1-WHEELING AND DEALING

Electric unicyclists united in M’hattan

LOOK, MA, NO HANDS: Electric unicycles aren’t legal in the city, but that hasn’t stopped August Hill (left) from putting together a wheel enthusiastic group of cyclists (right) with a headquarters at a St. Marks Place tea shop. The rechargeable devices allow Hill to “be wherever I want to be.”

Navigating an electric unicycle through Gotham’s gridlocked traffic may not be everyone’s idea of nirvana. But don’t tell that to the 200-strong gang of electric unicyclists who meet up at the Kung Fu Tea shop in the East Village for a cruise.

In June 2020, the City Council legalized electric bikes and scooters. Electric unicycles are still illegal, the NYPD said, but the folks who ride them insist they aren’t out for trouble.

“We’re just looking to get around the city like everyone else,” said Paul Engle, 43, who hails from Southern California. “We obey the rules . . . We take up less space in a city of 8 million people. We’re just looking for the gaps, man.”

Engle says unicycling “was a hobby initially. It was just something to do. Very quickly it became a way of a lifestyle. There is something about the absolute presence required to ride one of these out in the world that is meditative and therapeutic.”

“Some people look at us like we came from outer space,” said electric unicyclist August Hill.

Unlike an e-scooter or e-bike, there are no handlebars on the motorized, rechargeable unicycles, some of which are even lightweight enough to carry.

The rider straddles the wheel on footrests and steers the vehicle by shifting their body weight. The unicycles run between $1,500 and $4,000, and some can zoom up to 60 mph.

Manhattan resident Hill, 33, said he had his epiphany about five years ago mid-commute.

“I was sitting on 34th Street contemplating what I wanted my life to look like when a guy whipped past me on an electric unicycle and that was it,” the former logistics director said. “I now own my time and I can be wherever I want to be. It makes the world so much smaller and more accessible.”

Hill boasted that while a rush hour trip by car from lower Manhattan to Harlem may take 90 minutes, “it takes us about 15 to 20 minutes.”

Hill and Engle formed True2One, an “organized group of personal electric vehicle (PEV) enthusiasts.” The Kung Fu Tea shop became their headquarters after the owner, a friend, got the one-wheel bug and allowed them “a place to sit and store their chargers and charge their wheels,” Hill said.

“The trips are spontaneous. Someone can make a ride and have people there in an hour,” Hill said, adding that members, some from as far as Canada and Malaysia, embark on about 14 rides a week. One ride last week went from the St. Marks Place cafe to the West Side Highway, across Harlem to Randalls Island and back down to the tea shop.