VIKING TRIES UNICYCLING

by YASMIN FRIEDRICHOWITZ and BEAU REVENAUGH design by YASMIN FRIEDRICHOWITZ

While many Paly students ride on two wheels, or drive to school every day, one exception is senior Nathaniel Grinkrug; who rides a unicycle. First we dove into his background as well as unicycling’s challenges, and then we put them to the test and tried the unicycle ourselves.

hen most people started riding bikes, they had four wheels: the regular two and a training wheel on either side. Then, as balance and muscle memory improve, the training wheels were gradually removed and the apparatus became the, “normal,” twowheeled bi-cycle. But what if you or your parents hadn’t stopped there? What if they (or you) had just kept removing wheels?

Unlike some of our Viking staff members who attempted unicycling, Senior Nathaniel (Nati) Grinkrug, expert unicyclists, would have been just learning how to walk, falling will be a common occurrence until the body learns to take over and it becomes sec ond nature.

There have been many strange transportation methods current and past Paly students have used to get to school, from electric shopping carts to a school desk with wheels and even walking on hands in stead of feet. Compared to these, Grinkrug’s method of unicycling to class seems far more tame. It all started when Grink rug chose to build a bicycle for his first JLS Con nections project, back in the first semester of sixth grade.

“You really are not going to be able to get anywhere for the first few hours of trying,” Grinkrug said.

“Why would I have a unicycle if I can’t ride it?”

-Nati Grinkrug

“You’re just going to fall on your feet again and again until your body kind of figures it out. It’s pretty frustrating, but once you can persevere through that you really start to get some noticeable progress.”

After all, what thief would steal something they don’t known how to ride?

“I initially wanted to build a bike out of a bunch of parts, but that was kind of ex pensive, and so I decided to build a uni cycle,” Grinkrug said. And after building the unicycle, the natural next step was learning to ride it. Grinkrug himself puts it best.

“Why would I have a unicycle if I can’t ride it?” He said.

Because of this, Grinkrug dedicat ed the winter break of sixth grade to learning and practicing the act of riding the unicycle. It took a lot of perseverance for him to learn how to unicycle. Just like a kid

Once Grinkrug learned how to ride the unicycle, he began to take on new ways to ride it, challenging himself even more: how to ride with one foot, ride backwards, hop on one foot and do different types of

And, while it may not seem like it, unicycling is actually relatively safer than biking. The most common bike injuries are broken arms or concus on their arms or head. On the other hand, falling off a unicycle almost always has you landing on your feet. In all of Grinkrug’s years of riding, he has fallen on his feet every Grinkrug explains to us that while a bicycle has multiple gears that allow the rider to pedal at a slower rate than the wheel is moving, the unicycle doesn’t have that same advantage. The unicycle wheel is fixed to the gears, which

“You’re just going to fall on your feet again and again until your body kind of figures it out.” means the pedals move with the wheels as you pedal. Basically, the larger the wheel, the faster you can go on the unicy cle, but the downside is that it is much hard er to get the unicycle moving. In order to not fall off, unicycle riders have to keep the regular bicycle and the unicycle is the breaks: While most bikes have breaks, most unicycles don’t. Instead, the rider must use their legs to physically stop the pedals from rotating around. But, Grinkrug’s 29 inch unicycle does have a break un der the seat and learning how to use the break is challenging and has a steep learn ing curve. However, he makes sure to use it for his safety, espe cially when he goes under the Cal Ave Underpass.

-Nati Grinkrug

“If you’re go ing downhill, and you’re going so fast that your calf muscles aren’t strong enough to apply the pressure, the break is necessary,” Grinkrug said.

For those who have only ridden regular bicycles, it is sim ilar to applying the brakes very gently, except unicyclers have to counterbal ance the force of the brake with their body weight. When this isn’t done cor rectly, the rider will fly forward off the bike and may or may not be able to fall onto their feet. We did not need to use the breaks when we tried unicycling. In fact, it was very easy for us to stop mov ing on our own...