightrope walking look easy.

Still, practice does help.

At the beginning of our lesson, in a warehouse parking lot behind
Cambridge Bicycle, simply mounting the unicycle seemed impossible. On my
first few attempts, I pedaled the bike clear out from under me.
Frightened of falling yet again, I had to force myself to keep trying,
taking deep breaths as I repeatedly leaped onto and slipped off the
45-inch-high seat.

But persistence pays when it comes to unicycling, and after about five
minutes I was perched atop the upright seat, both feet off the ground.

Holding onto the edge of the loading dock with my right hand and
Warren's shoulder with my left, I began pedaling ever so slowly,
eventually getting to the point where I could pedal several feet without
slipping.

Finally, it came time for me to try riding without either Warren or the
loading dock to lean on.

I have never hurled myself out of an airplane, but letting go of my two
crutches felt like a step into nothingness.

I pedaled all of six inches before my equilibrium went haywire, like a
compass at the North Pole, and the unicycle shot out from under me.

''I don't call this the prayer wheel for nothing," said Warren, a
Harvard Divinity School graduate student, joking about what was needed
to stay on it.

Offering what I construed to be encouragement, he added that it
typically takes someone ''300 to 400 times" to get the hang of
unicycling. I only had another 20 minutes for my lesson, but during that
time, on one magical ride, I pedaled nearly three turns of the wheel --
about six feet -- on my own before wiping out.

It wasn't pretty, but for those few brief seconds, riding a unicycle
felt as natural as walking. ''Freedom!" I cried out impulsively, waving
my hands in the air.

My unicycle teacher just laughed. ''You did great, man," he said. ''It's
a really strange wheel."


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KcTheAcy - Ohh Baby

¤-Kaycee
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A good way to not miss any articles that mention Unicycling is to use
news.google.com and create a customized tab for "Unicycling".

Justin


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HistoricalGoof
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subscribing to this thread is a lot easier and, i suspect, more
comprehensive than even google


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if you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.--
'alice' (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/custom.html?) 'roosevelt'
(http://tinyurl.com/963jr) 'longworth' (http://tinyurl.com/78ybd)

I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.-- William H.
Mauldin
...using nietzsche's metaphysics to escape from
christianity...-'metro_tramp on the value of metaphysics'
(http://tinyurl.com/4sjw6)-
it's hard to be sure, and good to be paranoid...john childs on life on
the internet
'NAMASTE!' (http://tinyurl.com/4qcxw)
'Dave' (http://www.lyricsdir.com/d/deep-purp...ld-in-time.php)
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TEENS SET FOR UNICYCLE RIDE FOR CHARITY

Herald News Services
170 words
2 June 2005
Calgary Herald
Final
B2
English
Copyright © 2005 Calgary Herald

Forget marathons and bike rides for charity -- four Calgary teens want
to ride through the mountains on their unicycles for cancer.

Levi Donley, 18, was looking to find a unique way to honour the memory
of his father who died of a brain tumour in 2002 and decided a
one-wheeled, 130-kilometre excursion from Banff to Edworthy Park would
do nicely.

"I wanted to contribute, to give back for other people who are going
through (cancer)," said Donley.

Donley and his friends Aaron Jager, Arthur Kitchener and Marcel Nauta,
who will all graduate from Calgary Christian High School this spring,
will leave from Banff today and plan to arrive at Edworthy Park on
Saturday at 5 p.m. for a barbeque and auction.

The teens have already raised $12,000 with a goal of $20,000 to be
donated to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Donations can be made by calling the high school at 242-2896.


--
JJuggle - Send more Chuck Berry.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

'7th Annual LBI Unithon' (http://jjuggle.unicyclist.com/lbiunithon) -
Saturday, June 11, 2005.

"Takes more than guns to kill a man", says Joe, "I didn't die."
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That is so cool. Thanks for continuing to do the research and post these
articles, Raphael.


--
harper - TANKED at GASWORKS

-Greg Harper

B L U E S H I F T

"My world view has come crashing down like a drunk clown on a giraffe,
riding through a cactus patch..." -evil-nick on "Entry of the
Gladiators"
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Single-minded cyclists get together all around the town
By June Robertson
Special to Midtown & Downtown Appeal
May 29, 2005

Members of the Memphis Unicycle Club, a three-year-old organization,
meet at different locations throughout the week.

On Sunday mornings you are likely to see them gathering at Court and
Riverside for a morning ride to Mud Island. On Tuesday evenings they
often convene at Veteran's Plaza in Overton Park and on Thursday
evenings they tend to assemble at First Congregational Church in
Cooper-Young.




The club's goals include bringing young people together from different
backgrounds for fun, as well as skill-building. The group provides
mentoring and volunteer opportunities for adults and activities that
promote healthful living and physical fitness


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KcTheAcy - Ohh Baby

¤-Kaycee
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/Kaycees-Unicycle-gallery

http://www.maineunicyclist.2ya.com/
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This was in the police blotter of the Sunday, Athens (Georgia) Banner
Herald

http://tinyurl.com/ztbv7

Athens is a college town (UGA) just about anything can happen after the
bars close down.


--
al_lieffring

sola rota Ya'll
Al Lieffring :O)
'Al's Unicycling Club'
(http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/alsunicyclingclub/)
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al_lieffring wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/ztbv7



Grim. You have to register to get to the story.


--
GILD

'three short gs and a long e-flat™'
(http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/beethoven_sym5_1.wav) - 'world jump
day' (http://www.worldjumpday.org/)
'if i'm murdered, don't execute my killer.'
(http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1539/)
'harper' (http://tinyurl.com/c9epx)
'NAMASTE!' (http://tinyurl.com/4qcxw)
'Dave' (http://www.lyricsdir.com/d/deep-purp...ld-in-time.php)
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GILD wrote:
Grim. You have to register to get to the story.


'Bugmenot' (http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=onlineathens.com)

But I'll save you the trouble. It's the same article that JJuggle
posted in 'post 574' (http://tinyurl.com/zvfp7)
Two unicycle thieves nabbed on Springdale


--
john_childs

john_childs (att) hotmail (dott) com
Gallery: http://gallery.unicyclist.com/john_childs
'Unicycling Bookmark List' (http://backcountry.unicyclist.com/) ::
'World Clock' (http://tinyurl.com/a99y3)
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