Keep on wheelin’: UT students bond over unicycles

Whether you see them, pass them by or join them, the unicycle group that meets outside of Carlson Library has been gaining students’ attention.

Although they are not an official campus organization, they have been regularly meeting and growing in numbers, said Brad McQuistion, co-founder of the group and a first-year electrical and computer engineering major.

“We’re not planning on making it officially a club, because we would have to jump through hoops and write stuff and all that,” McQuistion said. “We’re just here for a good time.”

According to the Office of Student Involvement, the unicyclists would need at least ten active University of Toledo students, elected officers and a written constitution.

McQuistion said they have a fleet of five unicycles, three cyclists and at least six people wanting to learn; therefore, they aren’t looking towards being a club anytime soon, but it could be in the long-term plan.

“We’re not quite sure if we’re going to make it official or not, we’re just here to get together and have fun,” McQuistion said.

Some future plans include learning to play baseball and basketball on a unicycle, McQuistion said.

Members of the group, like Faith Snyder, a first-year English major, suggest there are more reasons to the club than just becoming an official organization.

Snyder said the friends she has are from the group.

“I planned on joining clubs, but nothing like this,” Snyder said.

After McQuistion and his brother Kyle Solomon began riding their unicycles in between the Student Union and the library they attracted a group of friends.

“They brought their other one [unicycle] in and I started riding it and then people started coming, I brought my friends,” said Lyann Hatoum, a second-year pharmacy major.

Hatoum said she has been trying to learn how to ride the unicycle from McQuistion, but keeps falling off and receiving minor injuries.

“I’m learning, I can ride it a little, it’s just really hard, especially because I’m short,” Hatoum said. “And they’ve put me on hold for a few days, which just makes me really sad because I really want to learn how to do it but they like to rub it in my face that I don’t know how to do it.”

McQuistion said there is a learning curve to learning to ride the unicycle. He said it involves plenty of chaffing and a decent number of falls.

Even after four weeks of being persistent, McQuistion said he doesn’t know how to turn right.

“It’s not really a trick,” McQuistion said. “It’s a lot of perseverance and remembering to pedal.”

The unicyclists have noticed their perseverance and constant pedaling seems to have generated some chatter around campus.

Hatoum said the people who stop by range from those that want to give the unicycle a try and those that hate the cyclists.

Snyder said she can almost hear people judging them as they walk by.

“There is someone who said, �?the unicyclists should get hit by a bus,’” Snyder said. “Then there are people that think, �?this is genuinely awesome.’”

McQuistion said that the group is pretty infamous on Yik Yak, a social media site that allows people to post anonymous statuses.

Hatoum said that they are a unique group, and people that are different are judged the most, but the unicyclists don’t let that affect them.

“I think we are just so confident in the friends we do have,” Snyder said.

McQuistion said that students can easily feel left out or feel antisocial. He said it’s amazing that a unique thing like unicycles can bring people of substantial differences together.

“I’m an Arab sitting on a Unicycle,” Hatoum said. “We’re all drifters to be honest. I walk up to people and say �?hi.’ I think that if you really want to get to know someone, there’s no trick. If you’re going to be accepting of people, just join them.”

Hatoum, McQuistion and Snyder didn’t let their differences keep them from joining a community, they created a new one.

“Get outside your box; I never imagined that I was going do this, at all,” Snyder said.

She said that even if being outside your box makes you vulnerable, you shouldn’t give up on meeting people.

It’s like riding a unicycle, “When you fall, you’re going to fall, you have to get back up again,” Snyder said.

The unicyclists meet every Monday and Wednesday at 2 p.m. and Tuesday at 3 p.m. in between SU and Carlson Library.

“Come on down, we’re always around here, we accept everyone,” McQuistion said.

They might even teach you to ride a unicycle.