Strange Travels: Unicycle Tours

When I worked at a college in Wisconsin, "Unicycle Girl" was something of a campus novelty. Gaily riding her unicycle to and from class with cheery nonchalance, this student commuted short distances as a one-wheeled wonder. After seeing her pedal back and forth across a small campus, I had just assumed that a contraption as awkward as a unicycle was only useful for brief trips - as well as parades, and circuses. So imagine my surprise when I learned that unicyclists often participate in long-distance unicycle tours in locations as diverse as California, Norway, China, Austria, Laos, and even the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And according to Unitours, there's even an official definition for a unicycle tour: "an organized unicycle ride at least 4 days and 200km (120mi) in length."

There's the occasional solo unicycle tour, like the 715-mile circular New England journey undertaken by Maxwell Demilner (aka UnicycleMax) earlier in 2006 as a publicity stunt and personal fundraiser for his college tuition. And there are plenty of unicyclists who crash traditional bike tours with their single-wheel setups. But most unicycle tours are group outings in which a handful of dedicated participants undertake a trek in the name of unicycle culture. And in case you're wondering, a team of supportive friends often follows the unicycle tours with bikes or cars.

Here are some short descriptions of well-documented international unicycle tours in recent years:

Alps Unicycle Tour: Ten unicycle riders, including one only 13 years old, embarked on a 19-day trip through the Alps, including the five main Alpine countries along with tiny Liechtenstein. When all was said and pedaled, they traveled over 900km (11,000m worth of elevation). For photos and bios, see http://www.aut.unitours.org/.

Laos Unicycle Tour: Twelve participants covered about 500km in two weeks. The local Laotian population was treated to the peculiar sight of a dozen foreign tourists on unicycles. For details, including pictures of the landscape, visit http://www.laosunitour.org/.

Norwegian Unicycle Tour: Ten unicyclists traveled from Trondheim north to the Arctic Circle during the summer of 2003 to take advantage of the midnight sun.

While the three unicycle tours described above were organized mostly for the enjoyment and training of the participants, unicycle riders (not unlike other athletes) also come together to raise money for charity. The Missing Wheels 2006 event, a 244-mile tour in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for example, was organized as a fundraiser for children with limited mobility. Unicyclists face endless jokes about their "missing wheels," but for disadvantaged kids who need new wheelchairs and other equipment, that phrase takes on a whole new meaning. Check out the tour's website: http://missingwheels.unicyclist.com/.

For more information on unicycle events and tours, check out http://www.unitours.org/ and http://www.unicyclist.com/, the latter of which is a remarkably popular site that proves the surprising breadth of this "uni"que community. Upcoming unicycle tours are apparently in the works for New Zealand, Mongolia, and other exotic locales!