Pedalling benefits of just one wheel

One for the road: Unicyclist Ken Looi in training for the upcoming world championships in Wellington.

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KEN LOOI rode the Taupo Cycle Challenge last week. Did pretty badly, he says. Probably wasn't used to being on two wheels.

For the past nine years, Looi has been mostly riding unicycles: at the Coast to Coast, around the streets of his home town, Wellington, once for 24 hours around and around the Basin Reserve, and usually for his grocery shopping (he reasons that way you've two hands free to carry the bags).

In track cycling, the best of the best chase the world hour record.

Deduct one wheel, and it's still true.

But while two-wheelers may add just a few hundred metres to the mark each time it's broken, huge technogical advances in the world of uni-cycling have seen the world's best mark advance at pace.

Looi, a 31-year-old emergency-room doctor, has just smashed the unicycle world hour mark, clocking 29.993km on a concrete track in Dubbo, a dusty country town in New South Wales where he's been working at the local hospital.

It was nearly 4km further than when he last held the record, 2005, and 2.3km better than the previous mark set by German Jan Logemann. Looi suspects he won't have long to bask in the glory of his latest success.

"Like bicyclists, we use the hour as the benchmark for speed and distance. The technology has changed a lot and the record jumps a huge amount every time," says Looi. "I'll leave it for the next person to push on a bit further, I've probably pushed it as far as I can for now."

Similarly, the 378km 24-hour world record he set, dodging drunks at the Basin (he says it was mainly about staying awake) has since been demolished by an Englishman, Sam Wakeling, who notched 453km. The next big advance, he believes, will be the invention of a lighter wheel: the tyre alone on a unicycle weighs 1kg and the frame around 8kg."With unicycling, there is always something new that no one as done before," says Looi, a vice-president of the world governing body and organiser of this month's world championships in Wellington.

Unicycling is big in Japan, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and the US. When the 15th Unicom begins on December 17 with 650 riders from 24 countries, it will be the first time the world championships have left the northern hemisphere.

Unicycling's growth area is muni (mountain unicycling) and freestyle. Trials unicycling is like motocross and freestyle akin to ice-skating: set to music and performed before a panel of judges.

Unicom also features basketball and hockey teams events.

Famous unicyclists include Rupert Grint, who plays the ginger Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, warmongering US secretary of state Donald Rumsfeld, reggae legend Peter Tosh, beanie-wearing Monkees caperer Mike Nesmith and, allegedly, because they learned the art for a music video, the entire line-up of Brit boy band Take That (minus Robbie Williams).

But not Coco or Krusty ... these days unicycling is no longer the domain of clowns.

"Unicycling was stuck in a rut for many years, and probably only in the last 10 years has it been seen not as just a circus thing," laments Looi. "The development of mountain uni-cycling is doing what mountain-biking did for bicycling. It has really taken us away from the circus image ... although that will always be a part of it."

- © Fairfax NZ News