I went up to the Fort Wayne juggling festival last weekend. It was fun, and very low key. There were maybe 30 or so people there, so it was much smaller than your average regional jugglefest, but it was a nice little gathering.

There were two things about the fest that were awesome. One was that Tom Miller of the Unicycle factory there, and two, he and other people brought some of his creations.

Tom is the guy you call if you have any bicycle or unicyle related oddball request. He has made all manner of normal and normal-ish unicycles like various heights of giraffe unicycles:

(By the way, it’s called a giraffe when the pedals are higher than the wheel so there is a chain that connects them.)

What I always think of when people mention Tom’s unicycles are the oddball ones like the one with the off-set hub and the hobby-horse seat that moves you up and down as you ride it, or the one that has a bunch of shoes instead of a wheel.

When I first met Tom it was at a festival at Purdue University in West Lafayette IN. He pulled in with a yellow school bus literally filled with unicycles. It was awesome. Aside from the ones I already mentioned, he also had adult size tricycles, BC Wheels (just an axle through a wheel), Ultimate Unicycles (no seat post, only pedals and a wheel) a bicycle with offset wheels, and a whole range of different sizes of standard unis.

I had the most fun this weekend in Fort Wayne with the bicycle with the off-set wheels. It was just SO FUN! I realized that the last time I saw Tom and his bus-o-fun I had intended to ride one of these bikes, but never got the chance to since there was always someone else riding it. Now I know why.

View This Video on You Tube
Video of me enjoying Mike’s off-set wheel bike.

Tom built my friend Crash’s knife encrusted Unicycle of Death as well as a two-wheeled vehicle for Cirque du Soleil that had 6 foot diameter wheels, and the tiny bikes that Circus Boy rides. You can see some more of Tom Miller’s work here.