Changing Seasons

A wobble of us (yes, a wobble is a collection of unicyclists) just finished the Month of Mud series.

So, what's next?

Regular indoor sessions at the Butler Y on Saturdays starting November 7th.  Also, we'll be hitting up The Wheel Mill on Fridays.

Want more details?

Look at the header.

See you soon.

Month of Mud 2015

Mike Briggs' photo

It's that time of the year again.  The Month of Mud is just over 2 weeks out!  Last year was the first year we had an official unicycle class- with cash prizes at each race and trophies for the series!  This is one of the very few series races in the United States with an official uni class.  If you'd like to join the fun, we encourage you to do so.  Cyclocross is for almost everyone who can ride a uni and freemount and ride through grass.  The other races are not short lap races and require the ability to ride through the woods for 5-10 miles (you can get off and walk or run as needed), so you should be an Advanced or Expert level rider.

After each race we usually find a nearby spot to grab a bite to eat and hang out together for a bit to recap all the fun.  

If you'd like to join in the fun you can pre-register here.  Our start times are usually similar to the bikes so likely there will be some 2 wheeled friends on the course when you are riding.  It's nothing to panic over as they're all quite friendly and we work to minimize potential problems.  The exception to the similar start times is the Ohiopyle season finale.  We usually start about an hour earlier.  Check in closer to the date to be sure.

If you're looking to join us and you'd need a place to stay, we can help with that.  Shoot us an email.

For those not really into the outside racing, we'll be starting indoor Saturday sessions at the YMCA in early November.  We'll post the date once it's solid.

But for now, we race.

NAUCC 2015 Uni CX

Milk and cookies.  Peanut butter and chocolate.  Unicycles and Cyclocross.  Every now and then you find two great things that go together.

There's no way that we can pretend to have invented CX.  Bikes were doing it for years.  A quick Google search turned up that some people were doing Uni CX in 2006- a few years before we got a hold of it in Pennsylvania (I think our first uni toed the line in 2008).

In spite of those early efforts though, it didn't really catch on at a national (or international) level until we added it as an event when we hosted The North American Unicycling Convention and Championships in 2013. (NAUCC 2013)  Since then it's been improved through another NAUCC and a Unicon to arrive here at NAUCC 2015.

As you can see from the pics, We're not only getting the racing dialed, but the fun factor is through the roof as well.

A LeMans start is mandatory.  It's in the rules.

We've got hand ups - cheese balls in this case.

Hand downs- Swedish Fish anyone?

High 5s!

Fun barriers

Fun with barriers

Not so much fun with barriers (he's OK)

Some serious racing

Some more serious racing

Free Hugs- from a Pirate, a Parrot, and, umm... ?

And a whole lot of racing selfies:

 So while we won't try to claim we invented Uni CX, we will admit that thanks to Carl, Isaac, Steve, Bruce, Danielle, Amy, Eric, Jamie, Jesse, Sarah, Rusty, Claire, David, Jenni and Liz (for photos), and Dave- we OWNED it this year at NAUCC 2015.

A HUGE thanks to all the set up crew, riders, spectators, and picture takers for making the 

NAUCC 2015 CX the best Uni CX event thus far!

Uni CX - over the top fun for everyone!!!

NAUCC 2015 Part I

The 2015 NAUCC  (North American Unicycling Convention and Championships) is about half way over.  So far it's been quite the adventure.    From the pic above, you can see that Jamie (aka the Party Van Director) competed in his first official Hockey tournament.  And while they didn't win the title, it turns out you don't need to win to have a BLAST!

So far, we've had Butler Wobble members compete in the following events: 10k, Marathon, Trials, Time Trial, Basketball, Hockey, and Long Jump.  We also threw a round of disc golf as well, but that wasn't an official competition as it didn't really involve unicycles.

As a result of some of those competitions, this happened as well:

If you want to check out specific results, look here: http://naucc2015.unicycling-software.com/en/results

While competing can be fun, it's the convention side of uni week that makes the experience even more special.  We've connected again with friends from across the country (and the next one north as well), and made new friends too.  We've done some local touring guided by locals, and experienced some fine Wisconsin food (mmm... cheese...)

