Unicycle Mishaps

When you perform 350 shows a year and you use a unicycle in most of those shows you are bound to wear out a part, experience strange happenings, or screw up.
Jugglin' Jim, the 19 year old juggling prodigy of our show, my eldest, has been using unicycles for nearly 6 years now and has used his 5 footer for nearly as long. As you learn the unicycle or uni as we call it, you are bound to have screw-ups on stage. The first couple of months this isn't uncommon. Jim was lucky however to run into Chaz Marquez(I think I have the name right) at a fair we were performing at. Chaz is either the holder of or former holder of a couple of unicycle records including world's tallest unicycle. He took Jim to the side and blessed him with a ton of information that turned his uni-riding into artful bliss. But all that practice and insight can't prepare you for the broken chain, the stripped seat tightener, the broken chain tensioner and the spontaneous popped tire.
At last week's fair on the 2nd to last day. The part one would least expect to break, the chain tensioner (a simple eye bolt like thing with a cross bar on it to hold the tension on the chain sprocket), just broke. It isn't a moving part but I guess it moved in vibration or torque enough to snap at the eye hole. And of course it happened as he mounted the uni. Fortunately the less impressive but function 24" uni was nearby.
It seems that if it is going to go wrong it happens only during performance. The strangest mishap happened with no one even near the thing. It was laying to the side of the outdoor stage on the hot cement in Hemet, California...high desert. By showtime it was 100+ degrees. The slime in the inert congealed in two spots and the relentless sun reflecting off the white cement and beating directly on it as well forced the air in the tube to expand greatly between the congealed points and BAM! It exploded. Sounding like a gun shot.
Then ther was the time that the warn slick ground (made slick from my fire-eating fuel not evaborating quick enough) caused the uni to shoot out from under him and fly off behind him like a rocket flying into the skirt of the stage.
So much fun...so many things that can happen...I guess it's the spice of life.