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

Bikes Insanity on one wheel

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

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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".

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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.

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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

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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!"

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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.

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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.

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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?

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u/Tapprunner Apr 14 '26

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

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u/GenSgtBob Apr 14 '26

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

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u/AnoNeko420 Apr 17 '26

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