This even happened:

Thanks to Susan of  http://www.cluckthechickenstore.com for the cookies after the Time Trial!

(For the record, Gracie had a difficult time reaching the pedals so she didn't actually ride Dave's 36.)

We need to do some laundry as most of our clothes smell like racing.

We better get on it, as experience tells us that the second half of the week will be at least as amazing as the first!

One Wheel Revolution

That about sums it up.

We count a lot of the people featured in the video as uni friends.  A bulk of this was filmed at Unicon 17.  See if you can spot cameos featuring Danielle, Isaac, and Dave.

Muni Weekend Update 6/26

It's wet.  Really wet.  And it's going to get wetter.  So we have to adapt.

We will be at The Wheel Mill tonight (after 6pm) to kick off the weekend.  Open Streets Pittsburgh is a great event on Sunday morning that we will be attending as well.  What happens in the middle will be decided tonight at The Wheel Mill.  

If you plan on joining the festivities, we will see you at The Wheel Mill tonight, or you track updates on the facebook page.  

We'll still have fun this weekend.  Once the trails dry out we'll hit them up.  Until then we'll put our heads together and run with a backup plan.

Pittsburgh Regional Ride Your Face Off Muni Weekend

(Photo credit: Mike Briggs)

Or PRRYFOMW if you prefer.

Mark your calendars for June 26-28, 2015 for the first edition of the event with far more letters than wheels per rider.

Plans include: riding, riding, riding, maybe some disc golf (to give the legs a break), and eating.

Tentative schedule:

Friday June 26th: Wheel Mill time.  It's Family and Uni night.  If you bring $25, you'll be in for unlimited riding, some pizza eating, and have a couple bucks left over for a Red Bull or Gatorade.  6pm sounds like a good start time at this point, but we may be there before.

Saturday, June 27th: A day at Lake Arthur.  Muni ride meeting about 10:30am at the MOC (Moraine Outdoor Center Parking Lot).  It's at the far end of the North Shore of Moraine State Park- Portersville, PA.  We'll venture into the trails for a few hours and session some of the fun stuff we didn't have time for at NAUCC 2013.  Bring at least a 2L hydration pack and some snacks.  Lunch plans aren't solid yet, so pack one or plan on buying concession stand food at the beach.  After we get tired of riding (for now) we'll throw some disc golf at Moraine's stellar course- one of the stops for the WORLD Championships a couple of months later!  If you have your own discs, excellent.  If you need to borrow some, let us know.  By the time that is all over, we'll need to find something to eat.  If you hang around us, you know finding good grub isn't a problem.  Bring some bucks and we'll head somewhere awesome.

Sunday, June 28th:  Depending on how people are feeling we'll either head to North Park and do some of the Skills Area/ Dr. J Freeride Trail followed by some XC over by the Ice Rink or head into Pittsburgh and hit up Frick Park.  If people are completely burned out on riding technical trails after Saturday, we can easily find other things to do in the City after riding.  So at this point, Sunday is TBD.

Registration: Since this is a gathering of friends just showing up for rides, we don't have registration fees.  Supporting the Wheel Mill is awesome, so you should plan on attending Friday.  If you can't make it then, you really should contact us to let us know you're coming in case plans vary slightly for Saturday/ Sunday.

Lodging: If you're from out of town and need a place to stay, contact us.  There's a good chance we can find you a bed or at least floor space to set up an air mattress.  If you're a last minute kind of person, don't count on staying inside.  We like to help, but need to know ahead of time.

Got Facebook?  Check here to keep up with PRRYFOMW 2015.

2014-2015 YMCA sessions finish line in sight

Saturday, April 11th will be our last YMCA session of the 2014-2015 season.

