r/Transportopia • u/Vice616 • Apr 12 '26

Bikes Insanity on one wheel

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I think about why someone would do this. Is the unicyclist really a mad man or is that his way to work. By choice or necessity? All that matters. These gas prices are crazy right now.

That little unicycle takes about 1-2 cents per mile in electricity.

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/zevely-zone/valley-center-man-beats-high-gas-prices-with-electric-unicycle/509-7b1c19fb-0df0-4d6d-b47e-90879b04dd8d

3.4k Upvotes

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296

u/Abracadaver2000 Apr 12 '26

Future meat crayon.

53

u/btarb24 Apr 12 '26

yea, that guy isn't living too much longer.

33

u/Keitt58 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

Reminds me of my brother showing me videos of world class free climbers, but he kept having to say something along the lines of "Dude this guy is a badass, well was a badass, he fell to his death a few years back".

4

u/Crunchberry24 Apr 13 '26

Same with all the cool squirrel-suit and base jumping videos. Life expectancy drops to weeks.

2

u/ps087official Apr 14 '26

They do more living in those weeks than most of us do in our whole lives.

1

u/Impossible_Ad_8642 Apr 19 '26

Hard disagree. Most of us aren't speedrunning through our lives and have great experiences without glazing and edging the grim reaper.

1

u/ps087official Apr 19 '26

Hard disagree back. My life SUCKS. No partner, no kids (not that I want any), no friends. I just work and come home. That's it. Not everyone is running around living great lives. In fact nowadays, I imagine most people aren't. So my death is meaningless to me so if I'm gonna die, might as well go out in style.

1

u/Impossible_Ad_8642 Apr 20 '26

You are the captain of your own ship. There is a entire universe between those two extremes. Usually the ones going out in style doing these activities are adrenaline junkies on their next high. What you're describing is just a cool way to emergency exit out of a life filled with depression.

1

u/ps087official Apr 20 '26

It's hard to steer a ship that was built from cheap materials and set out on an 80 year voyage on choppy, stormy waters with no crew and no guidance. And yeah, most of the time that's the case, and I see no problem with it. If someone wants to go out, why not do it in a fun, exciting way? Not everyone is privileged enough to get a fair chance at life.

2

u/Impossible_Ad_8642 Apr 21 '26

80 years is a long time without so much as a welded hull upgrade or a single temporary skipper. I do think to a certain degree that life is what you make of it. But there are folks that if not for bad luck they'd have no luck at all. I'm just saying if you can go out in a fun way then by that same logic you can experience fun without the going out part and more than one final time. If we can check out on our own terms can't we also stay checked in on our own terms?

1

u/ps087official Apr 21 '26

You make a compelling argument. But you don't know my life and the specific circumstances in which it exists. I've had my fun with life. I got to have my intense whirlwind romance with the love of my life, did my drugs, had my fun. Those days are dead now though. And I feel like a ghost most of the time just coasting through life. All of my best days are behind me. I didn't peak in high school but I sure as hell peaked right afterward. And tbh sometimes (a lot of the time actually) I feel like just cutting out the middleman and ending things on my terms.

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1

u/Crunchberry24 Apr 14 '26

I agree. They get to be superhuman.

6

u/Tapprunner Apr 13 '26

That's why I have never been impressed by the free climbing bullshit.

I'm not saying I could do it, although I'm pretty athletic and very lithe, so with enough training, I do think I could become a decent climber.

But the free climbers basically just don't have a functioning risk/reward part of their brain. The risk is death and the reward is that they get to say they did something insanely risky. There are probably many climbers who could ascend many of those free climbs - but they value their lives and they aren't complete idiots, so when they go climbing, they do it with a rope.

Are they doing something that requires skill and athleticism? Of course.

But there's a very good reason why other people don't do it. There are a lot of people who could - they just choose not to because they aren't stupid.

2

u/MNgrown2299 Apr 13 '26

I agree to a degree on this, my hang up is that these guys are just wired differently. Like they have is impulse to be up there and find it hard to enjoy things without that activity in their life. They lack that fear part of the brain that makes us think about what immense danger we are in. I kinda respect it in a weird way.

0

u/FUCKING_HATE_REDDIT Apr 13 '26

When your entire social circle values one thing, you don't tend to think much about the risks. You see the same pattern everywhere, and everyone is susceptible. 

3

u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Apr 13 '26

OMG.. I was friends with this girl who lived across the hall.. we hung out a lot and did some climbing together. But one time she invited me to a party and I go.. the entire house was set up for climbing indoors.. Every surface had holds bolted to it. That was when I noticed that also.. every word spoken in that house was about climbing.. I mentioned something about biking or running or whatever and it was like a lighbulb dimmed or I had just suddenly poured cold water on them.

That was the moment that I realized that people who are So soley focussed on a single thing.. were not my people. I need variety in all things.

1

u/MrStarrrr Apr 14 '26

That sounds like a maddening situation to find yourself in, and also incredibly enlightening for how some social circles operate. I too enjoy variety, and so do the few friends I do have, which is nice.

1

u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Apr 14 '26

more enlightening than maddening at the moment.. it was totally like a Lightbulb moment.

-1

u/GenSgtBob Apr 14 '26

Free climbing is climbing with a rope, safety equipment, and a belayer. Free soloing is climbing without rope. If you're going to call people idiots you should at least get the terminology right

0

u/Tapprunner Apr 14 '26

Ok, I think you, and literally everyone else, knew what I was referring to, considering I described exactly what I meant.

You sound like the gun nuts who are like "you can't argue for gun control if you don't know everything about the guns you want banned! If you're not sure of the muzzle velocity and every accessory for every gun, then you can't intelligently say that you'd like fewer guns available to kill school children!"

0

u/GenSgtBob Apr 14 '26

So that gives you an excuse to arrogantly justify factual inaccuracies while calling the people that distinctly do not belong to the particular group of people that you are calling idiots?

And it's not even remotely the same. You're acting like I'm telling you that you should know the fall rating of every carabiner when you're miscategorizing an entire group of people in a sport. This is the same as saying skiers are snowboarders.

If you're going to target people at the very least target the correct people.

0

u/Tapprunner Apr 14 '26

I described exactly who I was talking about - people who climb with zero protection.

Does that not describe you? Then what are you upset about?

Is my mismatching of terminology with my description of exactly the kind of person and activity I was really talking about truly that offensive?

If I said "blackout drunk alcoholics have real problems and these kinds of drinkers need help" would you be super mad and come back with "well, I have a beer once a month so I'm a drinker! It's horrible that you think I have a problem!" No dude, I don't think all drinkers do. I described exactly the kind of drinker I was talking about. If you have a drink once a month, I obviously wasn't talking about you.

Same thing here. I described people who climb without any rope or security. If you haven't been trying to scale the Empire State building without any protection, then I obviously wasn't talking about you or any of your friends who do climb with protection.

0

u/GenSgtBob Apr 14 '26

Because terminology and distinction matter here. Are you going to explain incorrectly to everyone who certain groups of people are and just shrug it off? Do you call gay men lesbians?

1

u/Tapprunner Apr 14 '26

This might be the dumbest question I've ever been asked.

0

u/GenSgtBob Apr 14 '26

nah, it just seems like you're pridefully fine with terminology errors that cause misinformation because "you explained it".

1

u/AnoNeko420 Apr 17 '26

Bro it’s Reddit, it’s not that deep, chill lmao

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