Muni en Route

After years of postponing the inevitable, I have finally ordered my first mountain unicycle. It's a KH 24" Freeride with a 3" Gazzalotti tire. In terms of price, it's only about a third of what the big guns cost, but when I asked around, almost everyone recommended a Freeride, and that made the choice even easier.

The other co-founder of the New York Unicycle Club, Joe Merrill, is very big in East Coast muni circles these days. He has a fantastic muni, tho it's very heavy, and its 7" cranks allow him practically to ride up walls. He has organized mountain unicycle weekends as well as "Motorama," which brings together trials unicyclists in a contest to see who can complete the most, or most difficult, obstacles. It all sounded fun, and I wanted to join, but I knew that realistically, I had little use for a muni: I worked most Sundays (so no muni weekends for me), many of my weekends were taken up with my kids, and there is nowhere to practice mountain unicycling in Manhattan. Well, nowhere LEGAL, anyway. Had I gone and bought a muni when Joe did, I'm sure I would have found time and place for it, but I have a feeling it would have languished in my garage most of the time. Alternatively, I might have made time by riding it around late at night, but then my marriage might have suffered. I'm glad I waited till Monday before ordering one.

My impetuses (impeti? impetus (is it 2nd or 4th declention?) were twofold. Firstly, we are just about to move to New Paltz. I'll have nearly 8 acres all to myself, where I can build a fun course and just ride around for fun (and poison ivy). I also won't be working on weekends, but that's beside the point. Secondly, I'm going to be demonstrating unicycles near the Mohonk Preserve this Saturday. Since a mountain unicycle is just what I'll be using up there, it seemed silly to want to put on a unicycle show-and-tell without a muni. Now I'm just hoping the shipment arrives in time.

8/4/ 06 update. It arrived an hour ago! Unfortunately, I didn't have time to put it together, but it looks gorgeous!