Mountain Unicycling No Clown Show in Colorado's Rugged Hills

By SETH BOSTER, The Gazette

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) You get a few different reactions when youre seen riding a unicycle in the mountains.

Most of the time, you get the disbelief and the person thats totally psyched for you, Josh Torrans says.

Sometimes the person is a kid, says Walter Williams. And the kid will stop and be like, Woooow! Look mom, a clown!

But these are not clowns out there in the Colorado wild. These are cyclists of a different, rare breed.

They are Rob Urban and his 14-year-old son, Zade, who on a recent morning have decided on a chunky line at Ute Valley Park in Colorado Springs. Upright on their seats, one hand gripping like a cowboy on his saddle, father and son charge forward, swooping and plunging over rock.

Wow, observes a passing runner. Im impressed.

They are a strain of mountain biker, preferring the same rough and steep terrain while ditching one wheel. Yes, a cross between that pure cyclist and that performer you see at the circus though many would like to shake the association.

You see a unicyclist, everybody knows that stupid song, Torrans says. But when youre on that fat tire, that 2 1/2- to 3-inch tire, theyre like, Oh, my gosh, that thing is BA!

Allow them to introduce themselves.

They are mountain unicyclists, members of a curious tribe simply referred to as muni. They are, as The New York Times once observed, putting an extreme twist on the most whimsical of devices.

They are seen hopping from boulder to boulder, rolling over tree roots, catching air from ledges and flying down chutes and gullies. If you havent seen them, its because they are quite few.