Butler Wobble

I'm pretty sure we did save the best for last.  The Friday night Wheel Mill session was excellent and the Saturday session at the YMCA was AMAZING to say the least. It's not the unicycles, it's the unicyclists that make it that. The only thing better than last Saturday will be this Saturday.  Happy 2014!

First up, the schedule: we'll be at The Wheel Mill tonight and every Friday night (unless the weather gets too dicey to make the drive) from 7pm to close.  You are welcome to start earlier as unicycles are welcome when the doors are open.  If you only have one uni, you may also want to note that we have loaners available for FREE while you're there.  Ask at the desk.  There are two Trials unis and two 24" mUnis in stock at all times. As far as the Butler YMCA time goes on Saturdays- we'll be there every Saturday through at least early April from 4:30-6:30pm.  It's free to ride.  A waiver needs signed and a helmet needs worn.  We have extra loaner unis there too. That brings us to the next point: the Y time has been extremely popular the last few weeks- so much so that we've had almost all of our dozen loaner unis in use!  That's AWESOME!  However, please be patient with us as sometimes we have to share the loaner unis.  We'...

Tomorrow is the ONLY Saturday we won't be at the YMCA for practice.  We will be in the Spirit of Christmas Parade for Butler Light Up Night . Next week we'll be back to the usual shenanigans: If you can't wait that long, we'll be at The Wheel Mill on Friday Nights.  Rumor has it there may be some uni hockey in the works the first or second Friday of Dec.

It's about that time of year again.  Daylight Saving Time kicks in this Saturday.  Looking for something to do to stay moving?  Interested in staying warm?  Every thought of riding a unicycle? Join us.  We start our weekly meetings here in Butler, PA at the YMCA every Saturday from 4:30-6:30pm.  If you have your own uni- great!  If not, no problem- we have extras.  You will need to wear a helmet (we have extras of those too, but you should bring your own).  You will need to sign a release too (parents need to for those under 18).  We welcome all ages- especially 12 and up.  For those under 12 we often accommodate, but a parent will have to stick around while we practice.  So Mom and Dad you might as well give it a try! Unicycling is for everybody.  It's fun.  It's relatively safe- on a 20", you're about as high up as standing on a stair. If this isn't your first time to our site, you've heard all of this before. ...

It's not secret we like the Butler Family YMCA and  The Wheel Mill .  From the top down both have not just tolerated unicycling, but welcomed it in their facilities.  It's been a bit of a paradigm shift for some to see unicycles as not just clowns, juggling, and the circus (although there's nothing wrong with those things), but rather an activity that people of all ages and abilities can enjoy. The Butler Wobble was founded on the principle that unicycling is fun and you should do it.  It can be incredibly athletic if you want it to.  You can enjoy a cruise around the neighborhood or local rail trail or you can enter charity events and races populated with bikes.  We've tried to keep an open mind to what those who join us to ride want to do so we end up in many places with our unicycles- including some parades and basic demonstrations. But what most of us who are heavily involved in the Butler Wobble like to do is ride unicycles for sport. The YMC...

September has just begun.  The days are getting shorter (and hopefully cooler) and we're entering our 3rd season of the year.  For us, that means several things: Item #1- The Month of Mud  race series begins.  In the past we've had several riders compete in this series.  We've had good times.  Hopefully this is the year we can get 5 riders to each race to make an official unicycle class. Check the link for dates.  Note: you should be an Advanced level rider to race all but the cyclocross race.  As far as cyclocross goes, you must be able to control your uni and freemount.  If you can do those things, join us on Oct. 20th! Item #2- The Wheel Mill  mUni Mondays are shifting to Fridays to join Family Night!  This is exciting as we can get the whole family to try unicycling at The Wheel Mill.  For September and October we're committing to being there every other Friday (the odd dates), although the discounted admission and we...

The 2013 edition of the North American Unicycling Convention and Championships is over- minus the cleanup.  As far as that goes, after we get a few trailer loads out of a school parking lot, we'll be good. For those who have been part of the shindig: Thanks for staying, thanks for playing.  Thanks for making it all happen.  Please take some time over the next few weeks to post your pics and videos.  Facebook and YouTube are great sources along with unicyclist.com  forums.  If you have video and pics from The Wheel Mill  field trip, please use #thewheelmill.  If you don't know what hashtagging is, that's fine, spread the word how you can. We (as the Butler Wobble) put on the best possible NAUCC we could imagine.  The hundreds of hours of work putting into getting the ship out of the harbor were well worth it from our perspective.  We're glad it wasn't the Titanic.  We hope you agree.   We wanted to make this t...

NAUCC 2013 is coming soon.  Really soon.  Even the roads agree.  We had nothing to do with this pic.  This is an actual utility marking on Sunset Drive.  No joke. The fun starts Sunday the 21st and goes through Saturday the 27th. www.uninationals2013.com Even if you don't ride a unicycle, you should show up to watch.  Check the schedule for dates and times.  Some really spectator friendly events are in the evenings. After all, it's FREE to watch.  Where else are you going to see World Champions perform for FREE!

