Forget about juggling, polka-dot pants, red rubber shoes and fake noses. Unicycling has moved beyond the circus tent and onto the trails.

Mountain unicycling—more popularly called Muni—has been growing rapidly in the Blue Ridge since it first took hold in the 1980s. “Muniers” have been riding some of the sickest singletrack in the Southeast with the same gusto and enthusiasm that mountain bikers possess. While one wheel does slow them down a little, (a unicycle can really only go about as fast as the rider can run) it has not kept them off any difficult trails. Unicyclers can be seen on trails ranging from the slickrock in Moab, Utah, to the single-track rides in Bent Creek, North Carolina.

A quick internet search will turn up dozens of YouTube clips of Muniers tearing up trails all over the world with pumping music and footage that would be at home in any extreme sports video today. There are unicycle freeriders, trail riders, trials riders, and downhillers.

Leading the Muni community in the Southeast is Adam Masters, who started the Southeast Muni Festival deep in woods of Western North Carolina. Adam Masters and his friends are tackling some of the classic mountain bike trails in the area sans one wheel.

“We’re very much a small community of like minded people,” Masters says. “It’s still very grassroots at this point.”

During Asheville’s Mountain Sports Festival this past summer, these riders held a downhill race through Kitsuma, several trail rides, and a trials demo at the festival. The event attracted 15 spirited participants from the surrounding area, 12 of which participated in the race.

Since unicycles are not as fast as mountain bikes, Muni riders tend to prefer technical singletrack. Trails are viewed more like a difficult bouldering problem than a ride.

“Since we have fixed gear, we can’t go very fast,” Masters explains. “So technical downhill is really the most fun for off-road unicycling.”

While the Muni community in the Southeast is certainly on the rise, nationwide Muni already has a huge following. The annual Muni Festivals in Moab and Santa Cruz have hundreds of riders in attendance.

Still, the mountain unicycling community remains relatively small, so it often lacks the elitism of many mainstream sports.

“It’s not really about who can throw the biggest trick, or who’s the best out there,” Masters says. “You can be sharing the same trail with pro riders and a girl who's bringing her training unicycle from gym class. There’s very much a sense of camaraderie.”

Riders wear helmets, shin guards, and gloves with wrist support. Some even wear body armor depending on the trail they are riding. The unicycles themselves are unique as well. They have much sturdier frames than average unicycles, with thicker 24-inch tires. Since unicycles crank directly from the wheel, there is no need for a suspension system.

“Generally speaking, it’s safer than mountain biking in many ways,” says pro Muni rider Kris Holm. “There are also no handlebars to get tangled up on and direct you into a headfirst fall. You’re not going as fast as in two-wheeled biking. The frequency of falls when unicycling is much higher but the severity is much less.”

One of the biggest challenges in expanding the sport of mountain unicycling is getting people to try it. Since unicycling tends to be viewed as a fringe sport, many people view it as out of their reach, but Holm says it is actually a very accessible sport.

“People forget that learning to ride a bicycle is actually quite difficult,” Holm says. "Unicycling also takes patience, but once you learn it, riding with two wheels seems so redundant." —Nick Ianniello