Walter Nilsson sold me my first unicyle

[Carey]

When I first came to this board I mentioned the unicycle that my Dad got
for me back in about 1961 when I was 10. It was a nice unicycle with a
pneumatiic tire that was about 12 inches in diameter, but it had a
pretty fat tire.

I knew that the man who sold it to us had ridden across the country on
a tall unicycle because he told me about it when I met him and he also
said he had built a one wheel motorcycle. He was pretty old at the
time and had pictures of the motorcycle (you sat inside the wheel) and
other places he had been (pyramids, tops of buildings etc). We lived
in LA at the time and he lived nearby somewhere in the basin.

After searching around on the internet recently, I found some
information and was reminded that his name was Walter Nilsson. The
unicycle he sold us was a pretty high quality one for the time and I
rode it for many years. It disappeared when I left home and my parents
moved. Wish I still had it--way too small to be of much use to me
today, but what a piece of history.

Carey


--
Carey
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carey's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/9910
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/49165

[UniBrier]

Cool, Google brings him up quite a bit for his 'trans-continental
unicycle ride' (http://www.unicycling.org/btdt/fhs.html):



> Robert Ripley (from Ripley's Believe It or Not) persuaded Walter Nilsson
> to travel 3,306 miles across the USA, in 117 days in 1934. He used a
> number of unicycles on the trip including a short giraffe with a
> miniature wheel, pictured in Jack Wiley's The Unicycle Book.



And his '1935 monocycle' (http://tinyurl.com/z4kvy):


+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Filename: nilsson.jpeg |
|Download: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/13286 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

--
UniBrier

Steve

Hop Drop & Roll

“If something is to hard to do, then it's not worth doing. You just
stick that guitar in the closet next to your
shortwave radio, your karate outfit and your unicycle and we'll go
inside and watch TV.” – Homer
------------------------------------------------------------------------
UniBrier's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1404
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/49165

[JJuggle]

I'll bet when you rode it everbody was talkin', but you didn't hear a
word they were sayin', only the echos of your mind. And did people stop
and stare, but you couldn't see their faces, only the shadows of their
eyes?

Cool. ;)


--
JJuggle

Raphael Lasar - Matawan, NJ

'8th Annual LBI Unithon' (http://jjuggle.unicyclist.com/lbiunithon) -
Saturday, June 3, 2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JJuggle's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/24
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/49165

[manon1wheel]

thats AWSOME.

ive seen that monocycle on tv like 50 times before

Riley


--
manon1wheel

Riley
------------------------------------------------------------------------
James_Potter-
I fall with my upper body travelling backwards and my lower body
travelling forwards from 5' up and hit the concrete with my tailbone
and right elbow. It hurt, but I found it quite funny.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
manon1wheel's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/9972
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/49165

[podzol]

This is great!
Thanks so much for posting this history! It's great that these
youngriders on the fora can make a connection with some of the early
one-wheeled visionaries!

Are you riding there days, Carey?

Blake


--
podzol

THE MISSING WHEELS TOUR DA YOOP!
Check out the charity ride, planning is under way.
Seeking riders and support.
*http://missingwheels.unicyclist.com/ *
------------------------------------------------------------------------
podzol's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/10131
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/49165

[terrybigwheel]

JJuggle wrote:
> I'll bet when you rode it everbody was talkin', but you didn't hear a
> word they were sayin', only the echos of your mind. And did people stop
> and stare, but you couldn't see their faces, only the shadows of their
> eyes?
>
> Cool. ;)



Skippin' over the ocean, like a stone..." :cool:


--
terrybigwheel

Impotence: Nature's Way Of Saying "No Hard Feelings".

Uni is just a cycle I'm going through. :cool:

You -can- "Tune a fish". You simply adjust their "scales"! :D
------------------------------------------------------------------------
terrybigwheel's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/11418
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/49165

[Carey]

Yep, that's him. He had a workshop that was filled with gadgets and
junk--pretty dark and a bit scary to a 10 year old, but I was with my
Dad.

Yes, I am riding today. After laying off for 35 years I got a Torker
LX 24" a few years ago. Then, I decided I had a need for speed and I
got a KH29XC...which I plan to take to Durango in two weeks for the
Iron horse. I hope to ride the first 15 miles to Hermosa on it--if
going from sea level to 7000ft doesn't kill me.

Ref the Midnight Cowboy song (that was the movie I remember it being
in)...I think it was written about 15 years after I learned to ride.
:-) I turn 55 this year.

He was a neat old man, reminisced about the old days, his most famous
riding days were during the Depression. Some of his pictures showed
him riding around the edge of some tall buildings and things like that.
Sure impressed me. I am pretty sure he was THE MAN in unicycling back
then.

Carey


--
Carey
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carey's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/9910
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/49165