Hasta La Ideas

Images by Markus Greber

My first thought when I saw this was, Jeez–regular mountain biking not dangerous enough, you had to go and do this? But paradoxically, “extreme mountain unicycling” actually appears safer, at least at first blush. Eating it on a bicycle of any kind isn’t pretty, but as you can see here, when he wipes he’s able to land on his feet and quickly regain stasis:

That’s Lutz Eichholz and Stephanie Dietze, whose skillz are impressive enough that Adidas has sponsored them and commissioned a cameraman to record the above video.

According to the Times, the sport was invented in the ’90s on America’s west coast; I’d never heard of it before since I let my subscription to Unicycle Monthly expire. But even after reading about the sport’s origin story, I’m no more clear on whether it’s more or less dangerous than on two wheels.

Falls are an inevitable part of mountain unicycling. But riders insist the sport is no more dangerous than mountain biking, perhaps even safer.

“We fall more often than mountain bikers, but we’re going slower so it’s not as bad,” [rider Hans] Van Koppen said. “The same cliffs are out there.”

Any thoughts, and can any of you with actual unicycling experience weigh in?

Via Oddity Central

(more…)