One wheel, one trail
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This year the Fat Tire Challenge hosted its first sanctioned Unicycle class. Unicyclist Dave Krack of Butler has ridden the course solo the past few years, but was joined by five other unicyclists at the June 18 event. Krack said with more and more people taking unicycles off road, he knew there would be interest.
The six unicyclists raced on a 7.78-mile section of the course.
"We'll take the race seriously and will be racing as fast as we can, but we're all friends at the end of the day," he said. "If we end up within sight of each other, we'll cheer each other on."
Uni-camaraderie was evident at the race. After being the first to cross the finish line, Krack pedaled back onto the course to cheer on his opponents.
It was the personal challenge that Krack said drove him to switch from riding a single-speed mountain bike to riding a unicycle.
"The trails that were getting easy to ride all of a sudden became hard again," he said. "The first time I rode a unicycle in the woods, I did one downhill section that I had done a hundred times on a bike, and I was giddy like a school girl. There are no handlebars in front of you and the view is unobstructed."
Krack said uphill climbs pose the biggest challenge. Equally difficult is navigating technical mountain bike trails such as those of the Fat Tire Challenge course, which he said requires control and practice with other unicyclists.
"The more unicyclists ride together, the better everybody gets," he said.
Surprisingly, Krack said the hardest part about learning how to ride a unicycle is not balancing.
"The biggest road blocks with people are mental. They just don't want to let go of the wall," he said. "If they believe they can do it, they can pretty much learn to do it."
Krack said the demographics of unicyclists are broad, since it's a relatively inexpensive sport to get into. The average cost of a starter unicycle is around $100.
Although the unicycling community is growing, he noted it remains small and tight knit, united by the thrill of the challenge.
"Every time you take the unicycle out, there's always a challenge, there's always something new to learn," he said. "It's an exciting sport. I always seem to say it, but, we don't juggle."
For more information: www.butlerwobble.blogspot.com.
First Published June 26, 2011 12:00 am
