Campus may feel like a circus at times but a student that rides his unicycle everywhere really sends it over the edge. Freshman outdoor recreation major Asa Keim is 6’2” but atop his one-wheel wonder, he is closer to 7 feet tall.
Keim’s unique mode of transportation demands attention–not just because he towers over the rest of campus during passing periods but also because it is impressive.
“It’s a hard skill,” Keim said.
Keim said he has always been drawn to “weird” sports like jumping stilts and ripsticking. His childhood home in Missouri has concrete floors and he would glide across it on rollerblades.
His parents weren’t unicyclers, so Keim taught himself how to ride after learning about it from YouTube. He got his first 20in unicycle when he was in fourth grade and afterwards found out unicycling might just run in his blood.
“I did find out, my great uncle, he was a big unicycler,” Keim said. “I think I found out after I got it.”
Unlike a bicycle, unicycling requires 360 degrees of core engagement to stay balanced. Keim said the best place to learn is in a hallway. As a kid, he held himself up by placing his hands perpendicular to the hallway walls so he could stay upright. Once he got that down, he used the walls to guide him as he pedaled.
The 29in unicycle he rides now was a graduation gift from his grandmother. He navigates campus with ease and has only had one near-crash with a pedestrian but he was going slow enough that it was more of a “slow bump.”
“I love weaving and dodging people,” Keim said. “I try not to get too close just in case, you know, they’re uncomfortable with it.”
Keim can do bunny hops, stand on his wheel and take his unicycle up short flights of stairs with enough momentum. He said he popped his tire after he hit the stairs on the west side of Escalante too hard in an attempt to fly up them. He’s since mastered those stairs.
Keim has had people stop him and ask to try out his unicycle. He said he’s always open to it and will stand next to them to make sure they don’t fall because he fell so much learning as a kid.
“I love when people ask because I like seeing them try; and you know, them–I don’t know, having fun with it,” Keim said.
Keim is a thrill seeker and once he nailed down basic unicycling, he decided to take it a step further and try mountain unicycling or “muni.” Back home, Keim takes his unicycle on more rough terrain and down slightly steeper slopes.
He said he doesn’t have time to try muni on the western slope yet. Nowadays, Keim spends most of his spare time training for swim and dive and as a member of the track and field team. He said the outdoor recreation program and being able to be an athlete were “a big draw” for him to CMU.
Kiem has crossed poaths with two other unicyclists in town. One of them is another student, but they have not been able to overcome their unicycle-life balance to talk shop and bond over a ahared hobby.
Although Keim may seem like an anomaly on campus, unicycling is an international sport. The 22nd biennial Unicycle World Championships & Unicycle Convention, or UNICON, is being hosted in Steyr, Austria in July this year. It was last held in Minnesota in 2024 and drew over 1,000 attendees and competitors from all over the world.
Locally, on March 27 in Moab, the Unicycling Society of America (USA) is hosting a “Moab Munifest 2026.” There are mountain unicycling races for all skill levels and it’s so popular that the camping sites for the event have been sold out since March 9.
Keim said he admits that unicycling looks a bit funny and that he gets a lot of chuckles on campus. Sometimes people yell “pop a wheelie!” at him but he kind of always is.
“It was like a few weeks ago, and I–there’s like a group of people in front of me, and they’re like ‘this college is so random,’ and then I drive past, you know, and they all start laughing,” Keim said.
