Ultimate Wheel Question

[John Foss]

> We do have some figures for Japan, though not accurate. JUA director
> Kooji Sugano estimates that at least *8 million* (probably closer to
> 10 million) unicycles have been sold in the Japan in perhaps the last
> 15 years.

Super-impressive numbers! Japan has got to be the biggest unicycling
country by number of riders. Is USA number 2? I wonder. Germany is
smaller, but has a lot of unicyclists... and what about China?

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

"The difference between a winner and a loser is character."

[John Foss]

> We do have some figures for Japan, though not accurate. JUA director
> Kooji Sugano estimates that at least *8 million* (probably closer to
> 10 million) unicycles have been sold in the Japan in perhaps the last
> 15 years.

Super-impressive numbers! Japan has got to be the biggest unicycling
country by number of riders. Is USA number 2? I wonder. Germany is
smaller, but has a lot of unicyclists... and what about China?

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

"The difference between a winner and a loser is character."

[John Foss]

> We do have some figures for Japan, though not accurate. JUA director
> Kooji Sugano estimates that at least *8 million* (probably closer to
> 10 million) unicycles have been sold in the Japan in perhaps the last
> 15 years.

Super-impressive numbers! Japan has got to be the biggest unicycling
country by number of riders. Is USA number 2? I wonder. Germany is
smaller, but has a lot of unicyclists... and what about China?

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

"The difference between a winner and a loser is character."

[Klaas Bil]

On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 21:42:56 GMT, Sarah Miller
<sarah@vimes.u-net.com> wrote:

> riders who don't get to conventions for reasons of age

Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

Klaas Bil
--
"To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been
picked automagically from a database:" "biological warfare, Taliban,
Aegis radar system"

[Klaas Bil]

On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 21:42:56 GMT, Sarah Miller
<sarah@vimes.u-net.com> wrote:

> riders who don't get to conventions for reasons of age

Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

Klaas Bil
--
"To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been
picked automagically from a database:" "biological warfare, Taliban,
Aegis radar system"

[Klaas Bil]

On Wed, 05 Sep 2001 21:42:56 GMT, Sarah Miller
<sarah@vimes.u-net.com> wrote:

> riders who don't get to conventions for reasons of age

Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

Klaas Bil
--
"To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been
picked automagically from a database:" "biological warfare, Taliban,
Aegis radar system"

[John Foss]

> > riders who don't get to conventions for reasons of age
>
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

I'm not Sarah but I think she meant something like this:

In referring to school or youth-based unicycle clubs, it isn't that riders
are too young to participate, but are too young to drive, or otherwise be
in charge of where they'll spend the weekend. In the US there are lots of
school-based unicycle clubs that have never had any members attend a
unicycle convention. They may have heard of it, but participation seems to
be less likely unless the club does it as an organized group.

Hope that helps, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

"The difference between a winner and a loser is character."

[John Foss]

> > riders who don't get to conventions for reasons of age
>
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

I'm not Sarah but I think she meant something like this:

In referring to school or youth-based unicycle clubs, it isn't that riders
are too young to participate, but are too young to drive, or otherwise be
in charge of where they'll spend the weekend. In the US there are lots of
school-based unicycle clubs that have never had any members attend a
unicycle convention. They may have heard of it, but participation seems to
be less likely unless the club does it as an organized group.

Hope that helps, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

"The difference between a winner and a loser is character."

[John Foss]

> > riders who don't get to conventions for reasons of age
>
> Too young? Too old? Could you explain Sarah?

I'm not Sarah but I think she meant something like this:

In referring to school or youth-based unicycle clubs, it isn't that riders
are too young to participate, but are too young to drive, or otherwise be
in charge of where they'll spend the weekend. In the US there are lots of
school-based unicycle clubs that have never had any members attend a
unicycle convention. They may have heard of it, but participation seems to
be less likely unless the club does it as an organized group.

Hope that helps, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

"The difference between a winner and a loser is character."

[John Foss]

> The number of unicycles does not represent the actual number of riders,
> and it certainly does not represent the number of active unicyclists
> that participate in competitions and the like. The latter number is only
> a small fraction of the total.

Of course.

But when the press is asking for these numbers, or a person is wondering
how many ultimate wheel riders there are out there, they weren't asking
about conventions.

As long as we are working to promote unicycling (as those of us in
organizations like the IUF and USA are), we must remember that the people
who go to conventions have already been covered. The ones who need our
attention most are the ones that don't.

And that's obviously a mega-load in Japan, for example. Most of them
probably fall into the same category as the school-club cyclists I
mentioned in a previous post today. With no exposure to what the
conventions are about, there is less incentive to go to one. Also with
kids who do it as part of school rather than a parent-supported activity,
they won't be going to a convention anyway unless the parents are
interested as well.

Stay on top, John Foss President, Unicycling Society of America President,
International Unicycling Federation jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

[John Foss]

> The number of unicycles does not represent the actual number of riders,
> and it certainly does not represent the number of active unicyclists
> that participate in competitions and the like. The latter number is only
> a small fraction of the total.

Of course.

But when the press is asking for these numbers, or a person is wondering
how many ultimate wheel riders there are out there, they weren't asking
about conventions.

As long as we are working to promote unicycling (as those of us in
organizations like the IUF and USA are), we must remember that the people
who go to conventions have already been covered. The ones who need our
attention most are the ones that don't.

And that's obviously a mega-load in Japan, for example. Most of them
probably fall into the same category as the school-club cyclists I
mentioned in a previous post today. With no exposure to what the
conventions are about, there is less incentive to go to one. Also with
kids who do it as part of school rather than a parent-supported activity,
they won't be going to a convention anyway unless the parents are
interested as well.

Stay on top, John Foss President, Unicycling Society of America President,
International Unicycling Federation jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)

[John Foss]

> The number of unicycles does not represent the actual number of riders,
> and it certainly does not represent the number of active unicyclists
> that participate in competitions and the like. The latter number is only
> a small fraction of the total.

Of course.

But when the press is asking for these numbers, or a person is wondering
how many ultimate wheel riders there are out there, they weren't asking
about conventions.

As long as we are working to promote unicycling (as those of us in
organizations like the IUF and USA are), we must remember that the people
who go to conventions have already been covered. The ones who need our
attention most are the ones that don't.

And that's obviously a mega-load in Japan, for example. Most of them
probably fall into the same category as the school-club cyclists I
mentioned in a previous post today. With no exposure to what the
conventions are about, there is less incentive to go to one. Also with
kids who do it as part of school rather than a parent-supported activity,
they won't be going to a convention anyway unless the parents are
interested as well.

Stay on top, John Foss President, Unicycling Society of America President,
International Unicycling Federation jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com (http://www.unicycling.com/)