It's been a great indoor season at the Y!  We've seen a number of you go from timid riders or learners to shooting hoops, playing games, and learning new more advanced skills.  We've had a number of newbies pick it up, or at least give it a try - and all ages too!  But the Winter weather seems to be a thing of the past - which means it's time for us to go outside and ride.  And after being cooped up all Winter, we know that you want to be outside more too.

We don't disappear in the warmer months - quite the opposite.  Many of us live to ride in the great outdoors.  Racing season has started. Many of the local series and single mountain bike races offer a uni class.  We are also looking forward to Dirt Fest in May, the upcoming Muni Weekend with the Butler Wobble in June (June 26 - 28) as well as NAUCC (North American Unicycling Convention and Championships) in Madison WI in July.

If you feel like going for a ride, you know you can contact us.  Many of us are often up for an adventure.

Again, it's been a great season, we hope to see you over the next two weeks, but April 11th will be our last indoor session of 2014-2015.  After that, if we don't see you outside, we'll see you back in the gym in October.

June 26-28, 2015

Save the dates.  Nothing too fancy yet.

Just prepare to ride your face off at the first ever Butler Wobble muni weekend.

What you need to know (for now):

Friday night: Wheel Mill Extravaganza.

Saturday morning and early afternoon: Moraine.  After we're tired of riding we can throw disc golf.  We'll be a couple months ahead of the Disc Golf World Championship stop at Moraine.

Saturday evening: Grab some grub at someplace awesome.  Then some more shenanigans.

Sunday: Heading Towards the 'Burgh.  We'll hit some trails to the south.  Which ones? TBD at this point.  Too many choices.

Cost?  Pretty cheap.  You need to support the Wheel Mill on Friday and we may have t-shirts available.  Probably $25ish for all that fun plus you'll need money for food.  We can most likely find a place for you to sleep if you're not a local.

This weekend will be focused on fun.  No formal racing.  If you want to do that, we've got those in the queue too.

Stay tuned for more details.

Still Winter. Still Riding.

First, a video of some tricks from our Canadian friends Ed, Emile, and Hugo.  They're not only great riders, but great guys as well.  You may have seem them in our region before.  They were here for NAUCC 2013 when we hosted it in the Harmony/Zelienople/Portersville area.



Next, a quick documentary:



Hopefully these inspire you to get off the couch and get on the wheel (yes, we do some tricks and play basketball).  As always, we meet at the Butler YMCA on Saturdays from 4:30-6:30pm until late April.  Friday nights (around 7 or so) we ride at The Wheel Mill in Pittsburgh.  Occasionally we even break out the hockey sticks there for some crazy uni hockey.

If you don't have a unicycle, we have you covered at both venues.  The YMCA keeps all riding free, and The Wheel Mill offers discounted admission for unicyclists on Friday nights.

Winter is still here for at least a bit.  Might as well pick up a new skill or two.

2015

Some people have asked us "What's up?"  This:

We're still at The Wheel Mill Friday nights.  If you haven't joined us, you're the one missing out.  The sessions have been awesome, and we've almost got ordering pizza figured out.  You may laugh at that last sentence, but we've had nights where we have to figure out how much to order for more than a dozen people.

Last week some of The Wonders, the closest unicycle club to us, joined us for some fun.

Chris at THICK Bikes still offers to bring demo unis to supplement what we bring. Since THICK is a Unicycle.com dealer and they make sure they have a good selection, so it's pretty easy to try out anything up to an Oregon.  If you want to try something in particular, call them before they close at 6pm on Friday.

We're still at the Butler YMCA every Saturday from 4:30 to 6:30pm.  It's completely free, but if you feel inclined to donate to the Y, do so.  They've always been incredibly supportive of what we do.  Without them, the Butler Wobble would not be nearly as rad.

As far as what's up goes, we're already making plans (and registering) for Dirt Rag's Dirt Fest in May.  We're also going to be participating in the 6 Hours of Brady's Run again.  NAUCC 2015 will be held in Madison, WI- AND IT WILL BE AMAZING!

We may also have a late June mUni weekend in the works.

Make 2015 incredible.  Ride a unicycle.