Here's a pic from ONE of yesterday's parades we hit.  Yes, there were 2 parades and another appearance we had on the 4th.  That's good.  This one was on the Miracle Mile in Monroeville with the Pro Bikes bike decorating contest contestants following behind.  We've been doing this parade annually for at least 3 years now and it's always awesome.  It fits us well as we still remember the joy of bike riding at a young age.  Since then we've added unicycling to our repertoire, but it's all still pedaling. From the pic above, you can see it is all about the bike- AND the chance to ride it in a parade! The pic here was of the winner of the bike decorating contest.  The pinwheels spun when he rode, and you can't even see the rocket taped on the back.  His smile is big, but what was really amazing was to see how fluid this guy was when riding his steed.  Seriously, he had smoothness that many adults have never had. While s...

The pic above is from our first NAUCC 2013 promotional stop at the Carnegie Science Center .  A raging success- not just because we got to ride our unis around the Center, but because we piqued the interest of attendees.  Speaking of that, we had over 80 people sign the waiver and try unicycling for the first time.  Instagram was busy that night.  Over 2 Night + BIKES exhibit + unicycles = Good times. This is what Kevin put together from our most recent mUni Monday at The Wheel Mill: As you can see, we're aiming to spread the word that unicycling is fun and you can do it if you want to. Our next appearances are at the Miracle Mile parade with Pro Bikes on July 4th- with another appearance on the Butler Freeport Rail Trail at the new stop in Herman.  We'll also be at the Science Center again on July 6th. It's all about this:   www.uninationals2013.com .  July 21st-27th. That's where the real fun will be!

We've always dreamed of a place to brush up on our off road chops regardless of the weather.  Now it exists.  The Wheel Mill  is Pittsburgh's indoor mountain bike park.  And, thanks to Harry and crew, unicycles are welcome too! So, what better way to celebrate this than a weekly uni gathering there?  That's right, mUni Mondays are BACK!  Who's it for?  EVERYONE!  We're looking to increase unicycle ridership in the region.  By now you may have heard that the North American Unicycling Convention and Championships are going to be right here in Butler County from July 21-27 2013.  We want to celebrate this event and encourage people not to give up their bikes, but to expand their horizons.  Unicycling is fantastic for balance and core strength- necessary attributes for biking as well.  As a matter of fact, their great skills for most humans to possess in spades. We want to give people the chance to try unicycling and brush u...

It's been a busy month of May for us.  The last post was Roller Derby.  This picture is from Dirt Fest- the 17th to 19th.  Thanks to our friends at Dirt Rag for an amazing event.  We had the opportunity to have a learner session and a group MUni ride on the official schedule.  There were a couple of video cameras on the trip, but the footage hasn't been posted yet.  Still the 8 of us who went had a great time. Since then we've been working on NAUCC (of course) and scouting out other local riding areas to be able to direct those who head into town looking for riding some options should they want to come early or stay late.  We do have some video from those sessions- that's for another day. In the grand scheme of what we do, this is one of the most important pictures: Some of our uni club members donated to the Y during their last campaign.  We were asked to share this letter. Thanks to those who donated.  Thanks Butler YMCA for all you do in t...

The video above is an answer to the question:  "What do unicycling and roller derby have in common?" Last night was another promo stop for NAUCC 2013.  If you haven't found the site yet, it's  www.uninationals2013.com .  We love these chances to interact with our communities.  We're roller derby fans anyways (visit  www.steelcityderbydemons.com  for more info) so it makes sense to promote unicycling at derby nights.  From our overwhelmingly positive experience last night derby girls and fans think so too. Last night we had a fun time not only with the home team, but with the visiting team, the Fort Wayne Derby Girls from (you probably guessed it) Fort Wayne, Indiana.  See their site too:  http://www.fwderbygirls.com/ . Roller Derby and NAUCC are both great events for spectators.  Check out the schedules on the sites for when to catch some flat track derby action.  You won't regret it.  While you're at it, make plan...

As has been the tradition the past several years the YMCA invited us to man (and woman) a booth at Healthy Kids Day.  It's always a fun day for us.  This year was no exception.  Actually, it may have been more fun overall this year as we had more help than ever before: Harper keeping the boys in line. We had more help this year from our regular YMCA riders.  This was good as we had also had more interest in unicycling than ever before. We did find a few prospective riders in the crowd.  We also got to witness some boys who were sure they could hop on and ride away humbled when they found that it wasn't as easy as they thought. Darian rocking the matching tattoo.  Don't worry, Mom.  It will come off when she washes her hand- in 5 years. As usual, the whole experience was a great time for us.  Many thanks to Adam, Christian, Darian, Dylan, Harper, Nate, Rick, and Steve for helping make it another successful public appearance ...

In theory, Spring is upon us. That leaves us with some changes in the near future (and hopefully leaves us with leaves as well). We've been getting the calendar ready and need to make a few notes: 1. NAUCC 2013 . Mid-Atlantic riders, this is the closest NAUCC in many, many years. This is the first time it's ever been in PA. If you want to seize the opportunity, you MUST register. The Early Bird price is ONLY good until April 20th. 2. We will be ending our weekly indoor sessions at the YMCA for the season on April 27th (We'll resume in October). We will still be riding regularly, it will just be outside (hopefully the snow has melted by then). For an example of what the outdoor rides might look like, look at the pic at the top of Isaac and Steve. 3. We will be at the Carnegie Science Center on June 21st for part of the bicycle themed show. More details to follow, but it will be from 6-10 pm. Only riders over 21 years of age will be admitted as it is a 21...

Thanks to Jesse for driving us to do the Harlem Shake. He believed we could do it. He then directed, filmed, edited and posted the project. Nice work for sure. Feel free to share it! One of the greatest things about the project is how quickly it came together. Last weekend it was an end of the night concept, and Jesse had it organized with minimal outside help. We just rode like it was a normal practice and he worked his creative magic. Just another Saturday of riding at the Butler YMCA! Next week's session (March 9th) we will be ending at 6pm instead of 6:30. It's roller derby night in Pittsburgh and some of us are heading to Etna for the evening. Find the details here . If you plan on joining us you should buy your tickets in advance, it's been known to sell out. NAUCC 2013 is only a few months away! We've got a Registration tab on the site uninationals2013.com . We haven't made the "official" announcement for registration just yet as...

One of the best aspects about the unicycling comm"uni"ty is the willingness to share. The above video is the first in a series from here . The MUni Tutorial series is being made by Jacob Spera and Ryan Kremaster for the betterment of the sport. They've been making MUni videos for some time, but have recently felt the need to make some instructional videos targeted towards beginning MUni riders. This is a fabulous idea. Mountain unicycling is hard- or not. Once you can ride a uni, and almost everyone reading this probably can, you can ride off road. You probably won't want to step up to big drops, rock gardens, steep uphills, or skinny balance lines right away (unless you're fearless Steve with the singing pockets who starts with Moraine and tackles a 36er with short cranks in 10 minutes), but you can ride through the grass in your yard (watch for doggie land mines). If you're doing anything outside of the gym and off the pavement, you're off roa...

If you made the meeting 2 weeks ago, thanks. NAUCC 2013 is as good as it gets. A couple of quick notes: 1. We're in the other gym this Saturday from 4:30-6:30. 2. We're doing the Butler Wobble tech t's soon. You will need to preorder if you want one. Talk to us. Nate's doing the art and it will be awesome. Both long and short sleeve options will be available. 3. We're getting close to opening registration for NAUCC 2013. We'll post when it's live.

If you've been around the Wobble a while, you know that on the 1st Saturday of each month we go out to eat after unicycling. It's a great way to spend time with fellow riders and just hang out. February's first Saturday dinner will be a bit different - we're staying at the Y! We'll have pizza and some soda, and information! There will be a brief presentation about NAUCC - what it's all about, what it looks like, what to expect, and what we need from volunteers (and why we need volunteers!). You don't want to miss this! Even if you are not a rider, it's important that everyone involved attend. Bring your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, friends, co-workers...you get the idea. NAUCC requires many, many volunteers, and if we can get many non-riding volunteers, the competitors get to compete with out worrying about other things. So non-riders are just as important, and they need to attend! The meeting will be from 6:30p...

Here's a quick video of a typical Saturday session. What's been exciting this season (since October) is the number of new learners we have joining us. That's good, because next Summer, NAUCC 2013- the North American Unicycling Convention and Championships are in the County. More details on that here: There's still time to learn between now and then. We say it time and time again, but unicycling is a blast. We can teach you to ride FOR FREE! Oh yeah, if you take a look off to the right, you'll notice our Page listing has been growing. We've added some video tabs. Enjoy!

Here's how a few of us started 2013: It's no secret we like to ride unicycles. We also hope it's not a secret that we think you should try it too. Unicycling is a great is great for core strength and balance- something almost every human needs. As always, this is the plug: Join us (indoors!) at the Y on Saturdays from 4:30-6:30pm to try unicycling for yourself. It's totally free- no charge to get into the YMCA and no fee for the class. Caution: many who try unicycling find that they like it. We're REALLY pushing it this year as there are a few up and coming events that are really exciting in 2013. First, THE unicycling national convention, NAUCC 2013 , IS IN BUTLER COUNTY THIS JULY! Yes, those are capital letters for emphasis. If you miss it, even as a spectator, you will regret it. If you can ride a uni, you should register (when the time comes) and attend. We expect 300+ people and a lot of WORLD Champions to be in attendance. Can you imagine s...